Scottish
Disability
Team
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'Dyslexia' is often applied as a label without any real understanding of what it means. Some people think that if you are dyslexic it means you can't spell and you might be "a bit thick".
It may seem obvious to say this, but dyslexia has nothing to do with intelligence. Nor is being dyslexic simply about spelling difficulties, or not being able to read and write fluently.
Dyslexia describes a group of different but related factors which affect an individual throughout their life. Although there are many shared experiences, we are all individuals - and everyone who experiences dyslexia has a different experience. You may find that some of the statements about dyslexia which appear below describe your experiences better than others. Some of the statements may describe aspects of your past experience rather than your current understanding. Ultimately, if you are dyslexic, knowing what dyslexia means in both a general and an individual sense is very important because you will need to take ownership of this information.
This question can be answered in many different ways. Some of the possible responses to this complex question are given below:
These neurological differences have the effect of giving the dyslexic person a particular way of thinking and learning. This usually means that the dyslexic person has a pattern of cognitive abilities which shows areas of strengths and weaknesses.
You can read more about this in Section 4: Understanding your report.
These differences can be problematic in educational, work or cultural systems which are designed around the way that the non-dyslexic brain thinks and learns.
They can also be an asset, an advantage, in systems and disciplines where a range of strengths and approaches can be appreciated and learning can happen in a variety of ways (Positive aspects of dyslexia).
What are the characteristics of the dyslexic brain which effect thinking and learning? What are the cognitive characteristics of dyslexia?
"The working memory is that part of the memory function which has to hold onto input collected from the senses (either immediate or brought back from long-term memory). This input or information has to be understood and organised (usually in some kind of sequence) before being applied and acted on in some form and then returned to the long-term memory store."(Smith, D, 1996, Spotlight on S.E.N.'s, SpLd's, NASEN)
"For me it's as if I'm making a multi-track recording. The tape loop goes round and round, it fills up and then records more over the top of what's already there, until it all becomes garbled and incomprehensible."
These are the cognitive characteristics which hinder the learning of literacy skills and are responsible for the difficulties dyslexic people experience. Short-term memory isn't only a characteristic in itself, it also influences the other characteristics. For example, if you find it difficult to remember all the items in a list, then it can be difficult to remember the sequence of items in the list. At the same time, if you find it difficult to remember a sequence, that is, the order in which things are linked together, then it is harder to remember the individual items.
Remember that these cognitive weaknesses are weak in relation to your cognitive strengths. These may be strong in comparison to another dyslexic or non-dyslexic person.
What is the effect for you of having a brain which thinks and works in this way in Higher Education? The effect is functional - in Higher Education you will be expected to practise good organisational skills and communicate your learning in written and spoken form.
Remember that not everyone is the same and that people have different experiences of dyslexia. However the following functional characteristics are experienced widely by dyslexic people:
"Dyslexia is recognisable as a measurable discrepancy between cognitive ability and literacy level."
(NWP Report, Dyslexia in Higher Education, 1999)
"I know what I want to say, I can talk about it, I know I know it, but when I read what I've written, it's not saying what I want it to."
Literacy skills are a very important issue. It is difficulty and under-achievement in this area, which is most often associated with dyslexia, however dyslexic people in Higher Education can read and write!
"Because of the development of compensatory strategies, by adulthood, the literacy skills of many dyslexics can appear superficially adequate. A closer investigation, however will often reveal underlying difficulties that can seriously affect learning at the higher education level."
(NWP Report, Dyslexia in Higher Education, 1999)
It is perhaps worth noting here that some of these 'compensatory' strategies are very helpful and some are not.
For more information, please refer to the following links:
Students can experience problems with reading. As a dyslexic student you may:
These difficulties are related to the cognitive characteristics of dyslexia and are not to do with lack of practice or not understanding what the purpose of reading is. The important cognitive characteristics of dyslexia which have the most influence over reading are short-term memory and visual processing. In order to read 'automatically' we have to match the written symbols to their corresponding sounds - difficulties with short-term memory can make this task difficult.
Some dyslexic people have additional difficulty reading text printed on bright white paper - this can be helped by coloured overlays or spectacles. For more information, please refer to the glossary definition of Meares-Irlen Syndrome.
Students can experience problems with writing. As a dyslexic student you may:
Many Higher Education students are referred by their tutors to a dyslexia specialist because of the difference, the obvious gap, between what the student knows and is capable of and what that student is able to express in writing.
The important cognitive characteristics which affect writing skills are short-term memory and visual processing.
These reading and writing difficulties are directly related to the dyslexic person's cognitive characteristics. They often become noticeable when students are asked to develop their skills and address more complex or longer pieces of reading or writing. When this happens the volume of text or information to be dealt with makes their compensatory strategies less effective or unsustainable. This is the time to seek help in developing new strategies.
For more information, please refer to the following links:
Reading, writing and text based skills are still very important in Higher Education (whatever the subject) but they are not the only skills you need.
The short-term memory configuration of the dyslexic brain also has an impact on other areas which are equally important:
All these activities put your auditory short-term memory to hard work. When you are concentrating on speaking or writing or listening, your short-term memory is dealing with the process of using language.
When you are speaking or writing you are remembering words and also putting them in an order so that they make sense, for example, into a sentence. When you are listening you are interpreting sounds and matching those sounds with words in your long-term memory. If the 'tape loop' of your short-term memory is hard at work listening, speaking or writing, then there is less short-term memory available for the 'content' of what you are communicating or hearing.
When we are communicating, we are, in fact, 'multi-tasking' - we are using our short-term memory to hold in mind 'what' we want to communicate, while also remembering 'how' to communicate.
When we forget specific information, such as names or facts, our ability to communicate fluently is interrupted. If we are in situations which put additional pressure on our short-term memory, for example, when we are combining two different activities or sitting an exam, this can be a particular problem.
Visual short-term memory is a factor where information has to be remembered and communicated in writing. For example, you might not remember the sequence of the information you want to communicate, such as a series of historical events. In the same way, when editing what you have written, you may find it hard to remember and locate which paragraph you want to change and how any changes might affect the meaning of your writing.
The same cognitive characteristics which make reading and writing difficult can also have an effect on using numbers. This is not just remembering and matching the sounds with the symbols to write the numbers as numerals or words, but also sequencing numbers to carry out a calculation.
Sequencing information correctly and effectively can also have an effect on our awareness of time - this too relates to short-term memory. Dyslexic people are thought to develop an awareness of time passing at a later stage than others - as a child you might have been criticised for day-dreaming. Now you might find it difficult to know how long an activity will take and, therefore, find it hard to organise your time.
These areas of difficulty are not specifically related to the cognitive characteristics of dyslexia mentioned previously. However, some of the difficulties dyslexic people can experience when reading and writing, moving through or working in space, map reading or communicating ideas verbally or in written form, do relate to these factors. Doing a driving test or following directions can be problematic if you are not always certain of left and right. If you tend to need to see the whole picture, to contextualise, before detailed information makes real sense, it can appear harder to give 'quick' responses when speaking or writing.
If we take all the characteristics and factors listed above, it is not hard to see why it can be difficult to maintain concentration for long periods and it can take a lot of effort to carry out a task. When concentrating on written work or having an important conversation many dyslexic people complain of being distracted by unexpected noises or visual events. The distraction can break a chain of thought and what you wanted to write or say can be 'lost'.
"When people are talking to me it takes a lot longer than it should for the words to compute. My brain's like a traffic jam, you know - it's not flowing freely, it's totally confused and muddled up and not really knowing where it's going."
It is very important that you have a realistic sense of your abilities in the areas above. All of these are skills which have always been valuable in Higher Education but are now becoming increasingly important, not least because courses are eager to teach and assess people in as many ways as possible. This has helped to make some courses more accessible, but be sure you don't assume that less written work means that the rest of your curriculum is going to be unchallenging.
This section has so far dealt with what are known as the primary effects of the dyslexic brain on the functioning of the dyslexic person. We have also seen how these cognitive characteristics affect reading and writing and general tasks which rely on short-term memory.
However, there are also characteristics associated with being dyslexic which develop as a consequence of our experiences. In education, for example, there is an emphasis on the use of short-term memory and its associated functions. This has an impact on our emotional responses to learning. (See also Section 2: What is dyslexia? - short-term memory)
"We started a computer induction project two weeks ago and I sat down there and it was just too much information going in - I just felt really stressed out. I went to my tutor and told him I felt I'd really learnt nothing, I was really angry with myself - a feeling of failure. However, I knew what I had to do was just go in and have a fiddle and break it up into segments - don't look at the whole thing, just look at what you have learnt; what did you learn yesterday? Well, I can switch it on now, now that’s a start!"
These secondary characteristics can be disabling and usually arise because the primary effects of dyslexia were not addressed or understood.
These secondary characteristics are typically:
"If someone is not being coherent - adding ten more equations into the one thing you want to talk about - you’ve got all these images coming up, it's like a balloon with a whole load of balls inside it and they're all just bouncing off each other and you don't know which ball you want to take out and there's only about two that you need to work with. If there’s too many balls in the bag, well, you can juggle, but it's not conducive to what I really want."
"When I try to say something I'm always worried it will come out wrong, 'cos it always does, so I never say it."
"I say to myself: 'Look, I've been taught - I can read, I can write, I can spell.' But when I get tired, at the end of the day it's too much - it takes so much longer when I'm tired."
"It would be nice if everyone knew how frustrating it is - if they could be dyslexic just for three weeks, find out how much harder it is, what you go through to get anywhere."
For more information, please refer to the following links:
Most of the literature on dyslexia focuses on the difficulties associated with reading, writing and memory tasks. However, there are suggestions that the dyslexic brain also demonstrates positive aptitudes, which are also primary characteristics of dyslexia, and, therefore, cognitive. These aptitudes can be advantageous in certain careers or courses and stages of the learning process. The section entitled understanding your report offers further illumination on this topic.
As a dyslexic student you may:
You may also:
It is easy to see how these abilities could be an advantage in the visual arts, however they also illustrate the ways in which many dyslexic people describe their thinking.
"I've always been able to visualise things and remember things by images and not by words... my brain just seems to work more by 3-dimensions and not by remembering facts - it's about the connections between things."
Thinking in this way links to other abilities, which are attributed to dyslexic people. It is easier to 'see' how the following abilities are useful in a range of tasks or professions:
These ways of thinking can enable the dyslexic person to be insightful and innovative.
"I can see connections between things which maybe seem unrelated to someone who thought in a linear way. If I fight for the word 'belief' and come up with 'feather', I've made a connection."
In some situations this new perspective will not be appreciated until it is given a form or context. Being able to, "look at things in a new light", is an important ability and it often leads to the following:
It is true that these abilities are not exclusive to dyslexic people, but they are key strengths which are often associated with dyslexic people. Dyslexic people often talk about getting 'straight to the point' and having to 'work back' from the solution in order to explain it to others. While this can sometimes appear to be doing things 'back to front' or 'out of sequence', explaining your way of thinking to others can deepen your understanding of your thought process. Perhaps as a consequence, dyslexic people do find that they are good at the following:
There are many successful dyslexic people in the kinds of professions, which are often considered to be inappropriate, or 'too difficult' if you are dyslexic. Writing, acting, politics, science, law, teaching and business are examples of professions in which dyslexic people have established themselves successfully.
Suggested Reading: "In The Mind's Eye".
Of course, we must remember that whether something is experienced as a strength or a weakness is context specific. What we can do is use our strengths to support our learning. This is also true in the area of the 'secondary' characteristics of dyslexia, where our experiences can make us:
These attributes can develop from the experience of having to work longer and sometimes harder than others to achieve our goals, particularly in the education system.
"I just tell tutors, look, I'm dyslexic, I need to have things put a bit more simply, otherwise too many things come into the equation and my short-term memory is gonna get full up and I'm not going to pick up on the point."
Awareness of our strengths and weaknesses and developing strategies to use them to our advantage helps us to access our talents and allows them to flourish in environments where they are valued.
It is important to remember that dyslexia is always experienced in two contexts at the same time. The first is our own internal awareness and attitudes and the second the awareness, attitudes and responses of the world in which we live, work and study.
Further reading:
Next page - Section 3: Experiencing dyslexia