What Are the Effects of Dyslexia?

Dyslexia is a learning disorder that causes a person to have difficulty with reading and other language skills. A person with dyslexia generally lacks the ability to interpret words on a page or chalkboard. The effects of dyslexia make learning challenging since a dyslexic person has trouble recognizing the relationship between letters or numbers and the visual symbols that represent them. This makes learning how to do mathematical operations and learning how to read, spell, and write extremely difficult. Although the presence of dyslexia does not indicate a lack of intelligence, some other effects of dyslexia are low self-esteem, discouragement, a sense of isolation, and stress since the dyslexic student sees other people easily learning and doing things that he must struggle with.

There are different forms of dyslexia, with some types being more severe than others. For example, the effects of dyslexia on people who have visual dyslexia manifest as difficulty in processing images, while the effects of dyslexia on people who have the auditory form of the disorder show as an inability to recognize sounds. Some dyslexics don’t have any trouble learning until the subject matter becomes more advanced, and are slower to be diagnosed, while others exhibit the symptoms of a learning disability as soon as they begin school.

It is common for visual dyslexics to reverse letters, numbers, or words, and to have trouble associating letters with words. There is another form of dyslexia which can accompany visual dyslexia and which affects the memory. This type is called dyseidetic dyslexia. The effects of dyslexia on a person who is dyseidetic results in the inability to remember numbers, letters, and words. Most people learn to recognize words by sight, but a person who has dyseidetic dyslexia doesn’t have the visual memory necessary to do this.

Dysgraphia is a form of dyslexia that manifests as the inability to hold a pencil and write the correct letters, words, or numbers. The effects of dysgraphia are sloppy printing and handwriting. There is also a type of dyslexia that results in learning difficulties due to delayed development.

The brain of a person with dyslexia is incapable of processing information the way that other people’s brains do. People with this disorder are often viewed as stupid by those who don’t understand the challenges of living with this disability, and this disparagement can increase the lack of self-confidence that generally accompanies dyslexia. There is no cure, but once it is diagnosed and the person receives the proper help, the effects of dyslexia can be lessened.