Behavior issues with dyslexia often stem from frustration, low self-esteem, and anxiety due to reading difficulties, leading to acting out, avoidance tactics (like being the class clown or disruptive), procrastination, anger, withdrawal, short tempers, or perfectionism, as individuals try to cope with academic struggles and feeling inadequate compared to peers, sometimes accompanied by co-occurring ADHD symptoms.
Children with dyslexia have negative emotions on self-image, peer and family relationships, and social interaction. As for social interaction, children with dyslexia lack social skills due to pressure or low self-esteem, and they have many problems with social adaptive behaviors and personality.
In reality, dyslexia can affect memory, organisation, time-keeping, concentration, multi-tasking and communication. Dyslexic people can experience processing overload and 'zone out', and often use time management tools such as the 'Pomodoro technique' or colour coded calendars to help manage this.
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.
Often forget conversations or important dates. Have difficulty with personal organisation, time management and prioritising tasks. Avoid certain types of work or study. Find some tasks really easy but unexpectedly challenged by others.
Many of the emotional problems caused by dyslexia occur out of frustration with school or social situations. Social scientists have frequently observed that frustration produces anger. This can be clearly seen in many children with dyslexia. Anger is also a common manifestation of anxiety and depression.
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).
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.
Challenges and strengths of 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”.
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.
Longitudinal data confirm that dyslexia is positively associated with stress and depressive symptoms in children, and the higher the DCCC scores, the more severe their symptoms of stress, anxiety, and depression were. The emotional symptoms can persist among dyslexic children.
The treatment of dyslexia is based on two main strategies: specific assistance with the impaired learning areas (reading and spelling) and psychotherapy for any coexisting psychological disturbance that may be present. Evaluated preventive strategies are available for use in kindergarten and at home.
Frequently has to re-read sentences in order to comprehend. Fatigues or becomes bored quickly while reading. Reliance on others (assistants, spouses, significant others) for written correspondence. Uncertainty with words, punctuation, and spelling when writing.
Vision, Reading, and Spelling:
Complains of dizziness, headaches or stomach aches while reading. Confused by letters, numbers, words, sequences, or verbal explanations. Reading or writing shows repetitions, additions, transpositions, omissions, substitutions, and reversals in letters, numbers and/or words.
Overview. Dyslexia is a learning disorder that involves difficulty reading due to problems identifying speech sounds and learning how they relate to letters and words (decoding). Also called a reading disability, dyslexia is a result of individual differences in areas of the brain that process language.
Children with dyslexia showed reduced quality of life, particularly in areas such as self-esteem and social relationships, with statistically significant differences (p < . 001). Additionally, they exhibited more behavioral problems, especially in aggression and anxiety.
People with dyslexia have the ability to see how things connect to form complex systems, and to identify similarities among multiple things. Such strengths are likely to be of particular significance for fields like science and mathematics, where pictures are key.
Oftentimes, parents fear that a dyslexia diagnosis indicates their child is less intelligent than their peers. Nevertheless, dyslexia is not exclusive to any particular level of intelligence; it can affect individuals with average, above-average, and highly gifted intellect.
General signs to look for are:
There are four types of dyslexia in common those are; Phonological dyslexia, surface dyslexia, rapid naming deficit, and double deficit dyslexia.
According to UMHS, the following conditions can present similar symptoms and difficulties to dyslexia: Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) Executive Dysfunction. Memory Impairments.
Babies and preschool
Even though most people do not read in preschool, children can demonstrate symptoms of dyslexia by the age of 3 years, or even earlier. All children learn how to talk in their own way and at their own pace. However, a delay in starting to speak can be an early sign of dyslexia.
5 things not to say to your child about dyslexia
No, dyslexia is not a form of ADHD; they are separate neurodevelopmental conditions, but they often co-occur (comorbid) because they share some symptoms like attention issues and can affect similar brain functions, though their core problems differ: dyslexia is a language-based learning disorder, while ADHD involves inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity. Many people have both, making proper assessment crucial for targeted support, as dyslexia impacts reading/language processing, while ADHD broadly affects executive functions like focus and self-regulation.