Dyslexia is a concept that arouses emotions among researchers and educators alike. Some feel dyslexia is a real distinct disability and others feel it does not exist. This article is taking the position that dyslexia is a distinct disability with a consistent set of symptoms that result in a wide range of consequence. These include having some difficulty learning to read all the way to to not being able to read at all.

   Along with the constant debate as to the existence of dyslexia, is the frequently asked question - does a diagnosis of dyslexia make a student eligible for special education services. The simple response to the question is “no”. Dyslexia is not a recognized category for eligibility under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). Dyslexia may be the underlying cause of a learning disability but is not a “learning disability” by law.

   Not diagnosing the type of reading problem - dyslexia - is similar to a physician treating a cough without knowing if it caused by a virus, bacteria, cancer etc.; more or less a trial and error approach. Try this strategy and if it doesn’t work, then try another. Intervening in the process of learning to read requires prompt attention to specific reading errors and targeted intervention.

   The underlying psychological processes that are impaired when someone has dyslexia fall into three specific categories: 1) dysphonetic, 2) dyseidetic, and 3) mixed dysphonetic/dyseidetic. Each of these categories has its own set of symptoms, prognosis, and intervention strategies.

   Dysphonetic dyslexia, or auditory dyslexia, is an inability to connect sounds to letter symbols. Someone with dysphonetic dyslexia is not able to sound out words and will produce phonetically inappropriate spelling errors.

   Someone with dyseidetic dyslexia is able to grasp the concept of phonics but can not revisualize the “gestalt” or what a word looks like. Persons with dyseidetic dyslexia can generally spell words that follow basic phonetic rules but, they are not able to read or write words that are nonphonetic such as: what, the, talk, and does.

   Someone with mixed dysphonetic/dyseidetic dyslexia has impairments in both auditory processing and an inability to revisualize what a word looks like. This is a serious learning disability and even with good intervention, reading may not become a useable skill. Alternative methods of information assimilation will need to be applied (tape recordings, books on tape, readers etc.)

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