01 NRDC Dyslexia 1-88 update - Texthelp

134
Research Report
This definition is similar to the Bangor Dyslexia Unit’s definition of dyslexia (which is accessible
at www.dyslexia.bangor.ac.uk/what_is_dyslexia.html).
Or, alternatively,
The word ‘dyslexia’ has been coined from the Greek and literally means ‘difficulty with
words’. The old way of describing it was ‘word blindness’—an inability to read letters
and numbers in the right order—but that’s far from the whole picture.
Dyslexic people can experience difficulties with organisation and short-term memory. In
addition to problems with reading, spelling and writing, dyslexic people may:
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confuse directions, muddling left and right or up and down;
find it hard to remember a list, dates or times;
have difficulties following a sequence—days of the week or a map of the London
Underground, a-b-c, 1–2–3.
From ‘Dyslexia’, a BDA leaflet published in 1999.
Or, alternatively,
Dyslexia is thought by many researchers to be an organic difference in the learning
centre of the brain. Dyslexic people experience difficulty in processing language, both
written and oral. Many may also confuse directions, sequences, verbal labels, letters
and words or numbers that may look or sound similar. It tends to run in families.
There is more and more evidence gathered from brain imaging techniques that dyslexic
people process information differently from other people.
From ‘Reading Together’, a volunteer resource pack published by the BDA in 1999.
Note ‘There is no single brain center for reading, writing, or comprehension. There are
only networks of highly specific mechanisms dedicated to the individual operations that
comprise a complex task’ (page 133). Alfonso Caramazza, in Conversations in the
Cognitive Neurosciences. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
British Dyslexics
Our own simple definition of dyslexia is ‘intelligent, bright or even gifted individuals, that
for no obvious reason, struggle to learn through the medium of written or spoken
language’.
Accessed at www.dyslexia.uk.com on 4 October 2002.
Dyslexia Institute
Dyslexia causes difficulties in learning to read, write and spell. Short-term memory,
mathematics, concentration, personal organisation and sequencing may also be
affected.