Dyslexia Health Video

Video Transcript

JUSTIN C. K. DAVIS, MD: Hi, I am Dr. Justin Davis and today I'd like to tell a little bit about the disorder called dyslexia. Dyslexia is an impairment where the images that are received from the eyes are not translated perfectly in the brain, particularly when they are written and are not meaningfully deciphered, meaning they are understood as most people would understand them. This is actually a fairly common disorder affecting almost 5% of elementary-aged children and is probably the most prevalent cause for learning disabilities. Symptoms of dyslexia may be very subtle particularly in younger children but may represent in delayed language, for example, or adding certain words or saying the wrong word at times. However, by the time they begin into school and begin reading, it usually becomes much more evident. If you suspect that your child has dyslexia or you are notified by perhaps a teacher that your child may have dyslexia, first of all do not panic. Children with dyslexia, while they have a little bit of an impairment often in being able to complete certain kind of school work have normal intelligence and live normal lives. What is important, however, is to recognize it so that you can allow special testing or special learning for them or have special individuals who are trained in dyslexia for children to teach them. And when all this is done, once these systems are put in place, the child will have a very normal life and probably thrive and do well in school just like any other child. As far as prevention, we do not really know why this happens and so there is nothing that you can do to properly prevent it but what is important again is recognizing it early, understanding that it is a learning disability that your child has from birth in their brain; there are many ways that they can learn to deal with it properly and it does not mean that they are any less intelligent than anybody else.