Dyslexia

The British medical literature has the first description of a specific reading disability in 1896. A "bright and intelligent boy" who had great difficulty learning to read. This intrigued the educators and subsequently more similar cases were recorded and dyslexic disorders were officially recognized as a learning disorder. There are many definitions of Dyslexia, however it is traditionally defined as "an unexpected difficulty learning to read despite intelligence, motivation, and educational opportunities".

We are now aware that dyslexia is a disorder that affects millions of people all around the world. In-fact it is said that 5 -15% of the world population i.e approx. one billion people, maybe diagnosed to be suffering from various degrees of dyslexia.

The world Dyslexia -'Dys' Means "difficulty" and 'lexia' means "Words" essentially gives one the definition of what dyslexia is in a nut shell - " A person with difficulty in words".

This disorder is one type of specific learning disability. It commonly affects the person to have difficulty in verbal skills, abstract reasoning, hand-eye coordination, concentration, perception, memory and social adjustment. These problems result in the individual having poor grades and become classified as an under achiever.

The domino affect has started. Due to this the dyslexic child is often labeled as lazy, low intellect and unmotivated. Eventually this affects the child's personality resulting in a low self-esteem. The Child often takes on the role of becoming the class clown, being rebellious, feeling like a misfit and keeping to themselves, difficult, refusing to attend school.

Some of the common symptoms of a dyslexic are the following:

Difficulty in comprehending

Difficulty in expression, written or oral

Understanding letters phonetically or otherwise

Difficulty in reading

Inability to memorize (Sequential Problem)

Difficulty in spelling and reading - (specially with english Phonetic as it's a mixture of different languages

Difficulty in doing simple mathematical problems

Difficulty in attending to class instructions, and gets distracted too much (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder- ADD/ADHD)

Learning any new language

Some children may initially have fewer problems in learning a language in school, but their problem may be aggravated as they learn more intricate parts of a language like grammar, or understanding of textual matter.