Dyslexia

Developmental dyslexia is a condition or learning disability which causes difficulty with reading and writing.

Its standard definition is a difficulty in reading and writing in spite of normal development of intelligence, cognitive and sensory abilities.

The word "dyslexia" comes from the Greek words δυς- dys- ("impaired") and λέξις lexis ("words" or "lexicon"). People are often identified as dyslexic when their reading or writing problems cannot be explained by a lack of intellectual ability, inadequate instruction, or sensory problems such as poor eyesight.

The term dyslexia is also sometimes used to refer to the loss of reading ability following brain damage. This form of dyslexia is more often referred to as either acquired dyslexia or "Alexia". Dyslexia primarily impacts reading and writing abilities; however, other difficulties have been reported including deficits in processing spoken language as well as non-language difficulties[2].

Dyslexia is not limited to reversing the order of letters in reading or writing. Nor is it a visual perception deficit that involves reading letters or words backwards or upside down, as is often implied in popular culture.

Researchers have claimed that it is a brain-based condition with biochemical and genetic markers. Others have questioned whether dyslexia is no more than a mythological construct and argue that researchers that rely on the concept fail to recognize neurodiversity. Its diagnostic status remains highly debated in both medicine and the social sciences.

This is an edited version of the article on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dyslexia