This blog post aims to answer the question, “Does dyslexia affect behaviour?” and explores what dyslexia means, its symptoms, causes, risks and complications and their effect on the person’s behaviour to help understand the answer.
Does dyslexia affect behaviour?
Yes, dyslexia can affect behaviour. Dyslexia affects behaviour in the following 3 ways –
- Avoidance.
- Resignation.
- Acting Out.
These 3 ways dyslexia affects behaviour will be discussed in further detail below after taking a look into the disorder of dyslexia.
What is Dyslexia?
Dyslexia is a learning disability characterised by difficulties recognising spoken sounds and understanding how they connect to letters and words (decoding). Dyslexia, often known as reading difficulty, affects the parts of the brain that process language.
People with dyslexia often have normal brains and eyesight. Tutoring or a customised education programme can help most dyslexic youngsters succeed in school. Emotional support is also very crucial.
While there is no cure for dyslexia, early detection and management yield the best results. Dyslexia can go undetected for years and not be diagnosed until adulthood, but it’s never too late to get treatment.
What are the symptoms of dyslexia?
Dyslexia symptoms might be difficult to spot before your kid starts school, but several early warning signs may suggest a problem. Your kid’s teacher may be the first to identify an issue once your child enters school age.
The severity of the issue varies, but it usually becomes obvious when a youngster begins to learn to read.
Before school.
The following are signs that a young kid may be dyslexic –
- Talking late
- Slowly learning new words
- Word formation issues, such as reversing sounds in words or mixing together words that sound identical
- Letters, numerals, and colours are difficult to recall or name.
- Learning nursery rhymes or playing rhyming games is difficult.
School-age.
Dyslexia indications and symptoms may become more obvious after your kid starts school, including –
- Reading significantly below the age-appropriate level
- He or she has difficulty digesting and comprehending what he or she hears.
- Finding the perfect word or developing responses to queries is difficult.
- Problems recalling what happened in what order
- Similarities and variances in letters and words are difficult to perceive (and occasionally hear).
- Inability to pronounce a term that is foreign to you.
- Spelling difficulties
- Taking an exceptionally long time to complete reading or writing assignments
- Avoiding reading-related activities
Teenage years and adulthood.
The symptoms of dyslexia in teenagers and adults are comparable to those in children. The following are some of the most prevalent dyslexia indications and symptoms in teenagers and adults –
- Reading difficulty, particularly reading aloud
- Reading and writing at a snail’s pace and with a lot of effort
- Spelling issues
- Avoiding reading-related activities
- Having trouble pronouncing names or words, or retrieving words
- Problems comprehending jokes or statements with a meaning that cannot be deduced from the words themselves (idioms), such as “piece of cake,” which means “easy.”
- Taking an exceptionally long time to complete reading or writing assignments
- It’s difficult to summarise a tale.
- Having difficulty learning a new language
- Memorizing is difficult.
- Having trouble solving arithmetic problems
What are the signs of dyslexia?
Dyslexic adolescents are likely to –
- Face difficulty learning even simple rhymes
- Have a speech impediment
- Have problems following instructions
- Repeat or omit short words such as and, the, but
- Find it tough to distinguish between left and right
In school, dyslexic children may –
- Have trouble pronouncing new words
- Lack fluency when compared to other youngsters their age
- When reading, reverse the letters and numerals (read saw as was)
- Have trouble taking notes and copying down words on the board
- Have difficulty rhyming, connecting sounds with letters, and sequencing and arranging sounds
- Find it difficult to spell even familiar words; they commonly spell them phonetically (hrbr instead of harbour)
- Avoid having to read aloud in front of your peers
- Getting exhausted or annoyed from reading
Dyslexia impacts children both in and out of school. Dyslexic children may also –
- Have trouble deciphering logos and signs
- Find it difficult when it comes to learning the rules of games
- Have trouble following multi-step instructions
- Have trouble keeping track of time
- Find learning a new language especially challenging
- Become extremely irritated, which can negatively impact their mood and mental well-being.
What are the causes of dyslexia?
Dyslexia is a condition that runs in families. It appears to be connected to genes that alter how the brain interprets reading and language, as well as environmental risk factors.
What are the risk factors of dyslexia?
- Dyslexia or other learning difficulties in the family
- Low birth weight or premature birth
- Nicotine, drugs, alcohol, or virus exposure during pregnancy may affect the fetus’s brain development.
- Individual distinctions in the areas of the brain that allow you to read
What complications can dyslexia cause?
Dyslexia can cause a variety of issues, including –
- It’s difficult to learn. Because reading is a prerequisite for most other courses in school, a dyslexic student will be at a disadvantage in most classes and may struggle to stay up with peers.
- There are social issues. Dyslexia may lead to low self-esteem, behavioural issues, anxiety, anger, and separation from friends, parents, and teachers if left untreated.
- Issues as an adult A child’s failure to read and comprehend might impede him or her from attaining his or her full potential as an adult. This has the potential to have long-term educational, societal, and economic ramifications.
- Dyslexic children are more likely to develop attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and vice versa. ADHD can result in trouble maintaining focus, as well as hyperactivity and impulsive behaviour, making dyslexia treatment more challenging.
How does dyslexia affect behaviour?
One of the most essential aspects of dyslexia is its impact on behaviour. When a person’s dyslexia is not addressed and treated appropriately, it can lead to a variety of behavioural disorders.
These behavioural disorders can take many various forms, but here are a few that are frequent among dyslexics who have not gotten effective dyslexia therapy.
Avoidance.
This is a very prevalent behaviour problem among dyslexic youngsters who utilise it as a coping method.
A dyslexic may frequently use a number of methods to avoid reading, spelling, or writing, simply because they are aware of their language issues and wish to avoid any situations where those difficulties may be exposed.
To escape circumstances that require reading, a dyslexic youngster may begin to crack jokes, act out in other ways, or even run away.
A dyslexic youngster will frequently experience penalties for their avoidance strategies, yet they will prefer to utilise them rather than confront a humiliating scenario.
Similarly, kids utilise a number of strategies at home to avoid doing schoolwork, reading books, or participating in any other activity that they find scary owing to their language difficulties. They may avoid these situations since they are tough and demanding for them.
Resignation.
If learning issues are not addressed, students with learning difficulties tend to disengage from educational contexts over time.
Many dyslexic children lose interest in scholastic activities because they believe they are beyond assistance and will never be able to study as well as others, no matter how hard they try.
They get resigned to the challenges they face, and as a result, their academic ambitions and expectations fade away.
Students who are experiencing these issues may be seen as lazy, despite the fact that their behaviour is largely a result of their lack of confidence in their ability to do the duties that have been assigned to them.
Acting Out.
Dyslexic students who have not gotten dyslexia therapy may begin to act out and have disciplinary troubles.
This can show up in a variety of forms. Outgoing students may try to disrupt academic work and reading time by cracking jokes and diverting other students’ attention away from the given job.
This is a coping method for them to divert attention away from their failure to perform at the required level.
Dyslexic youngsters may sometimes act out of irritation when they observe others accomplishing something that makes them feel incompetent. As a result, kids act out in front of their peers as well as the teacher.
These are just a few of the behavioural effects that might emerge if a dyslexic youngster is not properly treated for his or her learning difficulties.
These issues may be avoided with careful therapy, and the kid can recognise that, while they learn differently, they are just as capable of achieving as their peers.
Conclusion –
This blog post attempted to answer the question, “Does dyslexia affect behaviour?” and reviewed what dyslexia means, its symptoms, causes, risks and complications and their effect on the person’s behaviour to help determine if dyslexia affects behaviour. Please feel free to reach out to us with any questions or comments you may have.
References –
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Dyslexia and Challenging Behaviour. National Council for Special Education. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.sess.ie/dyslexia-section/dyslexia-and-challenging-behaviour
Singh, M. Behavioral problems in dyslexia and how to approach it? (2020, July 2). Retrieved from https://numberdyslexia.com/behavioral-problems-in-dyslexia-and-how-to-approach-it/
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