Dyslexia — Symptoms, Causes & Treatment

Dyslexia is a neurological disorder characterized by a learning disability. Dyslexia is the most common learning disability in children that persists throughout life. The severity of disability can vary from mild to severe. It is characterized by difficulties with accurate or fluent word recognition and by poor spelling and decoding abilities, it may also include problems in reading comprehension and reduced reading experience that can slow down the growth of vocabulary. The sooner dyslexia is treated, the more effective the treatment outcome is. Therefore, it is never too late for people with dyslexia to learn to improve their language skills.

Types of Dyslexia: 1: Primary Dyslexia: Most common type of dyslexia, occurs due to the dysfunction of the left side of the brain and does not change with age. The severity of the disability for Individuals with this type of dyslexia varies, most children who receive an appropriate educational intervention will be academically successful throughout their lives. Few might continue to struggle significantly with reading, spelling, and writing throughout their lives.

2: Secondary or developmental Dyslexia: Secondary dyslexia is caused by problems with brain development during the early stages of fetal development. As the child matures this type of dyslexia diminishes with time.

3: Trauma Dyslexia: This type of dyslexia usually occurs due to brain injury or trauma to the area of the brain that controls reading and writing.

Children with dyslexia have difficulty in learning to read, caused by impairment in the brain's ability to process phonemes i.e. the smallest units of speech that make words different from each other.

1. Genetic mutation.
2. Problem during fetal development.
3. Brain injury or trauma.

There are no signs that show a person has a learning disability. Assessment helps to detect the disorder. Mentioned below are a few signs, though the child usually won't show all of these signs or even most of them. But if he/she shows most of these problems, then parents should consider the possibility that the child has a learning disability.

Symptoms of Dyslexia may include:
1: Slow learning of new vocabulary.
2: Delayed development of language.
3: A problem in recognizing the differences between sounds.
4: Difficulty copying from the board to the book.
5: Difficulty with learning reading, spelling skills, and writing.
6: A child may be unable to remember content.
7: The child may appear to be uncoordinated and have difficulty in games or sports.
8: Difficulty is common with left and right dominance for either hand has not been established often.
9: A child may have difficulty in understanding or remembering what he/she hears.
10: Recalling sequences of things can be difficult.
11: Part of a word or part or parts of a sentence may be missed.
12: Children struggling with this problem may know what they want to say but have difficulty finding the actual words to express their thoughts.
13: Children may become withdrawn and become depressed.
14: Problems with self-esteem can arise, and sibling and peer interactions can become strained.
15: These children may lose interest in activities and appear lazy or unmotivated.


Pathology:
Dyslexia is a learning disorder characterized by difficulty in writing and reading. People suffering from dyslexia generally have normal or above-normal intelligence and eyesight. In dyslexia, the cerebellum is active during the initial stages of the learning process. It is found that the individuals suffering from dyslexia have reduced grey matter in the right lobule of VI, also this lobule has abnormal activity in patients with dyslexia when asked to name objects rapidly.

There's no single test that can diagnose dyslexia, several factors may be considered, such as:

Medical history:
The examiner asks questions about the conditions that run in the family, including dyslexia or any other type of learning disability.

Questionnaires:
The examiner may ask the child to identify reading and language abilities.

Vision, hearing, and brain (neurological) tests:
These tests can help determine whether another disorder might be causing or adding to the child's difficulty reading.

Psychological evaluation:
The examiner may ask the child questions, to understand the child's mental health. This can help determine whether social problems, depression, or anxiety may be limiting the child's abilities.

Tests for reading and other academic skills:
The child is given a set of educational tests. The process and quality of reading skills are analyzed by a reading expert.

Medication: Cyclizine, Meclizine, Methylphenidate, Piracetam, etc.

Note: Medication should not be taken without the doctor's prescription.

Sufficient time is provided to plan a program according to the needs of the student before or during the initial teaching session.

Brain training Exercises:
1. Knee to hand.
2. Elbow to the knee.
3. Hand to foot behind the back.
4. Hand to foot in front of the body.
5. Spinning clockwise.
6. Spinning anti-clockwise.
7. Juggling.
8. Juggling on the balance board.
9. Side to side on the balance/wobbleboard.
10. Twists.

Eye Exercises:
1. Eye tracking.
2. Opposite hand swinging using hand and fingers.

Balance ball Exercises:
1. Taking up one foot off the ground.
2. Taking both feet off the ground.
3. Balance on the stomach.
4. Bouncing.
5. Juggling on the balance ball.
6. Brain ball catching.

Reading Training:
Reading techniques involve hearing, vision, and touch to improve reading skills. Help a child use several senses to learn such as listening to a taped lesson, a word spoken or a letter used can be traced by the child using a finger.
1. Train the children to recognize and use the smallest sounds that make words (phonemes)
2. Understand the letters that represent these sounds and words (phonics).
3. Understand what is read.
4. Read aloud to build a reading expression, accuracy, and speed.
5. Build a vocabulary of words.
6. Provide the articles clearly to minimize the reading load.
7. Identify new vocabulary in the text.
8. Offer audio-visual sources on subjects such as TV or videos.

Spelling training:
1. Introduce new terms and concepts by writing them up on a board.
2. Provide lists of vocabulary at the beginning of a semester, and allow children sufficient time to absorb these terms and put them into context.
3. Encourage the use of grammar checkers and electronic spelling.

Note-taking training:
1. Providing handouts at the beginning of a tutorial can be a helpful strategy, as it is difficult for children with dyslexia to concentrate on what the speaker is saying.
2. Use a readable size of print if using an overhead projector.
3. Use whiteboards or chalkboards to elaborate a point making sure the writing is large and clear and students can read it.
4. Some dyslexic children can be easily distracted by noise or activity, even some children may even need to sit at the back of the room so as not to be distracted by people sitting behind them.

Writing training:
Writing for two or more hours, which deteriorates over time can prove very stressful use of technologies such as video, computer-generated or graphical presentations, and laptops can be recommended.

Oral Language:
1. Children suffering from dyslexia may need extra time, effort, and concentration to do the task involving language.
2. Instructions given orally should be clear and written down as a backup for the children if they need them.
3. Encourage children to formulate questions, then respond using straightforward language and demonstrate points with concrete examples.

Family plays a key role in helping the child succeed. If the family members suspect their child has dyslexia, then immediately address the problem, as early intervention can improve success. Even if the child is young, it's never too late to start, introduce books as a toy to babies this encourages fun, learning, and social interaction with caregivers. Read stories to the child, work with the child, and encourage reading time.