Uniqueness
The Symptoms of Dyslexia are Different for Each Person

There can be a great deal of variation in the symptoms of dyslexia. This makes it unique for each individual. Dyslexia is really just a general term for people who have similar problems with reading, writing, spelling, memory, organisation etc. Each individual will have a unique collection of symptoms.

Uniqueness of symptoms:

Many dyslexic people were interview during the making of BeatingDyslexia.com. At times it almost seemed like each person had a completely different condition.

For example:

One lady had extremely bad short-term memory problems. This made revising for exams very difficult. Nevertheless she went on to achieve her degree.

Another person recalled only being able to remember the days of the week as a child by relating each one to a colour. This would seem to link his dyslexia to synaesthesia (See definition).

One possible explanation:

After 100 years of research there is still so much confusion over what dyslexia is (see evidence).

It may be the case that the symptoms of dyslexia relate to a number of other conditions that are not yet clearly defined. Therefore they are lumped together and called dyslexia due to a lack of understanding. If this is the case it would explain why interventions work for some people but not for everyone.

For example:

Some dyslexic people benefit greatly from coloured overlays that reduce the glare and contrast from black text on white paper. However other dyslexic people find no benefit in this.

Conflicting Causes:

If it is true that dyslexia is just a number of unknown conditions lumped together them this would also explain why there are so many conflicting theories about its cause. The phonological theory claims it is a deficit in the processing of speech sound. However the magnocellular theory argues that dyslexia is a deficit in one of the visual pathways in the brain.

What does this mean for you?

At BeatingDyslexia.com we think it’s not important to worry about what dyslexia is because no one really knows. Therefore do not let anybody tell you that they know more about how dyslexia affects you than you do. Even if they are an expert you are still the best judge.

Conclusion:

Therefore in order to beat dyslexia you simply need to understand how it affects you. How it affects other people is a different thing all together.

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