Dyslexia is a condition that affects a person’s ability to read, spell, write, and speak. Even after being subjected to appropriate teaching-learning processes, a dyslexic’s brain may still be unable to interpret written letters or symbols correctly.

What causes dyslexia? What complications might a dyslexic person face?

Dyslexia is strongly linked to genetic elements.

Studies reveal that dyslexia tends to run in families due to certain genes that affect the language processing of the brain. If a child has dyslexia, there’s a high chance that other members of the family have it too. 
Dyslexia also often co-occurs with other Specific Learning Difficulties. Further, it is likely that a family with a history of ADHD or any other learning difficulty would eventually have at least one family member with dyslexia.

Image from Orton Gillingham Online Academy

The dyslexic brain processes symbols differently.

Dyslexia has nothing to do with IQ but has to do with how the brain interprets symbols and processes language. The parts of the brain responsible for language skills do not work together for dyslexics the way they typically do for non-dyslexic brains. The image below shows the parts of the brain that function when a dyslexic and non-dyslexic engage in interpreting a written text. 

Image from The Reading Well

Several factors during pregnancy can put a child at risk.

A woman’s exposure to drugs, alcohol, and infections during pregnancy may cause abnormalities in the brain development of her unborn child. These alterations can result in different disorders or learning difficulties like dyslexia. For instance, the Mothering magazine in an article noted that “there was an increased risk for speech-language disorders among children born to mothers who were depressed during pregnancy — and an even higher risk to children born to mothers who took SSRI [antidepressant] while pregnant….”

Without proper intervention, a child with a learning difficulty will grow up with more difficulties.

Dyslexia doesn’t disappear with time. Children who do not receive proper interventions will end up growing up with their difficulty, hindering them from interacting effectively to the world around them. Other complications are also highly likely to arise, such as poor self-esteem, sense of incompetence or underachievement, depression, anxiety, and social problems.
 
Researches in studying dyslexia not only put attention on why and how dyslexia happens but also on how dyslexic brains can cope and still succeed in reading. By taking advantage of the brain’s neuroplasticity, a dyslexic brain can be rewired to effect real improvements in how it interprets words. Instant Reader™ makes use of this quality of the brain in helping dyslexic children read.