Remember that high ranking police official who couldn’t read well. Remember he kept blabbing ’transmission, transfusion, transfer…’ and it went viral. And we had a good laugh. And some turned it into a song. Mocked him good.

Well, I’m just here to tell you we are shitty people. 

I later learned (from unconfirmed sources) that he is dyslexic. Which means he can’t read as fluently as you can because that part of his brain which can easily decode letters and make sense of them is unfortunately not very developed. Says nothing negative about his intelligence.

So, let’s explore the four dys’s.

-Dyslexia

-Dyspraxia 

-Dyscalculia and

-Dysgraphia 

What they have in common? They are neurological disorders leading to learning disabilities . I.e a part of the persons brain responsible for that function just isn’t as responsive.

What they are not? A measure of intelligence. People with either of these are just as intelligent, sometimes more as it may be affiliated to other disorders like Autism.

Causes: Hereditary most times.

DYSLEXIA

A chronic neurological disorder causing inability or great difficulty in learning to read or spell, despite normal intelligence. They just don’t recognize those symbols we know as letters or what to do with them.

Symptoms:

-Very poor reading skills

-illegible or bad handwriting 

-writes letters in reverse (b instead of d)

-writes words in revers (deb instead of bed)

-Problems remembering or naming letters, numbers and colors

-trouble learning foreign languages

-difficulty memorizing 

-math difficulty 

-difficulty summarizing a story

Does it get better? It does but according to neurologists, it never really goes away.

Do they work? Definitely, normal jobs like you and me. They just need to educate their colleagues and employers about their conditions.

What else? Nothing! They are normal people.

DYSCALCULIA 

Learning disabilities involving math. Often called number dyslexia.

A disability that impairs an individual’s ability to learn number-related concepts, perform accurate math calculations, reason and problem solve, and perform other basic math skills.

No, just because you have problem solving math problems doesn’t mean you have dyscalculia, there’s being bad at math (what you are 😏 ) and there’s having a neurological disorder which prevents your brain from making sense of math problems not to mention solving it.

There is no single type of math disability. Dyscalculia can vary from person to person. And, it can affect people differently at different stages of life.  

Symptoms:

-visual-spatial difficulties (problems interpreting graphs, charts, maps, can’t tell how far objects are or space)

-bad at doing things like tying shoes

-language processing difficulties 

-Difficulty making sense of money and estimating quantities (told you you are just bad at math)

-Difficulty with telling time on an analog clock

-Poor visual and spatial orientation

-Difficulty immediately sorting out direction (right from left)

-Troubles with recognizing patterns and sequencing numbers

Other facts: it is present more in children with ADHD or ADD

Again, not a sign of intelligence or lack of it.

To everyone stigmatising people with bad handwriting, it may just be a sign of something bigger (shame on you). And it may just be that we have bad handwriting 😌.

DYSGRAPHIA

Where dyslexia is a disorder that impairs the ability to read, dysgraphia impairs the ability to write.

Dysgraphia is a term that refers to trouble with writing. Many experts view dysgraphia as challenges with a set of skills known as transcription.

Dysgraphia makes the act of writing difficult. It can lead to problems with spelling, poor handwriting and organizing thoughts on paper. People with dysgraphia can have trouble organizing letters, numbers and words on a line or page.

Signs.  

Trouble:

• Forming letters
• Writing grammatically correct sentences 
• Spacing letters correctly 
• Writing in a straight line
• Holding and controlling a writing tool 
• Writing clearly enough to read back later
• Writing complete words without skipping letters

Dysgraphia often occurs along with ADHD and learning differences. These include dyslexia, written expression disorder, and expressive language disorder. 

Caused by trouble with motor skills which can improve with therapy.

DYSPRAXIA

Or developmental coordination disorder (DCD).

Dyspraxia is a brain-based motor disorder. It affects fine and gross motor skills, motor planning, and coordination. It’s not related to intelligence, but it can sometimes affect cognitive skills.

 It is an immaturity in the way that the brain processes information, which results in messages not being properly or fully transmitted. 

Dyspraxia affects the planning of what to do and how to do it. It is associated with problems of perception, language and thought.

 Children that have dyspraxia may suffer from clumsiness, slightly slurred speech, awkwardness with walking or short term memory loss.

Signs

• Unusual posture
• difficulty with fin motor skills that affect writing, artwork, and playing with blocks and puzzles
• coordination problems that make it difficult to hop, skip, jump, or catch a ball
• Hand flapping, fidgeting, or being easily excitable
• messy eating and drinking
• Temper tantrums
• Poor hand-eye coordination 
• becoming less physically fit because they shy away from physical activities.

Although intelligence isn’t affected, dyspraxia can make it harder to learn and socialize due to:

• a short attention span for tasks that are difficult
• trouble following or remembering instructions
• a lack of organizational skills
• difficulty learning new skills
• low self-esteem
• immature behavior
• trouble making friends

Dyspraxia is a lifelong condition. There’s currently no cure, but there are therapies that can help you effectively manage the disorder.

These disorders are often interconnected with a person having more than one.

They may be symptoms of other disorders such as autism.

They can be managed with therapy and they do get better in adulthood but some studies show that they can never be cured as they are not diseases.

People with either of the above disorders can lead normal lives with proper management 

Usually connected to ADHD or ADD in children.