Dyslexia

Dyslexia

There are many, many things that can disturb a child’s ability to learn.



Today, I want to highlight reading difficulties or dyslexia as a common and troubling disorder.

Signs of dyslexia can be detected from about 3 years of age onwards as children fall behind their peers in reading. Commonly, one will encounter any or all of the following:

• May have poor reading ability or poor comprehension
• May have more than the normal difficulty with spellings
• May often misread information
• May have problems with syntax or grammar
• May confuse similar letters or numbers, reverse them, or confuse their order
• May have difficulty reading addresses, small print and/or columns

Actually we all start out dyslexic; not one of us learned to read without some difficulty. It is therefore a question of degree! The amount of disability and its causes will have to be determined by experts for each child. Each affected child is an individual, and each child's dyslexia will be unique.

Your Child is NOT!

There is some evidence that dyslexia might also be found with other developmental disorders including ADHD, dysgraphia, and dyspraxia, but not always, so do allow the experts to test your child throughly before making a diagnosis.


Various standardized tests are available to help with the diagnosis. Depending on the cause, and the severity, many a child's disability can be lessened or even sometimes apparently eliminated. Early detection and treatment are keys to success but our experience is that it is better late than never! Do ensure that you also check your child's hearing and vision, as sometimes these can lead to symptoms similar to dyslexia.

Do not get disheartened! Dyslexia is surprisingly common, and every child certainly can improve with therapy. Try to find out as much as you can about your child's dyslexia and how to help your child compensate for it. Dyslexia has no connection with intelligence or ability! Your goal as parents is to help your child to achieve her or his true potential.

Almost every town now has professional help available for affected children. Once dyslexia is diagnosed, we strongly advise parents to find and get actively involved with support groups with other parents and children. The emotional support and the tips and tricks you share there can make a huge difference to both parents and kids. To ignore a child’s difficulties, or to take them lightly, making fun of the disability, will simply consign your child to a life far below his or her true potential.

Keep watch, I plan on doing short highlights on each of the following – Dysgraphia, Dyscalculia, Dyspraxia, ADHD, Autism and Aspergers... time permitting!