Reading, writing, spelling and language.

Reading, writing, spelling and spoken language
difficulties are all forms of specific learning
difficulties which may be present to a greater or lesser
degree in a dyslexic individual.

Reading

Specific reading difficulty is by far the best known,
studied or understood of the four areas. Often specific
reading difficulties is what many refer to as
'dyslexia'. However, this seems to be a rather
simplistic definition. The term itself is often
misunderstood. A specific reading difficulty is not as
is sometimes believed, a term which identifies several
kinds of reading errors or any of the common
characteristics associated with poor reading. Specific
reading difficulty, is in fact, a measure of how far
behind the expected reading age a child maybe. So if an
11 year old has the reading age of an 8 year old then he
could be said to have a specific reading difficulty.

Writing

Unlike learning difficulties such as reading or
spelling, problems which are associated with
hand-writing have received little attention. This may
be because hand-writing does not lend itself to
evaluation by the use of standardised tests. However,
this has led to a lack of knowledge about writing
difficulties and to children with these problems, being
maligned and misunderstood.

Spelling

In most individuals there is usually a correlation
between poor spelling ability and poor reading ability.
However, this is not always the case and this is
particularly true of dyslexics. All the normal spelling
problems may be present in the work of a dyslexic
individual but there may also be a number of problems
that are unusual. A large number of dyslexic children
find it extremely difficult to recognise whether the
word they have just written is spelt correctly or not.
To them it looks neither correct or incorrect.

Language

The importance of language in enabling us to learn
cannot be over-stated. Written language is decoded when
we read and spoken language is encoded when we write or
spell. We use language to understand problems that are
put to us and to explain our ideas or how problems can
be resolved or overcome. Language is the single most
important factor that separates us from every other
animal on the planet.