Dyslexia - What is it?
The word ‘dyslexia’ comes from the Greek: ‘dys-‘ meaning difficulty with, and ‘lexia-‘ meaning words or language. Dyslexia affects many aspects of learning, not just reading and writing. Dyslexia is not related to intelligence, race or social background.
Dyslexia is a learning difficulty that primarily affects the skills involved in accurate and fluent word reading and spelling. It is often thought of as a continuum, ranging from mild to severe and there are no clear cut-off points. This has caused much disagreement over the years as to whether we can say that ‘dyslexia’ actually exists as a condition as it can be difficult in some cases to reach a clear ‘diagnosis’ because there are so many variables.
However, when a child is experiencing continued difficulties in learning to read, investigations need to be made. Co-occurring difficulties may be seen in aspects of language, motor co-ordination, mental calculation, concentration and personal organization, but these are not, by themselves, markers of dyslexia. (Rose Report 2009)
Is it common?
Figures vary widely on the percentage of people who have dyslexia. The figures vary from 4-5% to up to 10% and above. One of the difficulties with being more precise about this, is the wide definitions of dyslexia which exist and the wide range of symptoms that can be classified as ‘dyslexic’.
When would I become aware of it and how?
Children are generally born with dyslexia, but it may remain undetected until the child starts school and begins to struggle with aspects of their learning. The link between early language and later reading ability suggests that it is possible to screen for dyslexia in children as young as five (Muter and Snowling, 2008).
The child with dyslexia is often at a disadvantage right from the start in school as their strengths are not in reading, writing spelling and dealing with symbols. They often do have strengths in other areas such as imagination, creativity and many dyslexic people grow up to be successful in careers such as architecture, engineering and other creative arts. They can also be good at acting, lateral thinking and often make good managers in people-related occupations. If given the appropriate help for their areas of difficulty, there is no reason why a dyslexic person should not be a high achiever and/or gain a university degree – many have done so. (European Dyslexia Association)
If a child has several of the indications outlined below, further investigation should be made. The child may be dyslexic, or there may be other reasons. The list below is taken from the very useful British Dyslexia Association web-site and is printed with their kind permission.
Persisting Factors
There are many factors in dyslexia, which can appear from an early age.
- They will still be noticeable when the dyslexic child leaves school.
- These include:Obvious 'good' and 'bad' days, for no apparent reason,
- Confusion between directional words, e.g. up/down, in/out,
- Difficulty with sequence, e.g. coloured bead sequence, later with days of the week or numbers,
- A family history of dyslexia/reading difficulties.
Pre-School
- Has persistent jumbled phrases, muddles words
- Use of substitute words
- Inability to remember the label for known objects, e.g. 'table, chair'.
- Difficulty learning nursery rhymes and rhyming words, e.g. 'cat, mat, sat'.
- Later than expected speech development.
Pre-school non-language indicators
- May have walked early but did not crawl - was a 'bottom shuffler' or 'tummy wriggler'.
- Persistent difficulties in getting dressed efficiently and putting shoes on the correct feet.
- Enjoys being read to but shows no interest in letters or words.
- Is often accused of not listening or paying attention.
- Excessive tripping, bumping into things and falling over.
- Difficulty with catching, kicking or throwing a ball; with hopping and/or skipping.
- Difficulty with clapping a simple rhythm.
Primary School Age • Has particular difficulty with reading and spelling.
- Puts letters and figures the wrong way round.
- Has difficulty remembering tables, alphabet, formulae etc.
- Leaves letters out of words or puts them in the wrong order.
- Still occasionally confuses 'b' and’d’ and words such as 'no/on'.
- Still needs to use fingers or marks on paper to make simple calculations.
- Poor concentration.
- Has problems understanding what he/she has read.
- Takes longer than average to do written work.
- Problems processing language at speed
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Primary school age non-language indicators
- Has difficulty with tying shoe laces, tie, and dressing.
- Has difficulty telling left from right, order of days of the week, months of the year etc.
- Surprises you because in other ways he/she is bright and alert.
- Has a poor sense of direction and still confuses left and right.
- Lacks confidence and has a poor self image.
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Can both boys and girls have it?
It used to be thought that more boys than girls were dyslexic but it now appears that boys and girls are almost equally affected, but boys are more likely to be identified, perhaps as a result of other associated problem such as poor behaviour and frustration. Recent research suggests that dyslexia is only slightly more common (1.5 to 1) in boys than girls. (Merrill Advanced Study Center)
Is it inherited?
There are a number of theories that suggest different causes for dyslexia and much has been written about this subject. Dyslexia does seem to run in families, although this is not always the case. There may be other reasons for a child appearing to have some symptoms suggesting dyslexia. This is particularly so in relation to reading difficulties, where sometimes a simple coloured overlay can make a significant difference.
Will it get better or worse? Can it be cured?
Dyslexia need not be a barrier to success and achieving if it is recognised and if suitable teaching and other strategies are put in place. Teachers can now access training in best practice for dyslexia teaching. This is teaching which is very structured and multi-sensory. This means using as many of the child’s senses as possible to support their understanding.
Some centres claim ‘cures’ for dyslexia and offer programmes which parents need to pay for. These programmes may be successful for some children, but not for others and there is much information on the internet. The general consensus is, however, that children with dyslexia can be helped in a number of ways so that they can achieve to their potential, but their fundamental learning style with not be changed.
Could anything else be causing this behaviour?
It can sometimes be difficult for teachers and parents to decide whether a child has dyslexia or not. Specialist dyslexia teachers have access to a number of tests which can help determine if this is the case. The school SENCo may have additional training in dyslexia and some schools will have dyslexia screening software. However, caution needs to be exercised as these screening tests can sometimes produce results where a child is wrongly classified as at low risk of dyslexia when this is not the case for a number of reasons. Typically, a child of average intelligence who has been very well taught in literacy may appear to have few signs of dyslexia on the test, but they will have problems in the day to day life of the classroom.
Dyslexia type symptoms can occur when there are eye teaming, eye tracking and perceptual problems that can cause words, letters and numbers to appear to move or jump on a page. Many people mistakenly think that they or their children have dyslexia because they can see 20/20 with or without corrective lenses and still have trouble reversing words, letters and numbers. Many of these same children and adults have never been tested for or told that they may have a vision disorder. There are cases where both problems are present and the child has both dyslexia and visual difficulties.
It is also possible that the child does not have dyslexia, but does have literacy difficulties which are not easily labelled. In these cases, further investigation will be needed.
About the author:
Mary Mountstephen is a child development specialist with two books currently available on Amazon which are practical guides to learning difficulties. For individual assessments and advice, she can be contacted on mem@imaginationgym.ws or her website kidscansucceed.com Contact Mary for details of training workshops for schools and talks for parents groups.
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