“Specific
Development Dyslexia: A disorder manifested by difficulty in learning to read
despite conventional instruction, adequate intelligence, and sociocultural
opportunity. It is dependent upon fundamental cognitive disabilities, which are
frequently of constitutional origin. A disorder in children, who, despite
conventional classroom experience, fail to attain the language skills of
reading, writing, and spelling commensurate with their intellectual abilities.”
World Federation of Neurology Research
Group on Developmental Dyslexia and World Illiteracy
“The inability to deal with
language despite conventional instruction, adequate intelligence, and
sociocultural opportunity. It is a cognitive dysfunction frequently hereditary
in nature.”
Charles L. Shedd, Ph.D.
Dyslexia is not a disease;
therefore there is no cure. However, because it is a dysfunction of the
perceptual processes of the brain, a dyslexic person can be remediated through educational means using
highly structured teaching methods and materials, a multisensory approach, and
one-to-one instruction.
The causes of dyslexia are
still being researched. The most recent studies seem to show that it may be a
chemical imbalance of genetic origin. One study seemed to indicate an abnormality
in the cell arrangements of the brain. Existing evidence indicates that it is
hereditary. The probability of dyslexia has been traced through several
generations of many families.