Dyslexia is a language processing disorder that makes learning to read very difficult. However people I've known who had dyslexia were able to speak normally, so apparently it's primarily a problem with processing visual symbols such as letters and words.
The other day a probably crazy idea occurred to me, but it's possible that it might work. What if dyslexic children and others with learning disabilities that make it difficult to read were taught to read in Braille? Of course reading Braille wouldn't be as useful to them as being able to read written and printed words because far less material would be readily available for them, but it's not impossible that if kids were to become able to read with their sense of touch it might help their brains bypass whatever makes it so hard for them to connect visual images with speech so they could then learn to read visually.
I believe using tactile forms of regular alphabet letters may have been tried, but even adults who can read fluently would find it difficult to decipher small versions of those. That's why Braille writing was invented.
I can't be the first person to have thought of this and I'd love to know if Braille has ever been tried for children with normal vision who have dyslexia and, if it has, how well it worked.
Most dyslexics don't have problems seeing text. In fact there are people that are trained to identify dyslexia in preschool children even before they are exposed to text where vision could be a problem.
ReplyDeleteAbout 10% of dyslexics have visual problems that they can describe that make reading difficult. They are called visual dyslexics.See Right Dyslexia Glasses are very effective at removing visual dyslexia problems.
And yes there are people who are both blind and dyslexic.