Common Myths About Dyslexia

1. Dyslexia is a general learning difficulty.
Dyslexia is a specific learning difficulty, affecting reading and written language. However, because these skills are so important in academic tasks the student may seem to have a general learning difficulty.
 
2. Individuals with dyslexia don’t try hard enough.
This is a common misconception because these students are clearly intelligent and yet their reading and writing skills don’t match their ability level.
 
3. Dyslexia is a visual problem with mirror writing and letter reversals being key indicators.
Research over the last twenty years has demonstrated they dyslexia is most commonly an auditory processing problem with most individuals having difficulty with processing sounds in words. Many individuals with dyslexia have a combination of auditory and visual processing problems with a small minority having visual processing problems alone.
 
4. There is a magic cure for dyslexia.
Unfortunately this is not the case! Parents who are understandably concerned about their child’s learning are very vulnerable to claims of cures for dyslexia. A structured and sequential reading and spelling program with an emphasis on phonics and the use of multisensory teaching strategies has been validated many times in numerous research studies as the way to assist students with dyslexia.