Factors in the cause, cure, and prevention of dyslexia..

Why?  Do you have dyslexia? I don't know anything about it, but I will tell you that some of the most delightful minds I have ever encountered have been dyslexic.  They do struggle with reading and stuff but some have original, ingenious ways of looking at things that would never occur to someone with a normal brain.  I guess it's kind of a trade-off.

Ther are no known causes,cures or preventions for dyslexicia.There are opposing theories as to the orgins and causes and several different "treatment" options for the different types of dyslexcia.These treatments are in no way a cure,rather things that can be learned and implamented to help those with dyslexia function in a normal mannor.If you would like to know more I would be willing to go into more detail about them and give my personal input.I have dyslexia and I have discovered a few things that have helped me.

Hello,

I have first hand experience with dyslexia as I have lived with it for over 60 years.  My son Matthew in his mid 30's is also living with it and doing very well.  First of all, just to clarify, dyslexia is in no way related to or connected with autism, ADHD, or other such things.  They are all totally different animals and affect folks in different ways.  Simply put, dyslexia is mostly about how one'sbrain interprets what their eyes see.  As to prevention and cure?  There is no prevention as such, it's passed down generation to generation and most commonly in males, not even sure how genetics plays a roll in it.  The only cure that I know of is starting from day one, starting long years of brain busting, hard work, patience, offering continued encouragement, deadly persistence and a genuine passion along the line to excel.  One is born with dyslexia and has to cope with and deal with it's affects for a lifetime. 

On the other hand, looking back, for me it was never the end of the world, because I never knew I had such a thing until many years into my life.  It's just that for those of us who have it, in the beginning learning even simple things could seem very difficult, even frustrating.   I was always suspicious that something was wrong with my brain because in doing arithmetic, everything seemed clear enough at first, I'd answer problems as I saw them.  Then upon receiving the corrected papers most of my answers turned out wrong because now many of the numbers seemed different than when I first looked at them.  The same with letters and words.  Sometimes letters appear backwards, words and sentences often seemed to run together into a jumble, making reading very difficult.  I often saw numbers and letters that weren't there, were mixed among others and/or switched from one number to something different.  It's like for me I often saw something like "2+2 and I'd answer 4", only to find out when the correct answers were given, mine was wrong because as I now saw that one of the twos was actually a 3 or maybe a 5.  It happened time and time again in different ways and it seemed the more I tried, the worse it got.  The end result was always the same, "I couldn't do it".   On top of that I have ADD, which back then was better known as being a daydreamer.  There isn't enough time here to explain how these two conditions acting together can affects one's learning ability and self confidence.  Eventually, my attitude became; "the more I try, the worse it gets, so why try?   

Years ago, teachers didn't know about things like dyslexia, ADD, autism, or ADHD.  Those who had to contend with dyslexia suffered identity and self esteem problems and lacked confidence.  We were often referred to in those days as the "dumb" kids, the slackers who didn't want to learn, thus would never amount to much if anything at all.  Nevertheless,I turned out OK, thanks to an instructor in a navy school who assured me that he could teach me anything and he did too, the rest is history.  It was that and the determination to prove the "naysayers" all wrong that eventually drove me to where I wanted to be.   

I don't know your age, but it's just relatively recently educational organizations began to be aware of these conditions and their affects on students.  Today, kids are given lots of help in overcoming these conditions. 

My son Matt who has dyslexia very severly (passed down from me) was able to graduate from high school with honors and is now a very successful business manager in telecommunications thanks to the right kind of help for his condition, but it literally took his mother working side-by-side with him and a few good teachers pushing and fighting for him throughout his school years to provide the conditions needed for the right outcome. 

So that's it,  in the beginning what I had written made dyslexia seem like such a deliberating affliction, that if someone had it they would forever be condemned to a life of hopelessness through eternity.  Actually there are advantages we dyslexics have over "normal" folks.  Somehow the drive to excel eventually takes control of most of our lives.  As a result, many of us become great thinkers, explorers, inventors and leaders.   Many of the Great achievers who's names we all recognize written in the pages of history were dyslexics.