All too often children are labeled as slow or stupid; they are put

All too often children are labeled as slow or stupid; they are put

aside into special classes for the slower kids and looked down upon

by the smarter kids.

All too often children are labeled as slow or stupid; they are put

aside into special classes for the slower kids and looked down upon by

the smarter kids. Teachers and parents look at them in disappointment

for the great potential they once saw in their child’s eyes has gone

to waste. Many teens that now believe that their stupidity is a truth

were once as young children, praised for their quick learning and

brightness. There must be an explanation for this. The explanation for

me along with many other kids is the learning disorder called

dyslexia.

I would like to give them a combination of the next to definitions. “A

complex neurological condition, the symptoms may effect many areas of

learning and function and may be described as a difficulty in reading,

spelling and written language” (Reid 2), as defined by The British

Dyslexia Association in 1997.

This is a common definition of dyslexia. The other definition of

dyslexia is “ an inherited neurological difference, resulting in

language, perception, processing, and attention concentration

deference’s” (Dyslexia Research Institute 1). Dyslexia is a serious

disorder that effects an “estimated 5 percent to 15 percent of

children” (UniSci 1).

This number is extremely high; yet many do not know the effects that

dyslexia has on the learning process and the emotional development of

children, or understands what dyslexia even is.

It has been found through research that dyslexia is a disorder

occurring in the brain. On the UniSci WebPages, it was stated that “an

issue of the American Journal of Neuroradiology provided evidence that

dyslexia is indeed a brain-based disorder” (1). Many tests and

researches have been done to prove and also further the discovery of

how the dyslexic brain works so that we may better understand it.

Researchers at the University of Washington found that “dyslexics were

using 4.6 times as much area of the brain or five times the brain area

to do the same language task as the other kids who were not dyslexic”

(UniSci 1). That translated means that “the dyslexic’s brain works

much harder and uses much more energy than that of a normal person”

(UniSci 1).

Also, the researchers found that the “difference between the dyslexic

person and a normal person relates to auditory language and not to

nonlinguistic auditory function” (UniSci 1). This was shown through a

study using six dyslexic boys and seven normal boys. “All of the boys

were fitted with earphones and asked to perform four tasks while their