Dyslexia Isn’t a Reading Problem

What?  Everyone knows that dyslexia is just about switching letters or words and having difficulty learning to read.  Once reading is mastered, and of course the standard struggle with spelling, then you’re all set.  The biggest challenges are behind you!

Not so fast.  Yes, reading and spelling are typically two of the major hurdles with dyslexia, but they are not the only challenges.  They are merely symptoms of a bigger language processing issue.  Dyslexia isn’t about reading, it is about language processing.  I made the assumption, like many people do, that once my daughters could read then we were over the biggest challenge, and it did seem that way for several years.  But as time went on and they got into more advanced high school work, we began to realize that there was more going on.

• Difficulty expressing ideas, simple or complex, either verbally or in writing
• Not being able to find the right word
• Frustration with not being able to communicate clearly
• Difficulty contributing to a flow of conversation (can’t get ideas spoken fast enough to keep up with the conversation)
• Or the opposite problem . . . streaming every idea verbally without any ability to filter the key thoughts from the trivial
• Difficulty identifying key points on a topic being studied
• Difficulty researching due to an inability to scan material or sift key points from trivial ones
• Not being able to remember verbal instructions or follow through on them consistently
• Difficulty remembering material studied for tests and exams
• Managing schedules (school and work)
• Managing tasks and creating/using plans to complete longer term projects

So many of these frustrations were evident all along, but they seemed fairly trivial in the elementary years.  It will come with time and practice, we believed.  Then they hit high school and suddenly these skills became foundational to academic success, and no these skills hadn’t developed with time and practice, at least not to the degree that was required.  Looking back, I now realize that lack of these skills are some of the same issues that caused problems with learning to read.  Although it is critical to focus on reading skills specifically in the early years, it is equally important to develop some of these deeper level skills at the same time so that they don’t come back to bite you later on.  Over the next few months I plan to share resources and ideas as to how to develop these skills and others.