Myths about Dyslexia
Dyslexics read words/letters backwards.
Dyslexics generally loathe dealing with letters/words. Often they’ll do anything they can to avoid it and when they can’t, they rush to finish. Honestly, who can blame them. They’ve not been taught in a way their brain comprehends, yet they are expected to interact with text regularly.
What often occurs in this situation is guessing. In fact, many well meaning educators over the years have even encouraged students to do just that, including myself prior to understanding dyslexia. “Look at the pictures and think about what you’ve read and guess what is happening in this part of the story.” “Use the clues in the pictures or text to guess what that word is,” and other similar statements.
Letters like b, d, p and q are essentially the same shape in a different position. Ck and Ch look similar enough in shape. There is a variety of ways to make the /k/ sound and spell it depending on where in the word it occurs. Ch makes 3 different sounds depending on the language of origin.
So yes, some may THINK dyslexics are seeing letters backwards, but when you dig deeper, you see it’s a generalization for how/why these learners interact with letters/words.
2. Vision therapy can help because dyslexics read words/letters backwards.
See above. Often it isn’t a vision issue at all. Are there headaches? Does an eye exam confirm vision struggles? These questions need to be investigated first.
3. Dyslexics aren’t smart.
False! Albert Einstein, Richard Branson, Tim Tebow, Steven Spielberg, John F. Kennedy, Pablo Picasso, Ludwig von Beethoven and so many more people in history and present day have these uniquely wired brains. US Presidents, authors, athletes, scientists, actors, artists, entrepreneurs, movie directors, architects, inventors, engineers, the list goes on and on. Dyslexics are famous for their outside-the box solutions to problems which makes their brains exceptional! There are many great books you can find on my resources page to celebrate these people.