1. What is Dyslexia?

2. Dyslexia is a neurobiological disorder that affects the development of both decoding (written word pronunciation) and encoding (spelling). People with dyslexia have difficulty reading fluently and spelling words correctly, even after years of instruction.

3. Causes Genetic disposition leads to problems with the perception of acoustic cues problems with visual perception

4. Some Common Misconceptions Myth: Students who flip numbers and letters have dyslexia. Fact: Some students with dyslexia show this feature, but this is not the key feature that defines dyslexia. Laborious reading and poor spelling is.

5. Myth: Dyslexia can be cured with enough reading practice. Fact: Dyslexia cannot be cured because it is a disorder of the brain. However, strategies can help students with dyslexia compensate for their difficulties.

6. Myth: Students with dyslexia have a lower IQ. Fact: Students with dyslexia are just like everyone. They just have difficulty reading. Some even learn to compensate for their disability and become very good at other things that don’t involve reading.

7. Myth: Dyslexia only occurs in English because it is a very irregular language. In “easy” languages like Spanish, there is no dyslexia. Fact: Remember, dyslexia is a neurobiological disorder (i.e. brain- based disorder), not a language based disorder. The language a person reads, however, will determine how dyslexia occurs.

8. Further facts 15.5% of the global population carry the genetic predisposition for dyslexia, the ratio identified as dyslexic depends on the transparency of the language used, awareness of dyslexia and availability of trained diagnosticians.

9. Dyslexia is a hidden disability. Many adults do not know that they are dyslexic.

10. Strenghts Good at ideas and innovative thinking. Good problem solver & lateral thinker. Creative in the way they make links and connections.

11. Strong in the areas of art, music, design, architecture and engineering. Good with practical tasks and creative in many ways. Good communicators. Have excellent visual and spatial awareness.

12. Difficulties Erratic spelling. Misreading, leading to comprehension difficulties. Personal organization.

13. Difficulties with sequences e.g. date order. Ability to solve problems but inability to show process. Poor organisation or time management. Inaccurate number work.

14. Dyslexia across different languages

15. The role of orthography Orthography, or how a language is represented in writing, impacts reading and writing development and can represent varying difficulties to speakers of a specific language who have dyslexia.

16. The most common orthographies today: alphabetic: e.g. Finnish letter a sound /a/ letter k sound /k/ letters aa sound /a:/ (long) letter v sound /v/

17. syllabic: e.g. Japanese Kana: a symbol corresponds to a syllable logographic: Chinese a symbol corresponds to word

18. Alphabetic Orthographies „Shallow“ and „deep“ orthographies Shallow orthographies have a one to one correspondence between letters and sounds. The language is written as it sounds. Deep orthographies have multiple mappings between letters and sounds. Spelling patterns are irregular and don‘t follow the sounds of the language.

20. Shallow alphabetic orthographies e.g. Spanish Characterized by slow, but not necessarily inaccurate, reading. Once Spanish-speaking readers with dyslexia master the letters and corresponding sounds of the alphabet, the one-to-one correspondence between sounds and letters facilitates their reading and spelling.

21. They never become fluent. They don ’ t get the meaning from the text because they are so concerned with reading.

22. Deep alphabetic orthographies e.g. English In addition to slow and inaccurate reading, these students will have persistent poor spelling. Poor phonological awareness (manipulating the sounds that make up each word).

23. Students can’t remember the irregularities of the language, even after years of reading instruction Dyslexia in deep orthographies is pretty obvious.

24. Dyslexia in adults Most of the research on dyslexia has been done in relation to children and the acquisition of literacy. Adults often have persistent literacy problems unless they have received dyslexia friendly teaching.

25. Primary problems for adults are those associated with a weak working memory, such as personal organisation. There are many adult dyslexics, who have not been diagnosed as dyslexic in their youth; consequences are among others psychosomatic problems, low self - esteem; different problems depending on the individual.

26. Conclusions

27. Lower rates of identification in areas where the language is more transparent than English, means that more employees are unaware of their dyslexia. Where the language is transparent: There is likely to be less awareness of dyslexia within employing organisations; there are likely to be less reasonable adjustments offered to adults with dyslexia.

28. A few suggestions how to manage dyslexia at work

29. Know the signs Seek confirmation Provide support

30. Use technology Look at your practices Consider individual needs

31. Seek specialist help Increase awareness

32. Key points Dyslexia need not be a barrier to success! Dyslexia is common - an organisation with 50-100 employees could have up to 10 workers who are dyslexic.

33. Adjustments can help to maximise potential. Do not generalise – treat each case individually.

34. For the dyslexic...

35. Slow down. Get organized.

36. Do not be ashamed to use a reading aid(e). Spell check is your friend.

37. Be confident!