Dyslexia is a specific learning disability that is neurological in origin. It is characterized by difficulties with accurate and/or fluent word recognition and by poor spelling and decoding abilities. These difficulties typically result from a deficit in the phonological component of language that is often unexpected in relation to other cognitive abilities and the provision of effective classroom instruction. Secondary consequences may include problems in reading comprehension and reduced reading experience that can impede the growth of vocabulary and background knowledge.
Adopted by the Board of Directors: November 12, 2002 (International Dyslexia Association)
The Truth about Dyslexia, as spoken by those who live and deal with it every moment of their life
- I’d rather be known as the kid in trouble than the dumb kid.
- Will I ever get my alphabet crown, since everyone in my private pre-school got one on graduation day but me.
- How come I can take apart a clock and put it back together, but I can’t read?
- Will I have to be held back this year in school?
- I HATE school, everyone thinks I’m dumb.
- Will I ever be able to read a chapter book?
- Guess what, he excitingly says as he comes to tutoring after 6 months and shows me his 100% on his spelling test. It’s the first 100% he’s ever received on any test and he’s in 6th grade.
- If I have an IQ like Albert Einstein who’s really smart, why is his face green? I answer, oh you’re thinking of Frankenstein!!
- I so want to read like everyone else and it’s so hard.
- How come the teacher never gives me enough time to copy from the board?
- Why do I have to be in the lowest reading group, doesn’t my teacher know that we all get that we’re dumb?
- I’m 60 years old, and I need to go back to work and need to re-take the teaching certification test and I need more time to be allowed to take it, can you help me?
- Why didn’t they teach me this spelling rule in school?
- Please, can I just stay at tutoring all day because school is hard?
- My mom just says, “try harder and work harder “ you’ll get it.
- My teacher says, “you’re lazy and not listening or you’d know what your assignment was.
- I always have to stay in from recess and work on the assignments I didn’t get done during class.
- Will I always be able to come to tutoring as long as I’m in school?
- I work 5 times harder than all of the other kids in my class and I get C’s and D’s.
- How come you can help me and my teachers can’t, and they don’t get it?
- Why do I not get it the way the teacher wants me to? (While asking a student to put the words yellow, green, purple, blue, and red into a category, (as I’m thinking colors) he says, “duh, it’s a rainbow”).
- My teacher just has me sit in the back of the classroom and doesn’t care what I do, as long as I don’t bother her or anyone else.
- I’m in trouble at school and I don’t why.. I was listening to the homework assignment, and the teacher said a word I didn’t understand and now I’m in trouble. I say, “So you stopped to try and figure out what the word was and missed your assignment?” He says “yes, and now I’m in BIG trouble from my mom and teacher.”
- My teacher has me copy from the board and I always lose my place and my head hurts because, I have to look up every three letters to write the word.
- How come my teacher always makes me read in front of the class and she knows I can’t read? Doesn’t she know that all of the kids make fun of me?
- Why am I in Resource? They don’t know how to help me in there.
- My dad sat me in the corner for 8 hours practicing writing my b’s and d’s so that I could write them correctly. He’d yell at me and hit me because I couldn’t do it. I never got one right.
- A 10 year old said, “I hate myself and I wish I could die”, I don’t have any friends.
- My friend can read Harry Potter, and I know I won’t ever be able to.
- Why is it so hard to read out loud than silently to myself?
- How come I keep writing my numbers backwards?
- When we’re being timed on reading, I look around and everyone has read it 2 or 3 times and I’m only half way through.
What words look like to some dyslexics while reading:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwZLFTW4OGY
Four different types of dyslexia:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-n95g4YiKiY
What part of the brain is affected by dyslexia:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8S9JqpMT9bs
How adult Dyslexics have learned to compensate: