Orlando Blooms, David Beckham, Alexander Graham Bell, Leonardo Da Vinci, Thomas Edison, Muhammad Ali, Richard Branson, Steven Speilberg to name a few have dyslexia. So… what exactly is DYSLEXIA?
From my previous experience volunteering for a Dyslexic center, I met a 4 year old boy who had problems articulating, I could only make up 40% of what he was saying most of the time. He had problems with reading and writing. However this little boy has a huge fascination about engines and animals. Whenever he talks about those two topics, he can go on and on about everything he knows (as an adult, I’ll admit that he knows more about engines and animals than I do). The fascination for me is that I couldn’t understand how he could have learnt so much in his young 4 years of life, without being able to read yet! What I took back from that experience is that these children may not fair well in school due to their difficulties, however their intelligence should never be doubted upon.
What is Dyslexia?
A disorder which affects the learning ability which involve difficulty to read, interpret words, letters, numbers and symbols. It’s a neurological disorder.
What happens in the brain?
The diagram above shows the left side of a dyslexic brain and a non dyslexic brain. When reading, the dyslexic brain (on the left) shows more activity compared to the non dyslexic brain (right).
The picture above shows a normal reading process. However for someone with dyslexia, the process becomes more complicated.
In general there are 3 types of dyslexia.
There is also around 4 classifications of dyslexia.
Commonly, children with dyslexia are labelled. However their struggle is more than meets the eye. Children with dyscalculia have difficulties in recognizing numbers and values, mathematics is their worst enemy. Children with dysgraphia have bad handwriting, some even hold pencils oddly. Children with dyspraxia is often considered clumsy. Children with apraxia have problems articulating.
What are the signs of Dyslexia?
Slow development of speech, problems with fine and gross motor, difficulties understanding orders, slow and poor handwriting, poor spelling, unreadable handwriting, day dream, difficulties in telling time, limited vocabulary, unable to differentiate left and right… etc.
Children with Dyslexia may learn to overcome their difficulties with proper interventions and support.
What is Dyslexia?
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