Dyslexia
- Mrs Diana J Sayers, Speech and Language Therapist
Dyslexia is a learning difference that can cause problems with reading, writing, and spelling. It can also impact your ability to organise, retain and process information. It’s a common, life-long condition that affects both adults and children. Dyslexia can impact your daily life and development. But getting support can help you improve your reading and writing skills and manage any difficulties you have.
About dyslexia
People are often diagnosed with dyslexia as children when they start school. While dyslexia primarily affects reading and writing skills, it also affects how you or your child process information. You may find it hard to identify speech sounds and learn how they relate to letters and words. And you might find it hard to remember information you see and hear, which will also affect your learning to read and write, as well as spelling and maths.
Dyslexia (developmental dyslexia) is what’s called a learning difficulty. This is different to a learning disability and has nothing to do with intelligence. It doesn’t affect your ability to understand and learn new information. But the problems dyslexia can cause may affect learning everyday life skills in education and employment.
While dyslexia does cause challenges in life, there are strengths from having dyslexia too. People with dyslexia are often better at reasoning, and in visual and creative fields, for example.
Conditions associated with dyslexia
Many people with dyslexia also have other health conditions and difficulties. These may include:
- dyspraxia (a common disorder that affects movement and coordination)
- ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder)
- anxiety
Dyslexia can lead to developing mental health conditions and low self-confidence and esteem. This is because you might notice your friends can easily do something that you find very difficult.
Causes of dyslexia
No one knows exactly what causes dyslexia. But it runs in families. Researchers think that certain genes you inherit from your parents may act together to affect how some parts of your brain develop in your early life. There are differences in areas of the brain that process language.
The environment you live in is also thought to play a role. For example, reading at home can impact your child’s ability to learn these skills. So, a combination of genetics and other things in your life probably cause dyslexia.
Sometimes, you can get dyslexia after having a stroke or head injury. This is called acquired dyslexia.
Signs of dyslexia
The signs of dyslexia can be very different in different people. And the way dyslexia affects you can change as you get older. Some of the main signs of dyslexia are listed below for children and for adults.
Signs of dyslexia in children
Signs and symptoms of dyslexia in young pre-school children include:
- confusing sounds in longer words, for example, cucumber, or fluttery
- difficulty learning the names of letters
- difficulty learning nursery rhymes
- developing their speech a little later than most
- difficulty remembering names of friends, colours or their nursery school teacher, for example
- pronouncing words incorrectly, for example hopistal instead of hospital
- difficulties following instructions and directions
As well as the above, school-age children may:
- find it difficult to read words and spell, they may speak slowly or write slowly
- have poor concentration
- forget words or information
- have a poorer quality of written work in comparison to oral work
- confuse letters and words
- spell words differently in the same piece of work
- pronounce words incorrectly
- miss out words or add extra words or lose their place when reading
- lose the point of a story being read or written
- have difficulty remembering times tables
- confuse multiplications signs with addition signs in maths
- find it difficult to sequence and organise information such as the alphabet or months of the year
Children may find it difficult to coordinate their movements. They may find it hard to control a pencil and write accurately. There may be clues in their behaviour too. A child with dyslexia may seem ‘dreamy’ and not appear to listen, or they may be disruptive in class.
Because these issues can affect how well children perform at school, they may start to dislike it and try not to go.
Signs of dyslexia in adults
Additional signs of dyslexia in adults (which may also appear in children) include:
- finding it hard to scan text
- feeling sensations of mental overload or switching off
- difficulty telling left from right
- difficulties multitasking
- forgetfulness – conversations or dates, for example
- difficulty organising yourself and poor time management
- finding some tasks really easy but being completely challenged by others
If you’re an adult with dyslexia, it can affect your self-esteem, particularly if you weren’t diagnosed as a child.
Diagnosis of dyslexia
Dyslexia diagnosis in children
If you notice any problems with your child’s development, or their teachers report they’re having difficulties at school, see your GP. Or your school may have a special educational needs coordinator (SENCo) you can talk to.
Your GP or SENCo will ask about your child’s symptoms and medical history and your GP may examine them. Your GP may refer you to a specialist health professional such as an educational psychologist to help assess your child.
Whoever you see, they’ll ask various questions to make a diagnosis. Your child may need to have other tests to rule out any problems with their hearing or sight.
Dyslexia is diagnosed using a diagnostic assessment by a certified dyslexia assessor. They’ll write a report that describes areas of strengths and needs, and how best to support them. This includes any help with the school curriculum and exams.
Dyslexia diagnosis in adults
If you’re an adult concerned about your symptoms, see your GP. There are also online screening tests for adults that can help you see if you may be dyslexic. But to get a formal diagnosis, you’ll need to have a diagnostic assessment.
Support for dyslexia
There isn’t a cure for dyslexia – it’s something that you have for life but it may improve over time. There are ways to manage the challenges that come with dyslexia. People with dyslexia have their individual strengths, difficulties and needs – just like anyone else. What works best for you or your child will depend on how you’re affected by dyslexia.
It’s important to get a dyslexia diagnosis early so you can get the right support for your needs. The earlier you or your child is diagnosed, the more effective the support is likely to be.
Dyslexia is a recognised disability under the Equality Act 2010 so you’re entitled to the support you need.
Support for children
Once your child has a dyslexia diagnosis, you can start to get some extra help to meet your child’s specific needs. Both your GP and school can help you to access this help.
Help may include the following.
- Support at school. Children with dyslexia require specialist teaching and many mainstream schools can provide this. This may involve using multi-sensory teaching methods – for example, using visual, auditory (sound), movement and tactile (touch) components. Children with dyslexia learn better when they can use as many different senses as possible. For example, writing a letter in the air at the same time as saying the letter name and its sound.
- Technology support. Children with dyslexia often find it easier to work on a computer rather than write in a book. And they also have the added help of a spell checker. There are software programs available to support children in their education.
- Extra considerations. Teachers can make some adjustments to help children at school and college. For example, providing handouts summarising the key learning points in a lesson rather than asking children to copy text from a screen or take notes. They should repeat instructions or information and check that this has been understood. They can allow extra time for a person to respond because if you have dyslexia, you’ll process information more slowly.
- Exam support. Children can be given extra time to complete an exam or be given a scribe, a reader, assistive software or modified exam papers.
You may find it helps to connect with local or national organisations that specialise in dyslexia. These organisations may offer practical help and advice about how to manage dyslexia while in education. And they offer diagnostic assessment support.
Support for adults
As an adult with dyslexia, you may be offered all the above if you’re in education, or adjustments at work if you’re employed. Your employer may offer a workplace assessment to give you extra support. You’re protected by UK law if you have dyslexia, and your employer has to consider making reasonable adjustments for you to do your job.
For example, they may:
- change the way they communicate with you, by giving you verbal instructions, rather than written ones
- give you access to assistance technology such as digital recorders or speech-to-text software
- give you extra time to do any jobs you find challenging
- remind you about important deadlines, and review your priorities with you regularly
- allow you plenty of breaks
You may need to give your company some information (PDF, 1.0MB) to help them understand your needs and how they can help you. The Access to Work at JobCentrePlus can also provide an assessment and support, and they can work with your employers.
Living with dyslexia
Having dyslexia can make home, school and work life difficult. But if you put strategies in place, these can help you or your child to deal with these challenges and live a fulfilling life.
Children
For children with dyslexia, help both at school and at home is important. Here are some ideas to help support your child.
- Try to help your child with reading by backing up what they’re learning at school. Go over some spelling rules – for example, a ‘u’ always comes after a ‘q’. You could also get some fridge magnet letters to build words together, then mix them up and rebuild the word together.
- Sit with your child while they practise spelling and their handwriting. Keep sessions short and fun. And make sure your child knows and practises how to hold a pencil or pen properly.
- If your child struggles with homework, help them create a routine that breaks it down into smaller steps rather than completing it in one long session. Help them to colour-code subjects, and put different subjects in different folders.
- Engage their senses by writing words using paint, coloured pens or play dough.
- Encourage your child to do lots of non-academic activities and celebrate their achievements.
With the right early support, your child may close the reading gap between them and their classmates. Make sure you praise and support your child and celebrate successes.
Adults
If you’re an adult with dyslexia, you may find some tasks in life a little more challenging than others. For example, while you can definitely do it, it may take longer to learn to drive. When you do your theory test as part of your driving test, you can ask the driving centre to make some adjustments for you. For example, you can ask for a designated reader to read exactly what’s on the computer screen, and ask for longer to complete the test.
Dyslexia may bring challenges in your personal relationships too. It can affect your communication style for example. For example, if a partner tells you a list of instructions or questions all at once, it will be a challenge for you remember everything. Explain to your partner that you need them to ask one question at a time, and break instructions or directions down into smaller steps. Keep talking and if you need any extra support, you might find couples therapy helpful.
The signs of dyslexia can be very different in different people. But some of the main signs include difficulty reading, writing and spelling. It can also affect the memory. Young children may struggle remembering the names of colours or their nursery school teacher, for example. Older children may forget words, and find it difficult to remember times tables.
For more information, see our section on signs of dyslexia.
There’s one main type of dyslexia, a learning difference that can cause problems with reading, writing and spelling. Sometimes you can get dyslexia after having a stroke or head injury despite having been able to read well beforehand. This is called acquired dyslexia.
For more information, see our section About dyslexia.
We don’t yet know exactly what causes dyslexia, though it runs in families. The environment you live in is also thought to play a role. If you regularly read at home, it can help your child to learn these skills. A combination of genetics and other things in your life probably cause dyslexia.
For more information, see our section on causes of dyslexia.
Yes, dyslexia is common – it’s thought to affect between 5 and 17 in every 100 school-aged children, and around 1 in 25 adults. It doesn’t seem to be more common in any particular groups of people. Dyslexia runs in families, so you can inherit from your parents genes that may increase your risk.
Neurodiversity: common questions answered
At least one in five people in the UK are thought to be neurodivergent. This means they may think, behave, and process information differently to ‘neurotypical’ people.
Neurodiversity terms
Being aware of the different neurodiversity terms can help us to better understand ourselves or other people who may be neurodivergent.
Celebrating neurodiversity
Dr Naomi Humber explains what we mean by neurodiversity, the types of neurodiversity – and why it’s something to celebrate.
Other helpful websites
Discover other helpful health information websites.
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- Rachael Mayfield-Blake, Freelance Health Editor
