Living With Dyslexia

An Insight Into Dyslexia 

Usually, dyslexia can be referred as a "specific learning disability" and it has been related to other speech and language, as well as learning disorders. Children suffering from dyslexia usually have an undesirable outcome if it is not detected on time.  

So, Dyslexia Is…

In essence, it is defined as a difficulty in mastering word reading, accuracy, spelling and/or fluency. These are independent of socio-economic status, IQ level, history of head trauma and/or other neurological disorders. Phonemes, which are the sound of the letters or groups of letters, cannot be well appreciated by people with this problem.

This disorder results from a combination of genetic and environmental factors. When the father suffers from dyslexia, there is a 50 percent chance that his male off-springs will develop dyslexia overtime. There are a number of studies that indicate that previous familial history of learning disability and delayed speech and language enhances the chance of developing dyslexia in these families.

Despite the expanded research, a specific gene or genes that are directly related to dyslexia have not been identified yet. 

Surprisingly, these studies also found that dyslexia is highly associated with some other disorders such as autoimmune diseases, attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder and other learning disorders. It is believed that the same genes share the same location in the DNA organization. Yet, these results continue to be controversial within the scientific community and the exact biological mechanisms behind dyslexia remain unknown.

Why Is It So Hard To read? The Reading Process Of A Dyslexic

It is well known that over time, some regions of the brain become specialized and involved in word reading, and are usually located in the dominant hemisphere of the brain, where language resides. In a non-dyslexic child, a hypothetical reading network is developed over time, while children are acquiring the reading skills and abilities related to the reading learning process.

A dyslexic patient has difficulties in understanding spoken language, identified by professionals as a defect in phonological awareness. This is accompanied also by visuospatial attention and perception defects and comes before reading difficulties. 

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These problems are present in about 46 percent of dyslexic patients, although some clinicians argue that dyslexia and visual stress are two independent conditions.

Being A Dyslexic

In a simple context, individuals and, mostly children, usually present delayed language in which phonics, semantic and syntax of reading and writing are affected. This results in individuals which are described as “poor comprehenders”, who display poor reading comprehension, expression and composition, as well as distortion or/and jumbling when reading.

Dyslexics show difficulties when trying to identify the syllable number in a special word, as well as when trying to remember trivial things, such as phone numbers. Usually, they are unable to distinguish a word that rhymes or not, they do not distinguish phonemes with similar phonetics and some of them present left/right confusion and poor or defective spelling.

How To Know If Someone Is Dyslexic 

First, a complete physical and clinical evaluation must be performed by a health professional. Sometimes, a specific underlying genetic disorder can be detected while performing the physical evaluation.

Detailed familial history can reveal susceptibility in a particular individual and his family, allowing an accurate prevention and intervention to be done in unsuspected individuals.

In order to exclude other causes a special assessment known as differential diagnosis can be performed on the patient that is suspected to have dyslexia. This evaluation includes an auditory test and electroencephalograms, which detect anomalies in brain activity that could be related to convulsions, for instance. Due to the genetic and environmental causes, special questionaries for parents and teachers and some specific language tests are also part of the evaluation. 

Often, special designed tests assess skills such as letter recognition and memorizing, as well as lack of skills to form phrases or rhymes. 

Is There A Treatment For Dyslexia?

There are some techniques that have been designed to help dyslexic patients. For example, "repeated reading" is a technique where a selected text is read several times while increasing the speed, and it has shown to improve speed and accuracy but not fluent comprehension. 

An important part of the treatment is to discuss the problem with the patient, making him or her aware of famous people that suffered from dyslexia, like Leonardo da Vinci. This approach has shown positive effects on the self-esteem of the patient.

If dyslexia is accompanied by an attention deficit disorder, a health professional may prescribe pharmacological treatment that can also target the symptoms of dyslexia.

When it comes to treating dyslexia, every case should be assessed accurately and treatment should be personalized, always promoting engagement of parents in the therapy. In terms of research, the main aim that scientists have now is to find major components driving to dyslexia in order to provide a better management and treatment.

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Dyslexia is not a disease, in part because it is not codified in the diagnostic manuals, but also because the reading skill has a continuous distribution across different populations and there is a huge complexity of known and unknown factors involved in the reading comprehension process. Despite this, researchers are enthusiastic and continue working to elucidate the causes of this problem.