What is Dyslexia?

Dyslexia is a neurobiological, language-based learning difficulty. Throughout their lives, people with dyslexia can experience differing degrees of difficulty in writing, spelling, reading and comprehension. 

Many dyslexics are incredibly creative, intelligent people who have lots of strengths, but who may still struggle academically. The exact causes of dyslexia are unknown, but dyslexia has been specifically connected to difficulties in learning the phonological component of language. 

There are a few indicators that a learner may have dyslexia. These can include:

• learning to speak
• learning letters and their sounds
• organizing written and spoken language
• memorizing number facts
• reading quickly enough to comprehend
• persisting with and comprehending longer reading assignments
• spelling. (Dyslexia Basics: The International Dyslexia Association)

If a learner has these traits, it doesn’t always mean they are dyslexic. However, these can be an indicator that the explicit teaching of decoding and encoding is needed to support an understanding of foundational literacy. That’s where MELEM Education can help!