Dyslexia is a specific reading disability due to a defect in the brain's processing of graphic symbols.

It is a learning disability that alters the way the brain processes written material and is typically characterized by
difficulties in word recognition, spelling and decoding. People with dyslexia have problems with reading
comprehension.

The National Center for Learning Disabilities1 says that dyslexia is a neurological and
often genetic condition, and not the result of poor teaching, instruction or upbringing.
Dyslexia is not linked to intelligence.

The problem in dyslexia is a linguistic one, not a visual one. Dyslexia in no way stems from any lack of
intelligence. People with severe dyslexia can be brilliant.

The effects of dyslexia, in fact, vary from person to person. The only shared trait among people with dyslexia is
that they read at levels significantly lower than typical for people of their age. Dyslexia is different from
delayed reading development, which may reflect mental disability or cultural deprivation.

How common is dyslexia?

According to the University of Michigan Health System, dyslexia is the most common learning disability.2
Eighty percent of students with learning disabilities have dyslexia.

The International Dyslexia Association3 estimates that 15% to 20% of the American population have some of
the symptoms of dyslexia, including slow or inaccurate reading, poor spelling, poor writing, or mixing up
similar words.

The British National Health Service,4 estimates that 4-8% of all schoolchildren in England have some degree of
dyslexia.

It is estimated that boys are one-and-a-half to three times more likely to develop dyslexia than girls.

The Dyslexia Association5 in Australia states: "A dyslexic individual can be successful because of their abilities
not in spite of. A dyslexic may struggle to succeed because of their negative experiences in the learning
environment not because of dyslexia."

Dyslexia affects people of all ethnic backgrounds, although a person's native language can play an important
role. A language where there is a clear connection between how a word is written and how it sounds, and
consistent rules grammatical rules, such as in Italian and Spanish, can be more straightforward for a person with
mild to moderate dyslexia to cope with.

However, languages such as English, where there is often no clear connection between the written form and
sound, as in words such as "cough" and "dough," can be more challenging for a person with dyslexia.

37 Common Traits
Most dyslexics will exhibit about 10 of the following traits and behaviors. These characteristics can vary from
day-to-day or minute-to-minute. The most consistent thing about dyslexics is their inconsistency.

General

Dyslexic children and adults can become avid and enthusiastic readers when given learning tools that fit their
creative learning style.

 Appears bright, highly intelligent, and articulate but unable to read, write, or spell at grade level.
 Labelled lazy, dumb, careless, immature, “not trying hard enough,” or “behavior problem.”
 Isn’t “behind enough” or “bad enough” to be helped in the school setting.
 High in IQ, yet may not test well academically; tests well orally, but not written.
 Feels dumb; has poor self-esteem; hides or covers up weaknesses with ingenious compensatory strategies; easily
frustrated and emotional about school reading or testing.
 Talented in art, drama, music, sports, mechanics, story-telling, sales, business, designing, building, or engineering.
 Seems to “Zone out” or daydream often; gets lost easily or loses track of time.
 Difficulty sustaining attention; seems “hyper” or “daydreamer.”
 Learns best through hands-on experience, demonstrations, experimentation, observation, and visual aids.

Vision, Reading, and Spelling

 Complains of dizziness, headaches or stomach aches while reading.

 Confused by letters, numbers, words, sequences, or verbal explanations.
 Reading or writing shows repetitions, additions, transpositions, omissions, substitutions, and reversals in letters,
numbers and/or words.
 Complains of feeling or seeing non-existent movement while reading, writing, or copying.
 Seems to have difficulty with vision, yet eye exams don’t reveal a problem.
 Extremely keen sighted and observant, or lacks depth perception and peripheral vision.
 Reads and rereads with little comprehension.
 Spells phonetically and inconsistently.

Hearing and Speech

 Has extended hearing; hears things not said or apparent to others; easily distracted by sounds.
 Difficulty putting thoughts into words; speaks in halting phrases; leaves sentences incomplete; stutters under stress;
mispronounces long words, or transposes phrases, words, and syllables when speaking.

Writing and Motor Skills

 Trouble with writing or copying; pencil grip is unusual; handwriting varies or is illegible.
 Clumsy, uncoordinated, poor at ball or team sports; difficulties with fine and/or gross motor skills and tasks; prone to
motion-sickness.
 Can be ambidextrous, and often confuses left/right, over/under.

Math and Time Management

 Has difficulty telling time, managing time, learning sequenced information or tasks, or being on time.
  Computing math shows dependence on finger counting and other tricks; knows answers, but can’t do it on paper.
 Can count, but has difficulty counting objects and dealing with money.
 Can do arithmetic, but fails word problems; cannot grasp algebra or higher math.

Memory and Cognition

 Excellent long-term memory for experiences, locations, and faces.

 Poor memory for sequences, facts and information that has not been experienced.
 Thinks primarily with images and feeling, not sounds or words (little internal dialogue).

Behavior, Health, Development and Personality

 Extremely disorderly or compulsively orderly.

 Can be class clown, trouble-maker, or too quiet.
 Had unusually early or late developmental stages (talking, crawling, walking, tying shoes).
 Prone to ear infections; sensitive to foods, additives, and chemical products.
 Can be an extra deep or light sleeper; bedwetting beyond appropriate age.
 Unusually high or low tolerance for pain.
 Strong sense of justice; emotionally sensitive; strives for perfection.
 Mistakes and symptoms increase dramatically with confusion, time pressure, emotional stress, or poor health.

Warning Signs in Preschool or Kindergarten

 Has trouble recognizing the letters of the alphabet

 Struggles to match letters to sounds, such as not knowing what sounds b or h make
 Has difficulty blending sounds into words, such as connecting C-H-A-T to the word chat
 Struggles to pronounce words correctly, such as saying “mawn lower” instead of “lawn mower”
 Has difficulty learning new words
 Has a smaller vocabulary than other kids the same age
 Has trouble learning to count or say the days of the week and other common word sequences
 Has trouble rhyming

Warning Signs in Grade School or Middle School

 Struggles with reading and spelling

 Confuses the order of letters, such as writing “left” instead of “felt”
 Has trouble remembering facts and numbers
 Has difficulty gripping a pencil
 Has difficulty using proper grammar
 Has trouble learning new skills and relies heavily on memorization
 Gets tripped up by word problems in math
 Has a tough time sounding out unfamiliar words
 Has trouble following a sequence of directions

Warning Signs in High School

  Struggles with reading out loud
 Doesn’t read at the expected grade level
 Has trouble understanding jokes or idioms
 Has difficulty organizing and managing time
 Struggles to summarize a story
 Has difficulty learning a foreign language

Genetic causes of dyslexia

Genetic defect linked to reading problems - a team at the Yale School of Medicine found that defects in a gene,
known as DCDC2, were associated with problems in reading performance. They also reported that this
defective gene appears to interact with KIAA0319, a second dyslexia gene.

Dutch scientists reported in the journal Dyslexia7 that dyslexia is a "highly heritable learning disorder" that has
a complex genetic architecture. Over the past ten years, they added, scientists have identified several candidate
genes that may contribute to dyslexia susceptibility.

Acquired dyslexia

A small minority of people with dyslexia acquired the condition after they were born. The most common causes
of acquired dyslexia are brain injuries, stroke or some other type of trauma.

Phonological processing

According to the National Health Service,8 people with dyslexia find reading and writing difficult because of
"phonological processing impairment."

Humans have the ability to understand spoken language, it is something the brain acquires easily and naturally
from a very early age. That is why during very early childhood (3 years) we can utter and understand relatively
complicated sentences.

This natural ability to acquire language, which most linguists call the LAD (language acquisition device),
explains the reason why, when we listen to verbal communication, we do not consciously register that words are
made up of phonemes, we only hear the word itself. Phonemes are the smallest units of sound that words are
made of.

For example, when we hear the word "Kangaroo," we hear it as a whole, seamless utterance. We do not need to
break it down into the phonemes - "kan" "ga" "roo," then put them together again in order to make sense of it.

This is the case only when we learn to utter and hear speech, not when we are learning to read and write. When
we learn how to read or write, we need to be able to initially recognize the letters that make up a word and then
use them to identify the phonemes, and put them together to make sense of the word - this is called
phonological processing.
Experts say that people with dyslexia have problems with phonological processing.

http://www.dyslexia.com/about-dyslexia/signs-of-dyslexia/test-for-dyslexia-37-
signs/
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/186787.php