The Truth About Dyslexia

When I was younger I always thought that dyslexia was a name for people who wrote their letters backwards. I mean, if a kid was constantly mixing up their letters, they must be dyslexic, right? No. The first thing I am going to tell you, right off the bat, is that dyslexia isn’t “people who write their letters backwards”.

OK, got that out of the way. So what is it? ADHD kids are way more likely to have learning disabilities than neuro-typical people, so understanding what they actually ARE, and not our stereotype of what they are, is important. Dyslexia is a neurological disability and the diagnosis covers a lot of ground. It actually runs in families so take a look around you. When we see someone that has difficulty processing and manipulating sounds, and struggles with accurate or fluent word recognition, that could be dyslexia. When we see kids struggle with reading, writing and spelling even though they have the ability and the opportunity to learn…. Could be dyslexia. Dyslexia has oral, reading, and written components and shows itself in a variety of ways.

Let’s start with how dyslexia presents itself orally. Dyslexic kids may have difficulty pronouncing words, and struggle with vocabulary and grammar. What may stand out is their difficulty following directions and their confusion with before/after or right/left. I can’t tell you how many times my daughter would say, “turn left” while she is pointing to the right. Dyslexic people also struggle with finding the words they need to name things. Their retrieval for simple description words may take quite a while.

Now we can move into how dyslexia affects reading. Kids that have dyslexia have difficulty learning to read because they struggle distinguishing sounds in words, and lack phonic awareness. Learning letter sounds is hard, as is remembering shapes and identifying words. You may notice that these people stumble through long words or misread or omit sight words. If your child never wants to read out loud, I’m going to say that you should figure out why and see if they struggle even reading sight words, because for someone with dyslexia, they need to retrieve that word every time, which takes a while. Interestingly, when you ask kids with dyslexia to quickly name letters, numbers and shapes from a long list, they struggle because they have to stop and retrieve that each and every time.

When it comes to writing, it isn’t just seeing kids putting letters backwards. These kids struggle putting words on paper at all. They may make spelling errors even after doing well with those same words on a spelling test. Proofreading is very difficult for them because they don’t necessarily recognize a word as misspelled. My son could get a 10/10 on a spelling test each week, but never spelled those words correctly in a sentence later on.

Lasly, people with dyslexia have some random processing problems. They struggle with naming things rapidly because it isn’t automated for them. They have a weak memory for lists, directions or facts. They may need to hear things many times and may easily be distracted by visual stimuli. If you see a downward trend in school or notice inconsistent work, start thinking about dyslexia and make sure that your child actually isn’t struggling with more than just motivation. My own child had come up with so many strategies to get around her struggles that it wasn’t until high school that I realized she actually has dyslexia. Online learning certainly brought it to the forefront, since many of her coping strategies were disrupted. Hopefully now you’ll know to look for more than backward letters! Understanding the complexities of dyslexia can help you get the right type of tutoring or help at school.