Understanding Dyslexia

Dyslexia is a disorder that affects an individual’s reading and writing skills. This is because dyslexic people have difficulty recognizing, understanding, and breaking down the different sounds that make up words. This can have a negative impact on their academic performance, as well as their social and emotional well-being.

It is crucial to understand some of the common misconceptions surrounding dyslexia:

Dyslexia is not a disorder of intelligence

• In fact, some dyslexic people have people have above average IQs.

Dyslexia is not a sign laziness

• Often times, people with dyslexia are working harder than everyone else to perform a simple task.

Dyslexia does not occur because of weakened senses

• Dyslexia is not a visual disorder, meaning, it is not caused by poor eyesight.

Some strategies to help dyslexic children:

Teach them how words are formed and structured

• Specifically, teaching them that words are made up of prefixes, suffixes, and root words, and that these components have specific meanings (i.e., prefix “re” means again).

Increase awareness of the structure of words

• This could include having the child sort words together that all have the same prefix (i.e., “un”)

Increase awareness of sounds

• Teaching the child how to change around sounds in words, and that all letters represent various sounds.

Developing vocabulary

• Using word webs to show word relationships and educating them on the concept of antonyms and synonyms.

Spelling

• Explicitly teaching the spelling of syllable patterns and irregular words.

Remember, it is beneficial to identify and treat this disorder as early as possible to enhance outcomes. Some additional information about dyslexia can be found HERE.

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