Reading and Writing Disorder : Dyslexia

Unraveling the roots of dyslexia

By peering into the brains of people with dyslexia compared to normal readers, a study published online on March 12th in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication, has shed new light on the roots of the learning disability, which affects four to ten percent of the population. The findings support the notion that the reading and spelling deficit—characterized by an inability to break words down into the separate sounds that comprise them—stems in part from a failure to properly integrate letters with their speech sounds.

“The adults with dyslexia in the study had enough reading experience to match letters and their speech sounds correctly,” said Vera Blau of the University of Maastricht, The Netherlands “Still, the results show that the way their brain integrates letters and speech sounds is very different from normal readers. It’s quite astonishing.”

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-03/cp-utr030509.php

Dyslexia, What does it mean?

Like most big and scary words in the English language, Dyslexia comes from Greek.

The word dyslexia is derived from the Greek “dys” (meaning poor or inadequate) and “lexis” (words or language). The word dyslexia therefore means ‘difficulty with words’.

Coming from a Greek backround myself, I was always told I needed to learn more “lexis” (words) as a child.

Here at the ripe young age of 36, I am still told the same :(.

Although my grasp of the Greek language has gotten much better over time, my grasp is still small.

More on this later….

For now just remember those crazy fun loving Greeks who were the authors of western civilization have given us yet another word to chalk in.

Dyslexia.