Dyslexia at a Glance
- Dyslexia is the name for specific learning disabilities in reading.
- Dyslexia is often characterized by difficulties with accurate word recognition, decoding and spelling.
- Dyslexia may cause problems with reading comprehension and slow down vocabulary growth.
- Dyslexia may result in poor reading fluency and reading out loud.
- Dyslexia is neurological and often genetic.
- Dyslexia is not the result of poor instruction.
- With the proper support, almost all people with dyslexia can become good readers and writers.
As with other learning disabilities, dyslexia is a lifelong challenge that people are born with. This language processing disorder can hinder reading, writing, spelling and sometimes even speaking. Dyslexia is not a sign of poor intelligence or laziness. It is also not the result of impaired vision. Children and adults with dyslexia simply have a neurological disorder that causes their brains to process and interpret information differently.
Dyslexia occurs among people of all economic and ethnic backgrounds. Often more than one member of a family has dyslexia. According to the National Institute of Child and Human Development, as many as 15 percent of Americans have major troubles with reading.
Much of what happens in a classroom is based on reading and writing. So it’s important to identify dyslexia as early as possible. Using alternate learning methods, people with dyslexia can achieve success.