Dyslexia at a glance

Dyslexia is a type of learning disability that has a huge impact on a child‘s educational experience. Dyslexiasimply means difficulty with the written word. It is a descriptive, not a diagnostic term. Unfortunately, themedical-sounding label implies that it is a distinct and identifiable reading disorder with a known medical cause.As Prof. Bishop points out, 'medical-sounding terms are more successful memes than the descriptive termsbecause they convey a spurious sense of explanation, with foreign and medical-sounding labels lending somegravity to the situation...they are treated seriously and gain public recognition and research funding' (Bishop۲۰۱۰). For a long time, teachers and doctors misunderstood dyslexia. Students who suffered from this problemfelt inadequate, even stupid. In reality, dyslexics are not less intelligent that other people. The problem theyhave is with written language. Their special trait is that they do not SEE written words in the same way othersdo. American society relies on reading and writing. Educators know that English is a difficult language to learnbecause the letters may stand for different sounds in different words. Interestingly, dyslexia does not exist inChina or Japan, where the writing is pictures that represent words, instead of letters that represent sounds.Dyslexic children face many problems in school that grow out of their different learning style. Because theycannot see writing the way others do, they feel as though they are separate. Teachers cannot see the writing forthe dyslexic child; instead, they must find methods to help the dyslexic figure out what he or she is seeing.Learning to read and write is important for several reasons. There is much information that everyone must beable to interpret in order to function in our complex society. One must be able to read to obtain a driver‘slicense, fill out a job application and sign their name to a lease or any number of simple daily tasks.Furthermore, job success is dependent on educational training, and reading and writing form the basis of most ofwhat happens in school. Research has discovered valuable information about this learning problem. With theproper support systems, good teaching and careful problem identification, dyslexic children need not suffer fromthe school experience. Today, dyslexics may enter any professional field to which they are suited, once theyhave mastered the necessary skills or reading and writing. The aim of present paper is to give a summarydescription of dyslexia