Dyslexia

Dyslexia is a specific learning disability that is neurologic in origin. It is characterised by difficulty learning to read despite normal intelligence and exposure to reading instruction.

Helping Parents to Understand Dyslexia

Dyslexia is a specific learning difficulty (SpLD) meaning that it is confined to a particular area of skill. This separates it from a general learning difficulty, where the person has difficulty with learning in general.

There is a lot of research ongoing in the area of dyslexia and this has helped to highlight the areas that seem to contribute to it. Dyslexia is thought to be multifactorial in nature – that is, there are a number of factors that are thought to contribute to it, rather than one cause.

The main contributory factors fall under the following headings:

Physical Make-up.

• Genes: Research shows us that there is a strong possibility of a child having dyslexia where a parent also has dyslexia. The possibility is thought to be between 25-65%. Where one child in the family has been diagnosed with dyslexia, there is also a strong possibility that their sibling will also have difficulties (40%)

• Gender: It seems that boys are more affected than girls. This may be genetic. However, it might also be related to the fact that boys tend to be more active and so their behaviour is noticed more – they stand out more in the busy classroom. There are also different expectations from boys and girls from very early on, which may make a difference.

• ‘Wiring’ of the brain: The brain is divided into a right hemisphere and a left hemisphere, which are linked by special nerve connections. Research has found that people with dyslexia have a different pattern of grey matter in their right and left hemispheres to people who do not have dyslexia. This suggests that the areas of the brain that are most efficient for reading (in the left hemisphere) are different in structure for people with dyslexia. It has also been suggested that while this makes reading and reading related activities harder, people with dyslexia have strengths because of these brain differences, particularly with creativity, being able to think critically and visual-spatial tasks.

• Metabolising Highly Unsaturated Fatty Acids – Omega 3’s: This is a relatively new area of research. These fatty acids make up 20% of the brain’s weight and are important for many brain functions. If they are not being processed by a child correctly, or if there is a lack of them in a child’s diet, it can affect the functioning of the brain required for tasks including reading. A child with difficulties in this area may show some other signs such as eczema and asthma.

• Underlying Speech and Language (Cognitive) Skills: Difficulties with ‘phonological awareness’:   ‘Phonological awareness’ is the name used to describe a child’s ability to recognise, identify and manipulate sounds and syllables (the building blocks) of words. A child who has difficulty in this area will find it hard to judge if two words rhyme or not; they will find it hard to think of words that rhyme, to clap out the parts or syllables in words and pick out the first or last sounds in words.

• Vocabulary: Children who do not have a well-developed vocabulary are not able to pick up words to give them a clue about the sentence they are reading – in other words, it is harder for children to read words that they have not heard before.

• Grammer: Similarly, if a child’s grammatical skills have not developed fully, it is harder for them to read a sentence as they cannot use their grammatical knowledge to help them make sense of the sentence.

Given that the brain of a child with dyslexia has a different structure, particularly in the area that handles language-based information, all of these areas can be affected and provide a sign post for identifying children, and helping, early on.

Environment

• Timing and type of education: when children are exposed early on to activities that encourage the areas outlined above, it helps them to capitalise on their strengths and compensate for their weaknesses. Children’s brains have lots of plasticity – new areas can take over where original areas are less suitable, structurally. It is also important that the approach to teaching reading targets phonological awareness and not just matching sound to letter.

• Level of support: Helping children early can make a big difference – showing them books, making up silly rhymes together, using hands and toy musical instruments to beat out the rhythm (the syllables) in words can really help a child’s developing brain to produce new connections.

Emotional/personality

• Motivation, Previous Experiences with Reading: When any of us finding sometihng difficult, it will not hold our attention for long! When a child has dyslexia, they need to work hard to make sense of the sounds. Therefore having reading material and activities that are fun and multisensory can help keep a child’s motivation levels up. Books with flaps to lift up, books that make sounds, making a game out of rhyming, using music to clap out syllables – there are lots of ways to help children want to read with you.

Dyslexia does not only affect reading…

Children are likely to have difficulties with the following and so it is important that these areas do not go unnoticed when the main focus might be on reading:

• Spelling (it is hard to match the sound to the letter)
• Maths work (lots of maths problems involve language and reading)
• Short-term memory (things forgotten quickly)
• Recalling words (knowing a word but not being able to remember it)
• Sequencing (being able to talk about what comes first…next…then…last)
• General organisation of every day life (having everything in the schoolbag, putting gym gear out for washing, taking uneaten food out of lunchbox…)

Children with dyslexia are also more at risk for feeling anxiety and they often have low-self-esteem about their own abilities. In addition to helping the academic side of things, it is important to help a child understand about dyslexia, that it is not related to how intelligent they are, and that they also have specific talents.