There are few things as baffling and confusing as dyslexia. Many dyslexia specialists cannot really tell you what dyslexia is, except by describing the patterns of dyslexia. They have no explanation as to why those patterns are present. This can be a disaster for the dyslexic because without the right help, based on a real understanding of their individual difficulty, they will probably always struggle.
The reason for this situation is that the patterns you see with dyslexia can be very hard to understand. Many dyslexia organisations will list lots of patterns that indicate dyslexia, many of which seem to conflict. Indeed, I think it would be rare to find someone who doesn't show at least one pattern of dyslexia!
By contrast, we like to work from what is actually happening in your brain as you read. Once you understand that, many of these confusing patterns become far easier to understand. It is like putting the pieces of the jigsaw into place.
For instance, a very common pattern for bright visual learners showing dyslexia is lots of guessing when reading and very poor spelling. They can often read a long word more easily than a short one. They can sometimes seem to read quite fast, but with low comprehension.
That can seem baffling until you understand what is happening in this form of dyslexia. The visual learner often develops a habit of sight-memorising words in the early stages rather than decoding them. Words they do not recognise have to be guessed from the context.
This is why the long words sometimes seem easier than short ones to this type of dyslexic; there is almost always more contextual clues to a long word. Spelling is hard for them because they are trying to recreate a picture of a word, not reconstruct it. They often do well in spelling tests however, because they have memorised the ten words overnight. A few days later those same words have gone again.
The last bit of the puzzle is their poor comprehension, even of simple text. You need a bit of detailed neurology to understand that.
The brain processes happen in distinct areas of the brain. Comprehension of language happens mainly in Wernicke's area, which is linked into your auditory cortex beside your left ear. Your ability to speak and write is generated by Broca's area in your frontal lobe, a quite separate part of the brain.
In this form of dyslexia the auditory cortex is not engaged and Wernicke's area is therefore often only weakly engaged.
The result is that you can sometimes listen to a dyslexic read some text quite accurately, without them having much or even any comprehension of it. But when we get them to engage their auditory cortex in the process their understanding of what they read rises fast.
I hope this gives you a sense of how a true understanding of the processes involved can make dyslexia easier to understand and deal with. We are always looking for signs of 7 different causes of reading difficulty. This visual learner syndrome, which we call Optilexia, is just one.
The reason for this situation is that the patterns you see with dyslexia can be very hard to understand. Many dyslexia organisations will list lots of patterns that indicate dyslexia, many of which seem to conflict. Indeed, I think it would be rare to find someone who doesn't show at least one pattern of dyslexia!
By contrast, we like to work from what is actually happening in your brain as you read. Once you understand that, many of these confusing patterns become far easier to understand. It is like putting the pieces of the jigsaw into place.
For instance, a very common pattern for bright visual learners showing dyslexia is lots of guessing when reading and very poor spelling. They can often read a long word more easily than a short one. They can sometimes seem to read quite fast, but with low comprehension.
That can seem baffling until you understand what is happening in this form of dyslexia. The visual learner often develops a habit of sight-memorising words in the early stages rather than decoding them. Words they do not recognise have to be guessed from the context.
This is why the long words sometimes seem easier than short ones to this type of dyslexic; there is almost always more contextual clues to a long word. Spelling is hard for them because they are trying to recreate a picture of a word, not reconstruct it. They often do well in spelling tests however, because they have memorised the ten words overnight. A few days later those same words have gone again.
The last bit of the puzzle is their poor comprehension, even of simple text. You need a bit of detailed neurology to understand that.
The brain processes happen in distinct areas of the brain. Comprehension of language happens mainly in Wernicke's area, which is linked into your auditory cortex beside your left ear. Your ability to speak and write is generated by Broca's area in your frontal lobe, a quite separate part of the brain.
In this form of dyslexia the auditory cortex is not engaged and Wernicke's area is therefore often only weakly engaged.
The result is that you can sometimes listen to a dyslexic read some text quite accurately, without them having much or even any comprehension of it. But when we get them to engage their auditory cortex in the process their understanding of what they read rises fast.
I hope this gives you a sense of how a true understanding of the processes involved can make dyslexia easier to understand and deal with. We are always looking for signs of 7 different causes of reading difficulty. This visual learner syndrome, which we call Optilexia, is just one.
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For a deeper understanding of the causes of dyslexia and how to help, watch our short Understanding Dyslexia Video. On our site you will find a mass of background on everything relating to the ways to help with reading and spelling difficulty.