What is Dyslexia?

Untreated dyslexia is a symptom of a much larger misunderstanding 
​about how to teach reading (see Science of Reading)

Dyslexia Subtypes

Dyslexia is a neurologically based learning difference that presents a range of word recognition weaknesses that causes reading, spelling, and, in some cases, comprehension challenges. Some subtypes of dyslexia are more easily recognized (and more common) than others. Identifying a child's dyslexia subtype makes it easier to match a remediation approach that would meet these challenges.  

Students may have mixed dyslexia subtypes with mild to acute skill weaknesses. Experts differ in their view of how many subtypes there are all together. However, they agree that there are four main areas (see below). Being diagnosed with a dyslexia subtype means that the student's weakness is most pronounced in that particular area.

The Feifer Assessment of Reading (FAR) is an evaluation program that addresses four specific subtypes:

• Dysphonetic  or phonological dyslexia - this is when students struggle to break down (decode) the individual sounds of a word. They will also find it hard to match a sound to a symbol (letter or group of letters). This is the most common dyslexia subtype-but most students have a mix of subtypes and some do not have this subtype at all.
• Dyseidetic or surface dyslexia - this makes the outline of sight words and irregular words a real challenge to memorize. As these words do not sound the way they are spelled, students need to memorize these imprints in an alternative multi-sensory way.
• Reading Comprehension dyslexia - this is when a student seems to read, code and decode perfectly well. However, their comprehension is extremely weak. Their weakness is based in the sensory system in creating an imaged gestalt. They could be great readers! However, they do not picture a story in their minds eye. Non-dyslexic people have images or a movie going (imaged gestalt) when they read or are read to - this can too be addressed very successfully. ​

Early Screening for Risk of Dyslexia
Dr. Nadine Gaab

How Common is Dyslexia?

​
Dyslexia is the most common reading disability affecting up to 1 in 5 people or 20% of the community (Yale et al, 2013).
Dyslexia crosses racial, ethnic and socioeconomic lines, with expert instruction and accommodations every dyslexic student can become a skilled reader, fully participate in their education and successfully achieve their potential.

• 3 out of 4 people on welfare cannot read (National Assessment of Adult Literacy) 
 
• 70-85% of people in prison cannot read (NAAL) 

• 38-40% of people in prison have dyslexia (Moody, 2000)
• 89% of suicide notes left by youths when studied were found to have a disproportionate amount of dyslexia-type spelling mistakes (Learning disabilities and Adolescent Suicide, 1997) 

• 85% of children classified with Learning Disorders (LD) actually have dyslexia (Yale, 2000) 

• 80% of dyslexia is genetically inherited
• Students with learning disabilities including dyslexia have a three times higher risk of attempting suicide (Journal of Learning Disabilities, 2006) 


Find out about early screening tools. Avoid unnecessary impacts from untreated dyslexia.

Dr. Gaad's Lab

What are the Pitfalls?

Most schools do not recognize dyslexia or do not identify dyslexia - furthermore, many schools do not offer any daily phonemic awareness sessions (as advised by scientific evidence on reading). As a result children with dyslexia suffer emotional distress and loss of self esteem due to lack of services and diagnosis at public schools. They often start to exhibit behavioral problems due to the anxiety and the stress of not being able to participate fully in their education- they feel like out-casts. They may then become erroneously diagnosed with ADHD, ADD or behavioral issues and medicated. Please note, medication will not help a dyslexic child learn the skills needed to read and successfully participate in their education.

A child who has difficulty learning to read needs to be properly evaluated by an educational psychologist for dyslexia. Treatment for dyslexia is direct, explicit, sequential and multi-sensory structured literacy that specifically targets the students dyslexia subtype/s.  

Letter Reversal

When children learn to read, sometimes they reverse letters that look similar, like "b" and "d." That's because our visual system has a property to make sure that when we see a mirror image of an object we still know it's the same object. When I see a chair that's oriented one way and I see it again when it's oriented slightly differently, I don't go, "What's that object?" I know it's the same object. Our visual system has to be flexible otherwise we're going to have infinite numbers of objects to recognize. So, a kindergartener will think "b" and "d" are the same letter. We have to teach them that they're not the same objects. And the child has to override that particular property of the visual system that was designed to make us good at object recognition. 
When we learn to read we also use the oral language structures of the brain, and we blend that with the object recognition pathway. When children see words for the first time, they go through them very carefully and try to match the sounds to the letters. But once most people have done that a few times the word moves to this visual pathway where it's treated more like an object; you recognize the word by sight. 
Dr. Guinevere Eden, neroscientist.

However, for children (or adults) with certain dyslexia subtypes their visual pathway does not automatically form a connection to the auditory part of the brain to build a phonological memory. Students need to learn the connection between the "object" and "sound" using a multi-sensory approach. MRI scans provide evidence that at least three parts of the brain need to work together, at the same time in order to build a phonological memory.

What is Dyslexia?
Kelli Sandman-Hurley

Dyslexia Explained by Understood

The expert touches on the most common subtype-phonemic awareness - please note this is usually NOT the only issue that needs to be addressed.

John Explains Brilliantly.
​Note how he describes his school's reaction

Video credit: Learning Ally

Steven Spielberg Talks About Dyslexia with ​Friends of Quinn

Sir Richard Branson on Dyslexia

What Causes Dyslexia?

The exact cause of dyslexia are unknown. Anatomical and brain imagery studies show differences in the way the brain of a dyslexic person develops and functions. Dyslexia is not due to either lack of intelligence or desire to learn, it is the teaching approach that is the issue.

Seeing the Bigger Picture

People with dyslexia often see things more holistically. They miss the trees but see the forest.  
“It’s as if people with dyslexia tend to use a wide-angle lens to take in the world, while others tend to use a telephoto, each is best at revealing different kinds of detail.”
Matthew H. Schneps, Harvard University

Dyslexic people excel at global visual processing and the detection of impossible figures. Dyslexic scientist Christopher Tonkin described his unusual sensitivity to “things out of place.” Scientists in his line of work must make sense of enormous quantities of visual data and accurately find black hole anomalies. There are so many dyslexic people in the field of astrophysics that it prompted research at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. Findings confirmed that those with dyslexia are better at identifying and memorizing complex images.
Nessy.com

How is Reading Defined in Education Law?
Here are the Definitions Under No Child left Behind:

1. Legal definition of reading The term 'reading' means a complex system of deriving meaning from print that requires all of the following:
(A) The skills and knowledge to understand how phonemes, or speech sounds, are connected to print.
(B) The ability to decode unfamiliar words.
(C) The ability to read fluently.
(D) Sufficient background information and vocabulary to foster reading comprehension.
(E) The development of appropriate active strategies to construct meaning from print.
(F) The development and maintenance of a motivation to read.
 
2. Legal definition of the essential components of reading instruction
The term 'essential components of reading instruction' means explicit and systematic instruction in-
(A) phonemic awareness;
(B) phonics;
(C) vocabulary development;
(D) reading fluency, including oral reading skills; and
(E) reading comprehension strategies.
 
3. Legal definition of scientifically based reading research
The term 'scientifically based reading research' means research that-
(A) applies rigorous, systematic, and objective procedures to obtain valid knowledge relevant to reading development, reading instruction, and reading difficulties; and
(B) includes research that- 
(i) employs systematic, empirical methods that draw on observation or experiment;
(ii) involves rigorous data analyses that are adequate to test the stated hypotheses and justify the general conclusions drawn;
(iii) relies on measurements or observational methods that provide valid data across evaluators and observers and across multiple measurements and
observations; and
(iv) has been accepted by a peer-reviewed journal or approved by a panel of independent experts through a comparably rigorous, objective, and scientific review.
 
4. Legal definition of a diagnostic reading assessment The term 'diagnostic reading assessment' means an assessment that is-
(i) valid, reliable, and based on scientifically based reading research; and
(ii) used for the purpose of-
(I) identifying a child's specific areas of strengths and weaknesses so that the child has learned to read by the end of grade 3;
(II) determining any difficulties that a child may have in learning to read and the potential cause of such difficulties; and
(III) helping to determine possible reading intervention strategies and related special needs.

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