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What is Dyslexia?

Dyslexia, the most prevalent type of learning disability, affects an individual's ability to acquire skills related to reading. The National Institutes of Health report that 60 to 80 percent of people with learning disabilities have problems with reading and language skills.

Dyslexia

The most common characteristic of individuals with dyslexia is difficulty with oral language processing related to phonological awareness (the ability to manipulate sounds in words). This underlying phonological processing disorder leads to problems in developing word-attack abilities.

Difficulties with other aspects of respective and expressive oral language involving vocabulary and grammar may also be present.

Problems with automatic retrieval of words and memory for non-meaningful symbols such as letters is also common.

Individuals with dyslexia may also experience difficulties with spelling and writing, usually referred to as dysgraphia. Although dyslexia and dysgraphia often occur together, problems with spelling and writing can occur when reading skills are good.

Dyslexia is a lifelong disorder that often occurs in families.

The prognosis depends on the severity of the disorder, the specific pattern of strengths and weaknesses within the individual, and the appropriateness of intervention.

With appropriate intervention, individuals with dyslexia can compensate well and become efficient readers, although perhaps somewhat slower than average. Other, more severely disabled students may continue to struggle with reading. Difficulties with spelling may persist.

Characteristics of students with dyslexia change over time, depending on the grade level and/or stage of reading that the individual has reached. The following are some signs of dyslexia at different grade levels.

Preschool/kindergarten

At this stage, children are developing the underlying oral language base necessary for learning to read. Signs that indicate possible difficulties with reading acquisition include:

• delay in talking
• difficulty in recognizing and producing rhymes
• difficulty remembering rote information such as letter names (also phone number and address)
• difficulty remembering and following directions

At this stage, children are developing basic word recognition skills both through the use of word-attack strategies and contextual cues. Students with dyslexia will show some of the following characteristics:

• difficulties with learning sound/symbol correspondences
• confusion of visually similar letters (b/d/p, w/m, h/n, f/t)
• confusion of auditorily similar letters (d/t, b/p, f/v)
• difficulties remembering basic sight vocabulary
• problems with segmenting words into individual sounds and blending sounds to form words
• reading and spelling errors that involve difficulties with sequencing and monitoring sound/symbol correspondence such as reversals of letters (past/pats), omissions (tip/trip), additions (slip/sip), substitutions (rip/rib), and transpositions (stop/pots)
• omission of grammatical endings in reading and/or writing (-s, -ed, -ing, etc.)
• difficulty remembering spelling words over time and applying spelling rules

At this stage, children progressing normally have mastered basic reading skills and are now expected to learn new information from reading. Many students with dyslexia continue to have significant difficulties with developing word recognition skills and therefore have trouble coping with more advanced reading activities necessary to succeed in the upper elementary grades and beyond. Students with dyslexia will show some of the following characteristics:

• significant difficulty reading and spelling multisyllabic words, often omitting entire syllables as well as making single sound errors
• lack of awareness of word structure (prefixes, roots, suffixes)
• frequent misreading of common sight words (where, there, what, then, when, etc.)
• difficulties with reading comprehension and learning new information from text because of underlying word recognition difficulties
• if underlying oral language problems exist affecting vocabulary knowledge and grammar, difficulties in comprehension of text will occur
• significant difficulties in writing related to problems in spelling as well as organizing ideas

Students at this stage are expected to analyze and synthesize information in written form as well as acquire factual information. Although many individuals with dyslexia may have compensated for some of their difficulties with reading, others may continue to have problems with automatic word identification.

• continued difficulties with word recognition which significantly affect acquisition of knowledge and ability to analyze written material
• slow rate of reading
• continued difficulties with spelling and written composition
• difficulty with note-taking in class
• trouble learning a foreign language

Individuals with dyslexia show unique patterns of strengths and weaknesses. They may or may not exhibit some of the following characteristics:

• special talents in mechanical abilities, music, art, drama, sports, or creative writing
• left/right confusion and difficulties with concepts related to time and space or very strong visual spatial abilities
• difficulties with learning foreign languages or English as a second language
• difficulties with mathematics, particularly in memorizing math facts and completing word problems or strengths in math discrepant with reading problems
• difficulties with handwriting
• difficulties making and keeping friends or strong social skills

Reprinted with permission from The Dyslexia Puzzle: Putting the Pieces Together, by Lorna N. Kaufman, Ph.D. and Pamela Hook, Ph.D. A publication of the New England Branch of the International Dyslexia Association. For more information or to join, call (617) 964-4485.