Although dyslexia is not an emotional disorder, it can lead to feelings of anxiety, anger, low self-esteem and depression. Anxiety is the emotional symptom that adults with dyslexia experience the most. They become fearful because of their constant confusion and frustration at work or an educational setting.
Although most children with dyslexia are not depressed, they are at higher risk for intense feelings of sorrow and pain. Perhaps because of their low self-esteem, children with dyslexia are often afraid to turn their anger toward their environment and instead turn it toward themselves, which can result in depression.
Dyslexia is not an emotional disorder, but the frustrating nature of this learning disability can lead to feelings of anxiety, anger, low self–esteem and depression. Read scenarios in the dyslexic child's life that can give rise to social and emotional difficulties.
There is a common misconception that dyslexia only affects the ability to read and write. In reality, dyslexia can affect memory, organisation, time-keeping, concentration, multi-tasking and communication. All impact on everyday life.
Although anxiety is not a specific learning difficulty (SpLD), it is included here as studies have found that young people with learning difficulties are more likely to experience feelings of anxiety, depression and low self esteem.
Dyslexia is a learning difficulty that primarily affects the skills involved in accurate and fluent word reading and spelling. Characteristic features of dyslexia are difficulties in phonological awareness, verbal memory and verbal processing speed. Dyslexia occurs across the range of intellectual abilities.
They can get easily overwhelmed
Dyslexic people tend to compare themselves to what they think of as 'normal', but being dyslexic means that you are processing the world in a fundamentally different way. Different, not wrong, and most neuro-typical people can't begin to do the things that dyslexic people find easy.
Dyslexics often omit parts of words when reading. Dyslexics often have difficulty remembering dates, names, telephone numbers, and random lists. Dyslexics often have an extreme difficulty learning a foreign language.
Individuals with dyslexia often suffer from low self-esteem. This low self-esteem usually comes from the struggles, frustration and loneliness that they have experienced in their lives.
Most people associate dyslexia with letter reversal and reading difficulty. While these commonly appear in dyslexic individuals, dyslexia can affect so much more than just reading skills. Another common trait in dyslexic individuals is higher emotional intelligence.
Depression. Depression is also a frequent complication in dyslexia. Although most dyslexics are not depressed, children with this kind of learning disability are at higher risk for intense feelings of sorrow and pain.
Another condition people with dyslexia may experience is social anxiety disorder. It has several intense symptoms: The fear of being judged by others. Avoidance of social situations.
Common Areas of Struggle for the Person With Dyslexia
Some dyslexic kids have difficulty in social situations. They can be emotionally and socially immature, which can effect the quality of their relationships, which can cause lack of confidence over time.
Many adults with dyslexia see themselves as more emotionally sensitive than other people. In its most extreme form, high levels of emotional sensitivity are both a blessing and a weakness. The positive features of this trait helps adults build meaningful relationships with others.
Individuals with dyslexia may experience marked anxiety in situations in which they feel they will make mistakes, be ridiculed, or made to feel foolish in front of others. Severe anxiety or fears are known as phobias.
People with dyslexia have the ability to see how things connect to form complex systems, and to identify similarities among multiple things. Such strengths are likely to be of particular significance for fields like science and mathematics, where pictures are key.
Students with dyslexia usually experience difficulties with other language skills such as spelling, writing, and pronouncing words.
Public speaking is one to the most common phobias in the world and reading aloud is public speaking! So a really good way to annoy someone who has difficulty with reading is to get them reading aloud. People with dyslexia love that sense of foreboding as they wait their turn.
Dyslexic children, like children with AD/HD, may have difficulty paying attention because reading is so demanding that it causes them to fatigue easily, limiting the ability to sustain concentration.
What does this mean for dyslexics? In summary, stress and anxiety will prevent learning. Simply thinking about or remembering the previous experiences will likely illicit the same physiological response and prevent learning.
Emotional sensitivity is not in itself a bad thing.
Dyslexic strengths can include high levels of empathy and a strong sense of justice. Many dyslexic entrepreneurs attribute a good deal of their success to strong interpersonal skills.
Often forget conversations or important dates. Have difficulty with personal organisation, time management and prioritising tasks. Avoid certain types of work or study. Find some tasks really easy but unexpectedly challenged by others.