dysTalk Dyslexia Myths - Talks - dysTalk

About the speaker: Dr Valerie Muter is a consultant clinical psychologist at Great Ormond Street Hospital where she specialises in working with children with both developmental and neurologically based learning disorders. Visit Val's website at www.psykidz.co.uk.

Further information about this Talk

Further Reading:

Visit Val's website at www.psykidz.co.uk.

To get hold of Valerie Muter's and Helen Likierman's latest book on how parents can help with dyslexia, dyspraxia and related learning difficulties please click here.

Key Points Covered in This Talk:

• Commonly asked questions about dyslexia:
  - Can you tell children have dyslexia from the types of spelling errors made?It is a myth that you can spot a dyslexic from the type of spelling errors made. Research (from Rebecca Treiman) shows that there is no difference in terms of the type of spelling errors made by children with dyslexia and those without dyslexia who have a comparable reading age.
  - Do all children with dyslexia have exceptional talents? This is also a myth. While there are many successful dyslexics (eg Richard Rogers, the architect; Richard Branson, the entrepreneur; A.A. Gill, the journalist) there is no reason to believe that dyslexics have more exceptional talents than the rest of the population.
  - Is dyslexia more common in boys than girls? Many more boys are effected by dyslexia. This is true of many learning difficulties such as language problems, dyspraxia, attention problems or autism. In the case of dyslexia the ratio is 4 or 5 times as many boys are effected as girls.
  - Is dyslexia more common in left-handers? The epidemiological population studies suggest left-handedness is not associated with dyslexia.
• What is dyslexia? A specific learning difficulty that selectively impacts on progress in learning to read and spell. Dyslexia runs in families and therefore appears to be genetically determined. Extensive research shows that it is a language based disorder to do with children having problems in being able to analyse speech sounds in words. Dyslexics can't easily break words into sounds and as a result they find it hard to learn about phonics in reading. They therefore have problems with reading and spelling. Dyslexia commonly co-occurs with other learning difficulties such as language problems, attention problems and dyspraxia.