English is a tricky language and 60% of children find learning to read hard. 30% of adults can only read very simple text and 20% of 11-year-olds cannot pass a basic reading test. That is one in every five children arriving at secondary school unable to read. So, dyslexia is a very common problem, with a devastating impact on the individuals and massive costs for all of us. It is no surprise that 2/3rds of prison inmates are non-readers. But I also know that 90% of dyslexics can learn to read well with the right help. I see it happening every day. To help, you need to know why they are struggling with reading. It’s a bit like being a car mechanic. To fix a car, your first task is to understand the problem it has. So, step one is to diagnose why your child is finding reading hard.
Here are the four main reasons for dyslexia and the symptoms of each:
Visual Learner Auditory Deficit
It is well accepted now that 80% of dyslexics do not use their auditory cortex in the reading process. They see a word, process it in the visual cortex and then analyse it in the pre-frontal cortex (your “thinking” area).
If you have a visual learner doing this, early reading practise probably seemed to go quite well. The words in “early reader” books are easy to memorise and guess from the context.
But now with more complicated text, you are seeing your child guess more and more wildly. You will then see a rising resistance to any attempt to read. And at the age of 7 or 8 your child’s confidence will collapse and progress will halt or go into reverse.
How to help the visual learner
Mild Dyspraxia
Dyspraxia is the technical term for poor body coordination and is usually caused by weak cerebellum function. Like most conditions, it has a broad spectrum of severity. Indeed we all have our dyspraxic moments! Reading lines of text requires good eyeball control. So, if you have a child that can read single words OK, but struggles with a block of text, that is an indication of mild dyspraxia.
How to help with dyspraxia
Irlen Syndrome
Do you know the shimmering effect you get with red text on a blue background? It can be very hard to focus on it. Well, some children get the same effect with black text on a white background. They describe the text “moving around on the page”. That is called Irlen Syndrome.
How to help with Irlen Syndrome
ADHD
In order to be able to read, you have to sit still. And to learn to read, you need to be able to apply yourself to a task for 5-10 minutes a day for several months. Children with ADHD find both issues a challenge and often fail to learn to read. All four of these common types of Dyslexia can be fixed. Over the next four days, we are going to explore each one in more depth and suggest solutions to each of them.
How to help with ADHD
