RELATED DIFFICULTIES

You may have come to this site not sure if your child is dyslexic, maybe they are not, but maybe one of the below describes them better. Remember though that a lot of these disabilities overlap with one another. So it is worth looking into them even if your child has already been diagnosed with one of them.

Dysorthography: Difficulty in learning to spell.

Attention Deficit Disorder: A syndrome of disordered learning and disruptive behaviour that is not caused by any serious underlying physical or mental disorder and that has several subtypes characterized primarily by symptoms of inattentiveness or primarily by symptoms of hyperactivity and impulsive behaviour (as in speaking out of turn) or by the significant expression of all three-abbreviations ADD/ADHD; also called minimal brain dysfunction.

Dyscalculia: Impairment of mathematical ability due to an organic condition of the brain.

Dysgraphia: Difficulty in learning the physical act of writing.

Dyspraxia: Partial loss of the ability to perform coordinated movements.

Visual Stress: Visual stress (sometimes called ‘Meares-Irlen Syndrome’ or ‘Scotopic Sensitivity Syndrome’) is the experience of unpleasant visual symptoms when reading, especially for prolonged periods. Symptoms include illusions of shape, movement and colour in the text, distortions of the print, loss of print clarity, and general visual irritation. Visual stress can also cause sore eyes, headaches, frequent loss of place when reading, and impaired comprehension.

Hyperlexia: An unusual language disorder in which individuals have precocious reading abilities. Four parameters are: precocious reading ability, peculiar language learning disorders, problems in social interpersonal development, and developmental histories. Hyperlexia has characteristics similar to autism, behaviour disorder, language disorder, emotional disorder, Attention Deficit Disorder, hearing impairment, giftedness or, paradoxically, mental retardation.

USEFUL LINKS

Here are a few sites that might be worth you checking out if you want to learn more about dyslexia.

Free on-line video by Susan Barton on What is Dyslexia.

www.dys-add.com

www.bartonreading.com

www.diin.org/what_is_dyslexia

www.susanbarton.com

www.dyslexiascotland.org.uk

www.dyslexiaaction.org.uk

www.xtraordinarypeople.com

www.bdadyslexia.org.uk 

www.thedyslexiashop.co.uk

www.dyslexia.com