Causes and Characteristics of Dyslexia

Dyslexic children are often described as clumsy, forgetful, disorganized, and hyperactive by their families, teachers and peers (Savage, 1985, 222). Along with these descriptions of the general character, it has also been observed that dyslexic children make characteristic reading, writing and spelling errors.

One of the main reasons why dyslexics have difficulty reading is because they have poor memories. In the normal learning process memory plays an important role. The brain receives information and attaches meaning to it. Information is also stored in a person's memory which makes learning easier because this information can be produced to read, answer questions, and solve problems (Savage, 1985, 520). Because dyslexics have inadequate memory capacities they have trouble holding symbols in their minds long enough to process them into meaningful language forms. Even when the sensory organ receives the message correctly, it can become mixed up, and although the dyslexic may know the mea

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in words (Miles, 1983, 84). The final category of spelling errors is called wrong syllabification, where a collection of letters which, if pronounced according to normal English sound-letter correspondence, would result in a word with the wrong number of syllables. For example, when the word "avoid" is written as "aviod" (pronounced av-vee-od) it has three syllables instead of two (Gaddes, 1980, 81). This type of spelling error, along with the others, is caused by the dyslexic's weak lexical system. Without the proper knowledge of words and grammar, spelling becomes a difficult task. Along with the fact that dyslexics are believed to have poor memories and are unable to grasp the rules of language, many researchers claim that there are also biological causes of the disorder. Back in the 1920s, Samuel T. Orton was alerted to the language disability by a 16-year-old boy called "M.P." who had difficulties coping with reading and spelling, and often rotated individual letters and reversed words and clusters of words (Malatesha, 1975, 10-11). After Orton treated more patients with similar difficulties he coined the term "streposymbolia" which means twisted symbols. The two types of reversals that Orton observed were kinetic
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