Dyslexia is a learning difficulty that causes problems with learning language-based skills such as reading, writing and spelling. Dyslexia is characterized by difficulties in processing word-sounds and by weaknesses in short-term verbal memory; its effects can be seen in spoken language as well as written language.  Dyslexia varies in severity and often occurs alongside other specific learning difficulties, such as Dyspraxia or Attention Deficit Disorder, resulting in variation in the degree and nature of individuals’ strengths and weaknesses.

Some adults and children with dyslexia or dyslexic symptoms may go through much of the schooling system, if not all of it, without anyone giving them adequate help to cope with their dyslexia.

Current evidence on dyslexia suggests that dyslexia is a neurological condition and that these difficulties arise from inefficiencies in language-processing areas in the left hemisphere of the brain which, in turn, appear to be linked to genetic differences. Dyslexia can also affect: concentration, short term memory, arithmetic, fine motor and communication skills.Dyslexia is genetic, it is known that there are several genes that contribute to a genetic risk of dyslexia which  can be carried down from generation to generation.

Adults and children with dyslexia usually find it difficult to analyse and work with the sounds of spoken words, and many have difficulties with short-term memory, sequencing and organisation. This means that it is more difficult for them to learn how spoken sounds map onto letters, which affects the ability to spell and the ability to decode or ‘sound out’ words. Although many dyslexic people can learn to use phonic, decoding, skills they typically need a great deal of instruction, and they often never reach a stage where these skills are fully automatic.

Dyslexia is not the same as a problem with reading. There are people who have difficulty reading but do not have dyslexia. Some people with dyslexia can read well, but have continuing difficulties with remembering and absorbing what they have actually read.  Dyslexia also causes problems in maths for the same reasons, people with dyslexia have difficulty recalling number facts.

Being dyslexic is no reflection on intelligence - it is about the access to your intelligence. Being dyslexic makes learning and remembering very challenging depending on the severity of the dyslexia in a particular person. Brain scanning studies have suggested that connections between different language areas of the brain do not work as efficiently as they should in people who have dyslexia.

The degree to which dyslexia causes problems, in learning and in everyday life, depends on many factors. These include the severity of the dyslexia, the other strengths and abilities that a person has, and the kind of teaching and support they may have been given.