Dyslexia is a complex neurodevelopmental disorder that makes it difficult for individuals to read, spell, write, and learn. It is a life-long condition that can be effectively managed with special education programs. The first step to treating dyslexia is identifying its signs and symptoms and seeking professional help.
What Is Dyslexia?
Dyslexia is a learning disorder in which a person has difficulty in reading, identifying speech sounds, and recognizing letters, symbols, etc. The word “dyslexia” is derived from two Greek words: “dys” meaning inadequate or lack of and “lexicon” meaning word. According to a 2012 study 1 Al-Shidhani, T. A., & Arora, V. (2012). Understanding Dyslexia in Children through Human Development Theories. Sultan Qaboos University medical journal, 12(3), 286–294. https://doi.org/10.12816/0003141 , “Dyslexia thus means problems learning how to read words and deal with language in print.”
However, recent research has moved beyond seeing dyslexia as a simple reading disorder and attributed it to be a neurodevelopmental condition 2 A revised discrepancy method for identifying dyslexia. (2020, March 5). SpringerLink. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40817-020-00079-2 in the brain that causes “difficulty in literacy acquisition, cognitive processes and discrepancies in educational outcomes.” Today, it is considered one of the many neuropsychological and neurobiological disorders 3 Snowling, M. J., Hulme, C., & Nation, K. (2020). Defining and understanding dyslexia: past, present and future. Oxford review of education, 46(4), 501–513. https://doi.org/10.1080/03054985.2020.1765756 in the spectrum of learning disabilities (LDs) that affect a person’s ability to read, learn, or speak fluently. It is also distinguished from mental illnesses and reading difficulties caused by vision or hearing problems or by poor teaching methods or inadequate learning opportunities.
Studies 4 Siegel L. S. (2006). Perspectives on dyslexia. Paediatrics & child health, 11(9), 581–587. https://doi.org/10.1093/pch/11.9.581 show that people with dyslexia have damaged and disoriented 5 Mascheretti, S., De Luca, A., Trezzi, V., Peruzzo, D., Nordio, A., Marino, C., & Arrigoni, F. (2017). Neurogenetics of developmental dyslexia: from genes to behavior through brain neuroimaging and cognitive and sensorial mechanisms. Translational psychiatry, 7(1), e987. https://doi.org/10.1038/tp.2016.240 visual analysis systems and suffer from major changes in the brain’s structures and functions related to learning and language processing. Because of this, they often have difficulty in reading, writing, learning new things, or speaking. They often do not recognize or are confused 6 Siegel L. S. (2006). Perspectives on dyslexia. Paediatrics & child health, 11(9), 581–587. https://doi.org/10.1093/pch/11.9.581 by letters, symbols, signs, words, or sounds. They face difficulties in processing grammar and spellings or understanding how semantics or phonetics work in sentence structures.
Writings appear blurry to them, because of which they often misread words, write them wrongly, or change their meanings. Dyslexic people also face problems related to attention deficiency, hyperactivity, and touch. It is also commonly thought that dyslexic people have low or below average intelligence, but research 7 Knight C. (2018). What is dyslexia? An exploration of the relationship between teachers’ understandings of dyslexia and their training experiences. Dyslexia (Chichester, England), 24(3), 207–219. https://doi.org/10.1002/dys.1593 shows that they have average or above average intelligence and are often blessed with skills like critical thinking, problem solving, etc.
Understanding Dyslexia
Dyslexia is usually a life-long condition, with genetic roots 8 Schumacher, J., Hoffmann, P., Schmäl, C., Schulte-Körne, G., & Nöthen, M. M. (2007). Genetics of dyslexia: the evolving landscape. Journal of medical genetics, 44(5), 289–297. https://doi.org/10.1136/jmg.2006.046516 or it can be induced by age 9 D Barbosa AC, Emmady PD. Alexia. [Updated 2021 Nov 22]. In: StatPearls [Internet]. Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing; 2022 Jan-. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK557669/ or physical injuries 10 Starrfelt, R., & Shallice, T. (2014). What’s in a name? The characterization of pure alexia. Cognitive neuropsychology, 31(5-6), 367–377. https://doi.org/10.1080/02643294.2014.924226 to the brain. The early signs of dyslexia often occur in childhood, especially in the pre-schooling years, but because of its wide bevy of symptoms in younger population groups like children who cannot properly convey the difficulties they face, dyslexia goes undiagnosed and untreated. Even if it is diagnosed in later years or adulthood, treatment may not have as effective outcomes as early treatment.
There is no established set of causes of dyslexia and research is still underway to properly understand the disorder. However, experts agree on the negative long-term impact of dyslexia, especially given that it cannot be completely cured.
The poor learning abilities caused by dyslexia interfere with the dyslexic person’s quality of life, often leading to social and professional problems. They find it difficult to perform publicly and often suffer from a fear of schools, or activities related to learning. Dyslexia is also linked to high rates of depression, anxiety, social anxiety, and suicide. To prevent these complexities in later life, it is recommended that dyslexia should be diagnosed at the earliest opportunity 11 Snowling M. J. (2013). Early identification and interventions for dyslexia: a contemporary view. Journal of research in special educational needs : JORSEN, 13(1), 7–14. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1471-3802.2012.01262.x and addressed with effective education programs, teaching methods, and support groups.
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What Are The Different Types Of Dyslexia?
The symptoms and causes of dyslexia are too wide-ranging 12 Zoubrinetzky, R., Bielle, F., & Valdois, S. (2014). New insights on developmental dyslexia subtypes: heterogeneity of mixed reading profiles. PloS one, 9(6), e99337. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0099337 and heterogeneous and, in most cases, it is seen that if “relevant stimuli for a certain type of dyslexia are not detected during diagnosis”, that dyslexia is easily dismissed. Because of this, experts have grouped together several common types of dyslexia—based on the symptoms and causes—to increase the effectiveness of treatment. Some of these types are mentioned below –
1. Based On Causes
Based on causes, dyslexia can be categorized into the following types:
1. Developmental dyslexia
Developmental dyslexia is a genetic neuronal development present from birth that “impacts selectively on the ability to learn to read, leaving oral and non-verbal reasoning powers intact”. This dyslexia is more prevalent in left-handed males 13 Tønnessen, F. E., Løkken, A., Høien, T., & Lundberg, I. (1993). Dyslexia, left-handedness, and immune disorders. Archives of neurology, 50(4), 411–416. https://doi.org/10.1001/archneur.1993.00540040063016 and usually diminishes with age. It can be easily addressed by “remediation programmes tailored to each child’s particular, individual, pattern of needs”.
Developmental dyslexia can be categorized into the following types:
A. Primary dyslexia
If a person’s parents are dyslexic, his/her dyslexia is directly inherited 14 Galaburda, A. M., & Cestnick, L. (2003). Dislexia del desarrollo [Developmental dyslexia]. Revista de neurologia, 36 Suppl 1, S3–S9. . This is called primary dyslexia.
B. Secondary dyslexia
Secondary dyslexia is caused by problems in brain development during the early stages of pregnancy. This can happen in children whose parents have no history of dyslexia.
C. Peripheral dyslexia
A person suffering from this type of dyslexia usually has a damaged visual analysis system. Peripheral dyslexia can be divided into three subtypes:
- Neglect dyslexia
- Attentional dyslexia
- Letter-by-letter reading dyslexia
D. Central dyslexia
One 2012 study says that, in people with central dyslexia, “processes beyond the visual analysis system are damaged, resulting in difficulties in comprehension and/or pronunciation of written words”. Central dyslexia is of different types, such as:
- Non-semantic reading
- Surface dyslexia
- Phonological dyslexia
- Deep dyslexia
2. Acquired Dyslexia/Alexia
A person, who could previously read, sometimes ‘acquires’ dyslexia if a brain injury, stroke, progressive illness, dementia, or a traumatic experience impacts the brain areas associated with learning and processing languages. This is also known as alexia.
2. Based On Symptoms
Dyslexia is a disorder with selective deficits that affect our reading abilities or language processing skills. While alexia is only dyslexia with a known cause and, sometimes, definite manifestations, developmental dyslexias are quite a different matter. In it, the selective deficits and their symptoms are varied, because of which experts find it convenient to categorize it into the following types:
1. Letter position dyslexia
In this type of dyslexia, people can identify letters correctly, but they fail to understand the order of the letters 15 Friedmann, N., & Gvion, A. (2001). Letter position dyslexia. Cognitive neuropsychology, 18(8), 673–696. https://doi.org/10.1080/02643290143000051 within a given word. They perform well when it comes to speech production, but they are poor performers 16 Reilhac, C., Jucla, M., Iannuzzi, S., Valdois, S., & Démonet, J. F. (2012). Effect of orthographic processes on letter identity and letter-position encoding in dyslexic children. Frontiers in psychology, 3, 154. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2012.00154 in writing tasks.
For instance, they will read the word “dairy” as “diary”.
2. Attentional dyslexia
In this type of dyslexia, people tend to misplace 17 Lewandowska, M., Milner, R., Ganc, M., Włodarczyk, E., & Skarżyński, H. (2014). Attention dysfunction subtypes of developmental dyslexia. Medical science monitor : international medical journal of experimental and clinical research, 20, 2256–2268. https://doi.org/10.12659/MSM.890969 the different letters in a given word, even though they can correctly identify and keep the original relative position of letters within the word.
For instance, they will read “lion’s den” as “dion’s len”.
3. Letter identity dyslexia
People with this type of dyslexia fail to identify letters 18 Bigsby P. (1990). Abstract letter identities and developmental dyslexia. British journal of psychology (London, England : 1953), 81 ( Pt 2), 227–263. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-8295.1990.tb02358.x and create abstract identity of letters from their visual form, as “they cannot name a letter, identify a written letter according to its name or sound, or match letters in different cases.”
For instance, they will find it difficult to read words like “ASAP” or “The Oxford Wine Company”.
4. Neglect dyslexia
People with neglect dyslexia fail to read a side of a word 19 Vallar, G., Burani, C., & Arduino, L. S. (2010). Neglect dyslexia: a review of the neuropsychological literature. Experimental brain research, 206(2), 219–235. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-010-2386-0 , typically the left side of a word. They substitute or add letters in words they cannot fully read, and end up changing the meaning of a word.
For instance, for them, the word “rice” becomes “lice” or “mice”.
5. Visual dyslexia
In people with visual dyslexia, the brain doesn’t get the complete picture 20 Quercia, P., Feiss, L., & Michel, C. (2013). Developmental dyslexia and vision. Clinical ophthalmology (Auckland, N.Z.), 7, 869–881. https://doi.org/10.2147/OPTH.S41607 of what their eyes see, because of which they find it difficult to identify letters. They mostly replace letters within words or within sentences.
For instance, a written page will appear blurry and out of focus to them, making the words incomprehensible.
6. Surface dyslexia
People with surface dyslexia cannot recognize 21 Wybrow, D. P., & Hanley, J. R. (2015). Surface developmental dyslexia is as prevalent as phonological dyslexia when appropriate control groups are employed. Cognitive neuropsychology, 32(1), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1080/02643294.2014.998185 similar words.
For instance, people with this dyslexia will fail to understand the difference between “witch”, “which”, and “wich”.
7. Phonological dyslexia
The most common type 22 Rapcsak, S. Z., Beeson, P. M., Henry, M. L., Leyden, A., Kim, E., Rising, K., Andersen, S., & Cho, H. (2009). Phonological dyslexia and dysgraphia: cognitive mechanisms and neural substrates. Cortex; a journal devoted to the study of the nervous system and behavior, 45(5), 575–591. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cortex.2008.04.006 of dyslexia, phonological dyslexia prevents people 23 Tanaka, H., Black, J. M., Hulme, C., Stanley, L. M., Kesler, S. R., Whitfield-Gabrieli, S., Reiss, A. L., Gabrieli, J. D., & Hoeft, F. (2011). The brain basis of the phonological deficit in dyslexia is independent of IQ. Psychological science, 22(11), 1442–1451. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797611419521 from matching sounds with symbols and understanding the sounds of language.
People with this dyslexia often find it difficult to speak and/or pronounce words correctly.
8. Vowel letter dyslexia
People with this dyslexia often “omit, substitute, transpose, and add vowel letters” in a given word 24 Khentov-Kraus, L., & Friedmann, N. (2018). Vowel letter dyslexia. Cognitive neuropsychology, 35(5-6), 223–270. https://doi.org/10.1080/02643294.2018.1457517 .
For example, they process the word “cat” as “coat” or “cot”.
9. Deep dyslexia
People with deep dyslexia often process words 25 Siegel L. S. (1985). Deep dyslexia in childhood?. Brain and language, 26(1), 16–27. https://doi.org/10.1016/0093-934x(85)90025-2 with semantic, morphological, and visual errors.
For instance, for them, the word “smiles” becomes “smiling”.
What Are The Symptoms Of Dyslexia?

The symptoms of dyslexia are often varied across the dyslexic spectrum. But people afflicted with it often show the following dyslexia signs and symptoms:
- Difficulty in reading
- Difficulty in learning new words
- Difficulty in recognizing letters or symbols
- Difficulty in rhyming words
- Difficulty in processing grammar, spellings, or sentence structures
- Lack of semantic or phonological awareness while processing languages
- Misreading words and changing their meanings
- Delayed speech development
- Attention deficiency
- Hyperactivity
What Causes Dyslexia?

Research is still underway when it comes to understanding the actual causes of dyslexia. Sometimes, it is viewed as a neurological disorder; at other times, it is a reading, learning, or a visual disorder. However, decades of scholarly research and medical practice has established that dyslexia is caused by an interaction of genetic, biological, and environmental factors.
1. Genetic factors
Like other neurodevelopmental disorders, dyslexia is heritable and/or induced during pregnancy, with life-long conditions and early onset. Research attributes the heritable causes of dyslexia to:
- A family history of dyslexia
- A family history of other learning/neurodevelopmental disorders
- Premature birth
- Low birth weight
- Physical injury to the fetus during pregnancy
- Exposure to nicotine, drugs, alcohol during pregnancy
- Exposure to infections that alter fetal brain development during pregnancy
2. Biological Factors
One 2022 study 26 Remien K, Marwaha R. Dyslexia. [Updated 2022 Feb 7]. In: StatPearls [Internet]. Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing; 2022 Jan-. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK557668/ says that people with both developmental dyslexia and alexia share a damaged visual analysis system and major changes in the brain’s structures and functions related to learning, such as:
- Cerebellum
- Cerebral cortex
- Reduced gray matter
- Frontal and temporal regions
3. Environmental Factors
According to a 2009 study 27 Fletcher J. M. (2009). Dyslexia: The evolution of a scientific concept. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society : JINS, 15(4), 501–508. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1355617709090900 , “Factors related to poverty and the family’s orientation to literacy represent risk factors for dyslexia.” Not only dyslexic children, but also children who find it difficult to learn can develop dyslexia-like signs in environments that are hostile to learning. Studies 28 Werth R. (2019). What causes dyslexia? Identifying the causes and effective compensatory therapy. Restorative neurology and neuroscience, 37(6), 591–608. https://doi.org/10.3233/RNN-190939 further link the causes of dyslexia to:
- The impact of language on poverty
- Insufficient learning opportunities
- Poor literacy-related activities
- Insufficient teaching methods
Dyslexia Across Ages
Dyslexia is usually present from birth and the early signs of dyslexia occur in childhood and at pre-schooling years when children usually start learning. In younger years, dyslexia causes common learning problems. But if this is unaddressed, dyslexia grows on to have a more severe impact on people in adulthood, interfering with their social and professional abilities and their quality of life.
1. Dyslexia In Children
According to a 2022 study, developmental dyslexia and its different types are the most common type of dyslexia in children, making them “have a difficult time learning to decode words”. A 2012 study shows that about 10–16% of children across the world have some form of dyslexia and are in need of special education programs.
The signs of dyslexia in kids usually involve slow learning, impaired speech development, and problems related to recognizing letters, signs, numbers, symbols, etc. Dyslexic children often suffer from a fear of learning and schools, low self-esteem, and a fear of being punished or criticized for mistakes related to learning. They are also the ones with poor school performance, bullying experiences, and poor social adjustment. Another 2010 study 29 Schulte-Körne G. (2010). The prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of dyslexia. Deutsches Arzteblatt international, 107(41), 718–27. https://doi.org/10.3238/arztebl.2010.0718 shows that 40% to 60% of dyslexic children have psychological disorders, including anxiety, depression, social phobia, suicidal thoughts, etc.
Studies also show that the early signs of dyslexia are often coexisting with other learning disorders, such as:
- Attention deficit disorder (ADD)
- Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD 30 Germanò, E., Gagliano, A., & Curatolo, P. (2010). Comorbidity of ADHD and dyslexia. Developmental neuropsychology, 35(5), 475–493. https://doi.org/10.1080/87565641.2010.494748 )
- Developmental language disorders
- Somatic dysfunction 31 Hendren, R. L., Haft, S. L., Black, J. M., White, N. C., & Hoeft, F. (2018). Recognizing Psychiatric Comorbidity With Reading Disorders. Frontiers in psychiatry, 9, 101. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2018.00101
- Dysgraphia 32 Hanley, J. R., Hastie, K., & Kay, J. (1992). Developmental surface dyslexia and dysgraphia: an orthographic processing impairment. The Quarterly journal of experimental psychology. A, Human experimental psychology, 44(2), 285–319. https://doi.org/10.1080/02724989243000046
- Auditory processing disorder
- Developmental coordination disorder 33 Margari, L., Buttiglione, M., Craig, F., Cristella, A., de Giambattista, C., Matera, E., Operto, F., & Simone, M. (2013). Neuropsychopathological comorbidities in learning disorders. BMC neurology, 13, 198. https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2377-13-198
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2. Dyslexia In Adults
In adults, dyslexia can be genetic or acquired and the disorder negatively impacts their social life, professional reputation, mental health, and their quality of life.
Apart from the most common markers of dyslexia—reading and writing problems—dyslexic adults suffer from memory problems, clumsiness, and poor social and organizational skills. They also suffer from low self-esteem and face difficulties in public speaking or reading or in mere tasks like writing a report, making a planner, etc. One 2014 study 34 Nergård-Nilssen, T., & Hulme, C. (2014). Developmental dyslexia in adults: behavioural manifestations and cognitive correlates. Dyslexia (Chichester, England), 20(3), 191–207. https://doi.org/10.1002/dys.1477 found that signs of dyslexia in adults often involve cognitive deficits like poor short-term memory, poor hand-eye coordination, depressive moods, attention problems, etc.
How Is Dyslexia Diagnosed?
The International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10) and the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) both recognize dyslexia as a “brain-based difficulty in reading” and have laid down the criteria for its diagnosis. These psychiatric manuals also recommend the differential diagnosis of dyslexia from the core symptoms of similar disorders, because of which how dyslexia is diagnosed takes into consideration factors 35 Hammill, D. D., & Allen, E. A. (2020). A revised discrepancy method for identifying dyslexia. Journal of Pediatric Neuropsychology, 6(1), 27-43. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40817-020-00079-2 like:
- Isolated reading disorder
- Isolated spelling disorder
- Vision impairment
- Hearing impairment
- Psychiatric disorders (ADD, ADHD, anxiety, depression, etc.)
- Children’s cognitive disabilities (like poor memory, speech difficulties, learning disabilities, etc.)
- Chronic diseases (like diabetes mellitus, etc.)
- Negative psychosocial factors (like school history, bullying, poor social life, etc.)
- Negative psychosocial environments (like dysfunctional families, inadequate schooling facilities, etc.)
- Toxin exposure (like lead poisoning, etc.)
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How To Diagnose Dyslexia With Tests
A large number of diagnostic tests for dyslexia is available, and one 2012 study recommends that such tests can be performed by “teachers, specialists, doctors, nurses, psychologists, and others who may be involved in care and development of the affected child.”
Dyslexia is often screened by:
- Physical examination (like MRI scans, blood tests, etc.) that look for visual, hearing, or other physical disabilities in dyslexic people
- Intelligence tests (like IG tests, language tests, reading tests, etc.)
- Clinical screening tools (like Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children [WISC-IV], Minnesota Mechanical Assembly Test, Stanford Intelligence Test, etc.)
What Is The Treatment For Dyslexia?

In spite of being a common and life-long condition, there is no prescribed treatment process for dyslexia. But its early and timely diagnosis, coupled with “remediation programs tailored to each [person’s] particular, individual, pattern of needs”, can help dyslexic people manage their learning disabilities. One 2010 study sums up the two parts of dyslexia treatment:
- Treatment of core problems with reading and spelling
- Treatment of any concurrent psychological disorders
According to a 2012 study, early interventions of dyslexia often focus on vocabulary, comprehension, and necessary skills such as phonics. As dyslexic people progress through their age and education, “the [later] intervention will move to improve understanding of word meanings, improved comprehension, more challenging reading, and strategies to excel.”
These interventions are often carried out—via child support programs, special learning centers, reading programs, group education systems, etc. using strategies such as:
- Individualized education programmes 36 Ziegler, J. C., Perry, C., & Zorzi, M. (2020). Learning to Read and Dyslexia: From Theory to Intervention Through Personalized Computational Models. Current directions in psychological science, 29(3), 293–300. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721420915873
- Multisensory teaching methods 37 Kast, M., Meyer, M., Vögeli, C., Gross, M., & Jäncke, L. (2007). Computer-based multisensory learning in children with developmental dyslexia. Restorative neurology and neuroscience, 25(3-4), 355–369.
- Assisted learning techniques 38 Galuschka, K., Ise, E., Krick, K., & Schulte-Körne, G. (2014). Effectiveness of treatment approaches for children and adolescents with reading disabilities: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. PloS one, 9(2), e89900. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0089900 , like text-to-speech educational devices, audio books, etc.
- Use of different methods 39 Bull L. (2007). Sunflower therapy for children with specific learning difficulties (dyslexia): a randomised, controlled trial. Complementary therapies in clinical practice, 13(1), 15–24. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ctcp.2006.07.003 , such as word games, paired reading, cued spelling, and peer tutoring
- Class-wide approaches 40 Pino, M., & Mortari, L. (2014). The inclusion of students with dyslexia in higher education: a systematic review using narrative synthesis. Dyslexia (Chichester, England), 20(4), 346–369. https://doi.org/10.1002/dys.1484 , such as policy framework and whole school screening
- Counseling 41 Fahle, M., & Luberichs, J. (1995). Extension of a recent therapy for dyslexia. German journal of ophthalmology, 4(6), 350–354. , art therapy 42 Keeney A. H. (1969). Medical diagnostics and conseling in dyslexia. The Medical clinics of North America, 53(5), 1123–1129. , and intensive training programs 43 Oakland, T., Black, J. L., Stanford, G., Nussbaum, N. L., & Balise, R. R. (1998). An evaluation of the dyslexia training program: a multisensory method for promoting reading in students with reading disabilities. Journal of learning disabilities, 31(2), 140–147. https://doi.org/10.1177/002221949803100204 with “dyslexia therapists”
Recent research 44 Toffalini, E., Giofrè, D., Pastore, M., Carretti, B., Fraccadori, F., & Szűcs, D. (2021). Dyslexia treatment studies: A systematic review and suggestions on testing treatment efficacy with small effects and small samples. Behavior research methods, 53(5), 1954–1972. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-021-01549-x has tried to incorporate medication use in dyslexia treatment for severe cases. For instance, they have tried to treat dyslexic people with drug treatment for ADHD 45 Artigas-Pallarés J. (2009). Tratamiento farmacológico de la dislexia [Pharmacological treatment of dyslexia]. Revista de neurologia, 48(11), 585–591. and movement disorders 46 Wilsher, C., Atkins, G., & Manfield, P. (1979). Piracetam as an aid to learning in dyslexia. Preliminary report. Psychopharmacology, 65(1), 107–109. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00491989 . But, these experimental treatments have not yielded successful results 47 Wilsher, C. R., Bennett, D., Chase, C. H., Conners, C. K., DiIanni, M., Feagans, L., Hanvik, L. J., Helfgott, E., Koplewicz, H., & Overby, P. (1987). Piracetam and dyslexia: effects on reading tests. Journal of clinical psychopharmacology, 7(4), 230–237. .
How Can You Help Someone With Dyslexia?
Dyslexia is a life-long neurodevelopmental condition, accompanied by learning difficulties, speech disorder, and other cognitive disorders. Dyslexia treatment is also a complex, lengthy, and expensive process—because of which people associated with dyslexic children and adults should educate themselves about the disorder, its causes, and its treatment.
To help someone with dyslexia, consider the following suggestions:
- Look out for the signs and symptoms of dyslexia
- Help the person get screened for dyslexia with diagnostic tests
- Research the available education programs and support groups for dyslexia in your locality and enroll them in such programs
- Encourage them to read more, limit their screen time, and their socialization efforts
- Communicate with them openly and supportively
- Check on their progress and encourage them in their day-to-day learning activities
- Support them in their attempts to overcome learning difficulties with patience, kindness, love, and empathy
Takeaway
Dyslexia is a complex neurodevelopmental disorder that makes it difficult for individuals to read, write, and learn. It also impacts their social, economic, and professional outcomes in life. Living with dyslexia can be difficult, but if it is diagnosed early on and supported with the right education programs—individuals with dyslexia can lead a healthy and normal life.
Dyslexia At A Glance
- Dyslexia is a complex neurodevelopmental condition that causes learning disorders.
- It is caused by a number of genetic, biological, and environmental factors.
- The symptoms of dyslexia are poor reading and learning abilities, slow speech, attention problems, etc.
- Dyslexic people are often prone to low self-esteem, depressive and anxiety disorders, and social anxiety.
- Dyslexia is a life-long condition that cannot be cured.
- It can be easily managed by special learning and support programs.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
1. Who are some famous people with dyslexia?
Steve Jobs, Tom Cruise, Hans Christian Anderson, Thomas Alva Edison, Albert Einstein, Stephen Hawking, Leonardo da Vinci, Pablo Picasso, Abraham Lincoln, Salma Hayek, and Keira Knightley are some of the most famous people with dyslexia.
2. Is dyslexia a mental illness?
Dyslexia is a neurological disorder that causes common learning problems. It is currently not considered as a mental illness, though 30 years ago, it was treated by psychiatric processes.
3. Are Dyslexics highly intelligent?
Most people with dyslexia are average or above-average intelligent. They are also very innovative thinkers and capable problem solvers.
4. Can dyslexia be cured?
Dyslexia is a life-long problem and there is no cure for the underlying brain and neurological abnormalities that cause it. However, with the right teaching programs and methods and other forms of treatment, it can be easily managed.