Just like with any disability, physical, mental or learning, not all kids suffer from the same kinds of dyslexia.
In my search for “different types of dyslexia” I found on google reports that stated anywhere from 3-11 different types of dyslexia. Even after a lot of research, I’m not sure myself how many there really are, but clearly testing will help you figure out if your child has one type or another or a mix of types.
There are two clear categories though of dyslexia. There is acquired or developmental. You wouldn’t think that someone can acquire dyslexia, but it seems to be something that might show up after a trauma or stroke happens to a person. The more common type is developmental which tends to be an inherited disability that passes on from one generation to the next.
My son’s dyslexia is inherited from his father’s side of the family. It’s considered memory-based. For him it seems to not be that letters move around on the page, but more the connection between the letters and the sounds don’t match up.
It’s been most commonly described to me as “working memory”.
Working memory is an essential component in the development of literacy skills. The ability to retain verbal information in working memory is essential for reading and learning.
http://dyslexiahelp.umich.edu/
When my son was diagnosed, my husband also piped up and said that his was memory based. Each has similar struggles with reading, but both still have their own quirks as I like to refer to them of how they approach reading and their successes and struggles.
Remember the origin of the word is:
late 19th century: coined in German from dys- ‘difficult’ + Greek lexis ‘speech’ (apparently by confusion of Greek legein ‘to speak’ and Latin legere ‘to read’).
Oxford Dictionaries
As much as I want to avoid comparing dyslexia to an illness like cancer, we all know that when you get cancer, it’s not just one type. There are different types that effect different people in different ways and while some cancers have similar treatments, each person and each type are so specific that sometimes what works for one person is not something that will work for another.
My takeaway on this? Get tested by a professional who can help you figure out what type of dyslexia your struggling reader has and they can help determine the “treatment” for their struggles.
#dyslexiaawarnessmonth
365 MomMe 