What are the symptoms of dyslexia? Is it curable?

Dyslexia is part dys disorders. This is a ability to read disorderor difficulty recognizing and reproducing written language (reading and writing). This learning disability has nothing to do with intelligence. Dyslexia is usually spotted in childhood, during schooling but it can persist into adulthood. How does dyslexia manifest? What are symptoms in children? The adult? What are the causes that can explain dyslexia? Is it that can dyslexia be cured?

Definition: what is dyslexia?

“Dyslexia East brain dysfunction affecting the acquisition and automation of writing and reading. It results mainly in a slowness in written language and in confusion of sounds and letters.“, explains Dr. Aude Charollais, neuropediatrician at the University Hospital of Rouen. It concerns about 10% of the populationand it hits more easily boys than girls. There are more left-handers among dyslexics. “Neurodevelopmental disorder of written language, dyslexia affects children whose intellectual activity is normal“, specifies the neuropediatrician. In other words, dyslexia is not a sign of a deficit of intelligence. three major forms of dyslexia : phonological dyslexia, surface dyslexia and mixed dyslexia.

What are the symptoms of dyslexia?

The most salient features of dyslexia include:

• Of the sound and visual confusion between letters whose spellings adjoin each other and which are symmetrical with respect to a vertical or even horizontal axis and inversions in the syllables such as pestacle for spectacle.
• A acquisition of difficult reading: the dyslexic person fails to correctly segment the language. The child finds himself literally disoriented among a nebula of sounds and signs, and lost in the rules of grammar.
• The dyslexic person is lost in space and timeit also confuses the top with the bottom, the left with the right.
• The dyslexic person has difficulty in concentrating and in memorization
• The dyslexic person makes mistakes on commonly used words, in other words, it is a question of adding or omitting letters to words.
• The dyslexic person demonstrates a lack of speed in all tasks and suffers from personal organization difficulties (bag, pencil case…)
• The dyslexic person may have difficulty counting from 2 to 2, for example, or difficulties in the number system. There is also an inconvenience in composing numbers.

What is phonological dyslexia?

Phonological dyslexia, or dysphonetic, is the most frequently observed. It is manifested by a difficulty for the subject to make a correspondence between the grapheme (letters BA) and the phoneme (sounds DA or syllable). We’re talking about a malfunction in the assembly line.

What is surface dyslexia?

Surface dyslexiaalso called dyseidetic dyslexia, is characterized by a difficulty in storing the image of a word (“photo” of a word that is not written as it is pronounced. For example: famous for woman”, specifies the neuropediatrician ) in the internal lexicon. We are talking about a malfunction at the level of the addressing channel.

What is mixed dyslexia?

Mixed dyslexia has a malfunction of the assembly lane and the addressing lane.

Can dyslexia only be detected in adulthood?

“Dyslexia may not be diagnosed until adulthood. Often, when it was not very severe or when the person compensated or, on the contrary, left the written learning early. Rehabilitation then allows the adult to compensate for his handicap and, in general, to quickly appropriate the computerized tools to be quickly autonomous. Dyslexia entitles you to adjustments (1/3 extra time, etc.) for all national exams and competitions“, notes the specialist.

What are the causes of dyslexia?

For several years, research has multiplied in France and abroad to understand the origin of dyslexia. “Many studies point to the genetic origin of dyslexia knowing that the risk of being dyslexic is greater if the parents are. Neuropsychological research evokes a neurodevelopmental disorder revealing itself early in discrete disorders of oral language and visual attention even before learning to read. Functional imaging studies show different reading neural networks with several anatomical particularities. These findings converge towards a neurodevelopmental disorder, within normal intelligence, which can be aggravated by an unsuitable reading method. The precise diagnosis associated with good rehabilitation allows the child to compensate and to see the goal of autonomy in written language in adulthood.“, explains the neuropediatrician.

Are there diagnostic tests for dyslexia?

Dyslexia is diagnosed when tests showing slow reading, great difficulty in assembling syllables to form the word, confusion of letters, and or pronunciation problems. The diagnosis of dyslexia is made only after observation of these disorders associated with a significant delay in learning. I’Speech Therapist performs various tests to detect the nature of dyslexia.

What is the treatment for dyslexia?

“There is no treatment, only support to reduce the incidence of this disorder. When you are dyslexic, we remain so all our life but this will only be seen in a learning task which will reveal the compensated errors. The person is again slow to learn and read and repeats spelling mistakes that they no longer made”says Dr. Aude Charollais.

“It is imperative to identify the dyslexic child as soon as possible. Sometimes, within a well-informed environment, the disorder can be spotted at the end of kindergarten. A poorly cared for dyslexic child can seriously alter his or her future“, warns the specialist. Not recognized in his difficulties, this one can develop behavioral problems (turbulent, unbearable or, on the contrary, passive). The child is aware of his intellectual abilities but he fails in assimilation. Failure is the result of a mismatch. Rehabilitation must be done with the help of a speech therapist, but often requires a multidisciplinary team (pedagogue, adapted psychotherapist, occupational therapist, etc.). The action of the parents remains essential in the accompaniment and the link with the different actors of the learning of their dyslexic child: help with schooling, emotional and psychological support. It is advisable to assist the speech therapist, by doing the exercises recommended by the latter.

Thanks to Dr Aude Charollais, neuropediatrician at the University Hospital of Rouen.