What Is Dyslexia?

The National Institutes of Health notes that dyslexic students generally have the following struggles with reading in the classroom:

• difficulty in recognizing words quickly and accurately
• poor spelling
• struggle with decoding words (sounding them out)
• an unexpected inability to read, given a student’s cognitive ability in other areas and their exposure to effective classroom instruction

These challenges with reading are caused by a biological difference of the structure of the brain, where the neural pathways for language processing are formed. The word “difference” is used intentionally; the dyslexic brain is not defective. This difference in structure leads to an incredible access of strengths for the dyslexic person in one or more of the following areas, according to Drs. Brock and Fernette Eide in The Dyslexic Advantage:

• Kinesthetic and spatial awareness–ability to “spin” 3D objects in their mind
• Ability to see complex connections between concepts from many disciplines
• Strong story-based memory and ability to tell compelling stories
• Ability to recognize intricate patterns in situations others find confusing

This structural difference in the language processing module of the brain affects a dyslexic student’s ability to hear, isolate, and manipulate individual sounds (called “phonemic awareness“). For example, a phonemic awareness task would involve listening to the word “scram” and then being asked to remove the “r” sound from “scram” to make _____ (“scam”). Another task might be listening to the word “great” and replacing the “g” sound with an “f” to make ___ (“freight”). Any challenges with such auditory tasks make it difficult to decode words, which involves connecting written letters to sounds.

Dyslexia tutoring specifically works with students at this phonemic level to help sharpen their ability to isolate sounds auditorily. It is essentially this phonemic level of language processing that must be strengthened so that students can learn how to assign these sounds to letters and read words with ease. The good news is that gaining the skill of phonemic awareness is entirely possible for dyslexic students! It simply must be taught directly through a multisensory, structured language education (MSLE) program. In tutoring, I spend time intentionally developing this critical component of phonemic awareness at every stage of the reading and spelling process.

Further good news about dyslexia is that a dyslexic person’s ability to engage in the higher levels of the reading process–comprehending the text, determining definitions of words using context clues, analyzing the order of words in sentences to discern meaning, evaluating ideas found in the text–is completely in tact. A dyslexic child can listen to a book read out loud and then recall many details as well as engage in insightful discussions. This full ability to enjoy and comprehend books at a high level is why it is so important to continue to read books out loud to a dyslexic child while he or she is learning to read. They can access advanced concepts in science and history through listening to audiobooks or watching documentaries. Reading out loud is a great way to encourage growth in your child’s strength of comprehension, which will keep him or her from falling behind in content areas while they are learning how to read.

Although early intervention is best, if your child who has dyslexia is older, be encouraged that intervention still works and is still just as necessary! In fact, intervention works for adults, too. A multisensory, structured language program can help most dyslexic people at any age.