Reading difficulties can appear in many different forms and each child may need a different approach to how they are supported in improving their reading skills. It is therefore important to know about the different types of reading difficulties and the errors a child makes so that you can identify which specific aspect of reading they are finding difficult. The correct intervention plan can then be put in place. The different types of Dyslexia/ reading difficulties include:
- Dysphonesia: (Auditory) Children in this category have difficulty in reading (decoding) words and spelling (encoding) words. It is also known as Auditory Dyslexia, Phonological Dyslexia, or Dysphonetic dyslexia. Learners with difficulty often are able to memorise sight words but cannot sound out new ones or figure out what they are. Often in the earlier grades, their reading difficulty is not always picked up because many of the words can be learnt by sight. Their spelling is however generally very weak. Errors in spelling show a lack of phonetic knowledge while errors in reading include substitutions based on small clues and are also semantic.
- Dyseidesia: (Visual) (Also known as Surface Dyslexia or Visual Dyslexia). Children with this type of RD have difficulty in recognising sight words and spend a great deal of time decoding word by word as they read. This affects their reading speed significantly. Children with the dyseidetic type of dyslexia are able to sound out individual letters phonetically but have trouble identifying patterns of letters in groups. Their spelling tends to be phonetic even when incorrect (laf for laugh). Children in this group have deficits in vision and memory of letters and word shapes, making it difficult for them to develop a sight vocabulary. However, they have the ability to acquire adequate phonetic skills.
- Dysnemkinesia: (Motor) Reversal problems in writing and printing. This literally means “poor memory of motor movements and this type involves number and letter reversals. It involves the frontal lobe, left hemisphere for right handed and right hemisphere for left handed. These children are identified quite easily as they tend to reverse b/d p/q and words such as no (on) and saw (was)
- Dysphoneidesia: A combination of Dysphoneisa and Dyseidesia; this is also called Mixed Dyslexia. This is a combination of phonological and visual Dyslexia. These students have severe deficits in reading as well as visual motor integration and working memory.
- Dysnemkineidesia: A combination of motor difficulties (writing) and sight word recogntion.
- Dysnemkinphonesia: A combination of phonetic and motor dyslexia
- Dysnemkinphoneidesia: A combination of phonetic awareness, motor difficulties and sight word recognition.
The Orton-Gillingham method is highly recommended when working with children with reading difficulties. It incorporates a multisensory approach involving integration of the visual, auditory, tactile, and kinesthetic senses in a specialized structured program.
For specific ideas on how to support each of these reading difficulties, please see the Reading Resources page.
