Is Reading Problem Dyslexia?

Question: To me, difficulty in reading raises a red flag. We have six children with varying degrees of dyslexia. They are all grown now and have managed to overcome it to a great extent, although their spelling would be extremely creative without the help of computer spell-check.

Schools tend not to recognize this problem and to be unhelpful, labeling the child as lazy or dumb. The worst affected of our children nearly failed because he could not read the assigned books. His teachers refused to believe me when I insisted that he was not lazy -- he was dyslexic.

Too often their parents also refuse to recognize the problem and don't want their children to think there is something wrong with them. The children KNOW there is something wrong. -- Consider Dyslexia

Answer: The term "dyslexia" is often used to cover all reading problems. However, not all reading problems are truly dyslexia. Children have difficulty reading for a variety of reasons, from vision to language processing problems to simply poor instruction. Some problems might just be minor glitches in learning to read that can be easily corrected.

The International Dyslexia Association defines dyslexia as a specific learning disability that is neurological in origin. According to the association, it is characterized by difficulties with accurate and/or fluent word recognition and by poor spelling and decoding abilities.

Unfortunately, when your children were in school, there was not as much attention paid to trying to resolve reading problems when they were first noticed. Today, schools have Response to Intervention -- a program that provides students with early assistance when they are having difficulty learning a skill such as reading.