Dec. 23, 2024
Hello friends, today, let's talk about Dyslexia.
What is Dyslexia?
Dyslexia is a learning disorder characterised by difficulty in reading.
It occurs in children with normal vision and intelligence.
Signs that your child may be dyslexic include:
☆ late talking,
☆ learning new words slowly,
☆ delay in learning to read,
☆ Problems forming words correctly, such as reversing sounds in words or confusing words that sound alike,
☆ Problems remembering or naming letters, numbers and colours,
☆ Difficulty learning nursery rhymes or playing rhyming games, etc.
Children with dyslexia may experience:
◇ Cognitive challenges: difficulty memorising, difficulty spelling, or difficulty thinking and understanding.
◇ Developmental Challenges: learning disability or speech delay in a child.
◇ Also common are delayed reading ability, headache, or speech disorder Symptoms.
Dyslexia and the eye.
It may interest us to know that while some children with dyslexia may also have refractive errors (like nearsightedness or farsightedness), the two conditions are not directly linked.
In other words, having dyslexia does not mean you will automatically have a refractive error, and vice versa.
However, there is some evidence that people with dyslexia may be more likely to have certain vision problems, including refractive errors.
Some research suggests that dyslexia may be associated with problems with the way the brain interprets the information coming from the eyes, which could explain its potential link with refractive errors.
Asides refractive errors, there are a few other vision-related issues that have been linked to dyslexia.
¤ One is convergence insufficiency, which is a problem with the eyes' ability to turn inwards when focusing on something close-up.
¤ Another is an inability to track moving objects smoothly (called oculomotor dysfunction).
¤ And finally, some people with dyslexia may have problems with eye-hand coordination (called developmental coordination disorder).
So, there's a range of vision-related issues that may be associated with dyslexia; but the key takeaway is that while some children with dyslexia may have vision problems, not every child with dyslexia will have these issues.
And for those who do, it's important to get a proper diagnosis and treatment from an Optometrist.
How can Dyslexia be managed/treated?
There are a few different strategies that can be used to help manage dyslexia.
● One is called multisensory structured language education (MSLE), which combines visual, auditory, and tactile learning to help the brain process information more effectively.
● Another strategy is called the Orton-Gillingham approach, which breaks down reading and writing into smaller, more manageable parts.
● Thirdly , assistive technology, like text-to-speech software and word prediction software, can be very helpful for people with dyslexia.
● Correcting any refractive errors (through eyeglasses or contacts) is a very important part of managing dyslexia.
Vision training, also called vision therapy, can help improve eye movement, focus, and tracking.
Your child may not be a dullard, he/she may be dyslexic. Don’t give up or talk down on that ‘dull’ child, we can co-manage them with you.
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