Saturday, February 2, 2008

Dyslexia----a commonly uncommon disease.

There is no end of diseases in this world. Every day the names of some new diseases are catching our attention. Sometimes I wonder that whether the All Mighty God has created as many diseases as the number of the people in all over the world. There are many ailments and their patients, we encounter everyday, but we hardly know or identify them.
Dyslexia is such a disease from the list of those generally unrecognizable ailments. Many books, articles or films have been made so far that dealt with Dyslexia at length. But off late I watched a Hindi movie ‘T Z par’ and this really made me to ponder over it. The story portrays the misery of a boy who is suffering from dyslexia but his parents are unaware of it. Though the boy lives in the lap of all kind of luxury and comfort, he finds himself very alone and helpless. Despite his mother’s full effort he fails to read and write properly. Everyone misunderstands him and thinks that he is just neglecting his studies intentionally. He is unable to fare well in his academic world and becomes the eyesore of everybody starting from schoolteachers to parents.
But what is this Dyslexia and what are its symptoms? Let us try to search it together.
The word Dyslexia is derived from the Greek word ‘dys’(inadequate) and ‘lexis’(language). Dyslexia may also be defined as disease where a patient finds difficulty with the written language i.e reading, spelling and writing. This is quite different from reading difficulties resulting from other causes like deficiencies in intelligence, a non-neurological deficiency with vision or hearing, or from inadequate reading instructions. This disease is not an intellectual disability but it results from neurological differences. Dyslexia can occur to anybody, irrespective of the level of intelligence. To a Dyslexic, letters and words may appear reversed. This disability of reading and writing of the patients generally becomes evident in the early years of schooling. Many Dyslexics never learn to read and write properly in the entire life. Recent studies have revealed that Dyslexia is located in the brain. Damage to the brain can cause reading disability similar to Dyslexia. In many cases Dyslexia appears to be inherited.
Dyslexic children seems to have problems in developing early reading skills, hearing individual sounds in words, analyzing whole words in parts and blending sounds in words. They find trouble in translating thoughts into language and the vice-versa. Most of the children with Dyslexia are of average intelligence, although many of them show unusual talent in the field of arts, athletics, graphics, architecture, drama, music etc.
The causes for this disease are still unknown although the researchers have confirmed that such conditions are often inherited.
Some of the symptoms that indicate Dyslexia are:
1.Difficulty in learning or to recognize written words.
2. Difficulty in Rhyming.
3. Trouble in understanding the meaning of a single sentence.
4. Writing or arithmetic learning problem.
These are the few indicators that alarm you about your loving kid and tell you that it is the right time to take the help of a doctor instead of misunderstanding your offspring.
Dyslexia is a life-long condition but it can be cured with timely and proper intervention of the Parents. When a child is diagnosed with Dyslexia, the parents should inquire from his or her school or from a diagnostician that what problems exactly are facing by their kids. The primary focus in the treatment of Dyslexia is on the learning process…..