Understanding Dyslexia
Dyslexia is a neurobiological learning disability characterized by difficulties with word recognition, spelling and reading. If your child has difficulty with spelling, writing and reading, they may have dyslexia. As these skills are necessary for schooling, this can be challenging for children to overcome. Here’s what you need to know about this unique learning disability and how you can help your dyslexic child remediate and work on their writing, reading and spelling abilities.
Getting Answers: Q&A with Brenda Fitzgerald
Brenda Fitzgerald is the executive director at Georgia Educational Training Agency, where she is also a curriculum and instruction specialist. The Georgia ETA empowers pre-K to twelfth grade public and private school administrators and teachers with skills courses based on scientific research. They also equip parents and families with skills to help their children succeed in and out of the classroom.

Brenda Fitzgerald
What is dyslexia?
It’s a neurobiological learning disability affecting reading, writing and spelling. They have great difficulty learning the phonological model. It’s the child’s inability to process the phonemes of the language. The beautiful thing about dyslexia is it doesn’t affect the thinking and reasoning of a child. Students are extremely bright and gifted in other areas.
What is the diagnosis process like?
This process is different in public schools and private schools. At a public school, as part of the Response to Intervention process, the student will test with a psychologist, who is part of the school system. At a private school, they will collect data observation, do informal assessments and present that information, along with a team of people to the parent. A private school usually does not have a psychologist on campus, so evaluations will usually come from a private practice.
How will Senate Bill 48 change that process?
This law requires all children to have an evaluation for early identification of dyslexia, creating guidance for local school systems on universal screeners, dyslexia and other disorders, reading difficulties and special education services. By the 2024-2025 school year, school systems will screen all kindergarten students.
What changes in teaching methods have you seen during your career?
What’s needed more than anything is really good teacher training in phonological awareness, encoding and decoding, vocabulary and grammar. I’ve trained thousands of teachers over the last 30 years, and more teachers are being very explicit and systematic in their training, and teachers need layered training. When you layer your training, your teacher performs better.
The first component of layered training would be the Complete Reading Series, which trains teachers to understand the components of reading, writing and spelling and learning disabilities. The second layer would be training and certification in the Orton-Gillingham approach.
What happens if a student has no or limited remediation for dyslexia?
If we don’t remediate early enough, in third or fourth grade, anxiety will present itself, which will be a secondary issue. From the time students walk into school by the time they leave, they must be able to read, write and spell accurately and quickly. As you move from grade to grade, the pace of the curriculum gets faster, and content and concepts get harder. Students know they’re smart, but they just can’t keep up with their peers. We need to identify early and remediate correctly, and for that, we need good teacher training.
What has changed about dyslexia during your career?
There has been a major leap in understanding dyslexia in the last 20 years. We know it’s neurobiological. We know it can be found in multiple chromosomes. It’s a trait; it runs in families. Scientists know where it is on the brain, and they’ve pinpointed it to the phonological model of the brain.
What is your advice for parents with a new diagnosis of dyslexia?
The number one thing that a parent needs to do is educate themselves. Get Dr. Sally Shaywitz’s book “Overcoming Dyslexia.” Find our course “Understanding Dyslexia.” Talk to the child’s teacher and resource teacher about what remediation will look like in your school. Find a tutor for your child. It’s equally as important to find and develop your child’s gift. Develop their strengths, which can be a lifesaver for that child as they get proper remediation. I go to lunches with young adults who are engineers, doctors, entrepreneurs. They had parents or grandparents who found their gift and developed it, which helped them be as successful as they are today.
What options are there for families who can’t afford private education?
If you can, go to a public school that’s had layered training. Find free parenting workshops. If possible, get a full psychological evaluation. If your school is not remediating correctly, find a trained tutor.
–Emily Webb
Dyslexia Myths: The Truth Behind Common Misconceptions
Dyslexia was first identified by Oswald Berkhan in 1881, though the term ‘dyslexia’ became the official name for language processing disorder in 1887 when Rudolf Berlin, an ophthalmologist from Germany, developed the name. Despite its 143-year history, there are still many misconceptions about dyslexia. We spoke to a few experts to understand the facts about the learning disability that affects about 20% of the population.
Myth: People with dyslexia are unmotivated and not smart.
Perhaps the most widespread myth about dyslexia, this one is also often the most hurtful for people who are diagnosed with it. “I frequently hear, ‘but she is so smart, she can’t be dyslexic’ and that a diagnosis of dyslexia signals an inability to learn,” says Kara A. Loftin, Ph.D., Head of School at The Schenck School and Executive Director of ReadSource in Atlanta. “Both are simply not true.”
Dr. Coral Hoh, linguistic expert and co-inventor of Dysolve concurs. “People with dyslexia run the spectrum of intelligence just as with the general population,” says Hoh. “Students with dyslexia work a lot harder than other students but have a hard time making the same grades. This can lead to low self-esteem and frustration.”
In some cases, what is seen as laziness might actually be signs of stress. “Children with unremediated dyslexia face anxiety and shame when faced with unachievable expectations,” says Sherry Cannon M.Ed., A/AOG, Head of School at Sage School in Lawrenceville. “This can cause outward behavior such as shutting down, giving up, or producing poor work that can mimic laziness to uneducated parents, caregivers or educators — especially when a student has yet to be diagnosed.”
Dyslexia is a neurobiological disorder, and it does not mean that a person is not smart or that they are unable to learn. “Individuals with dyslexia are capable of so much more than this limiting belief,” notes Loftin.
Myth: Reversing letters is the main sign of dyslexia.
Reversing letters isn’t necessarily a sign of dyslexia. “Not all individuals with dyslexia will reverse letters,” says Loftin. “The main sign of dyslexia is difficulty with accurate and/or fluent word recognition, accompanied by poor spelling and decoding ability.”
Dyslexia has to do with the way language is processed and is not related to vision. “Individuals with dyslexia often flip lowercase ‘b’s and ‘d’s,” says Hoh. “But the confusion has more to do with the sound the letters make and less to do with how they look.”
Myth: Dyslexia is caused by a lack of exposure to reading or phonics instruction.
Exposing young children to literacy is an important element of early childhood development, but a lack of it is not a cause of dyslexia. “Since individuals are born hardwired with dyslexia, the amount of exposure to reading and/or phonics cannot cause dyslexia,” says Cannon. “Rather, early identification and proven Orton-Gillingham based remediation can drastically improve outcomes for dyslexic thinkers.”
Even support for dyslexic students may not focus on traditional phonics models and instead use a multi-sensory approach. “Phonics often doesn’t make sense to kids with dyslexia,” says Hoh. “They can’t retain the letters and sounds because they can’t process it.”
Myth: Kids outgrow dyslexia.
“You can’t outgrow inefficiencies in brain processing,” explains Hoh. While dyslexia doesn’t go away, it doesn’t have to define a person. According to a Yale University study, 40% of self-made millionaires and 35% of entrepreneurs in America have dyslexia.
“Dyslexia is a life-long issue, but it doesn’t have to be a limiting factor in one’s growth and development,” says Loftin. “With proper support and intervention, individuals with dyslexia can become skilled readers.”
As with other learning difficulties, early intervention is best. For those who do not get diagnosed until later in life, Hoh’s online, AI-based tool — dysolve.com — can provide affordable solutions for correcting language processing challenges.
“We can’t forget our older learners with dyslexia,” says Loftin. “All individuals with dyslexia deserve access to high-quality instruction and can learn to read, regardless of age.”
Myth: Dyslexia is a vision problem.
Though originally diagnosed and named by an ophthalmologist, dyslexia is a language processing disorder that occurs in the brain. “Dyslexics can have similar vision problems to non-dyslexic, but there are no vision problems specific to dyslexia or that cause dyslexia,” says Cannon.
“Visual problems can affect the ability to read, but dyslexia is not an inability to read,” says Hoh. “It is a difficulty in processing language — spoken and written.”
Myth: More boys than girls have dyslexia.
“This myth is a bit trickier to untangle,” explains Loftin. “Boys are diagnosed with dyslexia at a higher rate than girls. However, researchers continue to argue that dyslexia is as common in girls as it is in boys.”
According to the National Center for Biotechnology Information, this discrepancy may have a number of underlying factors including male brain maturation being slower than that of the average female, as well as brain anatomy. Research shows that females tend to use both hemispheres of the brain for language tasks, while males typically use only the left.
Another take on the imbalance of diagnoses is behavioral. “Girls are underdiagnosed because they are less likely to act out due to frustration,” notes Cannon.
Myth: Dyslexia cannot be diagnosed until about third grade.
Dyslexia can be diagnosed much earlier than third grade. “In fact, the earlier it is detected, the better outcomes for students. Professionals can diagnose dyslexia in students as young as 5 years old,” says Loftin. “Early intervention is key!”
The reason third grade is so often connected with dyslexia diagnoses is because it is a pivotal learning year. “This is when students move from learning to read to reading to learn,” explains Loftin. “It can be a time when challenges with fluent reading become much more pronounced among peers.”
MYTH: Dyslexia only happens with English.
Dyslexia occurs in every language. “It’s a worldwide issue,” says Hoh.
Though individuals with dyslexia can be from any country in world, Cannon notes that the language processing disorder can be harder to overcome in English, French and Russian because of a higher frequency of irregular spelling and letter combination. “Languages like Italian, Spanish and German have more regular letter and sound correspondences, which can make it easier for a dyslexic to read and spell the language,” she says. “Symbol-based writing systems like Japanese and Chinese are also somewhat easier for dyslexic thinkers.”
Signs of Dyslexia
For a comprehensive list of warning signs, the Mayo Clinic and the Yale Center for Dyslexia and Creativity are excellent resources.
- Late or delayed speech
- Difficulty rhyming
- Mispronouncing familiar words
- Difficulty learning and remembering letters of the alphabet
- Difficulty sounding out simple words
- Complaining about reading being hard
- Avoiding reading out loud
- Family history of reading problems
Screening for Dyslexia in GA Public Schools
A law that was signed in May of 2019 is now being implemented throughout the state. “In Georgia, SB48 provides for identification of and support for students in kindergarten through third grade with dyslexia,” says Loftin. “Mandated screening for dyslexia for students began this Fall.” The approved screening that will be used is the ISIPTM reading assessment, which is part of the Istation literacy educational software platform.
While a formal diagnosis is not the goal of these evaluations, they are worthwhile assessment tools for parents and teachers. “Only a physician can diagnose dyslexia with information gained from a battery of assessments,” says Cannon. The testing looks a several areas, including:
- Phonological awareness, which is a person’s awareness of the sound structure of oral language.
- Phonological or language-based memory, which refers to the ability to recall sounds, syllables, and words.
- Rapid automatic naming, which is the speed at which someone can name objects, colors, numbers, or letters.
- Phonics skills, which is the understanding of the connection between letters and sounds.
- Reading fluency and comprehension, which describes the ability to identify words and read with accuracy and understanding.
Students who show signs of dyslexia during the screening process are eligible for support at public school. Additionally, educators will have the ability to continually monitor student progress throughout the school year to help diagnose, monitor and respond to student needs as they shift through this program.
-Tali Benjamin
Learn the Lingo
Dyslexia: A specific, neurobiological learning disability characterized by difficulties with accurate and/or fluent word recognition and by poor encoding (spelling) and decoding (reading) abilities.
Dysgraphia: The condition of impaired letter writing by hand. Impaired handwriting can interfere with learning to spell words in writing and speed of writing text. Children with dysgraphia may have only impaired handwriting, only impaired spelling or both.
Dyspraxia: Refers to trouble with movement, including fine motor skills, gross motor skills, motor planning and coordination.
Dyscalculia: A condition that makes understanding numbers, performing calculations, counting, and basic arithmetic skills difficult.
Neurobiology: The study of cells of the nervous system and the organization of these cells into functional circuits that process information and mediate behavior.
Phoneme: Identifies the smallest unit of sound, such as “b,” “t” or “tch.”
Phonemic Awareness: The ability to manipulate phonemes. Dyslexic students usually lack phonemic awareness and may be unable to identify phonemes within words.
Grapheme: Individual letters and groups of letters that represent single phonemes.
Orton-Gillingham Approach: Orton-Gillingham was the first teaching approach designed to help struggling readers by explicitly teaching the connections between letters and sounds, and it was created in the 1930s by neurologist Dr. Samuel T. Orton and educator and psychologist Anna Gillingham. The approach combines multi-sensory teaching strategies with systematic, sequential lessons focused on phonics.
Wilson Reading System: A structured literacy program based on phonological-coding research and Orton-Gillingham principles that directly and systematically teaches the structure of the English language. Students learn fluent decoding and encoding skills.
Lindamood-Bell Learning Processes: Programs to develop the sensory-cognitive processes that underlie reading and comprehension.
Fast ForWord: An adaptive reading and language program channeling neuroscience to provide results for struggling learners.
Barton Reading & Spelling System: A tutoring system for those who struggle with spelling, reading and writing due to dyslexia.
Adapted from understood.org, disabledworld.com, ldonline.org, dyscalculia.org, dyslexiaresource.org, sciencedaily.com, sess.ie, readingdoctor.com, orton-gillingham.com, wilsonlanguage.com, lindamoodbell.com, bartonreading.com and dyslexiaida.org
Find a list of schools that support dyslexic students in Atlanta Parent’s Dyslexia School Directory.