What is Dyslexia?

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Dyslexia is a language based learning disability that is neurobiological in origin. It is characterized by difficulties with accurate and fluent word recognition and by poor spelling and decoding abilities.

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• Involves difficulty in learning to read or interpret words, letters, and other symbols, but does not affect general intelligence.

 

• Has to do with the way people process information and how that affects their ability to learn

 

• Can mean that in order to best learn, dyslexic students need more help in sorting, recognizing, and organizing the raw materials of language for thinking and use

 

• Can involve inaccurate or halting word reading and spelling, despite otherwise competent oral (spoken) language

 

• Those impacted can typically comprehend a grade level text that is read to them even though they cannot read it themselves

 

• Is not simply letter reversals

 

• Affects one out of every five children, impacting ten million students in America 

 

• Crosses racial, ethnic and socioeconomic lines

 

• Is identifiable with accuracy at the age of 5, symptoms can be identified as early as 3.5 years of age. (Boston Children Hospital) 

 

• “Research has shown that the brains of children and adults diagnosed with dyslexia are organized differently than those of other people the same age, and have also provided evidence that susceptibility to dyslexia may run in families.” (Boston Children’s Hospital)