Specific Learning Disorder – Reading (Dyslexia)

“Everybody is a genius.  But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.” Albert Einstein

Dyslexia is a neurodevelopmental learning disorder and is best understood as a persistent difficulty with reading and spelling. People with dyslexia have difficulty converting letter symbols to their correct sound (decoding) and converting sounds to their correct written symbol (spelling). Research also indicates that poor visual coding (orthographic coding) can also be part of the difficulty.

Signs of dyslexia:

• late talking
• learning new words slowly
• problems forming words correctly, such as reversing sounds in words or confusing words that sound alike
• problems remembering or naming letters, numbers and colours
• difficulty learning nursery rhymes or playing rhyming games
• reading well below expected age level often with poor accuracy and fluency
• problems processing and understanding what is read
• problems remembering the sequence of things and making sequential errors such as arranging “was” to “saw” and “scared to “sacred”
• difficulty seeing (and occasionally hearing) similarities and differences in letters and words
• inability to sound out the pronunciation of an unfamiliar word
• poor spelling
• spending a long time completing tasks that involve reading and writing
• avoiding activities that involve reading
• omitting a letter or syllable in reading (eg. reading ‘selection’ as ‘section’) or reading a letter in its inverted form (eg. reading “u” as “n” or “p” as “q”)
• dyslexia can also have physical symptoms such as clumsiness, difficulty with fine motor skills or issues with organizing tasks

Dyslexia is highly heritable and runs in families. It appears to be linked to genes that affect how the brain processes reading and language. Other possible risk factors include prematurity at birth or low birth weight, and exposure to toxins in utero.

Children who have dyslexia are also at an increased risk of having ADHD and vice versa. As ADHD causes difficulty with sustaining attention as well hyperactivity and impulsive behaviour, it can make dyslexia more difficult to treat.

Although Dyslexia is a lifelong condition, early identification and access to evidenced based instruction that is based on a direct, explicit, structured and systematic language approach has been found to provide significant benefit.

Dyslexia is a recognised disability in Australia and as such those with dyslexia are entitled to the same educational opportunities as their peers. Reasonable adjustments can assist a student with disability to participate in their education on the same basis as their peers.