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Here are the names of some of the many talented and accomplished individuals who are dyslexic, or had traits associated with dyslexia or related learning styles:

* Harry Anderson
* Orlando Bloom
* Harry Belafonte
* Charley Boorman
* Tom Cruise
* Dave Foley
* Danny Glover
* Whoopi Goldberg
* Susan Hampshire
* Jay Leno
* Christopher Lowell
* Keanu Reeves.
* Kiera Knightley
* Edward James Olmos
* Oliver Reed.
* Billy Bob Thornton.
* Tom Smothers
* Vince Vaughn
* Robin Williams
* Henry Winkler
* Loretta Young

Asperger’s Syndrome
Aspergers Syndrome (AS) – a neurobiological disorder, which most researchers feel, falls at the “high-end” of the Autistic Spectrum. Individuals with AS can have symptoms ranging from mild to severe. While sharing many of the same characteristics as PDD-NOS (Pervasive Developmental Disorder, Not Otherwise Specified) and HFA (High-Functioning Autism), AS is a relatively new term in the United States, having only recently being officially recognized as a diagnosis by the medical community.

Individuals with Asperger Syndrome and related disorders exhibit serious deficiencies in social and communication skills. They often have obsessive repetitive routines and preoccupations with a particular subject. Because of their high degree of functionality and their naivete, those with AS are often viewed by their peers as odd, and are frequently a target for bullying.

Characteristics – Children with these diagnoses exhibit serious and chronic social, behavioral and communicative impairments. Not every child is the same but some characteristics may be:

* socially awkward and clumsy in relations with other children and/or adults
* naive and gullible
* often unaware of others’ feelings
* unable to carry on a “give and take” conversation
* easily upset by changes in routines and transitions
* literal in speech and understanding
* overly sensitive to loud sounds, lights or odors
* fixated on one subject or object
* physically awkward in sports

They may have:

* unusually accurate memory for details
* sleeping or eating problems
* trouble understanding things they have heard or read
* inappropriate body language or facial expression
* unusual speech patterns (repetitive and/or irrelevant remarks)
* stilted, formal manner of speaking
* unusually loud, high or monotonous voice
* tendency to rock, fidget or pace while concentrating

Dyspraxia

Other terms for Dyspraxia -Developmental co-ordination disorder (DCD). Motor learning difficulties. Motor dysfunction Disorder of attention, motor control and perception (DAMP)

A severe difficulty in performing drawing, writing, buttoning, and other tasks requiring fine motor skills, or in sequencing the necessary movements.
Dysgraphia

- A severe difficulty in producing handwriting that is legible and written at an age appropriate speed.
Dysomnia

- A marked difficulty in remembering names and recalling words needed for oral and written language.

People with memory disabilities may have difficulty with short-term memory. They have trouble willfully remembering names, numbers, facts and even what they did a few minutes ago. These memory difficulties present significant problems in academic study. Such a person might study hard for a test or exam and think they know the material extremely well but be unable to recall specific information on the exam. It is not a deficit of intelligence or aptitude, but rather reflects a specific deficit of conscious recall.
Dyscalculia

-Often call the Math Dyslexia

A severe difficulty in understanding and using symbols or functions needed for success in mathematics.
DANDA – Developmental Adult Neuro-Diversity Association

Using this site and chatting with dyslexics or their parents might have confirmed your suspicions, but without an assessment by a qualified person you cannot be sure.

There are a number of ways to go about this. You can go to the UK and see an Educational Psychologist or see one on the Costa del Sol or you can get assessed here in Gibraltar by the Education Departments Educational Psychologist, if you are still in school.

Our Recommendation

We recommend that you speak firstly to your childs form tutor and ask to see the SENCO (Special Education Needs Co-Ordinator) and tell the SENCO that you think that your child might have a learning difficulty like dyslexia. The SENCO should do an assessment and keep you informed on how your child is doing and how you can help.

If after speaking to the SENCO you still do not see a change, you should speak to the Head of the school. And last but not least if you still see no change go directly to the Education Department and inform them that you suspect that your child might be dyslexic and would like him/her to be seen by the Educational Psychologist.

PLEASE give the SENCO and school time.

If you prefer to have the assessment privately we would like to inform you that it can be quite expensive costing between £250 to £450. Please do contact us for more details. We have a list of Educational Psychologist’s who visit the Costa del Sol regularly.

Whatever your choice we are here to help and hope that you contact us so we can do just that.

A dyslexic person has many strengths alongside their difficulties.
Strengths include:

* Good at ideas and innovative thinking
* Good problem solver and lateral thinker
* Creative in the way they make links and connections
* Have excellent visual and spatial awareness
* Good with practical tasks and creative in many ways
* Strong in the areas of art, music, design, architecture and engineering
* Good communicators

Difficulties include:

* Erratic spelling
* Misreading, leading to comprehension difficulties
* Poor handwriting
* Difficulties with sequences e.g. date order
* Ability to solve problems but inability to show process
* Poor organisation or time management
* Inaccurate number work

Dyslexics do not necessarily suffer the same difficulties.

Each dyslexic person will have a different combination of strengths and weaknesses.

Some forms of dyslexia are aggravated by certain colour combinations; with black against white being the worst. Where possible, use matt, pastel coloured paper.

The following will be very familiar to dyslexics and their families. Have a read and see what dyslexics deal with every day.
Language spoken and written

How come he could read and or spell all these words yesterday, and can’t get a single one right today?

* Was he late in speaking?
* Does he sometimes leave letters out of words, or put them in the wrong order?
* Does he get tied up saying some words?
* Can he see the difference between b and d?
* Does his speed of reading comprehension seem slower than expected for his age and intelligence?
* Does he take much longer than average to do written work at school and at home?
* Is a lot of checking needed before he can copy things accurately?
* Does he have difficulty with writing and planning of essays?
* Does he never read for pleasure?

Number
If he can talk about life on Mars, why can’t he add two plus two?

* Does he put figures the wrong way round, eg 15 for 51, or 2 for 5?
* Does he need to use bricks or his fingers or marks on the paper to help him count?
* Does his speed on doing simple +, -, x, and division calculations seem slower than expected for his age and intelligence?
* Does he have unusual difficulty in remembering arithmetical tables?
* Does he lose his place, skip some of the numbers, or forget what point he has reached?
* Given four digits, eg 4 9 5 8, spoken at one-second intervals for him to say in reverse order does he ever make a mistake?

Physical and social
Good Lord, what will he do next!

* Does he have a poor sense of direction and difficulty in telling left from right?
* Do shoe laces and ties, changing clothes and dressing present problems?
* Does he find kicking or catching a ball difficult?
* Do instructions, telephone numbers etc sometimes have to be repeated?
* Does he lack self-confidence and have a poor opinion of himself?

So what is Dyslexia?

* Developmental disorder with brain basis.
* Genetic origin.
* Characterised by phonological deficits.
* Primarily (but not exclusively) affects learning to read and spell.
* Characterised by poor verbal memory and poor phonological learning.
* Often affects development of arithmetic skills, foreign language learning, speech development, and expressive language skills.
* May have knock-on effects on organisational skills and on confidence and self-esteem.
* Typically shows poor response to standard forms of literacy teaching.
* Life long condition but can be ameliorated
* Dyslexia is not restricted to children of high IQ.
* It is known that dyslexia has a genetic basis but environmental causes are not ruled out and children with poor language development may also develop reading problems.

It isn’t that other children do not experience these difficulties they often do. It is the quantity, intensity and persistence of such problems, which make the specific learning difficulty child different.