I read that people with dyslexia are as smart as other people and that dyslexia is a genetic problem. I just wonder, if people are capable of launching rockets or creating art masterpieces, why can’t dyslexic people learn how to read and write? Isn’t it just like any other thing you can learn e.g. math?
In: 0
The reason they can’t rea/write isn’t a lack of skill, it’s because they don’t see words the same way as everyone else.
Your question is like asking why people who need glasses can’t just learn to see better.
There is a physical part of your brain that does language processing, and one that does visual processing. You can’t “learn” those into working differently beyond a certain point.
Phonological processing difficulties: As mentioned above, people with dyslexia have difficulty with phonological processing. This can make it difficult for them to remember the sounds of letters and words, which can lead to problems with spelling and decoding.
Working memory difficulties: People with dyslexia often have difficulty with working memory. This means that they may have trouble keeping track of information in their short-term memory, which can make it difficult to write sentences and paragraphs.
Visual-spatial difficulties: Some people with dyslexia also have visual-spatial difficulties. This means that they may have trouble with tasks that require them to see and manipulate shapes and patterns, which can make it difficult to write neatly and accurately.
Dyslexic people can learn to read and write, they just have a higher difficulty of doing so.
Your brain is, to a certain degree, split into different specialized areas – you have your hand motor area, decision making area, visual analysis area etc., of course in reality these aren’t clearly split between one another and significant overlaps between them occur, but let’s just assume that they are for now to simplify the explanation. In your left hemisphere there is an area specific to language processing – understanding what is said, reading, writing, connecting phonemes. Dyslexia is a genetic or environmentally caused abnormality which makes that specific structure in your brain less specialised, kinda trading a big amount of neurons in your reading, writing, phonetic etc. structures of the brain with other structures around, thus making your ability to process language through those specific tasks slower, and as such making your brain less adapted to learning how to read or write on biological level, but not impossible.
Dyslexia exists in all languages, but to varying degrees. The reasons for this are complex—but to your point, some languages have higher rates of dyslexia associated with them due to how those languages are written with certain symbols.
To simplify, the letter “O” isn’t something anyone would struggle with because it’s the same no matter the visual orientation. The letters “u” and “n” or “d” and “b” are not, and are instead easily confused in how the brain processes them visually and spatially. If a language has a lot of those kinds of letters, it tends to also have higher rates of dyslexia. This resource might be helpful:
https://www.meshguides.org/guides/node/624#:~:text=Dyslexia%20exists%20in%20all%20languages,the%20language%20they%20are%20learning.
Latest Answers