Dyslexia is commonly associated with reading difficulties. Some doctors, specialists and educators may even refer to it as a “reading disorder”. But it can also affect writing, spelling and even speaking.

Dyslexia and Reading

Children with dyslexia often need extra help in developing several skills needed for successful reading comprehension.

These skills are:

• Connecting letters to sounds:Children have to learn that each letter of the alphabet is associated with a certain sound or sounds, also known as phonics.
• Decoding text:The method of sounding out words is known as “decoding.” Once your child can decode individual words, they can then start to make sense of entire sentences.
• Recognizing “sight” words:The ability to read a familiar word at a glance without having to sound it out is called “word recognition.” The more words kids can recognize by sight, the faster they’ll be able to read.
• Understanding the text:Typical readers can remember what they’ve just read. They can summarize it and recall specific details. Readers with dyslexia can get bogged down sounding out individual words. This interrupts the flow of information and makes it harder to understand and relate the new material to what they already know.

Dyslexia and Speaking

A child with dyslexia can have trouble remembering, recalling and getting out different sound combinations. The word they want to say may be “on the tip of their tongue,” but can’t access the exact sound combination to produce the word.

Your child may say a wrong word that sounds similar to the right one (such as “distinct” instead of “extinct”). Their word-retrieval issues can increase under pressure. Students with dyslexia find word retrieval less challenging when they have more time to respond.

Is your child struggling with some of these skills mentioned above? If so, leave us a message below and we will get back to you.