Imagine this, a student who has no history with leaning difficulties entering University and finding it to be overwhelming and a lot of work to keep up with. Now, have a student that's dyslexic. Just writing and reading their course work is a challenge. It's important that fellow students and staff at Universities are aware of this but to also not see someone with dyslexia as someone who has a lack of intelligence because that's not the truth. Students that are dyslexic have to work harder to show their true abilities and to show that their learning difficulties does not make them incapable of learning.
Dyslexia is the most common of all learning disabilities. People affected by dyslexia have difficulties with spelling and reading, they just learn differently compared to the way others do. Concentrating and interpreting can come as a challenge, and this is something that is very important in education and learning. The cause is often an impaired auditive and visual memory. However, dyslexia appears differently in every person and should be seen as a continuum.
There are three types of dyslexia:
- Motor, which is when numbers and letters are reversed.
- Visual, this type is inherited and sees the person not being able to immediately process words they see.
- Phonetic, which means you see a word but don’t hear the sound of it in your mind.
Susan Du Plessis, an educational practitioner said, "One in 10 South Africans suffer from dyslexia, which means about five million people in schools and the workplace have this learning and reading problem." therapy is found to be a great help to people who have dyslexia. This is important because it being a learning disability, there are many stigmas attached to dyslexia and those suffering from it are sometimes seen as stupid or lazy when they really aren't. This can often leave the person to feel like a victim because of their dyslexia and have feelings of hopelessness.
People need to be educated about the realities of students who have difficulties in order to combat these stigmas. Sometimes it cam be found that some lecturers are skeptical about dyslexia diagnoses, and fail to give students the support they need due to their lack of education about learning disabilities.
Higher education institutions offer various forms of support. There are special considerations in exams and tests, extra time for completion of assignments, a learning support tutor, etc. However, for students to gain access to this it is important that they make the University aware of their dyslexia.
Living in this modern age has proven to come as an advantage to students who suffer from dyslexia. We now have things like spellcheck, auto-correct, and all sorts of other innovations. Using a computer for notes is also helpful as information is processed faster and students can adjust the font to a font they can read and understand easier. Another strategy students can use is recording lectures on their phones and re-listening after in case they missed anything.
Some tips for students suffering from dyslexia would be to use visual methods and abbreviations when making study notes. It would also be helpful to read in short intervals rather than reading everything all at once. Using coloured notes and paper is also a better method to use.
To see further into the life of a dyslexic student who gained success, click here to read about Melissa Titus.
