A dyslexic person might see letters jumbled, backward, or moving, while words can appear blurry, double, or run together, making it hard to focus on text that seems to jump or shift; they struggle to connect letters to sounds, recognize familiar words, or remember what they've read, leading to slow, effortful reading, headaches, and fatigue, as the brain works overtime to process the visual and linguistic information.
Kids with dyslexia might reverse letters, like reading pot as top, have trouble sounding out new words, and struggle to recognize words they know. Dyslexia is the most common learning disorder. Dyslexia affects as many as one in five children.
When people with dyslexia see text on a page, a whole range of different phenomena can occur. For example, some people may experience letters appearing to jump around, while others might confuse similar-looking letters that are close in appearance. It can vary greatly from person to person.
Understanding and supporting individuals with Dyslexia, Dyscalculia, Dysgraphia, and Dyspraxia is essential for fostering an inclusive and effective learning environment. These disorders can also coincide with other conditions such as ADHD and Autism, requiring a comprehensive approach.
Your brain has trouble processing what you read, especially breaking words into sounds or relating letters to sounds when reading. That slowdown in processing can affect everything that follows. That includes: Slowed reading because you have trouble processing and understanding words.
Five key characteristics of dyslexia include difficulty with accurate and fluent reading, problems with spelling and writing, trouble retrieving words or mixing up sounds, avoiding reading/writing tasks, and challenges with sequencing (like days of the week or times tables), often stemming from difficulties with phonological processing (connecting sounds to letters).
Bill Gates, one of the richest people in the world didn't let his dyslexia hold him back.
Three dimensional thinking and making connections
Many people with dyslexia demonstrate better skills at manipulating 3D objects in their mind. Many of the world's top architects and fashion designers have dyslexia.
Famous actors like Johnny Depp, Keira Knightly and Orlando Bloom all have dyslexia. Pablo Picasso's teachers described him as “having difficulty differentiating the orientation of letters”.
According to UMHS, the following conditions can present similar symptoms and difficulties to dyslexia:
But if a child has a low IQ and additional problem with dyslexia, that just is going to mean that they're going to have even more difficulty learning to read. But knowing that, most people with dyslexia are, at least, average or above-average IQ. So, it is not related to intelligence at all.
Confusing similar looking letters and words
Common mistakes when reading and spelling are mixing up b's and d's, or similar looking words such as 'was' and 'saw', 'how' and 'who'. Letters and numbers can be written back-to-front or upside down.
Establish a routine
Dyslexic learners may find it difficult to maintain concentration for long periods of time and may get tired quickly, so it's a good idea to create a routine which emphasises 'a little and often' rather than trying to squeeze too much work into a longer session.
Confusion between left and right. Struggling with tasks like tying shoes. Mixing up sounds and syllables in long words. Trouble memorizing important things like their address or phone number.
Research by the University of Strathclyde has found that people with dyslexia are much better at being curious and exploring new ideas and more likely to be found in careers where this is an advantage, such as art, media, architecture, creativity, engineering and inventing things!
You see the beginning of a word and your brain jumps forward to fill in the rest. Or there's skipping whole lines or paragraphs because your eyes don't track right. It's why one of the most valuable dyslexic "hacks" is catching when a thing stops making sense like "that's not quite right..."
Actress Jennifer Aniston has publicly shared that she was diagnosed with dyslexia in her 20s, a diagnosis that explained lifelong struggles with reading, writing, and retaining information, leading her to believe she wasn't smart until discovering the learning disorder. She discovered this during an eye exam, where she realized her eyes jumped words when reading, and the diagnosis helped her understand past difficulties, transforming her self-perception.
Ryan Gosling has accumulated praise for movies like The Notebook, La La Land, and Barbie. However, behind this fame, his life's story was full of bravery. The Hollywood hunk faced dyslexia and Adhd as a kid. School was difficult, and bullying made it worse.
Some of these successful entrepreneurs, such as Richard Branson and Charles Schwab, credit their success to dyslexia as one of the contributing factors that lead to the development of their innovative thinking and their remarkable success.
Do you:
Creative thinking
Dyslexic individuals often excel in creative fields like art, design and storytelling. Our brains are wired to think visually, making us great at generating unique ideas and seeing connections where others might not.
For example, many individuals with dyslexia are right-brain dominant. The right and left hemispheres of the brain are organized in a slightly different way. On the right, cells are more evenly distributed (versus in clusters).
Albert Einstein was dyslexic. Like many of the world's 7.5 million children with learning disabilities he was thought to be unintelligent by his teachers. Fortunately, his parents placed him in a special school where he was taught in accordance with his disability.
Woodrow Wilson, 1856-1924, (learning disability)
28th President of the United States from 1913-1921 who is known to have a (learning disability) (dyslexia).
Singer and songwriter Robbie Williams is known for being open about the challenges he's faced – as seen in the 2024 film based on his life, Better Man – and he's no different when talking about his dyscalculia and dyslexia.