Symptoms
Dyslexia is typically considered a spectrum disorder with symptoms ranging from very mild to very severe.
Symptoms of dyslexia range from the presumed difficulty in reading and writing varying to the less typical symptoms such as, bed wetting above the normal age and having either extra high or low pain threshold.
In particular, people with dyslexia have difficulties with:
* phonological awareness
* verbal memory
* verbal processing speed
These terms are explained in more detail below.
Phonological awareness
Phonological awareness is thought to be a key skill in early reading and spelling development. It is the ability to identify how words are made up of smaller units of sound, known as phonemes. Changes in the sounds that make up words can lead to changes in their meaning.
For example, a child with a good level of phonological awareness would understand that if you change the letter ‘p’ in the word ‘pat’ to ‘s’, the word would become ‘sat’.
Verbal memory
Verbal memory is the ability to remember a sequence of verbal information for a short period of time.
For example, the ability to remember a short list such as ‘red, blue, green’, or a set of simple instructions, such as ‘put on your gloves and your hat, find the lead for the dog, and then go to the park’.
Verbal processing speed
Verbal processing speed is the time that it takes to process and recognise familiar verbal information, such as letters and digits.
For example, your verbal processing speed is the time that it takes you to look at the following numbers and letters - ‘B’, ‘B,’ ‘C’, 1’, and then realise that the information relates to the name of the television channel BBC1.
Dyslexia and intelligence
Although dyslexia is classified a learning difficulty, there is no evidence for a relation between dyslexia and a child’s intelligence. Children and adults of varying intellectual abilities - from low to high intelligence can be equally affected by dyslexia.
Furthermore, the child or adult suffering with dyslexia may also have many symptoms which are not necessarily negative. A lot of dyslexic people will have very good long term memory and may be talented in a discipline such as music or art.
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