Dyslexia In Children

Understanding Dyslexia & Its Causes

What Is Dyslexia?

Dyslexia is a language based learning disability. Dyslexia refers to a cluster of symptoms, which result in people having difficulties with specific language skills, particularly reading. Students with dyslexia may experience difficulties in other language skills such as spelling, writing, and speaking.
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Myth: Children Who Reverse Letters or Numbers Have Dyslexia

Fact: Most children will reverse some letters and numbers while they are learning. Up to a certain point, letter reversal is considered perfectly normal, unless it continues after two years of handwriting instruction. In fact, while letter reversal is a widely accepted sign of dyslexia, it is for the most part of a hold-over from the says when dyslexia was considered to be a visual issue. Children with dyslexia have much stronger language and reading related symptoms of dyslexia.

What Causes Dyslexia?

The exact causes of dyslexia in children and adults are still not completely clear, but anatomical and brain imagery studies show differences in the way the brain of a dyslexic person develops and functions. Children with dyslexia have been found to have problems with discriminating sounds within a word, a key factor in their reading difficulties. Dyslexia is not due to either lack of intelligence or a desire to learn; with appropriate teaching methods dyslexics can learn successfully.
Causes of dyslexia

How Widespread Is Dyslexia?

Current studies suggest that 15-20% of the population has a reading disability, or some form of dyslexia. Of those, about 1/3 are actually diagnosed or recognized in school as being dyslexic children. Dyslexia occurs in people of all backgrounds and intellectual levels. In addition, dyslexia runs in families; dyslexic parents are more likely to have children who are dyslexic.

What Are The Effects of Dyslexia?

The impact that dyslexia has is different for each person and depends on the severity of the condition and the approaches of the remediation. The most common effects are problems with reading, spelling, and writing. Some children with dyslexia do not have much difficulty with early reading and spelling tasks but do experience great problems when more complex language skills are required, such as grammar, understanding textbook material, and writing essays. This is because the inefficient processing associated with dyslexia makes it challenging to master these higher level skills.

Children with dyslexia can also have problems with spoken language. They may find it difficult to express themselves clearly, or to fully comprehend what others mean when they speak. Such language problems are often difficult to recognize, but they can lead to major problems in school, in the workplace, and in relating to other people. The effects of dyslexia reach well beyond the classroom.

Dyslexia in children and adults can also affect self image. Children with dyslexia often end up feeling “dumb” and less capable than they actually are. After experiencing a great deal of stress due to academic problems, a student may become discouraged about continuing in school.
More dyslexia symptoms

One very common sign of dyslexia is spelling difficulty. This is because spelling requires extremely efficient processing so that students can observe and store spelling patterns.
Dyslexia and spelling

What Does Dyslexia in Children Age 5 and 6 Look Like?

The following are signs that a child aged 5 or 6, Kindergarten age, may have dyslexia. It is important to remember that a child may have some of these symptoms in varying combinations, but will rarely have all of them.

• Speech problems, e.g. lisp, mispronunciation of words, words in wrong order. Dyslexics are often late talkers. NOTE: some dyslexics learn to speak early and are very articulate.


• Difficulty in rhyming e.g. ‘book’ and ‘look.’


• Difficulty in hearing and pronouncing sounds.


• Attention problems -– child does not appear to hear when given explanations. Daydreaming and switching off in class and at home.


• Lack of progress in reading, writing and spelling, contrary to expectations built up by normal development in other area.


• Difficulty carrying out a sequence of directions.


• Difficulty understanding the concept of time. They may forget their date of birth, their home address etc.

What Does Dyslexia in Children Age 7-12 Years Look Like?

As children get older they may exhibit some other indicators of dyslexia. Children will have a varying collection of indicators but will rarely exhibit all of them.

• Unable to read, or low reading age.


• Still having difficulties with sound of letters.


• Poor spelling.


• No idea of punctuation when reading or writing a story.


• Essays or stories may often be brief and to the point.


• If they can read, they don’t enjoy it and hate reading aloud.


• A student may read well but when they get to the end of the text they cannot remember anything they’ve read.


• Frustration, withdrawal and behavioral problems start to increase.

What Does Dyslexia in Children 13-19 Years of Age Look Like?

It is not always easy to recognize dyslexia in teenage children. A teenager may be quick thinking but feel they have a block with reading and writing or find it difficult to express their ideas clearly. They may be disorganized, forgetful or feel frustrated by these things; this can be an indication of dyslexia.

A dyslexic teenage student may put a considerable amount of time and effort into ‘keeping up’, spending hours on coursework that other pupils take much less time over. They may feel that although they have good understanding of things and capable reasoning abilities, despite their hard work and dedication, they are unhappy with the results. Here are some indicators of dyslexia in teenage children, only some of which may apply:

• The student may not take in the meaning of what they are reading although they can read fairly swiftly and accurately.


• Not confident about spelling. When writing at length, they make careless mistakes with both spelling and sentence structure.


• Difficulty transferring ideas in their head into a written form in a clear and well organized way.


• Working memory is poor. Dyslexic children have difficulty remembering telephone numbers, lists of instructions and taking notes in lessons.


• Difficulty with sequences. They may write letters or numbers in the wrong order, miss letters out of words, or words out of sentences. Also, they may find it hard to use dictionaries or keep a good filing system.

How Is Dyslexia Diagnosed?

At its core dyslexia in children presents as an unexpected difficulty with reading. And so if you send your child for a formal evaluation, the dyslexia diagnosis is in large part determined by how far your child is behind in reading compared to other learning skills. While dyslexia may be used to describe a grade level student well behind in reading, it may also apply to a gifted math and science student who is at grade level in reading.

A formal evaluation will assess intellectual ability, auditory processing, psycho-linguistic processing, and academic skills. It takes into account the individual’s family background and overall school performance. The testing can be conducted by trained school or outside specialists.
Understanding a dyslexia diagnosis

How Does Gemm's Service Work?

We use Fast ForWord software, to help children with dyslexia at home with personal coaching from educators. While most dyslexia treatments are in clinic, our server technology, extensive online resources and personal coaching model - think personal trainer -- is a more affordable and convenient choice for parents and children.
How we help dyslexia

How Do Your Outcomes Vary By Age?

Fast ForWord is a powerful dyslexia treatment for children and adults of all ages. For children under 8-9 years of age, our goal is to build the cognitive foundation for reading success, to make reading easier so that the student will practice and engage. Middle and high school students have a shorter cognitive distance to travel -- from inefficiency to efficiency -- and so the gains tend to more immediate.
Dyslexia treatment steps by age

How Is That So Many Famous People Seem To Live With Dyslexia?

Overcoming dyslexia requires the development of internal fortitude, and for those that learn this attitude, they are able to go on to great things. Or they are lucky enough to have a talent that does not require high level reading. However, these are outcomes available to a select few -- for most, dyslexia is a handicap to success.
Quotes from people with dyslexia