Knowra Dyslexia Dyslexia Dyslexia is a learning disorder involving persistent difficulty with accurate or fluent word reading and spelling. It occurs across a range of intellectual abilities and is not explained by inadequate instruction alone.
Phonological processing : The ability to perceive, remember, and manipulate the sound structure of spoken language. Difficulty mapping speech sounds to letters is a common route to dysfluent decoding.
Phoneme : The smallest speech sound unit that can distinguish one word from another in a language. Connecting phonemes with written symbols is a central early reading challenge.
Structured literacy : An explicit, systematic approach to teaching written language, including sound-letter patterns and word structure. Its direct teaching of decoding and spelling targets skills often difficult in dyslexia.
Adolph Kussmaul : A German physician who described acquired word-reading difficulty in the nineteenth century. His account helped establish alexia as a distinct disturbance of reading.
Reading achievement gap : A difference in reading performance between individuals or groups, often measured through standardized assessments. Without timely support, persistent decoding difficulty can widen academic differences.
Phonemic awareness : The ability to identify and manipulate individual speech sounds, or phonemes, in spoken words. It supports learning how printed letters represent the smallest units of speech.
Grapheme : A letter or letter group that represents a speech sound in a writing system. Dyslexia often makes learning sound-to-spelling correspondences effortful.
Orton–Gillingham approach : A multisensory, explicit approach to teaching reading and spelling through structured language instruction. It is a well-known intervention associated with individualized dyslexia teaching.
Pringle Morgan : A British physician who reported a case of severe reading difficulty in an otherwise capable child in 1896. His report is a landmark early description of developmental dyslexia.
Self-esteem : A person’s overall evaluation of their own worth and abilities. Repeated struggles with reading can affect confidence, especially when difficulties are misunderstood.
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