1. What is Dyslexia? : What you need to know 
Dyslexia affects each individual in a different way. Its effects can be magnified or reduced by the level of stress that an individual is under at any given time. There may be times when an individual will have good days and bad days in terms of performance. Adult dyslexics may possibly suffer from compounded problems because of their lack of self esteem.
The word ‘dyslexia’ comes from the Greek and means ‘difficulty with words’.
The British Dyslexia Association’s definition is:
‘Dyslexia is a specific learning difficulty which mainly affects the development of literacy and language related skills.
It is likely to be present at birth and to be life long in its effects.
It is characterised by difficulties with phonological processing, rapid naming, working memory, processing speed, and the automatic development of skills that may not match up to an individual’s other cognitive abilities.’
Specific strengths of dyslexic people
Dyslexic individuals process information differently from others. Although dyslexic people may have difficulties with words, the very differences in brain structure that causes such difficulties, also leads to improved performance in other areas such as:
- The ability to visualise things
- Practical and problem solving skills
- Lateral thinking skills
- Being able to see the big picture [global thinkers] in terms of strategies and problem solving
- Good visual-spatial awareness
- Creativity and the ability to think ‘outside the box’
- Good verbal communication skills
- High levels of motivation and persistence
Specific weaknesses of dyslexic people
There are three areas that may cause specific weaknesses.
Visual Deficit: The dyslexic individual might have an unexpected poor ability to process visual information effectively.
Research suggests that a dyslexic individual’s ability with contrast coding differs from that of a non Dyslexic reader. This difficulty can also affect visual memory i.e. remembering what an individual has seen, which can also affect the ability to learn to read and spell. There are many words within the English language we have to learn by sight alone, particularly the little words e.g. was, and, so, the etc. that have little meaning but are vital in sentence structure.Scoptopic sensitivity : Some dyslexics might have a scoptopic sensitivity but scoptopic sensitivity is not dyslexia. Some people with dyslexia find that words on paper move around so that when reading or writing anything the process becomes very difficult. Some will also report that objects move around, for example when they try to catch a ball it moves erratically making it virtually impossible to see where it will land and therefore where you should put your hands to catch it.
Phonological Deficit : The dyslexic individual might have an unexpected poor ability to process sounds effectively.
A phonological deficit will have an impact on an individual’s ability to learn to read and spell effectively. There will be a difficulty taking apart and putting together the sounds in words. Sometimes an individual might find it difficult to find the words that they want to say and again it can affect the process of storing and retrieving information that a dyslexic may hear.The dyslexic individual might have problems with an aspect of their memory.
Memory: This is the ability to remember information effectively in both short term and working memory and the ability to develop some skills to a level where they become automatic. Memory can be broken down into three parts:
- Short term memory: this takes in information and holds it for a short time. An average adult can remember 7 digits in a string + or – 2[so anywhere between 5 and 9 is standard].
- Working memory: this processes the information like a filing system putting information into the right places in long term memory so that we are able to get the information back out again. It also acts as a search engine for when we want to get something out of our long-term memory storage.
- Long term memory: this is like the filing cabinet where information is stored.
All of the above processes are being used all of the time; dyslexic individuals tend to experience difficulties in short term and/or working memory.
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