What is dyslexia?

Dyslexia is a “difficulty with words, despite adequate teaching”.

It has some easy to spot elements, such as reversing letters or numbers – b/d/p/q or p/9, but more often it is a discrepancy between what you think you, or your child is capable of, and what is actually being achieved.

The child who talks a lot about what they know, who asks good questions or who can argue you into the ground, but who does not do justice to that knowledge on paper. They might hate writing or love to put things on paper, but either way they end up with:

* incomplete sentances
* they lose their train of thought
* poor spelling
* lots of crossing out or generally messy writing
* and they are very frustrated.

Looking at a list of indicators of dyslexia can be useful. However before this the reason most parents end up searching the internet is a gut feeling that something is wrong. Even teachers are puzzled by underperforming students who seem otherwise on the ball.

From as early as seven or eight children can become aware of differences between them and others around them. This realisation leads to inward anger and frustration which can go two ways. Sometimes the child finds ways to hide the problem, avoids reading or homework and is so quiet at school their abilities can be overlooked. On the other hand others throw temper tantrums at home or at school when faced with reading. Some children will say outloud that reading is boring or stupid or that they are stupid. Children with undiagnosed dyslexia quickly lose confidence in their own ability and have low self-esteem when they start to fail at more and more tasks.

Identification of dyslexia can be a quick and simple as asking the school to use a computerised dyslexia screener to start the process for further testing and assessment.

Discovering a child has dyslexia will bring mixed reactions, but a primary one for the child is relief in finding out it is not their fault they are having trouble learning. For parents there is also relief, but at the same time concern for their child and this is an area in which dyslexia-tonbridge has a lot of experience.

In finding out I had four children with dyslexia and then struggling to get them the support they needed in school gave me all the confidence I needed take what I had learned and use it to acquire a suitable dyslexia qualification to help other parents.