To a dyslexic person, text can appear jumbled, blurry, or physically moving (shaking, swirling, jumping), with letters seeming to flip, swap places (like b/d, p/q), or look like a jumble of shapes, making it hard to track words, sound them out, or remember what was read, often causing eye strain or headaches. The experience varies but often involves visual distortions and difficulty linking letters to sounds.
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.
Most punctuation may be missing or incorrect. Dyslexic individuals will often not capitalize proper nouns or the first letter in a sentence. Sentences may all seem to blend together since periods and commas are often left out.
Characteristics of dyslexia-friendly fonts include: The heavier bottom portion of letters, helps to indicate direction. Wider letter spacing to reduce crowding. Distinct letter shapes prevent confusion between similar-looking letters such as 'b' and 'd'.
Symptoms of dyslexia in children aged 5 to 12 include:
Comic Sans
Often debated in design, Comic Sans has rounded, evenly spaced characters that support reading comfort, especially for ADHD and dyslexic readers.
This sharp contrast can produce a glare that makes words harder to read and can make reading long pages of text tiring. Use dark coloured text on a light (but not white) background. This will make written content more dyslexic friendly.
While there are various ways to classify dyslexia, four commonly discussed types focus on specific reading challenges: Phonological Dyslexia (sound-letter connection), Surface Dyslexia (whole-word recognition), Rapid Naming Dyslexia (speedy identification), and Double Deficit Dyslexia (a combination of phonological and rapid naming issues). These types highlight different core difficulties, from sounding out words to recognizing them quickly, and help guide tailored support strategies.
Bill Gates, one of the richest people in the world didn't let his dyslexia hold him back.
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.
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”.
Some common dyslexia symptoms in teens and adults include:
General signs to look for are:
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.
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!
A: While both autism and dyslexia are neurodevelopmental disorders, they are distinct conditions with different core symptoms. There is no direct causal connection between autism and dyslexia, but they may co-occur in some individuals.
The BDA Level 7 Diploma in Dyslexia Assessment and Intervention (AMBDA and AMBDA FE/HE) provides training for individuals who already hold ATS/APS (or equivalent) and have a professional interest in assessment for dyslexia.
Vision, Reading, and Spelling:
Visual stress can co-occur with other additional needs, such as dyslexia, autism and ADHD. Therefore, it may be wise for teachers to opt for non-black, but highly pigmented whiteboard pens, such as blue, brown or purple ones.
Layout
You may notice the pqbd symbol featured on our graphics. It is a symbol for dyslexia awareness created by Rebecca Warner, founding member of Decoding Dyslexia Virginia. The logo is created with the letters p, q, b, and d, and is symbolic of letter reversal, an issue that many people with dyslexia experience.
Fonts such as Times New Roman and Georgia are Serif fonts. However, Serif fonts are known to be more difficult to read if you are dyslexic. Instead, fonts that are Sans Serif, without the little marks, are a much better choice.
The 10-3 rule for ADHD is a productivity strategy involving 10 minutes of focused work followed by a 3-minute break, designed to match the ADHD brain's need for short bursts of effort, making tasks less overwhelming and procrastination easier to manage by building momentum with quick, structured intervals. It helps individuals with ADHD ease into tasks, offering a tangible goal (10 mins) and an immediate reward (3 mins) to keep focus without burnout, often incorporating movement or preferred activities during breaks.
Dyslexia is a common learning difficulty that mainly causes problems with reading, writing and spelling. It's a specific learning difficulty, which means it causes problems with certain abilities used for learning, such as reading and writing.