A. Developmental reading disorder (formerly called dyslexia), is defined as marked impairment in development of word recognition, reading skills, and reading comprehension, which significantly interferes with normal functioning. This disorder affects approximately 2-8% of school aged children and is more common in boys than girls.
The cause of developmental reading disorder is not known, although some theories point to a genetic predisposition. In some cases difficulties at child birth, malnutrition, or poor growth may be involved as a cause of the reading difficulty, but in most cases the cause is simply unknown.
The symptoms of the disorder are usually apparent by seven years of age.
Parents and school teachers often notice distortion of words, forgetting
of words, or addition of words to the reading material of the child. Confusion
in orientation can include:
These children are often slow readers, seldom read for pleasure, and may have difficulty spelling and hand-writing as well. Although these children usually have a high IQ, they can suffer from shame and humiliation from poor school performance.
Treatment of children with developmental reading disorder is challenging and intensive. In general, comprehensive remedial work, and systemic-phonetic study will require coordination between family, physicians, and school teachers. Many children will eventually learn to cope or overcome with their problems. With others however, developmental reading disorder may prevent them from expressing their full intellectual potential.
In all children with suspected developmental reading disorder, it is important to make sure no other disorders are causing the reading difficulty. In particular, inadequate schooling, hearing or visual difficulties, mental retardation, attention deficit disorder, conduct disorder, or depression may produce symptoms potentially confusable with developmental reading disorder. A visit to a pediatrician or your family doctor should help to sort this out.
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