Coping With Dyslexia

When someone thinks of the term dyslexia, they might think it only means having trouble with reading. However, dyslexia can mean different things to different people who have to deal with this disability. Up to 20% of Americans (or one in five) have a language-based learning disability which makes letters seem to “jump around” on the page.

Everyone is affected by dyslexia differently. “B’s and d’s–I always mix those up [as well as] p’s and b’s and m’ and w’s,” said sophomore Emma Gresham, who was diagnosed with the condition in 4th grade. For most people, dyslexia affects how words look, which makes it difficult for them to identify words.

Students often figure out that they have a learning disability like dyslexia pretty early in their school years. “I knew I was having trouble in 1st grade and my teacher knew something was wrong. My 2nd through 4th grade teachers thought I wasn’t trying hard enough. I had been bullied by kids for needing help reading,” said Gresham.

School can be a definite challenge for individuals with this disability since reading is a skill everyone uses everyday. Subjects like language arts and foreign languages tend to be harder classes for those with dyslexia to comprehend. ”Not knowing certain words in a question makes it hard to answer. I’ve always struggled with Spanish because there are so many words that I don’t know,” said Gresham.

Dyslexia may have slowed her down in elementary school, but Gresham has learned how to cope and found helpful tips to calm her down when she’s frustrated. “I give myself a thirty minute break time, and then I go back to it if I still can’t figure it out. I also go to my teacher or my parents for help,” said Gresham.

Dyslexia can become less of an obstacle the more the person works through it.  Studies show that it can also be helpful to re-read a passage and see what word makes the most sense in the sentence.

In the future, Gresham hopes to become a teacher to help others who need to learn different strategies of learning. “My mom is a teacher and so I’ve always been in a learning environment. I think it would be cool to know that I’m making an impact on children and helping them learn,” she said.

You can get an idea of what it is like to be someone with dyslexia by going to http://news.bitofnews.com/this-is-what-reading-is-like-when-you-have-dyslexia/http://news.bitofnews.com/this-is-what-reading-is-like-when-you-have-dyslexia/