The National Center for Learning Disabilities described dyslexia in What Is Dyslexia?
Dyslexia at a Glance
Dyslexia is the name for specific learning disabilities in reading. Dyslexia is often characterized by difficulties with accurate word recognition, decoding and spelling. Dyslexia may cause problems with reading comprehension and slow down vocabulary growth. Dyslexia may result in poor reading fluency and reading out loud. Dyslexia is neurological and often genetic. Dyslexia is not the result of poor instruction. With the proper support, almost all people with dyslexia can become good readers and writers.
As with other learning disabilities, dyslexia is a lifelong challenge that people are born with. This language processing disorder can hinder reading, writing, spelling and sometimes even speaking. Dyslexia is not a sign of poor intelligence or laziness. It is also not the result of impaired vision. Children and adults with dyslexia simply have a neurological disorder that causes their brains to process and interpret information differently.
Dyslexia occurs among people of all economic and ethnic backgrounds. Often more than one member of a family has dyslexia. According to the National Institute of Child and Human Development, as many as 15 percent of Americans have major troubles with reading.
Much of what happens in a classroom is based on reading and writing. So it’s important to identify dyslexia as early as possible. Using alternate learning methods, people with dyslexia can achieve success….
http://www.ncld.org/types-learning-disabilities/dyslexia/what-is-dyslexia
Dyslexia is a neurological and genetic disease.
NPR reported in the story, For Dyslexics, A Font And A Dictionary That Are Meant To Help:
A designer who has dyslexia has created a font to help dyslexic readers navigate text, designing letters in a way that avoids confusion and adds clarity. And in England, two researchers are compiling a dictionary that favors meaning over alphabetical order.
Roughly 10 percent of the world’s population is dyslexic. And as NPR’s Nancy Shute reported in 2012, “People with dyslexia are often bright and verbal, but have trouble with the written word.”
The people behind two new projects hope they can help change that.
Dutch designer Christian Boer’s Dyslexie font has been around for a while, but it’s been getting new attention thanks to being featured in the Istanbul Design Biennial.
The font defaults to a dark blue color, which Boer’s website says “is more pleasant to read for dyslexics.”
“When they’re reading, people with dyslexia often unconsciously switch, rotate and mirror letters in their minds,” Boer tells British design magazine Dezeen. “Traditional typefaces make this worse, because they base some letter designs on others, inadvertently creating ‘twin letters’ for people with dyslexia.”
To avoid confusion, Boer designed letters that have a heavier bottom half, making it less likely that a reader might flip them. He also made some openings larger, and slightly tilted some letters that closely resemble others — such as a “b” and a “d.”
In that sense, Boer’s font uses a similar approach to another font developed with dyslexics in mind. OpenDyslexic is a free, open-sourced font that’s also designed to help prevent confusion, as NPR reported last year….
See, Wider letter spacing helps dyslexic children http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/06/120607105712.htm
Citation:
Journal Reference:
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M. Zorzi, C. Barbiero, A. Facoetti, I. Lonciari, M. Carrozzi, M. Montico, L. Bravar, F. George, C. Pech-Georgel, J. C. Ziegler. Extra-large letter spacing improves reading in dyslexia. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2012; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1205566109
The Dyslexie Font describes the font at its site:
THE DYSLEXIE FONT
The typeface Dyslexie is a revolutionary font, designed to simplify life for those who have dyslexia. With a heavy base line, alternating stick/tail lengths, larger-than-normal openings, and a semi-cursive slant, the dyslexia font ensures that each character has a unique form.Traditional fonts are designed solely from an aesthetic point of view, which means they often have characteristics that make characters difficult to recognise for people with dyslexia. Oftentimes, the letters of a word are confused, turned around or jumbled up because they look too similar.
When reading a text in the dyslexia font, people with dyslexia have a lot less trouble and fewer errors are made. Steadily, the font Dyslexie has acquired a large number of enthusiastic users, both private and business. Reading is faster, easier and above all more enjoyable.
The dyslexia font is primarily a functional font, but the importance of aesthetics has also been taken into account. The dyslexia font is therefore the perfect combination of form and function: optimal reading comfort with a great look….
It can be downloaded for free:
http://www.dyslexiefont.com/en/order/home-use/
Abigail Marshall writes about the font in A Font for Dyslexia: To Pay, or Not to Pay? http://blog.dyslexia.com/a-font-for-dyslexia-to-pay-or-not-to-pay/#.VGREjGet9dg
Getting a correct early diagnosis of dyslexia, which is a learning disability is crucial to a child’s academic success.
Resources:
From One Teacher to Another
http://dyslexia.yale.edu/1Teacher2Another.html
Dyslexia
http://www.readingrockets.org/helping/questions/dyslexia
Dyslexia and Reading Problems
http://www.med.umich.edu/yourchild/topics/dyslexia.htm
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