Dyslexia affects over 6million people in the UK and can make school life very difficult, writes Stacey Topley.
Take yourself back to when you were sat in a classroom and you were asked to write a creative story then read it out in front of all of your peers – scary thought? Well, put yourself in the shoes of someone with diagnosed, or even undiagnosed, dyslexia.
Words are mixed up or appear backwards, the pattern of the words or numbers become jumbled, and the writing on the page may seem blurry or unclear. These are the most common signs and traits of someone with dyslexia and they make reading and participating in a classroom environment, filled with other children who aren’t familiar with the learning disorder, very difficult.
For this reason school life can be detrimental to some children with dyslexia and can ruin their self-esteem, leading to major confidence issues later on in life.
Prior to the 1970s people used to refer to dyslexia as ‘word blindness’ and wrongly thought of it as being a problem with sight. However, during the 70s it was discovered that it was actually more to do with language processing, but this wasn’t identified as the root feature of dyslexia until a mere 20 years ago.
Up until a few years ago when dyslexia became more well-known and understood, teachers would often just dismiss children in their class as lazy, slow or thick, without taking extra measures to find out if something was the cause of their behaviour, leaving many children undiagnosed and without the support and help they needed.
Here in the UK more than 6 million people are affected by the spectrum disorder and it is thought to affect 1 in 10, according to NHS Choices. However, there are enforced laws in place that states both schools and workplaces have a duty to make realistic changes and alterations so that employees and students are not at a disadvantage.
A survey conducted by Dyslexia Action showed that over half of the parents asked, who have children with the disorder, said that their condition was causing a negative experience for them at school. So even now, with extensive research and awareness, students are still suffering in the classroom.
How does dyslexia affect people?
The main areas that are effected by dyslexia are:
Broadly speaking the speed at which people with dyslexia process information is significantly slower and therefore makes studying and learning a lot more difficult than it is for others.
One of the biggest hurdles therefore for children and adults with the spectrum disorder is education. Going back to the survey by Dyslexia Action, 9 out of 10 of the parents surveyed expressed that teachers should be given specific training in order to teach their children correctly. This is a staggering statistic, showing that the majority of parents to children with dyslexia think they are not being taught in a way that is beneficial to their way of learning, because at the end of the day, that’s what it is – a different way of learning.
Progress has been made in some ways though. As technology has advanced there have been developments in aids and tools to help people to learn and take notes. Highlighter pens that can hover over text books and documents so that users can later on listen to the words that have been highlighted, dot paper and screen overlays that alter the background colour of a screen, all help to make it learning and absorbing information easier for people with dyslexia.
Although these tools are not necessarily provided in schools, they are widely available and will help students both in the classroom and when studying at home. There are also a range of specialist dyslexia schools up and down the UK that are set-up to cater for dyslexic students which will provide children with the attention and support they need.
Although these advancements have been made it is still important to raise awareness and educate people on dyslexia.
National Dyslexia Awareness Week starts from Monday 3rd to Sunday 9th November.
Stacey Topley is the content assistant for Ebuyer.com, which created an infographic for dyslexia awareness week.
