Understanding Dyslexia

Writers Often Assist Dyslexic Clients

by Joelle Steele

I first heard of dyslexia in 1970. One of the artists I worked with at an advertising agency was dyslexic. Doug was in his 40s and couldn’t read, but his drawing and painting skills were top notch, and we worked together on several illustration jobs. When a group of artists are working together, they frequently talk to each other, and one afternoon, Doug introduced me to the world of dyslexia in all its many forms. A few years later, one of my cousins had a son who was dyslexic, and I became a godmother to a boy who was dyslexic who I tutored through two years of college. I have also had two neighbors who had dyslexia, an employee who was dyslexic, and more than 30 dyslexic writing clients, only two of whom were women.

It is disputed that dyslexia can be genetically inherited – meaning a child has a parent or other direct ancestor who carries a gene for dyslexia – because no such gene has been identified. But, dyslexia has been found to run in families, mainly in men, and often with those who are left-handed. It is also theorized that dyslexia can develop in the womb during brain development and also as a result of a brain injury or disease.

Whatever the cause of dyslexia, it is a term used to identify different kinds or types of reading problems. It is also a term that is often misused when referring to other word- and language-related problems. For many years, dyslexia was defined as a neurological disorder or neuro-developmental disorder. However, today experts are moving away from those definitions and assigning a simpler definition of “reading disorder” or “learning disorder.”

The following are some of the various forms of dyslexia:

Dysphonetic or Phonological Dyslexia. This is the most common type of dyslexia in which the reader has trouble matching language sounds to written letters and other symbols. They have trouble decoding or “sounding out” words, which is the way children are first taught to read.

Dyseidetic or Surface Dyslexia. Sometimes called perceptual dyslexia. People who are dyseidetic have difficulty recognizing entire words by sight, so their reading is generally very slow. This occurs because not all words are spelled the way they sound. This type of dyslexia usually goes hand-in-hand with dysphonetic dyslexia.

Visual Dyslexia. This happens when the reader has difficulty reading or remembering what they saw on a page. The brain doesn’t fully receive what the eyes see. This impacts not only on reading but on forming letters and spelling, in which the letter sequencing is essential.

Linguistic Dyslexia. In this form of dyslexia, the reader reads quickly, but makes mistakes along the way.

Reading Speed Dyslexia. This is a form of dyslexia in which the reader is slow to name things when they see them.

In addition to the types and combinations of dyslexic types, there are related learning and reading disorders that are not forms of dyslexia but are often found in conjunction with dyslexia and erroneously labeled as dyslexia.

Dyscalculia or math dyslexia. Learning and calculating problems associated with arithmetic.

Dysgraphia or writing dyslexia. Problems in printing and cursive writing, sometimes resulting in writing that is almost completely indecipherable. Dysgraphia often goes hand-in-hand with the reading forms of dyslexia.

Dyspraxia or coordination problems. These are what appear to be behavior issues of twitching and fidgeting. It has been suggested that this is a result of a child being bored in class when reading and writing is the subject at hand.

Auditory or hearing/listening dyslexia. If a person can’t read well, then it’s highly possible that a person could also not hear things clearly and/or with understanding.

Spatial, directional, or geographic dyslexia. Just as it sounds, a person with this disorder may have problems orienting themselves, determining north from south, and may get easily lost. It may be caused by a short-term memory deficit.

People with dyslexia may be highly intelligent but have difficulty expressing their intellect due to their problems with reading. They often see words, letters, and numbers reversed or transposed, and their spelling ability may be hampered as a result. They may also have difficulty following instructions and answering questions. A dyslexic person may have an excellent vocabulary and understanding of spoken language, but may be unable to fully understand what they read or to pronounce words correctly.

Bottom line here is that many dyslexic adults need someone who can help them decipher written documents, write letters or reports, or help them fill out forms. Sometimes a friend or family member can help, but more often than not, dyslexic people generally hire a writer. After all, we can write and so we can probably read too. In recent years, I have had five dyslexic people have me read legal documents to them, and they understood the documents completely. But the biggest trend these days is speech to text dictation. This is a great asset for dyslexic people with dysgraphia. They simply dictate something they want to write, and then they send me the resulting text, which I then clean up and send back to them for their use.

Another recent development in helping people learn to read and write is the use of computers. Dyslexic people – both children and adults – are encouraged to learn touch-typing to facilitate the recognition of letters and words, which helps improve both reading and writing skills at any age. And the benefit to touch-typing is that it is very quickly and easily learned, and once the speed is increased, the spelling of the words becomes more accurate and more automatic.

Nowadays, many dyslexic children are having their learning needs diagnosed and addressed more successfully. That just might mean a lot fewer dyslexic clients for writers. And that is very good news.

This article last modified 06/24/1998