Dyslexia

Chapter 1
THE PROBLEM
Introduction
Dyslexia is a learning disorder that manifests itself as a difficulty with reading, spelling and in some cases mathematics. It is separate and distinct from reading difficulties resulting from other causes, such as a non-neurological deficiency with vision or hearing, or from poor or inadequate reading instruction.
It is thought to be the result of a neurological defect, and though not an intellectual disability, it is variously considered a learning disability, a language disability, and a reading disability, among others. Dyslexia is diagnosed in people of all level of intelligence.
Dyslexic children read significantly below their mental ability. A smaller number of these children may be found to have learning disability. Most professionals tend to use the term reading disability to refer to a significant discrepancy in reading, irrespective of a cause. The term learning disability is used to refer to a discrepancy that is not caused by vision, hearing, or motor handicaps: mental retardation; emotional disturbance; or environmental disadvantage, but rather by a presumed underlying neurological difficulty.
The World Health Organization labels dyslexia a “specific reading disorder” and other sources label it a “specific language disorder”. However, a central feature of all definitions is an unexpected and substantial difficulty in learning to read. The lack of a commonly accepted definition of dyslexia has caused some educators, physicians, and researchers to avoid using the term altogether. Because there is no clear and widely held definition of the problem, estimates of the number of persons with dyslexia vary widely. Most researchers have suggested that dyslexia is rare. However, those arguing for the higher incidence levels also suggest that dyslexia can appear in differing levels of intensity, affecting the reading achievement of some individuals more than others. Dyslexia is usually identified during childhood,... [continues]

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