Had my son assessed at a young age when we realised something wasn't right. Nowadays he would be termed dyspraxic (which often accompanies dyslexia) which I dont think was invented back then and in our report he was termed 'very left handed to the point of extreme clumsiness'. He found learning difficult, couldn't catch a ball, reading was a nightmare etc. Not only was recognition rare, but help non existent. His teacher in primary was excellent and eventually found that putting him in the store cupboard, with book and listening to the same text on tape, he made some progress.
This was fine until he went to school one morning and found that the store cupboard had been engulfed in flames due to the tape recorder overheating!
He credits me with teaching him to read and write (strong, but we did put in the hours). He struggled to learn to drive, his hand writing is bad (but then so is mine) but he has managed academic success. He now works for the Met in London (on the beat and not writing letters) and will have enduring problems with clumsiness and spacial awareness.