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When parents see their child struggling at the homework desk and repeatedly misreading or misspelling even simple words, they may assume that the child is “not paying attention” or is “lazy”. In fact, these may be early signs of dyslexia. According to research data from Hong Kong, approximately 9.7% to 12.6% of school-age children experience reading and writing difficulties of varying degrees (Chan, Ho, Tsang, Lee & Chung, 2007). Parents need not become overly anxious. With professional literacy training from a speech therapist, many children can gradually improve their learning performance. Drawing on clinical experience in speech therapy, this article explains how appropriate support can help improve students’ learning and language abilities.

What Is Dyslexia? Understanding the Early Signs and Their Impact
Dyslexia is a type of specific learning difficulty associated with the brain’s neurological processing. It is not related to a child’s intelligence, attitude towards learning or family environment. Children with dyslexia mainly experience difficulties with phonological processing, recognising written forms and decoding text, which may affect reading fluency and writing ability. Recognising these signs early is the first step towards effective support.

Common Signs During the Preschool and Primary-School Years
Children of different ages may show reading and writing difficulties in different ways:

• Preschool stage (ages 3–6): language development may be slower than that of peers and pronunciation may be less accurate. The child may find it difficult to remember nursery rhymes or number sequences, show little interest in printed words, or have weaker fine-motor skills that make it difficult to hold a pencil with control.
• Primary-school stage (age 6 and above): the child may have noticeable difficulty recognising words or characters, read slowly, misread frequently or skip lines. When writing, the child may reverse letters or character components—sometimes described as “mirror writing”—or confuse similar components in Chinese characters. Dictation performance may be weak, and although spoken expression is fluent, the child may struggle to put ideas into writing.

Clinical Insights from Speech Therapists: Why Early Identification and Intervention Matter
Clinical experience shows that many students initially develop a strong fear of written language and may even become highly resistant to school. However, early, systematic intervention by a qualified speech therapist can often bring meaningful improvement.

Speech therapists address more than pronunciation and spoken-language comprehension. They also teach students how to use the underlying patterns of reading and writing to break down words and characters. Through structured, game-based activities, students repeatedly practise the links between speech sounds, written forms and their meaning. Some students who receive early intervention may improve their word-recognition skills over several months. The pace of progress varies, and the intensity of therapy can often be adjusted as skills and confidence improve.

A Professional Dyslexia Training Programme: Four Core Strategies
A well-designed dyslexia training programme does not simply require a child to copy words more often. Rote memorisation and repetitive copying may increase frustration. Professional training uses multisensory learning to strengthen the way the brain processes written information.

Union Hospital: Working with Parents to Rebuild a Child’s Confidence in Learning
When a child faces learning difficulties, parental support, acceptance and encouragement form an essential foundation. Parents do not have to navigate this journey alone. Union Hospital’s clinical psychologists and experienced speech therapists can provide language and dyslexia assessments and develop individualised literacy training programmes. The approach addresses both immediate learning needs and underlying language-processing strategies, together with emotional support. If your child continues to experience difficulties with reading and writing, you may contact us to arrange a professional assessment. Our team can work alongside your family to help the child overcome learning barriers and develop their potential.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. Will dyslexia naturally disappear as a child grows older?
   Dyslexia is an innate neurodevelopmental difference and does not usually disappear with age. However, timely and appropriate literacy training can help children develop learning strategies that they can use throughout life and reduce the impact of reading and writing difficulties on schoolwork and daily activities.

    

2. If a child frequently produces “mirror writing”, does this necessarily mean they have dyslexia?
   Not necessarily. During the early development of visual-spatial skills, preschoolers and children in the first years of primary school may occasionally reverse letters or character components, such as writing “b” as “d”. If this continues into Primary Two or beyond and is accompanied by significant word-recognition difficulties and slow reading, a speech therapist can screen related language and literacy skills and, where appropriate, refer the child to a qualified educational or clinical psychologist for a formal dyslexia diagnostic assessment.

    

3. Is dyslexia related to low intelligence?
   Students with dyslexia generally have intelligence comparable to that of other children. Some have high intelligence. They need a different approach when learning to read and write.

    

4. How can parents support a child with dyslexia at home?
   Parents should avoid requiring the child to complete large amounts of mechanical copying without a clear learning purpose. Most importantly, parents should identify the child’s strengths, offer specific praise and help reduce the psychological pressure and anxiety associated with learning.

    

5. What role does a speech therapist play in literacy training?
   Speech therapists have specialist knowledge of language development and can identify underlying weaknesses in phonology, semantics and syntax. Drawing on clinical experience, they can design an evidence-informed intervention programme tailored to the student and integrate language development with literacy learning to support word recognition, reading comprehension and written expression.

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