Reading, writing and dyslexia: Basic stress points, dilemmas and educational practice

Abstract

Nowadays, even though much more is known about dyslexia than ever before, there is still a lot of confusion in the everyday use of terms such as dyslexia and learning disabilities. These two terms are commonly used as synonymous, without taking into account the possible qualitative differences in the cognitive profile of the readers to whom reference is made. Under these circumstances, every difficulty in reading, spelling, and/or writing can easily lead to the use of the term of dyslexia, or the opposite phenomenon of the difficulties experienced by the Greek dyslexics not being identified. With an explicit aim to reduce confusion on this issue, the present article attempts to a) inform the reader about the complexity characterizing the reading and spelling process, b) to pint-point the existing differences between dyslexia and other reading and learning disabilities, and c) to provide some answers to some of the basic questions and issues that arise in everyday educational practice, citing specific information on the manifestation, identification and management of reading difficulties such as dyslexia.