Dyslexia is a learning disability. It interferes with the learning capacity of children.  It occurs right at childhood. If diagnosed and supported early, children can learn to defeat it.

Symptoms 

The symptoms of Dyslexia are the following:

  • The child may experience a delay in speech.
  • The child will find it difficult to recall alphabets, names, numbers, and spellings
  • Concentration issues and fear while learning
  • The problem in vision and correlation
  • Dizziness
  • Motor skills like holding the pencil and writing may be difficult for the child.
  • Low confidence level
  • Difficulty in reading out
  • The child finds it difficult to remember a list of instructions
  • Confusion between left and right
  • Difficulty in responding
  • Constant poor grade levels of the child
  • Trouble in sentence formation

Normally these children face a very challenging time in school. The above symptoms are normally interpreted as reluctance to learn.  Nowadays teachers know the symptoms and will be of great assistance to the child with their learning difficulties.

Treatment

When one feels that the child is dyslexic, the best thing is to meet an educational specialist (or) doctor who is specialized in this field. They can check for the condition by conducting various tests on how the child reads and writes. Few of the above symptoms have relevance to ADHD and depression. Hence identifying the issue correctly is important.  With the help of an education specialist, the parent has to work out a learning plan.

Assistance in the following form can be provided to the child:

  • Helping in phonics
  • Help to read faster
  • Help to understand how the child learns
  • Patiently Teaching the child
  • Teaching to write more legibly and clearer

Reading programs like Orton-Gillingham can be used.  This will help the child understand sounds and letters in a step-by-step way.

Multisensory instruction can help the child to use all their senses.  Using touch, smell, sound, etc will be of great help. This will improve the finger co-ordination of the child.  

There are special schools for such kids which have education programs focusing on removing the learning difficulties.  Removing fear in the mind of the child is more important. Hence placing the child under a normal teacher may not work.  A more specialized teacher may be needed.

Gradually over time, these can help the child move on with their learning difficulties.  There are various celebrities who have come up in life in spite of having this difficulty.  Hence the confidence level of the child has to be improved first. Encouraging their other skills like drawing, singing, etc. can help with improvement.  

 

This video shows a typical Orton-Gillingham lesson from start to finish. The new concept being taught is the vowel team AY.