Why is it important to know about dyslexia?

Answer 1

It is important to know what the word "dyslexia" means. It is a very general term that means someone has difficulty with reading and, usually, spelling and written language.

Depending on how strictly the term dyslexia is used, research shows that 5% to 10% of the population struggles with this issue. In just the US alone, that means 15 to 30 million people are dealing with dyslexia.

So knowing about dyslexia is extremely important if we're going to help those kids and adults. Also, we know now that problems with reading, spelling and writing are almost always due to an underlying weakness in language processing in the brain. More simply, their brain is wired differently in ways that make learning to read harder.

Now that we know that dyslexia is caused by weaknesses in language processing, specifically phonological processing (think phonics), we can now develop tools and programs to help people who struggling in this area.