Individuals with dyslexia have difficulty with processing and manipulating the sounds in a spoken language. This is related to the ability to read words accurately and fluently. Individuals with dyslexia will also have difficulty with spelling. Some of the consequences of not reading accurately or fluently and thus having fewer reading experiences may include problems with reading comprehension and vocabulary.
Dyslexia is not related to race, social background or intellectual ability but there is a tendency for dyslexia to run in families and this suggests that the brain differences which cause dyslexia may be hereditary.
The British Dyslexia Association has also published a definition of dyslexia that reflects the neurological bases of the condition: “Dyslexia is a complex neurological condition which is constitutional in origin. The symptoms may affect many areas of learning and function, and may be described as a specific difficulty in reading, spelling and written language.”
General problems experienced by people with dyslexia include the following:
Learning to speak
Learning letters and their sounds
Organizing written and spoken language
Memorizing number facts
Reading quickly enough to comprehend
Keeping up with and comprehending longer reading assignments
Spelling
Learning a foreign language
Correctly doing math operations
The prejudice that children with dyslexia (also called reading and spelling disorder) are unintelligent and not suitable for grammar school education is very widespread. The syndrome of dyslexia is now widely recognized as being a specific learning disability of neurological origin that does not imply low intelligence or poor educational potential, and which is independent of race and social background.
What is dyslexia?
