03.20.24
What’s Dyslexia and Do I Have It?
Here’s everything you missed about this learning disability.
Samantha R., 34, remembers saying the word “own” over and over to herself in second grade and having no clue how to spell it. She also remembers crying a year later as she struggled to get through Green Eggs and Ham while her classmates moved on to harder reads. Back then, saying the words on the page felt as intimidating as a marathon, she tells Wondermind. When she turned 8, a psychologist told her she had dyslexia.
Dyslexia is a neurodevelopmental disorder (like ADHD and autism) that makes it difficult to recognize words and spell them. That’s because, when you have dyslexia, your brain processes language differently, explains clinical psychologist and speaker Cheryl Chase, PhD. If you have the disorder, it can feel like your brain’s in overdrive as you read or write, she says.
While the condition mostly impacts how you process words, having to work harder than others to accomplish basic tasks can mess with your self-worth and confidence and impact your mental health, says psychologist Edwin Oliver, PsyD, lead psychologist at Baltimore’s Dyslexia Tutoring Program. Those feelings can carry over into the real world as you do normal life stuff like taxes or applying for a mortgage or a job.
Even if having dyslexia feels extremely shameful or isolating, it’s a legit disorder and you’re not the only one trying to manage it. “Whether you know them or not, it's not just you,” says Samantha R. With that in mind, let’s get into what dyslexia is, why it happens, how it’s diagnosed, and what you can do about it.
What is dyslexia?
Dyslexia is what the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5-TR) calls a specific learning disorder, or a condition that makes it more difficult to process info in an academic setting compared to other people your age.
This condition is also often referred to as a learning disability. Depending on how severe your symptoms are, dyslexia can qualify as a legal disability that entitles you to accommodations at work and in school, like taking a verbal test, getting extra time for assignments, or using audiobooks, says Dr. Chase, who specializes in learning disorders.
Whatever you call it, dyslexia is a condition that makes it difficult to process sounds and connect them to words you say and see on paper. That can show up as mispronouncing and misspelling things, explains Dr. Chase. For example, someone with dyslexia might read “animal” like “aminal,” but it’s not because they literally see it that way on the page, she says. The word likely looks the same as it does to you, but their brain isn’t processing the letters correctly, she notes.
This disorder can impact writing too. When you’re working extra hard to spell, you don’t have the mental space to consider things like grammar, capitalization, punctuation, and the point you’re trying to make with your words, Dr. Chase says.
While this can make basic tasks hard, people with dyslexia can learn. Their brains just function differently than those without a learning disability, Dr. Chase says. So there you have it.
What causes these differences is still a bit murky. But research suggests this condition often runs in families. If you have a parent with dyslexia, it’s more likely that you or one of your siblings will have it too, says Dr. Chase.
How is dyslexia diagnosed?
Like with ADHD, issues with dyslexia show up in childhood, and, to be diagnosed, you’ll need to have experienced symptoms like the ones above as a kid, per the DSM-5-TR. Most of the time, kids with dyslexia fall behind their classmates. For example, they might be learning to read in third grade while everyone else is reading to learn (aka comprehension), says Dr. Oliver.
That said, it’s not uncommon to get a diagnosis later in life, Dr. Oliver adds. Maybe you remember having a hard time reading in school, but you didn’t notice how bad it was until high school or when you started a desk job. It’s also possible people (yourself included) assumed you just needed to pay attention or work harder, says Dr. Chase. Of course, money and/or lack of access could’ve prevented you from getting tested for it as a kid too.
No matter how old you are, to get a diagnosis, you’d likely see a clinician familiar with learning disabilities, which might be someone like a speech pathologist or a psychologist, according to the International Dyslexia Association (IDA). They’ll look at your grades and your family history, conduct IQ and reading tests, and ask parents and teachers what they’ve noticed, says Dr. Chase. If you go to a psychologist, they might also assess if you’re dealing with other neurodevelopmental disorders, like ADHD, that can happen at the same time, she says.
If you’re not sure where to get an eval, you can talk to your school or doctor for a referral or check out the IDA’s provider list, which includes people qualified to diagnose dyslexia, notes Dr. Chase.
How is dyslexia treated?
Tutoring can be a really helpful treatment for this condition, says Dr. Chase. Tutoring for dyslexia is a kind of specialized reading instruction (called multisensory structured language education or structured literacy) done by people like teachers, certified academic language therapists, or structured literacy dyslexia specialists, she says.
During these sessions, you’ll learn sounds and how they apply to what you’re seeing on the page, Dr. Chase explains. It may take a few years to get you to a better place and you might still feel like you have to work a little harder to get through a book, but you can definitely improve, she says.
To find a tutor, no matter what age you are, you can check out the IDA’s list or one from the Center for Effective Reading Instruction. You can also get in contact with your state chapter of Decoding Dyslexia, which is typically up-to-date on resources, or ask a school for learning disabilities in your area if they have recommendations, suggests Dr. Oliver. Most public schools offer dyslexia tutoring as part of their special education programs too, Dr. Chase notes.
Whether you seek tutoring or not, text-to-speech technology can also make it easier to read or write in everyday life, says Dr. Chase. There are a lot of options to make daily tasks less of a struggle.
With a learning disability like dyslexia, going to a therapist like you would for anxiety or depression won’t target the information-processing difficulty that tutoring will. But, if your mental health is taking a hit because of your dyslexia, a therapist who’s worked with people who have learning disabilities can help, Dr. Chase says.
With the right support and workarounds, your dyslexia can get better. Samantha R. had a few years of tutoring through school and went on to get a degree in special education. Now, she works with kids who have autism. “It’s kind of a full-circle thing,” she says.
Wondermind does not provide medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Any information published on this website or by this brand is not intended as a replacement for medical advice. Always consult a qualified health or mental health professional with any questions or concerns about your mental health.
