The LIGHT Center, T-90, College of the Redwoods (476-4290) - February 22, 2000

Dyslexia is a term that has received a huge amount of attention over the past couple of decades. If you talk to anyone on the street, everyone has a definition of what it is. Unfortunately, dyslexia is more complex than what is assumed at first blush. If one were to simply analyze the word he/she would find that "dys" refers to difficulty, while "lexia" refers to the lexicon. Therefore, dyslexia itself means "difficulty with the words of the lexicon."

In the 1970’s, most definitions of dyslexia involved reference to a "discrepancy" between an individual’s performance and their ability. Such a definition usually referred to writing skills, including spelling and written expression. These sorts of definitions resulted in the general public believing that any difficulty with writing was "dyslexia". More recently, definitions of dyslexia focus more on the underlying cognitive processes which are involved. A great deal more attention has been paid to short term memory and its role in the difficulty with written work. Also implicated in more recent definitions of dyslexia are left-right confusion, late achievement of developmental milestones, and familial factors.

Today, the term dyslexia refers to a subtype of a more general category of learning disability just as dyscalculia is a subtype. For ease of discussion, dyslexia can be further subgrouped into three types:

This is characterized by difficulty with naming, reading and verbal comprehension, and often, problems with the ability to use phonics for spelling and word attack. Vision and motor skills are normal. The question that this begs is: "Why these people find math difficult?" Math, like language, requires the linking of words and symbols.

Poor visual perceptual skills, including directionality, visual memory, and orientation in space are problems common with this type of dyslexia. Language skills are often unaffected. Reading maps and charts can be a challenge. This is the dyslexia that is referred to when one speaks about dyslexia being "seeing words backwards".

People with this type of dyslexia tend to have poor gross and fine motor skills. They often had speech problems as children, and were slow to develop pencil and paper skills. These individuals tend to avoid writing tasks.

Diagnosis in adulthood requires an in-depth assessment of one’s educational history, academic skills, and ability skills. It should only be done by someone qualified to do psychoeducational testing.

Comments? Questions? mailto:trish-blair@redwoods.edu

• Difficulty with naming tasks, especially when timed or under pressure;

• Difficulty with mental arithmetic;

• Difficulty learning sequences, such as the months of the year, multiplication tables;

• Difficulty with learning material which is presented in one format only, either auditory or visual;

• Poor spelling;

• Weakness with memory span tasks such as recalling a phone number just presented to them, or recalling a series of directions;

• As children, individuals with dyslexia have difficulty with detecting rhyme patterns. Later on, they tend to be superior to someone with no dyslexic tendencies at rhyme;

• Difficulty with paired-associate learning, that is associating a label with an object, especially when it involves verbalizing the label;

• Tend to be late in learning how to read, and as adults, lack reading enjoyment.

Current research suggests that many of these characteristics are directly related to a specific memory deficit.

Do not save your loving speeches
For your friends till they are dead;
Do not write them on their tombstones,
Speak them rather now instead.
Anna Cummins