What is Dyslexia?

• Dyslexia is a neurobiological disorder

that affects the development of both

decoding (written word pronunciation)

and encoding (spelling).

• People with dyslexia have difficulty

reading fluently and spelling words

correctly, even after years of instruction.

Causes

• Genetic disposition leads to

• problems with the perception of acoustic cues

• problems with visual perception

Some Common Misconceptions

• Myth: Students who flip numbers and letters have dyslexia.

• Fact: Some students with dyslexia showthis feature, but this is not the key feature that defines dyslexia. Laborious

reading and poor spelling is.

• Myth: Dyslexia can be cured with enough reading practice.

• Fact: Dyslexia cannot be cured because it is a disorder of the brain. However, strategies can help

students with dyslexia compensate for their

difficulties.

• Myth: Students with dyslexia have a

lower IQ.

• Fact: Students with dyslexia are just

like everyone. They just have difficulty

reading. Some even learn to

compensate for their disability and

become very good at other things that

don’t involve reading.

• Myth: Dyslexia only occurs in English because it is a very irregular language. In “easy” languages like Spanish, there

is no dyslexia.

• Fact: Remember, dyslexia is a neurobiological disorder (i.e. brain- based disorder), not a language based

disorder. The language a person reads,however, will determine how dyslexia occurs.

Further facts

• 15.5% of the global population carry the

genetic predisposition for dyslexia,

• the ratio identified as dyslexic depends

on the transparency of the language

used, awareness of dyslexia and

availability of trained diagnosticians.

• Dyslexia is a hidden disability.

• Many adults do not know that they are dyslexic.

Strenghts

• Good at ideas and innovative thinking.

• Good problem solver & lateral thinker.

• Creative in the way they make links and

connections.

• Strong in the areas of art, music, design, architecture and

engineering.

• Good with practical tasks and creative

in many ways.

• Good communicators.

• Have excellent visual and spatial awareness.

Difficulties

• Erratic spelling.

• Misreading, leading to comprehension

difficulties.

• Personal organization.

• Difficulties with sequences e.g. date order.

• Ability to solve problems but inability to show process.

• Poor organisation or time management.

• Inaccurate number work.

Dyslexia across different

languages

The role of orthography

Orthography, or how a language is

represented in writing, impacts reading

and writing development and can

represent varying difficulties to

speakers of a specific language who

have dyslexia.

The most common orthographies today:

• alphabetic: e.g. Finnish

letter a sound /a/

letter k sound /k/

letters aa sound /a:/ (long)

letter v sound /v/

• syllabic: e.g. Japanese Kana:

a symbol corresponds to a syllable

• logographic: Chinese

a symbol corresponds to word

Alphabetic Orthographies

„Shallow“ and „deep“ orthographies

• Shallow orthographies have a one to one correspondence between letters and sounds. The language is written as it sounds.

• Deep orthographies have multiple mappings between letters and sounds. Spelling patterns are irregular and don‘t follow the sounds of the language.

Shallow alphabetic orthographiese.g. Spanish

• Characterized by slow, but not

necessarily inaccurate, reading.

• Once Spanish-speaking readers with dyslexia master the letters and corresponding sounds of the alphabet, the one-to-one correspondence between sounds and letters facilitates their reading and spelling.

• They never become fluent.

• They don’t get the meaning from the text because they are so concerned with reading.

Deep alphabetic orthographiese.g. English

• In addition to slow and inaccurate reading, these students will have persistent poor spelling.

• Poor phonological awareness (manipulating the sounds that make up each word).

• Students can’t remember the irregularities of the language, even after years of reading instruction

• Dyslexia in deep orthographies is pretty obvious.

Dyslexia in adults

• Most of the research on dyslexia has been done in relation to children and the acquisition of literacy.

• Adults often have persistent literacy problems unless they have received dyslexia friendly teaching.

• Primary problems for adults are those associated with a weak working memory, such as personal organisation.

• There are many adult dyslexics, who have not been diagnosed as dyslexic in their youth; consequences are among others psychosomatic problems, low self - esteem; different problems depending on the individual.

Conclusions

• Lower rates of identification in areas where the language is more transparent than English, means that more employees are unaware of their dyslexia.

• Where the language is transparent:

There is likely to be less awareness of dyslexia within employing organisations;

there are likely to be less reasonable adjustments offered to adults with dyslexia.

A few suggestions how to

manage dyslexia at work

•Know the signs

•Seek confirmation

•Provide support

•Use technology

•Look at your practices

•Consider individual needs

•Seek specialist help

•Increase awareness

Key points

•Dyslexia need not be a barrier to success!

•Dyslexia is common - an organisation with 50-100 employees could have up to 10 workers who are dyslexic.

•Adjustments can help to maximise potential.

•Do not generalise – treat each case individually.

For the dyslexic...

•Slow down.

•Get organized.

•Do not be ashamed to use a reading aid(e).

•Spell check is your friend.

•Be confident!