Here’s What Reading Is Like When You Have Dyslexia
For many people, curling up with a good book is a go-to form of stress relief. But for people with dyslexia, a common learning difficulty that affects how the brain processes language, reading can be incredibly frustrating. Now, a new website is attempting to show people without dyslexia just how confusing the disorder can be.
Dyslexia is the most common learning difficulty, affecting at least one in 10 people worldwide, according to Dyslexia International. Even though it's strictly about how the brain processes language, there are various misconceptions around dyslexia, like that it's due to laziness, low intelligence, or having faulty vision, according to Understood, an organization that aims to help parents of children with learning and attention issues. All you have to do is spend a few seconds on this dyslexia simulation website to understand that it's much more complicated than that.
Developer Victor Widell got the idea for the page after a friend with dyslexia said when she reads, letters "jump around," Widell told Quartz. On the surface, the site shows how hard it can be to parse through a jumble of words that a person with dyslexia might see. But on a deeper level, it shows that there's no way dyslexia comes down to laziness, not being smart enough, or bad vision. Here's an example of the site's text, which constantly scrambles itself, making it even harder to understand.
While scientists are still trying to determine exactly what causes dyslexia, they have some ideas. People with dyslexia have trouble with the orthography (written form) and phonology (sound structure) of language, according to the International Dyslexia Association. Basically, the brain of a person with dyslexia is likely wired in a different way than the brain of a person without it. Those difficulties often manifest themselves as symptoms like trouble recognizing words, issues matching letters to sounds, having a hard time holding a pencil, problems with understanding jokes, and more. Dyslexia doesn't just affect reading; it can interfere with all sorts of other language-related actions.
Many resources cite "the planum temporale," a part of the brain that helps people understand language, as a potential cause behind dyslexia. "It’s typically larger in the dominant hemisphere (the left side of the brain for right-handed people) than in the right hemisphere," according to Understood. But in a person with dyslexia, "the planum temporale is probably about the same size on both the left and right sides of the brain." There's also a genetic component in some cases, as dyslexia is often passed down through families.
The earlier dyslexia is caught, the more likely someone will be able to work on their language skills and see positive changes. "This concept is known as 'neuroplasticity,'" according to Understood. With the correct attention and tutoring, someone with dyslexia "can make real and lasting improvements in reading ability." With that in mind, Widell's site isn't just an interesting way to walk in someone else's shoes—it's raising awareness that could potentially lead to someone with dyslexia getting the help they need, or at the very least, being better understood.