Things You Probably Didn't Know About Dyslexia
The modern world is full of text. From bookshelves to restaurant menus and road signs to computer screens, everywhere you look, there’s something to read. Many people take the ability to read for granted, but dyslexia affects as many as one in five people worldwide. As a neurological condition that interferes with reading and language processing, it’s surprising how little most people know about the condition. Here are a few lesser-known details about Dyslexia.
1. Dyslexia Isn’t a Disease
One of the stigmas people with dyslexia face is a misunderstanding of what causes dyslexia in the first place. Dyslexia is not the result of neurological damage. Instead, it comes from a difference in how the brain forms before birth. Unlike a disease, people are born with dyslexia and live their entire lives with it.
As you might suspect, differences in brain structure can have wide-ranging impacts. While difficulty reading is the most well-known side effect of dyslexia, there are many others. People with dyslexia tend to be creative, intelligent, and curious. They are natural puzzle solvers and excel at spatial reasoning tasks.
That’s not to say dyslexia doesn’t have its downsides. In addition to reading or writing difficulties, dyslexia strongly correlates with deficits in short-term memory and executive function. The social stigma around the inability to read is a source of significant anxiety for people with dyslexia, even though most are quite intelligent.
2. Dyslexia Is Common
Between 10 and 20 percent of the global population have dyslexia. Getting a precise measure is tricky for several reasons. For example, family doctors may misdiagnose dyslexia, mistaking it for another behavioral disorder. The National Institute of Health reports that about 80% of students placed in special education for a learning disability have dyslexia.
Additionally, dyslexia can vary significantly in severity. For some, it presents as a mild frustration while reading or difficulty detecting spelling mistakes in their writing. For others, the struggle to read manifests as a major aversion to reading or conversation. Children with less severe symptoms often fly under the radar for years.
As our understanding of dyslexia has grown, accurate diagnoses are more common. Interestingly, dyslexia is prevalent at about the same rates across the planet, independent of factors like culture, social class, and gender. However, dyslexia does appear to have a genetic component, as it tends to run in families.
You might be surprised to learn that many famous and highly respected people are known to have dyslexia. Some notable examples include:
John Lennon
Tom Cruise
Donald Glover
Albert Einstein
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Thomas Edison
3. Dyslexia Isn’t About Backwards Letters
An unfortunately common depiction of dyslexia involves backward-facing letters. However, people with dyslexia don’t typically report seeing backward-letters. Instead, they have difficulties processing the phonetics of words, leading to confusion.
One example of this is the “Recency Effect,” where a person starts pronouncing a word with the last sound they encountered while reading it. So while reading the word “top,” the final phoneme is a “P” sound. When a person with dyslexia tries to pronounce it, they might start with “P,” winding up with “pot.”
Symptoms can extend much further than swapped phonemes. When a particular word is difficult to process, some people with dyslexia will use alternative words with similar meanings. Sometimes this isn’t so straightforward, and the replacement word isn’t related to the intended one. A person with severe dyslexia might stumble over a word like “light” and unintentionally change it to “phone” as they speak, even though “phone” and “light” look and sound very distinct.
4. Dyslexia is Manageable
While there is no “cure” for a condition like dyslexia, the sooner a person is diagnosed with it, the better they can learn to manage it. Equipped with an understanding of their symptoms, students with dyslexia, their parents, and teachers can work together to teach language skills in accessible ways. When schools provide accommodations for dyslexia, students with the condition often wind up testing at the top of their class.
Research has shown that a multi-sensory approach to teaching language and reading skills can make a big difference for students with dyslexia. The Orton-Gillingham teaching method uses sight, touch, sound, and motion to examine the connections between letters and the sounds they represent. Students who struggle to read can benefit from focused lessons about the nuances of letter interactions.
The Barton method is a specialized adaptation of the Orton-Gillingham principles, tailored specifically to help students with dyslexia. It focuses on spelling and goes on to help students navigate the large influences of Latin and Greek roots on many common words - from "act" to "dolphin"! Carefully paced lessons and smart visual aids make the Barton method a popular tutoring or homeschooling approach.
As with any disability, it will take time, patience, and dedication to overcome dyslexia. But with early detection and thoughtful intervention, many students develop management techniques that allow them to grow, learn, and lead successful lives.
Help Is Available
Early and effective tutoring is the most efficient and impactful way to manage dyslexia. If you know or suspect that your child is struggling with dyslexia, it’s important to get help from experienced and trained experts.
At Sunrise Reading Solutions, we’ve assembled a team of specialists trained in the Barton method to deliver personalized, one-on-one tutoring and coaching for students with dyslexia. Reach out to us today. We’ll help you identify the nature of your child’s reading struggles and make a plan to put them on the path to success.