Manx Dyslexia Association

In May 2024, the SpLD Assessment Standards Committee (SASC) announced a new definition of Dyslexia

Dyslexia is primarily a set of processing difficulties that affect the acquisition of reading and spelling.
In dyslexia, some or all aspects of literacy attainment are weak in relation to age, standard teaching and instruction, and level of other attainments.
Across languages and age groups, difficulties in reading and spelling fluency are a key marker of dyslexia.The nature and developmental trajectory of dyslexia depends on multiple genetic and environmental influences.
The nature and developmental trajectory of dyslexia depends on multiple genetic and environmental influences.
Dyslexic difficulties exist on a continuum and can be experienced to various degrees of severity.
Dyslexia can affect the acquisition of other skills, such as mathematics, reading comprehension or learning another language.
The most commonly observed cognitive impairment in dyslexia is a difficulty in phonological processing (i.e. in phonological awareness, phonological processing speed or phonological memory). However, phonological difficulties do not fully explain the variability that is observed.
Working memory, orthographic skills and processing speed problems can contribute to the impact of dyslexia and therefore should be assessed.
Dyslexia frequently co-occurs with one or more other developmental difficulty, including developmental language disorder, dyscalculia, ADHD, and developmental coordination disorder.

https://www.patoss-dyslexia.org/news/introducing-a-new-definition-of-dyslexia

Current research suggests that up to 20% of the population have a dyslexic brain. The dyslexic brain learns in a different way to the non-dyslexic brain, and this difference makes it much more difficult for the dyslexic individual to establish fluent word identification and spelling skills.

There is nothing wrong with the dyslexic brain – and so there is nothing to ‘fix’ or to make better. Rather, the dyslexic individual needs to learn how to get around the barriers to learning that dyslexia creates. When the barriers to learning are removed, the dyslexic learner is free to reach his or her potential within the text-based learning environment present in our schools.

Is this your child?

Throughout their school careers a dyslexic child may:

Appear bright and able, but can’t get their thoughts down on paper
Become withdrawn and isolated, sitting at the back and not participating
Be able to do one thing at a time very well but can’t remember an entire list
Look ‘glazed’ when language is spoken too quickly
Go home exhausted at the end of a normal school day because they have put so much effort into learning
Be bullied

Pre-school children may have:

A difficulty learning nursery rhymes or the name for things, like ‘table’ or ‘chair’
Enjoyment in being read to but showing no interest in letters or words
Frequent accusations of not paying attention
Continuing difficulties in getting dressed and putting shoes on the correct feet
Problems with catching, kicking or throwing a ball or with hopping or skipping
Difficulty clapping a simple rhythm
Delayed speech development

Primary school children may have:

A poor sense of direction and confuse left and right
Difficulty tying shoe laces
A discrepancy between receptive and expressive language
Short-term memory limitations e.g. finding it hard to remember times tables, the alphabet or classroom instructions
Have pronounced reading difficulties – hesitant and laboured reading, loss of place in text, muddling words that look alike, difficulties in saying multi-syllabic words, problems understanding what they have read
Difficulties with writing and spelling – messy work, confusion of similar letters, bizarre spelling, confusion between upper and lower case letters

A young person at secondary school may: