Words make up our inner thoughts, emotions, and experiences. They play an integral part in your reading, writing, and spelling abilities.
When you experience challenges with reading, writing, or spelling, you may have the learning condition dyslexia.
These challenges usually start before school age but can persist into adulthood.
For those with dyslexia, you may experience difficulty spelling simple words, trouble telling apart letters with similar shapes, and trouble sounding out new words.
Despite these symptoms, there is support available for those with dyslexia.
This support includes a dyslexia coach or therapist.
Coaching or therapy for dyslexia will support you or your child in understanding your linguistic challenges.
You’ll simultaneously discover your strengths and use them to your advantage.
Join us as we explore what dyslexia is, its signs, causes, and possible coping strategies for dyslexia.
What Is Dyslexia?
The word dyslexia is made up of two parts.
‘Dys’ means not or difficult, and ‘lexia’ means words, reading, or language.
Simply put, dyslexia is a learning and reading disorder that involves difficulty reading.
This can also create issues with reading comprehension, math, spelling, or writing as a result.
For this reason, you may have trouble reading, writing, solving math problems, or spelling without making mistakes.
Current estimates suggest that the worldwide prevalence of dyslexia is around 3 to 7%.
These individuals with dyslexia experience challenges with working with language.
These challenges persist due to the inability to identify speech sounds and learn how they relate to letters or words.
Also known as a neurodivergent condition, dyslexia occurs as a result of differences in the brain's language processing areas.
For this reason, those with dyslexia perceive and interact with the world differently and interpret language in unique ways.
Contrary to popular belief, dyslexia is not a reflection of someone’s intelligence, effort, hearing, or vision.
Despite this, people with dyslexia may experience challenges in associating sounds with letters, rhyming, and reading aloud in class.
People don’t outgrow dyslexia.
But the right accommodations, strategies, and support can help dyslexic individuals succeed.
Signs of Dyslexia
Since dyslexia is a neurodivergent condition, the signs of dyslexia will differ from person to person.
But a key sign of dyslexia is trouble decoding words.
Individuals with this challenge have a difficult time matching letters to the sounds they hear.
Despite this being a key sign, some dyslexic individuals can decode words just fine, but they may have trouble understanding what they are reading.
The signs of dyslexia can also look different as an individual ages.
Sometimes these signs are difficult to spot before school age, but there are some early signs to look out for.
Preschool or Before Kindergarten Signs of Dyslexia
One common sign that can show up as early as preschool is trouble with phonemic awareness.
This involves challenges with recognizing the sounds within a word.
Other signs that a child may have dyslexia before school age include:
Picking up on new words slower than what is normal for their age.
First talking at a later age than usual.
Confusing words that sound alike
Difficulty following directions with multiple steps
Trouble forming and pronouncing words
Difficulty remembering or naming letters, numbers, or colours.
Difficulty learning or playing nursery rhythms.
During School Age Signs of Dyslexia
As a child ages and heads into school, the first person that may notice dyslexia in a school aged child is the child’s teacher.
Some common signs of dyslexia in school-aged children include:
Reading far below what is normal for their developmental age
Difficulty processing or understanding words they hear
Trouble formulating the answers to questions
Problems remembering the sequence of words in a sentence
Poor spelling and grammar
Confusing or skipping words when reading out loud.
Difficulties with understanding and spotting the differences and similarities between letters and words.
Trouble recognizing common words or sight words
Trouble with pronouncing a word, even when it is sounded out.
Substituting a word for another wrong word
At this age, dyslexia may also start to show emotional symptoms, which can include anxiety before reading out loud or a reluctance to read.
Teens and Adults Signs of Dyslexia
The signs of dyslexia can persist in one’s teenage and adult years. In some people, these signs aren’t picked up or diagnosed until later in life.
Common signs in teens and adults include:
Difficulty reading or spelling
Leaving out parts of longer words when reading out loud.
Trouble with reading or writing fluency
Trouble remembering common abbreviations
Trouble with grammar
Mispronouncing names or words
Spending an unusually long time on reading and writing tasks
Trouble with summarizing what you have read.
Trouble with jokes or understanding puns
Some people with dyslexia may also get frustrated when they have to read out loud to themselves or others.
The anxiety before reading out loud and reluctance to read symptoms that may be present in childhood may continue into your teenage and adult years.
It’s important to note that dyslexia can vary in severity, so you can display a combination of these signs to varying degrees of severity.
If you resonate with these experiences, seeking out dyslexia support may help you understand your unique situation better.
Causes of Dyslexia
The exact cause of dyslexia has yet to be identified by researchers.
But it is thought that genetics and the environment both play a role.
Studies of twins have shown that up to 70 percent of the chance of dyslexia is due to genetics.
This means that some of the chance for dyslexia is due to environmental and other factors.
Here are some possible causes for dyslexia:
1. Genes
Dyslexia is thought to be linked to certain genes that impact how the brain processes language and reading.
These differences run in families.
This means that if your parent or sibling is dyslexic, you are more likely to be as well.
In fact, there is research that estimates this.
2. Brain differences
The brain structure of those with dyslexia is different than that of those without dyslexia, according to brain imaging.
These brain differences exist in areas of the brain involved in reading.
These areas are involved in knowing how sounds are represented in words.
3. Environmental factors
Certain socioeconomic factors can influence the chance of an individual being dyslexic.
The factors that increase your chances of dyslexia include:
Low socioeconomic status
Stress
Maternal smoking during pregnancy
Maternal infectious diseases
More research is needed to determine what other factors may be at play.
The Types of Dyslexia
Dyslexia can look different based on the type of dyslexia a person is presenting with.
The terms ‘dysphonetic’ and ‘dyseidetic’ are usually used to describe different symptoms of dyslexia.
These symptoms make up the different types of dyslexia.
Let’s take a look at the different types below.
Dysphonesia
Dysphonesia refers to the difficulty a person may experience in processing different speech sounds.
A person with dysphonetic dyslexia will have a difficult time sounding words out and connecting sounds to symbols.
When spelling is considered, phonics is usually a key area that dysphonesia impacts.
Spelling mistakes would indicate challenges with matching sounds with individual letters within a word.
Dyseidesia
On the other hand, an individual with dyseidesia dyslexia will usually have a good grasp with phonics.
They will instead struggle with the recognition and spelling of whole words.
If you have dyseidesia, you may experience difficulty understanding written words, and reading comprehension may be a challenge.
This makes it harder to comprehend spoken language or to form a new vocabulary.
These difficulties can have an impact on your life.
You may struggle to read and understand written documents that are needed for school or work.
Or you may struggle with reading and understanding text messages from a friend, which can make socialization more challenging.
Dyslexia Co-Occurring Conditions and Identities
Dyslexia commonly co-occurs with a variety of other conditions.
This is one of the reasons why dyslexia can manifest differently in different individuals.
Some of the most commonly co-occurring conditions with dyslexia are listed below.
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
ADHD and dyslexia are two different neurological conditions that often co-occur.
In fact, ADHD is the most common co-occurring condition with dyslexia.
The International Dyslexia Association (IDA) estimates that about 30% of dyslexic individuals are also ADHDers.
Moreover, although ADHD does not cause dyslexia, the inattentive, hyperactive, emotional, and impulsive signs of ADHD can exacerbate the learning challenges involved in dyslexia.
Other Conditions and Identities
Individuals with dyslexia are also frequently diagnosed with other medical, neurological, and mental conditions.
These conditions include:
Anxiety
Dyscalculia or a math disability
Dysgraphia or impaired writing by hand
Speech disorders
Language disorders
Though this isn’t a condition, we also thought it might be interesting to note that neurodivergent individuals are also more likely to identify as LGBTQ+ or neuroqueer.
Dyslexia Strategies and Support
Dyslexia does not have a one-size-fits-all approach to support and treatment.
Each individual will benefit from different strategies and support systems.
But a multimodal approach is usually the preferred approach.
This multimodal approach uses multiple different strategies to support you in managing dyslexia and living a fulfilling life.
This could include dyslexia coaching, dyslexia therapy, and lifestyle strategies.
Discover more about each of these approaches below.
Dyslexia Coaching
Dyslexia coaching, like ADHD coaching, is a form of life coaching.
It helps individuals live more productive lives—at school, work, in relationships, at home, or in other areas of life.
The coach will support you in discovering strategies that will help you in being able to manage dyslexia better.
A dyslexia coach will support you in recognizing your unique strengths, managing and accommodating your challenges, building self-awareness and confidence, and developing strategies for success.
Dyslexia Therapy
Dyslexia therapy or neurodivergent-affirming therapy involves therapy that will affirm your neurodivergent identity.
Within this model, a therapist will not try to cure or fix you. They don’t view dyslexia as a disease to be cured.
They recognize that dyslexic individuals navigate the world differently, and it is these differences in brain function that make the world a stronger place.
At the same time, the therapist will work with you to identify your unique challenges and find accommodations that support you with your dyslexia.
Your journey with dyslexia therapy will often start with a free therapy consultation.
This will support you in figuring out which therapy approach may be right for you, which can include dialectical behavioral therapy, internal family systems, somatic therapy, or more.
Dyslexia Strategies
These strategies involve focusing on your strengths and finding ways to accommodate your challenges.
Many individuals with dyslexia view dyslexia from a neurodivergent perspective.
This means that dyslexia is seen as involving brain differences that cause dyslexic individuals to interact with the world differently.
Under this perspective, dyslexia is seen for its strengths and is embraced rather than being considered something to fix.
Some common strengths for those with dyslexia include:
Great Problem-Solving Skills: Dyslexics can think outside the box to figure things out. This usually occurs because dyslexics have to think outside the box to find ways to learn that are fit for their learning style. Due to this, this ability transfers to other areas of life.
Very Observant of Visual Data: Dyslexic individuals may use visual learning aids to help them learn because they often contain less reading. Due to this, they may become very observant of visual data and can spot a mistake in it.
High Level of Empathy: Dyslexic individuals may struggle with reading, so they may have a better ability to look for body cues to help them understand a situation better. This may give them the ability to tune into others emotions. They are often highly empathic.
Strong Memory for Stories: Narrative reasoning is the ability to remember events by creating a narrative in your mind. Dyslexics use narrative reasoning at a high rate. Made By Dyslexia cited that 84% of dyslexics are above average in reasoning.
A Great Conversationalist: Reading words is usually a weakness, but when it comes to speaking, it can be the opposite. Dyslexics usually use their voice often and make great conversationalists as a result. They are very empathic during interactions and able to solve problems you bring to them.
Ability to See the Big Picture: The ability to see the big picture is a strength for dyslexics. Dyslexics typically group information together and notice patterns to allow them to remember information better as a whole and recognize patterns among complex data.
Other common strategies for dyslexic individuals may involve:
Seeing a disability consultant or a tutor: they can support you in learning strategies to accommodate the challenges you face as a result of the world not being built for neurodivergence.
Use visual diagrams: visual diagrams that consist of fewer words and more photos may aid in understanding a large amount of information with less reading required.
Use highlights and annotations: highlights and annotations can help to condense information down into the important details to minimize reading.
Use audiobooks: this can help to cut reading out of the equation and can aid in studying if you are an auditory learner.
Break-up tasks: if there is too much reading on a page, break the text up into lines to condense the reading.
Use dyslexic-friendly fonts: This is a font that takes into account the difficulty experienced by dyslexic individuals when reading or writing. This font is more bold, and has more space between words. Fonts that are dyslexic-friendly include:
Roboto
Open Sans
Ariel
Verdana
Calibri
Book a Free Consultation With Blue Sky Learning
Are you or your child displaying any of the signs of dyslexia? Are you looking for dyslexia coaching or therapy to support?
Book a free 20-minute consultation with one of the Blue Sky Learning team members by emailing hello@blueskylearning.ca or head on over to the Blue Sky Learning website.
Blue Sky Learning team members embody values of compassion, empathy, and person-centered approaches.
Blue Sky Learning provides the opportunity for students, professionals, parental guardians, and educators to connect with them regarding individual concerns and areas of growth.
Blue Sky Learning strives to provide a service where clients feel safe, supported, and intersectionality understood.
Blue Sky Learning aims to reduce stigma and shame cycles, deepen client understanding of internalized ableism, and empower areas of avoidance to increase your value of motivation.
Sources:
Comentários