DYSLEXIA - The definition     Dyslexia is a term that has been loosely applied to reading disabilities. Specific definitions for dyslexia vary with disciplines.         Dyslexia (literally from the Greek for "difficulty with words"), is a     specific learning difficulty which effects up to one in ten of the population. Dyslexia can take a number of different forms.  A more accurate way of describing it would be "difficulty with processing information", as it is linked with deficiencies in short-term memory and visual co-ordination. A person who has dyslexia cannot be 'cured' of it, but can learn to cope better with and having an increased awareness of the specific problem is the first stage in the it process. Dyslexia is not related in any way to intellectual ability, but it can cause emotional disturbance, sensory impairment and a loss of motivation. An individual, personal approach to each case is necessary. Those in medicine define dyslexia as a condition resulting from neurological,  basis of maturational, and genetic causes, while those in psychology relate dyslexia on the specific reading problems evidenced and give no reference to causation.    In official Detail Dyslexia is a severe reading problem of neurological origin in a person with average or above average intelligence, for whom there are no other physical, medical, or psychological conditions sufficiently serious to account for the language handling deficits. In a nutshell Anyone can have it and yes...it often runs in families. In Detail Conservative estimates vary between 5 and 10 per cent of the population. No correlation has been found between the incidence of dyslexia and nationality, income, ethnicity, race, or IQ, and experts are even beginning to question whether it is more common among boys than girls. It has a genetic component.        In a nutshell: The dyslexic person is using his right hemisphere instead of his left to read and spell. In great detail: The two most important contributors to dyslexia are an underutilized left-hemisphere, and an out-of-whack central bridge of tissue in the brain, called the corpus callosum. (The bibliography contains technical details from some of the brain-scan research which has documented these two problems.) But why does it matter which side of the brain you use? Because the left-hemisphere is programmed to do the things you need for reading and the right is not.              Match a letter with its sound.     Handle information that comes into your brain in strings, like the sounds in a word-one letter after the other, rather than like a picture where you see it all at once. Separate a word into its individual sounds and understand grammar and syntax.    The right hemisphere is different. It deals in areas and space and patterns. It doesn't understand parts of speech, or keep track of letter-order in spelling. It "reads" a word as a line drawing that it has been taught has a meaning, -- a sketch, not a line up of sounds.        There are many celebrities and famous names that relate to this condition.      If you think you, or any of your children are Dyslexic, you actually share it with people like:-                  Winston Churchill     Danny Glover Cher Tom Cruise Whoopi Goldberg Tomas Edison Robin Williams Albert Einstein Henry Winkler Jamie Oliver Walt Disney Pablo Picasso Henry Ford Zoë Wanamaker                                                                                              Homepage