Dyslexia, what is it? Written by Mavis Kerrigan

Mavis is currently writing a book called “Mind Your Spelling”, here she explains about Dyslexia.

Professor Rudolph Berlin, 1887, has often been credited with coining the word ‘dyslexia’¹. ‘Dyslexia’ has been defined as ‘word blindness’ and an ‘impaired ability to read’ that is not thought to be caused by poor intelligence.

• ‘dys-‘ comes to us by way of Latin from the Greek ‘dus’ which can mean diseased, abnormal, faulty, bad.
• ’lexia’, Latin from Greek, ‘Legein’: to speak²

Most researchers³ agree that:
There is no common pattern of dyslexia⁴ and characteristics of dyslexia are varied and inconsistent among:

• short term memory problems affecting.
• auditory sequencing.
• visual sequencing.
• phonological awareness.
• poor handwriting and reluctance to write often because of inability spell and re-read work.
• lack of comprehension often because of slow pace of reading.

• It is possible that the cause can be neurological, genetic or congenital.

Research suggests that:

• parts of the brain do not work as they should in people with dyslexia. ⁵
• brain patterns change when a student has encountered a reading programme that emphasizes the phoneme-grapheme relationship. ⁵
• it is important to notice the inconsistencies of dyslexia.⁶

Researchers are becoming aware that:

• Dyslexia problems can be learnt and maintained in some families, learning groups or institutions, where other members cannot spell or read well, due to the expectation and the information and skills to spell accurately not being available because the latter have not found a solution to their own dyslexia or other literacy problems. 
• Tiredness, hunger, thirst, stress, or illness, often compound their problems
• When people are in a resourceful state or resourceful frame of mind they learn more easily.⁷
• The NLP Coach and Trainer can assist students to:
• increase skills, that increase confidence to create a resourceful state of mind.
• access resourceful states or frames of mind when required.

You can follow up this article by reading: How can I help my dyslexic child?

Bibliography

¹ P Ott: How To Detect and Manage Dyslexia  Heinemann 1997   
² Dictionaries: Collin’s English 1986 & Shorter Oxford 1992;  
³ P Ott op.cit.               
⁴ Naidoo 1979 in P Ott, op.cit.
⁵ Schaywitz BA &SE, Blachman et al; Development of left occipital systems for skilled reading after a phonology based intervention in www.medscape.com/view article/495637                             
⁶ Miles 1974 in Ott op cit
⁷ J Grinder NLP Modelling Course 2004 NLP Academy UK
⁸ John Dewey; How we Think Prometheus Books 1991                     
⁹ Dianne McGuinness: Why Children Can’t Read Penguin 1998

Bristol Dyslexia Association have created a wonderful programme called Nessy to help dyslexic children improve their reading and spelling. They have also created an accompanying Nessy GamesPlayer CD which is full of games, view the GamesPlayer here.

More information about Dyslexia can be found at the British Dyslexia Association

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