When it comes to vision impairment, dyslexia and conditions that accompany it can be a challenge to deal with. This disorder impacts the ability to learn in both written and spoken form. In this article we will take a look at some basic information regarding this learning disorder.
What is Dyslexia?
Dyslexia is a disorder that impacts the ability of an individual to understand information through hearing and sight, but it can also impact their ability to speak. When it comes to the visual impact of the disorder, writing, reading and comprehending is much more difficult. This disorder has nothing to do with the intelligence of the individual.
The degree of vision difficulties that a person with dyslexia experiences while reading can vary; causing people to see words and letters being misplaced, blurry, in reverse, missing, shaky or more.
It has been discovered that people with dyslexia process writing and reading information through a different area of the brain, compared to non-dyslexic people. While this disorder cannot go away, with proper training you can significantly improve in the areas where you suffer from it.
What causes dyslexia and what are the risks?
One of the causes is genetic, with a number of genes being considered to be responsible for this disorder in one way or another. Having people with dyslexia in your family raises the chance that you or your children have it too.
Leading an unhealthy lifestyle while pregnant can impact the baby. Premature birth can also play a role.
Traumas and illnesses are also possible factors causing dyslexia. If they impact the areas of the brain that are responsible for the learning functions of a person, they can cause the disorder.
What are the symptoms of dyslexia?
There are a wide range of symptoms that can indicate that you or your child have dyslexia. Here are some of them:
- Difficulty to understand text or speech.
- Ability to speak comes later and reading is much slower for their age
- Trouble learning and remembering or mixing up words and numbers
- Trouble spelling
- Difficulty to summarise, form an answer and memorise
- Double vision
- Difficulty when reading in brightly lit environments
How do you treat Dyslexia?
There is no cure for dyslexia, however its impact on the life of the person suffering from it can be significantly reduced. With proper and timely measures, individuals can train themselves to read, write and comprehend more easily.
Some of the methods which can help a person with dyslexia involve:
- Various visual aids - dyslexia can be accompanied by conditions like nearsightedness and farsightedness, where visual aids like glasses and magnifiers can come in handy.
- Choosing a suitable font to read from - Some fonts can help a person with dyslexia understand a text with less effort than others.
- Different training programs for people with dyslexia are also vital, especially in younger people. Using a combination of audiovisual and tactile activities during a lesson can also help pupils with dyslexia identify and learn words more efficiently. This will be more effective the earlier the disorder is detected.
Dyslexia can be managed well if discovered early and if appropriate measures are taken. Scientists are also optimistic that there is hope of making progress towards more effective treatments.