Dyslexia Facts

Dyslexia is a common learning disorder in children that typically persists throughout their life. Like most forms of learning disorders, cases of dyslexia range from mild to severe, but the earlier it is diagnosed the sooner remedial action can be taken to minimize its effect on the person's language skills and education. Here are a few important facts about dyslexia.

Identification

• Dyslexia is a language-based learning dysfunction that affects a person's ability to understand or use written or spoken language. It is an inherited condition that disproportionately affects boys. Without intervention, it can seriously hinder the person's ability to acquire language skills necessary to read, write and speak.

A Gift

• Despite the challenges, people suffering from dyslexia are often intuitive and highly creative, according to the Davis Dyslexia Association International (DDAI). Rather than being lazy, slow or intellectually challenged, as some perceive them to be, dyslexics are in fact people of average or above-average intelligence who can excel in many subjects, the DDAI says. The association attributes their difficulty with language to the fact that they are visual thinkers.

Cause

• A report by medicinenet.com (see Resources below) agrees, attributing the disability to the way that a dyslexic's brain works and processes information. Because a dyslexic thinks in pictures, he or she finds it hard to understand letters, word, symbols and numbers.

Learning

• Medicinenet.com also cites World Federation of Neurology findings that indicate that dyslexics fail to achieve results commensurate with their actual intellectual ability when their education is limited to traditional classroom teaching. It is clear they learn best from visual and tactile instruction rather than conventional classroom teaching.

Warning Signs

• According to Dyslexia, Inc. (See Resources below), warning signs manifest in a child's speech, which is characterized by slow learning and stuttering or mispronunciation of multisyllabic words. The child may also have difficulty learning the letters and sounds of the alphabet, as well as have a tendency to alternate between right and left hands for tasks or be slow to identify a dominant hand.

Treatment

• While there is no cure for this learning disability, the dyslexic can learn ways to adapt. The specific treatment varies depending on the severity of the disability, but it typically focuses on developing the child's visual abilities.