How Dyslexia Affects Reading and Writing Skills

This essay discusses the impact of dyslexia on reading and writing skills, specifically in different subjects. It explores the challenges faced by dyslexic learners and provides strategies to overcome them. The essay also highlights the connection between dyslexia and other disorders that affect reading and writing.

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Introduction
Language disorder can be regarded as a communication disorder where a person
experiences the difficulty that often persists with time in learning various forms of languages that
could either be spoken, written or even sign language. Such individuals who have language
disorders often have a considerable low language ability that is usually below the expected in
comparison to their age. Language disorders often limit a person's ability to communicate with
others and thus not being in a position to effectively participate in various issues which range
from social to academic (Beech, 2017 ,p.45).
Specific language disorders often tend to affect a pupil's level of literacy. This write-up is
going to determine whether or not the above statement is true and thereby specifying in details
how reading as well as writing skills are affecting by the issue of language disorder such as
dyslexia. The aim and objective of the essay is to analyze how dyslexia affects learning of
different subjects ,how dyslexia affects grammar , how it affects speech and how it results to
other disorders which affects writing skills and reading skills. Therefore, in general, the paper
will focus on the entire disorder and this will be aided by the use of secondary sources which
have relevant information about the topic of study (Bell & McLean, 2016, p.67).
An overview of the language disorders
As mentioned earlier, a language disorder is often characterized by issues such as
difficulties in communication and expression. Various signs and symptoms of language disorder
usually appear at an early stage of a child's development. It is also important to note that
language learning is a really gradual process that relies on a number of issues such as expressive
and receptive skills. Here, expressive ability entails the production of either verbal or gestural

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signals (Berget & Sandnes, 2016 p.60). Receptive ability, on the other hand, refers to the process
of receiving as well as understanding the language. The issue of language disorder is usually
brought about by an impairment either in receptive or expressive abilities or even both. In most
cases, people with language disorders usually have issues when it comes to producing
vocabulary and sentence structures, such individuals cannot make a complete sentence that
makes sense and as a result of this most of the learners have limited capacity as far as
engagement in a conversation is concerned (Berninger, Abbott, Cook & Nagy,2017 p.43).
In our case, the issue of dyslexia is a specific learning disability which deters effective
reading. The disorder is common to kids, adults and it prevents learners from learning correctly
and fluently in the class. This means that dyslexia will affect the comprehension, spelling and
writing skills of the learners in school. Dyslexia is caused by genes and heredity. Most of the
time dyslexia will affect the memory thus affecting the brain activities which will automatically
lead to poor reading and writing skills to the dyslexic learners (Bigozzi, Tarchi, Pinto & Accorti
Gamannossi, 2016 p.123).
How dyslexia affects reading and writing skills
Generally, dyslexia affects the mastery of subjects in school. This shows that learners
with dyslexia face some difficulties when learning different concepts in the school curriculum.
Some of the specific pitfalls experienced in different subjects by learners affected by dyslexia
are;
First learners with dyslexia incur difficulties when learning science in school. Some of
the challenges experienced in reading science by learners with dyslexia include the inability to
use systematic step by step methods in handling experimental methods in a class, inability to

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decode and learn the multisyllabic words in the field of science and also inability to identify key
points or what is important within the textbook (Cameron,Cottone, Murrah & Grissmer,2016
p.34). In addition, dyslexia affects fluency when handling science-related projects and test since
students may be not in the position to recall what they have learned in the class. On another
hand, dyslexia affects the learning of mathematics in class. Learning mathematics in school
requires maximum concentration so as to master key concepts. When learners are affected by
dyslexia you find it's difficult to learn mathematical terminologies, symbols, and inability to
follow specific directionality when solving mathematics related concept. In addition, dyslexia
will lead to difficulties when evaluating mathematical answers and use of step by step approach
in mastering mathematical formulae in class. The other impact is experienced in reading and
learning history and other social subjects in class. Different authors have argued that learners
affected with dyslexia will have difficulties in recalling dates or maps learned in social science.
This means that the learners will not be able to retain different chronological dates marking
occurrence of certain phenomena as explained in social studies. Moreover, dyslexia will not be in
the position to decode and learn the vocabularies outlined in social studies in school. Döhla and
Heim (2016) argue on dyslexia as a learning disorder results to difficulties in learning subjects
such as art and foreign languages(p.65). The two subject's needs maximum participation and
dyslexics are not in the position to retain contents explained in these subjects. Art on its own
needs long term memory to master diagrams and other related concepts. Dyslexics lack adequate
memory to retain or recall classwork concepts thus making it difficult for learners to follow step
by step procedures to complete school projects . In learning foreign language, dyslexic learners
will tend to experience spelling and vocabulary mastering. This shows that dyslexic students will
lack strong foundation on vocabulary and grammar mastering in the school life unless the

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disorder is treated early enough (Cavalli, Casalis, El Ahmadi, Zira, Poracchia-George &
Cole,2016 p.45).
In order to reduce the impacts of dyslexia in learning different subject's learners can use multi-
dimensional approach when learning. This means that teachers can incorporate visuals and
hands-on when teaching learners with dyslexia. By taking the multi-dimensional approach it will
be easy to allow learners with dyslexia to learn school subjects just like the normal students in
school.
The other impact of dyslexia in reading and learning is experienced in speech. Basically,
dyslexia as a language disorder will affect the issue of speech in different ways. The impacts of
dyslexia are more experienced in communication and also in written language (Cavalli, Duncan,
Elbro, El Ahmadi & Colé, 2017 p.54).This means that learners with dyslexia will have poor
phonological awareness or inability to break the words down into different sounds when
communicating. Different authors clearly outline that dyslexia is a co-occurring disorder with
motor skills difficulty, for example, the issue of dyspraxia which delays the production of speech
in learners. This means that individuals affected with dyslexia will experience trouble in different
areas like in sound sequencing, the issue of word substitution and also rhyming of words. All
these impacts affect the power of speech thus inability to communicate fluently. Therefore,
dyslexia on its own leads to the tip of the tongue which is a phenomenon that has been identified
as the main cause of halted speech and also the misspeaking. In addition, researchers argue that
dyslexia disorder affects the anxiety and cause embarrassment which in turn will affect the
speech fluency and with time may lead to low self-esteem and low confidence thus affecting
reading and writing in school (Costa, Edwards & Hooper, 2016 p.89).In simple words dyslexia
through speech it will lead to language delay which in turn induces negative impacts on reading

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and writing skills in class. Language delay means that kids with dyslexia are not in the position
to practice the first spoken words after they have been born. This challenge will affect their
capability to speak well and also their capability to play about with language in their speeches.
Reports argue that babies born with dyslexia disorder will incur trouble of communicating
fluently. The disorder may even prevent children from speaking in the rest of their lives and
others may start speaking at later years almost 9 to 18 which may deter the babies from going to
school. The issue here is that those kids with dyslexia disorder will tend to take a long time to
speak since their memory is affected by the disorder hence their brain may take longer time to
process the sounds which constitute to language (Ellis, 2016 p.45).
In addition, dyslexia affects reading and learning through speech production which is
further experienced in motor skills. Basically understanding the words that make native language
will determine the ability to master literacy skills needed by learners. This means that at early
stages of kids they are supposed to appreciate the issue of phonological awareness (Frith,2017
p.56).Kids with dyslexia disorder may lack the issue of phonological awareness thus
experiencing learning and reading challenges when learning. Dyslexia will deter kids to use
different sounds to associate them with letters thus causing children to experience decoding
challenges when reading and writing in school. In general, decoding will be therefore a challenge
to dyslexic learners since they will lack phonological awareness thus reading out loudly I lass
will be a trouble thus causing misread words. For example, the motor capabilities in the human
brain are to ensure there is an effective sequencing of words when one is communicating. When
this level is affected by a disorder especially dyslexia then it will be difficult for learners to read
and write effectively when in school. In addition, motor skills are affected by dyspraxia. The
dyspraxia is caused by dyslexia and interferes with brain muscles thus affecting speech which

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may deter effective reading and writing in school (Helland & Morken, 2016 p.43). Learners with
dyspraxia will tend to struggle on how to plan, how to manage sound sequencing when reading
and writing in school. The issue of language delay as an impact of dyslexia will also lead to
language recall challenges. Most of the time we tend to lack words when we are in the midst of
conversation. To some people, this challenge may not occur at a higher degree since they can
tend to manipulate different words thus fixing this challenge. To those learners affected by
dyslexia, it may be difficult to use the analogy of pondering new related words to fix in the
speech. Speakers affected by dyslexia may not be in the position to ponder a certain word to fix
in their speeches thus affecting their learning and reading capabilities in school. The issue of
dyslexia at this level is believed to have interfered with brain cells thus causing a delay in
segmenting and processing words when reading and writing. Through this, the learners affected
by dyslexia will, therefore, be in difficulties when finding a word they are looking thus leading to
misspeak. This will be accompanied by halted speech and shorter speech hence unable to express
fully (Huettig, Lachmann, Reis & Petersson, 2018 p.41).
In order to handle this challenge of speech experienced by dyslexia learners then we ought to
encourage on key factors such as providing opportunities for multi-sensory learning. This will
aid in improving the reading and learning skills. In addition, handling speech challenges caused
by dyslexia can be done by putting together a list of helpful filter phrases which will improve on
reading and writing skills. This analogy of using word phrases is relevant to use of games which
will enhance phonemic awareness. This can be done by creating awareness on rhyming games
thus helping the annunciation and speaking hence improving the reading and writing skills
(León, Bravo & Fernández, 2017 p.53).

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On another hand dyslexia results in other disorders which may interfere with reading and
writing skills in school. Researchers show that many kids have more than one attention issue and
learning. This shows that there is a lot of issues which are related to the concept of dyslexia.
Some of these issues are described as the symptoms of dyslexia (Łockiewicz & Jaskulska, 2016
p.409).Therefore, when one is testing for dyslexia he or she will experience disorders such as
ADHD, the executive functioning issues, slow processing speed, auditory processing speed, and
visual processing speed. All these issues are related to the concept of dyslexia and each affects
the reading and writing skills. Some of the impacts related to these issues when it comes to
reading and writing are;
First, the issue of ADHD as a symptom of dyslexia makes it difficult for learners to stay
focused during reading and other related class activities in school. Current researchers argue that
those learners with ADHD symptoms also have dyslexia and they may experience troubles when
reading. On another hand, the executive processing speed issues affect different areas of learning
in class. The issue will deter the normal function of memory thus making learners unable to
retain the key concepts learned in class. This, in turn, will affect reading and writing skills since
the learners will not be recalling any single concept in the class. The other issue related to
dyslexia is the slow processing speed (Longcamp, Velay, Berninger & Richards, 2016 p.345).
This issue tends to impact reading and other areas of learning. This means that dyslexia affects
memory thus causing learners to struggle with speed thus processing of information in their mind
occurring at a lower rate as compared to the normal students in school. This issue will make it
difficult for learners to master basic reading skills needed in the school and also making learners
not to understand the meanings of what they have learned in the school. The other issue related
to dyslexia is auditory processing disorder. The disorders will affect a child's ability to sort

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different sound when listening and writing. Through this trouble it will be difficult to read
fluently thus those learners with this issue will experience challenges when recognizing the
difference between the sound in new words thus affecting reading and writing skills. In addition,
the concept of visual processing issues in dyslexia will make it hard for learners to process what
they have seen with their eyes. Dyslexia may affect the eyesight thus causing learners to
complain about a blurry vision which will lead to poor reading and writing skills. Learners at this
level may be subjected to close one of their eyes so as to see with the other eye (Nielsen, Abbott,
Griffin, Lott, Raskind & Berninger, 2016 p.234). This, therefore, means that learners will
struggle with the line when reading and writing hence affecting reading and writing skills in
school. Lastly, dyslexia is also composed of dysgraphia and dyscalculia. The two issues will
affect the child's ability to spell some words in class and at the same time making it hard for
learners to do mathematics respectively. The concept of dysgraphia may make learners difficult
to organize thought clearly throughout the paper. Also, dyscalculia on another hand will make
learners have serious challenges when following mathematical formulae and calculation step by
step. All these issues, therefore, will have negative impacts on reading and writing skills
(Powers, Wang, Beach, Sideridis & Gaab, 2016 p.42).
In order to handle all these issues related to dyslexia, one has to look for immediate medication
or look for parenting coach. The issue is that dyslexia-related issues in learners can be treated by
acquiring practical skills on how to work on emotional and behavioral challenges.
In addition dyslexia in affecting learning and reading skills is evident through the issue of
grammar and conventions. Basically, dyslexic students tend to put more efforts into reading
different words and trying to understand the meanings of the words in class. This shows that
grammar and conventions to dyslexic learners may not seem like an important aspect (Rack,

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2017 p.43).Reports show that without the grammar skills then writing on its own does not make
sense. Through reading, students with dyslexia will tend to spend more time writing a word and
through this, the meaning of the word can be lost. Those learners who have dyslexia will
experience challenges when sequencing information and when writing essays in class. The issue
is that dyslexics will work at low speed and this would demotivate them as they consume a lot of
time thus being frustrated (Rello, Ballesteros, Ali, Serra, Sánchez & Bigham, 2016 p.123). In
addition learners with dyslexia show reading and writing challenges when it comes to
sequencing. This shows that dyslexics most of the times they will try to place letters of a word in
the wrong place when writing. Researchers have clearly articulated on some examples on
dyslexic have sequencing challenges. For instance, when one is recalling a certain story, he or
she may be in the position to deliver the content of the story effectively but when it comes to
dyslexia individuals it may sound quite different. The dyslexic learners are able to narrate the
same story verbally but when they are told to narrate the story in the paper you find them
skipping some concepts and changing some letters. This means that dyslexic learners experience
challenges in sequence as they jumble the entire story thus making it not to reveal any sense at
all (Salkeld,2016 p.54). Through this weakness then dyslexic will entirely experience the reading
and writing challenge although solution can be identified. For example, one may prefer using a
recording tape to capture what the learner utters but not what the learner jots down on the paper
since it will constitute a lot of grammatical errors thus poor learning and reading skills.
Conclusion
Therefore, dyslexia affects reading and writing skills in different ways. Through the
paper, the issue of dyslexia has affected the learning of different subjects in the school
curriculum. This means that dyslexic students in schools have been facing challenges in

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mastering various concepts outlined in different subjects (Seidenberg, 2017 p.176).For instance,
dyslexics experience difficulties when learning subjects such as mathematics whereby they are
unable to follow step by step procedures needed in mastering mathematical formulas in school.
On another hand, the essay has clearly outlined how dyslexia affects the speech. The issue of
speech affects reading and learning among learners with dyslexia disorder. Reports indicate that
dyslexia on its own will affect the sequencing whereby learners may omit or jump some words
when speaking. This, in turn, will affect the entire reading and writing skills when learning. Also,
the paper has clearly explained how other issues related to dyslexia affects reading and writing
skills in school. Dyslexia issues such as ADHD, the executive functioning issues, slow
processing speed, auditory processing speed, and visual processing speed will affect reading and
writing skills in different ways. All the issues will deter the dyslexics from mastering concepts in
different subjects and also from other activities carried out in the school. The main idea at these
issues is that a dyslexic will experience difficulties in reading and interpreting class concepts
thus poor reading and learning skills experienced by the learners (Youman & Mather, 2018
p.476). On another hand, dyslexia affects the issue of grammar in the school curriculum.
Dyslexics are able to experience grammatical challenges hence experiencing poor reading and
writing skills as outlined in the paper. Therefore, there is need to come up with appropriate
procedures which will aid in treating the dyslexia disorder thus reducing challenges experienced
by dyslexics when reading and writing in school.

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