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.

See Also: Brain Techniques To Help You Learn Better

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.