It was only after the release of the wonderfully sensitive 2007 Hindi movie “Taare Zameen Par” (directed and enacted by Aamir Khan) that India as a country was first made conscious of an existence of a neurological disorder called “Dyslexia”. Now the pertinent questions to be asked are: what is dyslexia, what are its symptoms, how does one identify this condition and, what is the remedy for such a condition. The answers to these questions are as given below
- What is Dyslexia?
Dyslexia is essentially a neurological disorder that is characterized by trouble with reading despite an individual possessing normal intelligence. It is essentially a cognitive disorder. It is thought to have been caused due to lack of language processing and visual processing in a human. This disorder consist of two types i.e. genetic (hereditary) which is the most common and acquired (stroke/trauma). With the genetic type occurring during birth and the acquired type developing late in adulthood due to factors such as trauma or stroke. This disorder has also been found to occur more commonly in individuals suffering from ADHD i.e. Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder with, about 15% of dyslexic individuals suffering from ADHD and 35% of those with ADHD suffering from dyslexia.
- What are the symptoms of Dyslexia?
The common symptoms of this disorder include delayed onset of speech, difficulty in distinguishing left from right, difficulty with directions, and easily getting distracted by background noise. It has also been observed that school children affected by dyslexia have difficulty in identifying or generating rhyming words. Other common symptoms include inability to retrieve words or name things. Dyslexics are also found to be poor at spelling and this condition is known as “dysgraphia or dysorthographia”.
- How to identify Dyslexia?
Now Dyslexia is a condition that can be cured but for a remedy to be found this condition needs to be identified first. And for identification there are a number of diagnostic tests available such as Central Dyslexia, Surface Dyslexia, Phonological Dyslexia and Deep Dyslexia. These tests eventually will then help you confirm whether your child is dyslexic or not. And thereby allow you to focus on the remedy for your child. So it is important that as soon as you suspect your child is suffering from Dyslexia that these tests mentioned above must be undertaken.
- What is the remedy for this condition?
The remedy for this neurological condition essentially should be “Education oriented”. Since this condition basically involves an inability to read i.e. it is a reading disorder. Also it is highly unlikely that medicines or counselling can ever help cure this condition. So the focus should be on increasing your child’s (if affected by dyslexia) awareness relating to his/her correspondences between graphemes (letters) and phonemes (sound). There is also some evidence that certain types of specially created fonts can help reduce the effects of dyslexia. These special fonts include Dyslexie, OpenDyslexic and Lexia Readable. Additionally, removing stress and anxiety from an individual suffering from dyslexia can also help in improving the condition.
Although dyslexia is a serious neurological disorder it can be cured and so one must not worry too much. And so if your child happens to be affected by this condition all one needs to do is to show a lot of care and patience. Simply, due to the fact that it is “care and patience” and not medical intervention that is the actual remedy to this neurological condition.
