There are many myths about dyslexia and in this post I would like to address several of them. Dyslexia affects about one in five people and is a hereditary trait. I have dyslexia and so does my brother, and our father has dyslexia also. I am not sure who in our extended family has dyslexia, but someone must! Following are some common myths about dyslexia that you may have heard, that I would like to take a moment to shine light upon. So here we go!

 ‘Dyslexia is caused by a lack of motivation‘. This is definitely false. Many times children with dyslexia have to work much harder than the children without dyslexia and they still don’t make as much progress because they are not being given the tools they need. We work hard and each time we cannot do it, we feel like we aren’t as good as everyone else, but it can also motivate us to work harder to try and become as good as the other people our age. If more people knew the tools and tricks to use, school would be so much easier for us!  

‘Dyslexia is a vision problem‘. Nope. Dyslexia is not a vision problem, it is a struggle to read, comprehend, and understand the written language. “Dys” is the Greek root meaning “difficulty with” and “Lexia” is the Greek root for “language”, so dyslexia means ‘difficulty with language’ and is caused by how our brains process, not our vision. 

‘Dyslexia is caused by laziness‘. I am sad that this is a common myth… I know from personal experience that it is not laziness. When I did school I worked so hard to try and do as well as my sister, and regardless of how hard I tried I was unable to succeed, that is until my parents figured out how to help me understand what I was learning. Again, the proper teaching method makes a world of difference in the way we succeed and in our confidence! 

 ‘Dyslexia will be outgrown‘. I am sorry, but that is wishful thinking. Dyslexia has to do with the way your brain is wired, and it is the way you are born. You can do things though, like Barton, which help you learn how to work with and around your dyslexia. I mostly notice mine when I am very tired but I will always have dyslexia and I am fine with that. I can work with it and it does not limit me because I am learning how to thrive even with difficulties.

 ‘Dyslexia is caused when parents don’t read to their children enough when they are little‘. Like I mentioned in the previous myth, dyslexia is something you are born with and it is not the parents fault.

 ‘Dyslexia is seeing letters backwards‘. I know we mix up letters sometimes, but it is not because we see them backwards. We see things the same way you do, it just takes us longer to process, and sometimes we say things in the wrong order.

 ‘Dyslexia is rare’. As I mentioned at the start of this, dyslexia is not rare and it affects around one in five people.

 ‘Dyslexia is a problem of intelligence’.  We do not lack intelligence, we just need to be taught in a different way that we can understand. We need help with some things and oftentimes we are auditory and hands on learners, but we definitely don’t have a lack of intelligence. We are so successful in so many ways! I will go into that in my next post “Our Strengths and How We are Identified”! Here is my final myth

 ‘Dyslexia only affects your reading and spelling’. It is true that it affects our reading and spelling, but actually it often affects many other things as well. Things like comprehension, handwriting, and math can be much harder, and grammar can be a nightmare! 

Those were the top myths that I could think of and find. If you can think of more, feel free to put them in the comments! 

See you in the next post, 

Johanna