Dyslexia

Dyslexia is a common learning difficulty that mainly causes problems with reading, writing, and spelling. It's a specific learning difficulty, which means it causes problems with certain abilities used for learning, such as reading and writing. Unlike a learning disability, intelligence isn't affected.

A key sign of dyslexia is trouble decoding words - the ability to match letters to sounds. Kids can also struggle with phonemic awareness, which is the ability to recognize sounds in words. Trouble with phonemic awareness can show up as early as preschool. Some signs of dyslexia relate to emotions and behavior. People with dyslexia might avoid reading, both out loud and to themselves. They may even get anxious or frustrated when reading, even after mastering basic reading skills.

Dyslexia is treated using specific educational approaches and techniques, and the sooner the intervention begins, the better. Psychological testing will help your child's teachers develop a suitable teaching program. Treatment focuses on helping your child learn to recognize and use the smallest sounds that make up words (phonemes), understand that letters and strings of letters represent these sounds and words (phonics), comprehend what they are reading, read aloud to build reading accuracy, speed and expression (fluency), and build a vocabulary of recognized and understood words.

The only way to know for sure if someone has dyslexia is through a full evaluation, done either at school or privately. Having a diagnosis can lead to supports and services at school, and accommodations at college and work. School psychologists, clinical psychologists, and neuropsychologists can assess people for dyslexia. School evaluations are free, but private ones can be expensive. In some cases, there are ways to get them for free or at low cost through local university psychology programs.

People with dyslexia find it difficult to recognize the different sounds that make up words and relate these to letters. Dyslexia isn't related to a person's general level of intelligence. Children and adults of all intellectual abilities can be affected by dyslexia. The exact cause of dyslexia is unknown, but it often appears to run in families. It's thought certain genes inherited from parents may act together in a way that affects how some parts of the brain develop during early life.

Children who have dyslexia are at increased risk of having attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and vice versa. ADHD can cause difficulty sustaining attention as well as hyperactivity and impulsive behavior, which can make dyslexia harder to treat. When dyslexia goes undiagnosed and untreated, childhood reading difficulties continue into adulthood.