Here are some of the most common ways that dyslexia can present with reading difficulties: late reading, slow reading, and misreading (especially instructions!).

Late Reader   

For some children, a delay in learning to read may be the first tip-off about dyslexia. If dyslexia runs in the family, a little quizzing of mom, dad, or other relatives at family reunions may provide  clues.

Young children with dyslexia may be verbally gifted and extremely bright, but be a bit slow compared to their siblings or classmates in learning how to read. Late readers may enjoy 'reading' with mom or dad, but they're really just listening and looking at the pictures. The causes may be several - confusion about similarly appearing letters (like 'b' or 'd'), or problems cracking the code of how certain letter combinations are associated with sounds (rules of phonology).

Sometimes late readers may be hard to detect because they use excellent powers of memory to repeat back whole pages and books, but not really be able to decode individual words. They may be able to 'read' favorite books like Goodnight Moon or The LIttle Engine That Could, but not be able to identify individual words that are point out on a page.

Slow Reader  

Many older children and adults who have dyslexia are slow readers. Reasons for being a slower reader may also be several, for example,needing to sound out and say every word (impaired word automaticity), trouble breaking down words into smaller chunks (segmentation), or trouble recognizing sightwords.

Slow readers often present with erratic or declining grades in middle school or high school because they may no longer able to keep up with long reading assignments in class or crash out on standardized tests because they are unable to read questions quickly enough.

The important distinction here is that although a student may read slowly, he / she may read well...sometimes very very well. Reading speed may have nothing to do with higher order thinking, verbal fund of knowledge, or the ability to comprehend very challenging passages. All the more reason why it's important to obtain accommodations for slow reading - to really show what a student knows and allow them to pursue an advanced education.

It is especially important to find slow readers who are college-bound because may have a very bad surprise if they take a test like the SAT or ACT without extended time.

It's much easier for students to do well on classroom tests because they can anticipate what questions will be asked and have a context for reading based on classroom lectures and discussions. But the SAT or ACT is more of a free-for-all and so it will make reading each test question more difficult. It's also often not just the Reading sections that are difficult; the reading of all questions, including the test instructions will be slow going and difficult. If certain words are missed (like 'not'), then scores can take a beating.

Mis-Reader

Finally, a third common pattern of reading difficulties seen among older dyslexics and adults with dyslexia is 'misreading'. Sometime it's whole words that are skipped or substituted, while other times it's a change in word endings or word beginnings. Sometimes the degree that a person misreads is only realized when he or she is asked to read aloud. Because of the latter, many people are able to avoid being identified as dyslexic because they may avoid reading aloud and reading aloud may not be asked of them in class.

Mis-readers can miss questions on exams because of missed small words like 'not' or confusing similarly spelled words like 'nucleus' and 'nucleolus'. Some misreaders feel as if their misreading is not a significant problem because they may still grasp the gist or big picture of what's being said. But difficulties with misreading can cause trouble in school because their performance underestimates their true ability, and when they are evaluated by others, it may seem as if they make 'careless mistakes'.

Misreaders often have visual slips in fixation or symbolic substitutions that contribute to their difficulties with misreading. Usually extra time, kinesthetic or verbal strategies, software supports, or other accommodations will help to catch mistakes.