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Disability awareness > Module 4 > Page 6

 

Disability - understanding the issues

Specific learning disability (Dyslexia)

Dyslexia is a condition that affects up to 8 per cent of the population. More significantly, it affects over 30 per cent of third level students with disabilities. The number of students with dyslexia is increasing at third level. The following pages look at what dyslexia is and what the educational implications are.

What is dyslexia?

The Government taskforce on Dyslexia 2002 defines dyslexia as: ‘A continuum of specific learning difficulties manifested by problems in acquiring one or more basic skills (reading, spelling, writing, numbers).'

People with dyslexia can assimilate and understand information but have difficulty in transforming what they know into written language. The learning deficits at the core of dyslexia are persistent from early age through adulthood.

Dyslexia cannot be cured but with proper intervention, many people with dyslexia can develop strategies to enable them to cope and succeed.

The majority of people with dyslexia will have developed learning strategies and will be able to cope with the demands of everyday life.

Dyslexia is commonly found in people of average or above average intelligence.

Implications for education

The basic problems for a person with dyslexia relate to:

• reading: People with dyslexia have problems learning to read. They are likely to be slow at reading and sensitive when it comes to misreading. They are likely to experience difficulties with low frequency words and word recognition.
• spelling: Most people with dyslexia spell words as they sound without having a visual image of the word.
• memory: Almost all of the characteristics associated with dyslexia are associated with poor short-term memory.
• note-taking: Because of the above difficulties, people with dyslexia may find it difficult to keep up with lectures. They may also experience problems in taking notes quickly during tutorials.

People with dyslexia frequently demonstrate particular aptitudes in the areas of science, engineering, draughtsmanship and spatial tasks in general. A person with a good level of intelligence can reach high levels of achievement in these areas.

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