About Dyslexia

When translated literally, the Greek word ‘dyslexia’ means “difficulty with words” (‘dys’ is difficulty and ‘lexis’ is words). Today, the modern definition of the term, given by the British Dyslexia Association, is: “difficulties in organizing or learning, which affect language, fine coordination skills and working memory skills.”

When attempting to diagnose dyslexia, one must take into account that not every sign or symptom of the dyslectic profile is manifested in each case, though usually there is a sufficient number of signs to lead to a diagnosis. It should be noted that dyslexia tends to run in families, but often parents may not have reconized it in themselves when they were at school. They realize it only in retrospect, once their children have been diagnosed.

One place where dyslectic children will undoubtedly experience difficulties is in an environment such as school, since the focus there is on reading skills. For example, the methods generally used in mainstream schools to teach children to read are those based on the ‘whole word’ approach. The majority of children learn very successfully in this way, but the dyslectic child does not. He fails to learn new words and those words he does learn are quickly forgotten.

It is unfortunate that schools, as well as society in general, place such a high value on literacy skills, since these are precisely the skills which dyslectic people find so difficult to master. Is these people were given the opportunity to display their knowledge in alternative forms, their abilities would be evident. For instance, many dyslectic children have superior visual-spatial skills, while other have highly developed verbal skills. Teachers should consider this fact when assessing acquired knowledge.