FRESH PERSPECTIVE: Various factors can cause dyslexia

The Yomiuri Shimbun

Dear Fresh Perspective:

My child had all sorts of trouble learning to read, and still avoids it if at all possible. I've wondered if he has dyslexia, though I've never seen him reverse letters or words.

Concerned Parent

Dear Concerned Parent:

Dyslexia is a technical term for significant difficulty learning to read. What comprises "significant difficulty" is highly subjective. Rather than bogging down in whether your child has or doesn't have dyslexia, consider how reading works. What makes reading difficult for so many people is that it's somewhat unnatural. First, reading involves getting at the structure of words, whereas most people's minds go more naturally to the meaning of words. For example, when you think of the word "ship," you most likely think about its meaning: a large boat, a vehicle that travels on the water. You most likely don't think about its structure: a one syllable word, a word with a digraph followed by a short vowel. Unfortunately, it's this latter level that you need in order to read the word. Second, reading requires breaking words down into their speech sounds, which also isn't so natural. You may (or may not) remember your first-grade teacher telling you that the word "cat" has three sounds: "C," "A" and "T." Regrettably, this is not true--the word "cat" exists as one sound in nature. What "cat" does have are three speech sounds, also called phonemes, and reading that word requires taking apart the one natural sound "cat," and breaking it down into component speech sounds "C," "A" and "T." This is called phonemic awareness, and it's another thing human minds aren't well wired to do. In sum, many people find the structure of words and the speech sounds in words hard to grasp, and this is the main reason for reading problems. Letter and word reversals (such as "b" for "d" and "saw" for "was") are quite secondary issues, and in many instances are not issues at all. If your child is in early primary school and struggling to read, extra instruction in word structure and phonemic awareness will most likely help. If your child is older and doesn't like to read, or reads very slowly and laboriously, that's very often a continuation of the problem--he's eventually learned to read, but isn't able to do it smoothly or fluently. Among older children there are many other reasons that can also account for not liking to read.

Ron Shumsky, Psy.D.

This is a column in which English-speaking psychologists and members of International Mental Health Professionals Japan (IMHPJ) offer their views on questions involving relationships, family matters and other issues.

This is the last installment of the Fresh Perspective. To learn more about IMHPJ and the professional counseling services that are available in Japan, visit www.imhpj.org.