For six-year-old Rohit, going to school was becoming a nightmare. His scores in spelling had dropped remarkably and he wasn?t able to recognise alphabets. His classmates often pulled his leg as he could not even spell ?bat? or ?dog?. He could not explain sentences and he had evidently lost his grip on the order of alphabets. His teachers were were concerned and his parents had to frequent the school often to face complaints.

Rohit?s Parents were perplexed and had almost started thinking of admitting Rohit, whom they thought to be intellectually-handicapped, in a special school. They made the wise decision of heading for a psychiatrist before that.

The session with the psychiatrist was a shock for the parents but they realised that though Rohit?s Dyslexia was not curable, there were ways to be successful.

What is Dyslexia

According to psychiatrists, dyslexia is a ?lifelong language-based learning disability?. Though there are no cure for it, there are ways to handle it successfully.

Dyslexia, which is neurological in origin, is characterised by difficulties with accurate or fluent word recognition and by poor spelling and decoding abilities. ?These difficulties typically result from a deficit in the phonological component of language that is often unexpected in relation to other cognitive abilities and the provision of effective classroom instruction. These disabilities could further lead to secondary consequences, including problems in reading comprehension and reduced reading experience. This impedes growth of vocabulary and knowledge,? said Ashok Patnayak, psychiatrist with Telco Hospital.

Dyslexia is often described as a learning disability in the area of reading. But while reading is the primary problem, some definitions of also include difficulties with writing, spelling, listening, speaking and mathematics.

Psychiatrists, however, make it clear that dyslexia is in no way related to emotional problems, lack of motivation, poor teaching, mental retardation or vision or hearing deficits. Although affected children have language processing and learning difficulties in common, the symptoms and severity can be different. They have problems with academics, but they can do other things quite well. They may be talented in arts, technology, or adept at spatial relationships. These strengths need to be encouraged and reinforced.

Symptoms

Most kids have academic problems at one time or another. Though these phases should not be taken very seriously, but a tab should be kept on the child and the teacher should be involved in understanding if the child has shown these characteristics to an abnormal degree over a period of time in different environments.

For children between six and 11, the symptoms usually include difficulty in pronouncing simple words or reversing and substituting parts of words. ?It is a matter of concern if a child has difficulty in carrying out a sequence of direction or is unable to decipher the difference in words like pin and pen or at times confuses the letters of the words or spelling words differently. The child could also have problems stating his thoughts in an organised way, recollecting previous lessons and has poor reading comprehension. The child may try to sound out the letters of the word, but then be unable to say the correct word. For example, ?c-a-t ? cold? explains Patnayak.

For teenagers and adults, the symptoms are slightly different. A dyslexic patient of this age has difficulty retaining all that he has learnt, fails to concentrate on reading and writing, is unable to recollect important information, spells poorly, has problems of taking notes accurately and has difficulty in organising and completing written projects.

Cure

Though there is no specific cure for dyslexia, certain ways can be developed to assuage the inability. ?The child?s teacher needs to team up with the parents for best results. The parents should get a complete purview of the child?s performance and problems. Once the problem is identified and the level of disability ascertained, there are different ways to combat dyslexia,? Patnayak says. Psychiatrists feel that parents should be very frank with teachers and discuss if the child could actually be suffering from learning disability.

Help from schools

?Dyslexia is not mental retardation and teachers have to identify the inherent qualities in the child and those that he needs to master in developmental sequence. It is important that the affected child does not follow the rules as it would allow teachers to plan the child?s instructional program by building on what she already knows,? says Shikha Chakraborty, principal of Asha Kiran School.

?Relate to the child and understand the problems he could be facing in school. Assure the child that you, as a parent, and the teachers are working towards evolving a pattern that would help him. Work on the inherent talents that the child has, develop it and encourage it to be used more often. The bottomline, however, is that parents should be extremely patient with the child,? she says.

Psychiatrists advise

?Reading and learning determine a child?s success ? he learns to read and then he reads to learn. Unfortunately poor reading skills, and the subsequent poor learning skills, have become a reality for an alarming number of children. There is a need for patients and the teachers to evolve ways to ensure a child?s development in fields that he lacks,? says Patnayak.

Savvy Soumya