What is Dyslexia?

Language disorders affect 15% to 20% of the population, and the most common language disorder is dyslexia, according to the International Dyslexia Assocation. It affects men and women equally, as well as people of different intelligence or ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds.

Dyslexia Defined

Broadly, dyslexia is "a specific learning disability that is neurological in origin" (International Dyslexia Association). Another scholar, Linda Shin, defines dyslexia more specifically as "a disorder manifested by difficulty learning to read despite conventional instruction, adequate intelligence, and socio-cultural opportunity".

Characteristics of Dyslexia

Dyslexics have one or more of the following characteristics:

1. They have difficulty learning and remembering printed words, which affects reading capabilities.
2. They often reverse letters (such as 'b' for 'd', or 'p' for 'q') or change order of letters in a word (such as 'tar' for 'rat').
3. Dyslexics may leave out or insert words while reading to themselves.
4. When reading aloud, they may confuse vowel sounds or substitute one consonant for another.
5. They have persistent spelling errors and must learn to spell each word by rote (such as repeating the phrase "A-P-P-L-E" over and over again).
6. Dyslexia can cause difficulty writing, both lexically (confusing word meaning) or grammatically (confusing writing rules and word order).

It is important to remember the difference between a typical reader’s mistake and dyslexia: a dyslexic reader will persistently make the same mistakes over and over again, which in turn is difficult to correct.

It is important to remember the difference between a typical reader’s mistake and dyslexia: a dyslexic reader will persistently make the same mistakes over and over again, which in turn is difficult to correct.

Types of Dyslexia

There are three types of dyslexia: childhood, adult, and alexia.

• Childhood dyslexia is found in children with persistent difficulty reading, and is thought to be a genetic neurological problem.
• Adult dyslexia occurs when adults continue to deal with the dyslexia problems they suffered with in their youth.
• Alexia occurs when a person becomes dyslexic as a result of brain trauma. In research, alexia is also the type of dyslexia that researchers prefer.

Surface Dyslexia vs. Deep Dyslexia

Modern scientists divide dyslexia into two subcategories: surface and deep dyslexia. Surface dyslexia is when words are decoded phonologically (such as pronouncing “stra-yigt” for “straight”). This comes from a difficulty in identifying words as a whole as opposed to identifying words from a string of letters. Most readers are able to simply identify words by looking at it, not by sounding aloud each letter. The best way to help this kind of dyslexia is by reading a word aloud, or copying it down on paper.

Deep dyslexia occurs when the reader cannot read an unfamiliar word, because they learn words by only looking at the whole, as opposed to letter-by-letter. It is, in a sense, the complete opposite of surface dyslexia. Some examples of errors are reading the word “orchestra” as “symphony”, or maybe reading the word “nation” as “national”.

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Researching Dyslexia: The Brain and Functional Imaging Technology

Sources:

Shin, Linda M, ed. Learning Disabilities Sourcebook. Vol. 33. Detroit, MI: Omnigraphics, 1998.

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