Delay In Development Of Children With Dyslexia

Although people tend to think of dyslexia as “just” a reading disorder it can have a significant influence on children and young people’s development. Dyslexia may cause a delay in physical development, children with dyslexia may learn to crawl, walk, talk and ride a bike later than their peers as they tend to be less coordinated, catching a ball may be difficult and they may confuse left and right.

Dyslexic children and young people have an average or above-average intelligence and they often will have good skills such as creative thinking and problem-solving. However, children with dyslexia do find it hard to translate new words or break them down so they can sound them out, this causes difficulty with reading, writing, and spelling. Dyslexia often affects oral language, although there is no set time when a baby should say his or her first words most babies generally begin to speak between the ages of 9 and 18 months. However, children who have dyslexia take longer to produce their first words because their brains take longer to process the sounds that makeup language. Dyslexia also causes a child to have trouble finding the right words to say, they may have a stammer and pause before answering a direct question. People with dyslexia may say a wrong word that sounds like the right one such as extinct instead of distinct.

Many emotional problems that are caused by dyslexia are due to frustration, having dyslexia can feel overwhelming and very frustrating to a child and young person. Frustration produces anger which would generally be vented during school or at teachers due to the dyslexic person feeling inadequate or labeling themselves as thick or dumb. A child with Dyslexia may become fearful and develop anxiety due to the fear of failing, being judged, or feeling rejected by their peers for being “different”. Anxiety and stress can also be the cause of physical symptoms such as nausea and migraines. Children and young people with dyslexia tend to be more emotionally sensitive than others therefore the feelings of love, joy, happiness, sadness anger and fear are stronger than their peers. Having dyslexia can make it difficult for a child to interact with others in a typical way and respond appropriately in social situations as they tend to find it difficult to read people’s body language and find themselves feeling awkward. Children and young people may also feel rejection and isolation and may find it harder to form friendships due to their low self–esteem, they may misbehave at school to cover up their feelings and emotions.