Spotting Dyslexia Signs in Primary Writing

Dyslexia affects approximately 10% of the population, and many children reach Key Stage 2 without a formal diagnosis. Class teachers are often the first to notice patterns in a child's writing that suggest they may benefit from specialist assessment.

The challenge is that individual spelling errors are normal in primary writing. It's the patterns across multiple pieces of work that tell the real story.

Patterns to look for

No single error indicates dyslexia, but when you see several of these patterns consistently across different pieces of writing, it's worth investigating further:

Letter reversals

Occasional b/d or p/q confusion is normal in Reception and Year 1. By Year 2 and beyond, persistent reversals — especially when a child writes "doy" for "boy" or "dack" for "back" across multiple pieces of work — may warrant further investigation.

Phonetic spelling

All children use phonetic spelling as they learn to write. The concern arises when a child continues to rely heavily on phonetic strategies well beyond their peers — writing "becoz" for "because" or "sed" for "said" in Year 3 or 4, despite repeated teaching of these common exception words.

Inconsistent spelling

A child who spells the same word differently within the same piece of writing — "because", "becuse", "becoz" — may be struggling with orthographic memory, which is a common feature of dyslexia.

Letter sequencing errors

Words with letters in the wrong order — "freind" for "friend", "wnet" for "went" — can indicate difficulty with visual processing of letter sequences.

Why tracking matters

A single piece of writing can't tell you much. A child might reverse a "b" because they were tired, or spell phonetically because they were rushing. But when you track spelling patterns across five or ten pieces of work and the same errors keep appearing, that's meaningful evidence.

This kind of longitudinal tracking is exactly what SENCOs need when deciding whether to refer a child for formal assessment. It transforms a teacher's gut feeling ("I think there might be something going on with Jake's spelling") into evidence ("Jake has reversed b and d in 8 out of 10 writing samples this term").

What to do if you spot patterns

1. Document what you see. Keep a record of the specific errors, which pieces of work they appeared in, and how often.
2. Talk to your SENCO. Share your evidence and discuss whether a screening tool or formal assessment might be appropriate.
3. Don't wait for a diagnosis. Classroom adjustments — extra time, coloured overlays, structured spelling programmes — can help immediately regardless of whether a formal label is in place.
4. Involve parents. They may have noticed similar patterns at home and can provide additional context.

Using technology to help

One of the hardest parts of tracking spelling patterns is doing it consistently across a full class. When you're marking 30 books, it's easy to notice that Jake reversed his b's today but forget that he did the same thing three weeks ago.

AI-assisted marking tools can help here by automatically flagging recurring spelling patterns across multiple pieces of work and compiling them into a per-pupil view. This gives teachers and SENCOs the longitudinal evidence they need without requiring hours of manual tracking.