Dyslexia

What is Dyslexia?

Dyslexia is a neurological disorder that interferes with language. It is often genetic with varying levels of severity - mild to moderate to severe to profound. Most often seen in phonological processing, it affects reading, writing, spelling, handwriting, and sometimes arithmetic.

Signs of Dyslexia

If your child has 3 or more of the following warning signs, please look into dyslexia more extensively.

In Preschool

• delayed speech

• mixing up the sounds and syllables in long words

• chronic ear infections

• stuttering

• constant confusion of left versus right

• late establishing a dominant hand

• difficulty learning to tie shoes

• trouble memorizing their address, phone number, or the alphabet

• can’t create words that rhyme • a close relative with dyslexia

In Elementary School

• dysgraphia (slow, non-automatic handwriting that is difficult to read)

• letter or number reversals continuing past the end of first grade

• extreme difficulty learning cursive

• slow, choppy, inaccurate reading:

- guesses based on shape or context

- skips or misreads prepositions (at, to, of)

- ignores suffixes

- can’t sound out unknown words

• terrible spelling

• often can’t remember sight words (they, were, does) or homonyms (their, they’re, and there)

• difficulty telling time with a clock with hands

• trouble with math

- memorizing multiplication tables

- memorizing a sequence of steps

- directionality

• when speaking, difficulty finding the correct word

- lots of “whatyamacallits” and “thingies”

- common sayings come out slightly twisted

• extremely messy bedroom, backpack, and desk

• dreads going to school

- complains of stomach aches or headaches

- may have nightmares about school

In High School

All of the above symptoms plus:

• limited vocabulary

• extremely poor written expression

- large discrepancy between verbal skills

and written compositions

• unable to master a foreign language • difficulty reading printed music

• poor grades in many classes

• may drop out of high school

In Adults

Education history similar to above, plus:

• slow reader

• may have to read a page 2 or 3 times to understand it

• terrible speller

• difficulty putting thoughts onto paper - dreads writing memos or letters

• still has difficulty with right versus left

• often gets lost, even in a familiar city

• sometimes confuses b and d, especially when tired or sick

More in Depth

Since dyslexia is a neurological processing difference, their brains are physically "wired" differently. In addition to this, brain scans show that people with dyslexia do not use the same parts of their brains to read as other people do. This means that they benefit from a way of learning that is different from the "normal" way of teaching reading, writing, spelling, etc. They have larger right hemispheres, meaning that the strengths of the right side of the brain are stronger. Things such as:

• artistic, athletic, and mechanical gifts

• 3-D visualization ability

• musical talent

• creative problem-solving skills

• intuitive people skills

Many famous people have dyslexia, some of whom might come as a surprise to you!