What is dyslexia?
Dyslexia is an inherited neurological condition, which affects a child’s ability to develop literacy skills. Between 5 and 10% of the population is dyslexic to some degree. It is a condition, which lasts for life, although it can be successfully ‘treated’ with appropriate specialist teaching.
A dyslexic child will have difficulties in some or all of the following at school:
- Reading
- Writing
- Spelling
- Learning a foreign language
- Maths
- Musical notation
Other areas of difficulty may include remembering instructions, organisational skills and generally ‘finding his/her way around’.
There is evidence that dyslexia has positive advantages too. Dyslexics are often highly creative and excel in visual thinking. There are many dyslexic artists, engineers, entrepreneurs and sports personalities and actors: Walt Disney, Albert Einstein, Pablo Picasso, Sir Jackie Stewart, Duncan Goodhew, Sir Steve Redgrave and Susan Hampshire, to name a few.