TYPES OF READING DIFFICULTIES

Dyslexia is not the only type of reading difficulty that exists. Learners with dyspraxia, hyperlexia and those garden variety poor readers face difficulties decoding and to a certain extent, even encoding texts. Reading is a necessary for us to comprehend language in its written form and is a necessary means for people to communicate ideas using a specific writing system. The two skills, reading and writing are therefore interlinked. Difficulties in one area will affect the other area as well.

The most common type of difficulty recognized in Malaysia is dyslexia – a difficulty associated with poor reading, writing and spelling skills. Dyspraxia is another type of difficulty that can cause reading to be difficult as it involves deficit in speed of processing information. Those with dyspraxia find processing language laborious and it often takes them longer to do this than their peers their own age. Again, reading is slow because it takes them time to digest the information before being able to act on it. Hyperlexia is a difficulty whereby the learner is able to read large chunks of text and sometimes even commit it to memory with little or no understanding of what was read.  This lack of comprehension is a form of reading difficulty as the main purpose of reading is to derive meaning.

It is very important to have the expertise in identifying the various types of reading difficulties. This is so that, the most effective type of intervention can be provided to help the learner maximize their learning outcomes.