Dyslexia: Is it a learning disability? A complete overview

A Quick Guide

Dyslexia is a neurologically based learning disability characterized by difficulties in reading, spelling, and writing. It affects around 9-12% of the population worldwide, and while it is incurable, early diagnosis and treatment can lead to better outcomes. Dyslexic individuals may face challenges in various areas, including language processing, memory, and sequencing events. Psychological and social issues often arise, impacting self-esteem, behavior, and social interactions. Treatment options include early intervention, individual education plans, and educational techniques aimed at improving reading skills and overall academic success. Here let us talk about dyslexia and how it affects a child from an early age into adulthood. 

What is dyslexia?

Dyslexia may be defined as, “a neurologically based learning disability manifested as severe difficulties in reading, spelling, and writing words and sometimes in arithmetic.” 

Furthermore, dyslexia is found worldwide regardless of one’s culture or language, and around 9-12% of the population is affected by it. While it is an incurable condition, there are ways that it can be managed. 

Some of the issues that dyslexic children may face are as follows:  

• Difficulty in reading, spelling, seeing similarities and differences in letters, finding the right words, and processing what they hear.
• Difficulty in remembering the sequence of events, pronouncing unfamiliar words, etc.

What are the causes of dyslexia?

Dyslexia, sometimes known as a reading disability or learning disability, is brought on by individual variations in language-processing regions of the brain.

There are no cognitive, auditory, or visual issues that lead to dyslexia. Despite the fact that dyslexia has no known cure, the best results come from early diagnosis and treatment. It’s possible for dyslexia to go undetected for years or to only become apparent in adults, but it’s never too late to get treatment. 

Now let’s take a look at what causes dyslexia in children, so research suggests that it is a genetic disorder or there was some issue in the developmental stage of the brain in a fetus due to alcohol or drug abuse or simply premature birth. 

Statistically speaking, about 60% of children have a risk factor to be affected by dyslexia if one of their parents already suffers from the condition.

Hence, it is crucial to note that dyslexia doesn’t occur in a child because they aren’t intelligent or because they lack the desire to learn, it is a learning disability. Dyslexic children don’t have control over their situation, well not at least without proper help, which includes therapy of different kinds. With tutoring or a specialized education program, the majority of dyslexic children can achieve academic success. Support on an emotional level is also crucial. Patience is the key when it comes to dealing with these children.

What are the symptoms of dyslexia?

Before your child begins school, it can be challenging to spot dyslexia symptoms, but there are certain telltale signs that could point to a problem. When your child is old enough to start school, his or her teacher can be the first to spot a problem. The problem can range in severity, but it frequently manifests itself as a child begins learning to read.

Early signs

Early warning signs of dyslexia in children include:

• Difficulties naming letters, numbers, and colors.
• Inability to play rhyme games or memorize nursery rhymes.
• Incorrect word formation, such as messing up words with similar sounds or reversing words’ sounds.
• Slowly picking up new words.
• Talking too late.

During School age

The following dyslexia signs could become more noticeable once your child starts school:

• Avoiding reading-related activities.
• Difficulties in processing and comprehending what is spoken.
• Difficulty recalling the order of events.
• Difficulty recognizing and understanding how words and letters differ and are similar.
• Having trouble coming up with the correct phrase or formulating responses.
• Reading too far below age-appropriate standards.
• Spelling difficulty.
• Taking an exceptionally long time to finish reading or writing chores.
• The inability to correctly pronounce a term that is foreign to them.

During teenage and adulthood

The symptoms of dyslexia in teens and adults are very similar to those in children. Teens and adults with dyslexia frequently experience the following symptoms:

• Avoiding reading-related activities.
• Experiencing difficulties summarizing a story.
• Having issues picking up a foreign language.
• Having trouble doing arithmetic word problems.
• Incorrect spelling.
• Names or words being mispronounced, as well as word recall issues.
• Reading with difficulty, particularly reading aloud.
• Taking an exceptionally long time to finish reading or writing activities.
• Writing and reading take a lot of effort.

Impact of Dyslexia on Children

There are a number of issues that children with dyslexia tend to face. We will discuss these issues within two domains that are as follows:

Psychological Issues

Children with dyslexia suffer from low self-esteem due to the fact that they always seem to find themselves a few steps behind their peers. They tend to be more withdrawn and quiet because they feel that they are different than their peers. On top of this, when they have poor academic performance and are unable to meet certain expectations from their parents or teachers, naturally they become frustrated which eventually, if not dealt with properly, leads to a negative self-image and even depression in some cases.

Furthermore, these children seem to have more behavioral problems in comparison to their peers as they tend to be more emotionally unstable. They tend to have problems like temper tantrums, or issues with authority figures, and so they are scolded by their parents or teachers, oftentimes rejected by their peers which impacts their already vulnerable emotional state.

Social Issues

Children with dyslexia are oftentimes physically and socially immature in comparison to their peers. This usually leads to a lack of confidence, peer rejection, and a poor self-image. So when these children are socially immature, it can lead to them becoming awkward during social interactions. They tend to have issues reading social cues. They may also turn out to be rather insensitive to other people’s body language. Furthermore, children with dyslexia also have trouble expressing themselves verbally as it is quite difficult for them to find the right words within social interaction. Hence, they tend to stutter a lot when talking. 

What are the treatment options?

Treatment can frequently support kids in becoming better readers. Here are some of the treatment options for children with dyslexia: 

Early intervention

When dyslexic kids receive extra assistance in kindergarten or first grade, their reading abilities frequently become better enough for them to do well in elementary and secondary school. The abilities required to read successfully may be harder for kids to develop if they don’t receive assistance until their school years. Academically, they’re probably going to fall behind and may never close the gap. A child who has severe dyslexia might never read well. However, they can pick up techniques to enhance reading and create plans to enhance academic success and well-being.

Individual education plan

Schools are required by law in the United States to aid students with dyslexia with their academic difficulties. An organized, written plan outlining your child’s needs and how the school will support them in achieving success should be created during a meeting that you arrange with your child’s teacher. The term for this is an individualized education plan (IEP).

Educational techniques

Teachers will be able to create a unique teaching plan for your child with the aid of assessments of their reading proficiency, other academic abilities, and mental health. To help students learn to read better, teachers may employ strategies using hearing, vision, and touch. Processing the information can be enhanced by encouraging a kid to use several senses while learning, such as listening to an audio lesson and tracing with a finger the forms of the letters and words spoken.

The goal of treatment is to support your child:

• Comprehend what has been read.
• Develop a vocabulary of words that are recognized and comprehended.
• Identify and use the simplest sounds that words are made of.
• Improve your reading fluency, speed, and expression by reading aloud.
• Recognize that such sounds and words are represented by letters and string of letters.

Many children with dyslexia benefit from tutoring sessions with a reading specialist, if they are offered. If your child has a serious reading issue, tutoring sessions might need to be more frequent, and learning might proceed more slowly.

We hope you found this article useful in learning more about dyslexia being a learning disability in children that continues into adulthood.