Dyslexia a definition:

There are many definitions of dyslexia. A very simple one would be that dyslexia is a specific learning difficulty which makes it hard for some people to learn to read, write and spell correctly.

The Dyslexia Association of Ireland defines dyslexia as a specific learning difficulty affecting the acquisition of fluent and accurate reading and spelling skills. This occurs despite access to appropriate learning opportunities. Dyslexia is characterised by cognitive difficulties in (1) phonological processing, (2) working memory, and (3) speed of retrieval of information from long term memory.

 Dyslexic difficulties occur on a continuum from mild to severe and affect approximately 10% of the population. People with dyslexia may experience greater stress and frustration as they endeavour to learn, resulting in heightened anxiety, particularly in relation to literacy acquisition. It is important to remember that people with dyslexia will also have accompanying learning strengths.

The Report of the Task Force on Dyslexia (2001) suggests that the learning difficulties arising from dyslexia:

• occur across the lifespan, and may manifest themselves in different ways at different ages;
• may co-exist with difficulties in the area of numbers;
• may be associated with early spoken language difficulties;
• may be alleviated by appropriate intervention;
• increase or reduce in severity depending on environmental factors;
• occur in all socio-economic groups;
• may co-exist with other learning difficulties such as Attention Deficit Disorder, and may or may not represent a primary difficulty.

Indicators of Dyslexia:

When looking at the lists of indicators, remember the following:

• No child will have all the indicators.
• Many children will have several of the indicators.
• Some indicators are more common than others.
• The number of indicators observed does not indicate whether the dyslexia is mild, moderate or severe. 
• Everyone has strengths and weaknesses so children who do not have dyslexia will relate to a few of these signs however people who have dyslexia will tend to relate to a significant number of the following indicators.

Indicators of possible dyslexia:

• Difficulty with reading aloud.
• Difficulty with reading unfamiliar material.
• Tendency to mispronounce or misread words.
• Slow pace of reading.
• Reading for information only, not for pleasure.
• Understanding more easily when listening than when reading.
• Difficulty with spelling.
• Finding it hard to visualise words, or remember the sequence of letters in a word.
• Difficulty with sentence construction and punctuation.
• Difficulty putting information on paper.
• Difficulty in spotting mistakes made in written work.
• Finding it easier to express thoughts in words than in writing.
• Underachieving in school particularly in exams.
• Having immature or poorly formed handwriting.
• Tendency to be clumsy and uncoordinated.
• Confusing left and right.
• Finding it hard to remember things in sequence.
• Difficulty in remembering new information or new names.
• Getting phone messages wrong.
• Confusion with times and dates and appointments.
• Getting phone numbers wrong by perhaps reversing digits.
• Making ‘silly’ mistakes in calculations.
• Having ‘good’ days and ‘bad’ days.
• Poor short-term memory.
• Having close family members with dyslexia.

Assessment:

Parents who suspect a problem should take action. If left undetected dyslexia or dyscalculia may stop a child from mastering the basics of reading, writing and arithmetic, damage self-esteem and self-confidence and have negative long-term effects.

An Educational Psychology Assessment is done by an educational psychologist and is a way to get a definitive assessment of dyslexia or dyscalculia. The dyslexia assessment includes testing of cognitive abilities as well as literacy skills. For a dyscalculia assessment various numeracy skills and cognitive ability are tested.  The educational psychologist also needs to get relevant background information from parents, individuals and school. Conclusions are made based on a combination of the history reported and the performance on the tests.

The assessment session varies in length, but on average you can expect to be with the educational psychologist for between 2½ to 3 hours.  A detailed written report is supplied a few weeks after the assessment, which contains relevant history, test results, conclusions and most importantly recommendations for addressing any areas of difficulty which emerged.

Parents who suspect a problem should:

• Contact the child’s school, which may agree that a problem exists.
• Have the child’s hearing and sight tested to ensure that there are no acuity problems.
• Arrange for an Educational Psychology Assessment with a qualified educational psychologist. This should describe the nature and extent of the problem and provide recommendations for useful help.  Before attending for assessment, make a list of the child’s earlier and current problems and take it along.  A teacher’s report is always very helpful in this process.

There are generally 3 ways to get an assessment in Ireland – with the Dyslexia Association of Ireland or with an Independent Private Educational Psychologist.

1. For details on the Dyslexia Association of Ireland Educational Psychology Assessment service please visit their Assessment page.

2. There are also many independent private educational psychologists, throughout the country.  A list of registered psychologists can be obtained from the Psychological Society of Ireland’s website at www.psihq.ie, by emailing the Society at [email protected]or by writing to the Psychological Society of Ireland, Floor 2, Grantham House, Grantham Street, Dublin 2.  Charges vary between €500 and €800 on average.
3. The National Educational Psychological Service (NEPS) advise and consult with schools working with students who have Additional Educational Needs. They offer a very limited number of assessments and often only for students with very severe difficulties.

NOTE: Tax relief on the assessment fee of a dependent child is allowable via the MED1 Form. Visit the revenue website www.revenue.ie and see the section on tax relief for health expenses for further information. You can download a MED1 form from the Revenue website or get one from your local tax office.

Preparing a Child for an Assessment

Having an assessment with a psychologist should be a pleasant event in a child’s life.  Some common-sense points to help ensure a good assessment experience are listed below.

• Choose your educational psychologist carefully to ensure that they have the appropriate qualifications and are familiar with specific learning difficulties
• Find out as much as you can about the assessment procedure in advance – the more informed you are the more relaxed you will be and this will be beneficial to the child.
• Be as honest and frank as you can.
• Tell the child why you are visiting an educational psychologist, i.e. because the child is having some difficulty with reading, writing, spelling, maths, etc.
• Present it in the most positive way you can – as something you have arranged especially so that you can help.
• Explain what the educational psychologist will do, i.e. they will talk to the child about school, ask questions, do certain tasks like jigsaws, finding missing parts, do some reading and spelling.
• Explain that this is not an exam. The child cannot fail. The educational psychologist will only be interested in finding out how the child thinks and learns.
• Tell your child where you are going, at what time and how long it will take.
• Try to ensure that the child is well rested.
• Bring a nutritious snack if necessary.
• If possible, build in a little treat afterwards.
• After the assessment, the educational psychologist will probably give you some brief feedback. Using your own good judgement, tell the child, as simply as possible, what the educational psychologist said, always stressing the most positive things. If you are anxious or upset about what you have been told, wait until you are feeling more positive before saying very much to your child.

Co-occurring Conditions:

Dyslexia and many other learning difficulties do not always occur in isolation.  It is quite common for an individual to have co-occurring conditions.  This can create challenges for accurate diagnosis.  However, appropriate identification of all the educational needs of an individual is vital as this enables the implementation of a range of suitable interventions.

Conditions which can sometimes co-occur with dyslexia are:

• Dyscalculia is a specific learning difficulty in learning and comprehending mathematics.

• Dysgraphia is a specific learning difficulty affecting a person’s ability to write.   Dysgraphia Statement DAI 20170825

• Dyspraxia or Developmental Co-ordinator Disorder (DCD) is a specific difficulty with movement and aspects of learning such as thinking out, planning and carrying out sensory / motor tasks.

• ADD and ADHD (Attention Deficit Disorder, with or without Hyperactivity) is a condition causing persistent difficulties with one or more of the following behaviours: inattention, hyperactivity and impulsivity.

• Asperger Syndrome is a pervasive developmental disorder at the high functioning end of the Autistic Spectrum which can cause significant difficulties with social interaction, communication and flexible thinking.

• Specific Language Impairment (SLI) affects communication. Often there are difficulties in language comprehension, expressive language, using language in everyday situations and speech-sound difficulties.

Strengths and Abilities;

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1. Seeing the bigger picture

People with dyslexia often see things more holistically.
They miss the trees but see the forest.

“It’s as if people with dyslexia tend to use a wide-angle lens to take in the world,
while others tend to use a telephoto, each is best at revealing different kinds of detail.”
Matthew H. Schneps, Harvard University

2. Finding the odd one out

People with dyslexia excel at global visual processing and the detection of impossible figures. Dyslexic scientist Christopher Tonkin described his unusual sensitivity to “things out of place.” Scientists in his line of work must make sense of enormous quantities of visual data and accurately find black hole anomalies.

There are so many people with dyslexia in the field of astrophysics that it prompted research at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. Findings confirmed that those with dyslexia are better at identifying and memorizing complex images.

3. Improved pattern recognition

People with dyslexia have the ability to see how things connect to form complex systems, and to identify similarities among multiple things. Such strengths are likely to be of particular significance for fields like science and mathematics, where visual representations are key.

“I recognized that I had dyslexia and then I realized I had this gift for imaging. I live in a world of patterns and images, and I see things that no one else sees. Because of dyslexia, I can see these patterns.”

“You can’t overcome it (dyslexia); you can work around it and make it work for you, but it never goes away. That’s probably a good thing, because if dyslexia went away, then the other gifts would go away too.”

Beryl Benacerraf, M.D., Physician. World-renowned radiologist and expert in ultrasound.

4. Good spatial knowledge

Many people with dyslexia demonstrate better skills at manipulating 3D objects in their mind. Many of the world’s top architects and fashion designers have dyslexia.

“I was called stupid. Not only could I not read, but I couldn’t memorize my school work. I was always at the bottom of the class. I became very depressed.”
Richard Rogers

“I performed poorly at school – when I attended, that is – and was perceived as stupid because of my dyslexia. I still have trouble reading. I have to concentrate very hard at going left to right, left to right, otherwise my eye just wanders to the bottom of the page.”
Tommy Hilfiger

5. Picture Thinkers

People with dyslexia tend to think in pictures rather than words. Research at the University of California has demonstrated children with dyslexia have enhanced picture recognition memory.

Nineteenth-century French sculptor, Auguste Rodin, could stare at paintings in museums by day and paint them from memory at night. His dyslexia meant he could barely read or write by the age of 14, with his reading skills developing much later.

6. Sharper peripheral vision

People with dyslexia have better peripheral vision than most, meaning they can quickly take in a whole scene. Although it can be hard to focus in on individual words, dyslexia seems to make it easier to see outer edges. James Howard Jr., a professor of psychology at the Catholic University of America, described in the journal Neuropsychologia an experiment in which participants were asked to pick out the letter T from a sea of letter L’s floating on a computer screen. Those with dyslexia identified the letter more quickly.

7. Business entrepreneurs

Did you know that one in three American entrepreneurs have dyslexia?
Entrepreneurs like Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Steve Jobs and Charles Schwab were all dyslexic. Perhaps better strategic and creative thinking could provide a real business advantage.

“I seemed to think in a different way from my classmates. I was very focused on trying to set up a business and create something. My dyslexia guided the way we communicated with customers.”
Richard Branson

8. Highly creative

Many of the world’s most creative actors have dyslexia, such as Johnny Depp, Keira Knighltly and Orlando Bloom.

“Many of the super creative designers I have worked with seemed
to have one thing in common; they suffered from dyslexia.”
Soren Petersen, Design Research PH.d

Pablo Picasso (Artist)
Picasso was described by his teachers as “having difficulty differentiating the orientation of letters”. Picasso painted his subjects as he saw them – sometimes out of order, backwards or upside down. His paintings demonstrated the power of his imagination, which was perhaps linked to his the inability to see written words properly.

9. Thinking outside the box – problem solving

Those with dyslexia are well known for having sudden leaps of insight that solve problems with an unorthodox approach.
This is an intuitive approach to problem solving that can seem like daydreaming. Staring out of the window is how dyslexics work, letting their brain slide into neutral and ease itself around a problem to let connections assemble.

But don’t even try convincing a teacher that staring out of the window is how your brain works!