Dsyelxai (Dyslexia!)
- Nettie Hodson
- 3 days ago
- 2 min read
I have always been good at anagrams, ever since I was young girl. I usually just have to have a few moments looking at a jumble of letters and I can figure them out - for example, fruits: mile/plepa/ogman.
(lime/apple/mango).
How about these - animals: hsiap/tuog/glof.
I intentionally chose the wrong letters to make up the words - sheep, goat and frog. Sorry!
The second ‘sabotaged’ anagrams highlight how reading and spelling may present to someone that is dyslexic.
People with dyslexia find aspects of reading, writing and spelling very difficult due to the way they process sounds and the way they connect letters, sounds and the way that words look.
To be diagnosed with dyslexia, you must map with the definition, which is currently the Delphi definition (it was previously the Rose definition - research into the dyslexia world is constantly evolving).
The Delphi definition is:
Dyslexia is primarily a set of processing difficulties that affect the acquisition of reading and spelling.
In dyslexia, some or all aspects of literacy attainment are weak in relation to age, standard teaching and instruction, and level of other attainments.
Across languages and age groups, difficulties in reading and spelling fluency are a key marker of dyslexia.
The nature and developmental trajectory of dyslexia depends on multiple genetic and environmental influences.
Dyslexic difficulties exist on a continuum and can be experienced to various degrees of severity.
Dyslexia can affect the acquisition of other skills, such as mathematics, reading
comprehension or learning another language.
The most commonly observed cognitive impairment in dyslexia is a difficulty in phonological processing (i.e. in phonological awareness, phonological processing speed or phonological memory). However, phonological difficulties do not fully explain the variability that is observed.
Working memory, orthographic skills and processing speed problems can contribute to the impact of dyslexia and therefore should be assessed.
Dyslexia frequently co-occurs with one or more other developmental difficulty, including developmental language disorder, dyscalculia, ADHD, and developmental coordination disorder.
To assess for dyslexia, there are a number of tests to administer but also the assessor takes into account a lot of information that they receive from the background information, observations during the assessment and analysis of handwriting, spelling and reading errors. Often assessors can suspect other connected needs during an assessment.
Lots of successful people are dyslexic and having dyslexia often makes people think differently and more creatively. Many famous people are known to be dyslexic – Albert Einstein, Richard Branson, Tom Cruise, Steven Gerrard, Jamie Oliver and many more; and they have not let it impact on their successful careers as they all are incredibly innovative in their fields.
The good news is that advances in technology can support dyslexic needs and will become more commonplace in the future.
I am incredibly excited to join the Total Children’s Therapy team as a dyslexia assessor to support individuals in understanding their individual learning needs.
We are delighted to welcome Nettie, Specialist Dyslexia Assessor, to the TCT team. Full details of the Dyslexia Assessment Service can be found in the brochure below.
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