Difficulties of Students with Dyslexia
A great many students who have experienced failure or embarrassment in the educational system may try to hide their difficulties for fear of being misunderstood or stigmatised. Other students will have developed coping strategies before entering higher education but may find the demands placed on them at university require them to seek additional support.
Screening and assessment with a qualified psychologist can ascertain whether a student has a specific learning type difficulty, such as dyslexia.
Reading
- Needs to reread frequently to extract meaning from written material
- Slow reading speed
- May misread instructions
- Frequent loss of the place when reading
- An inability to skim read
- Easily distracted by background noise when reading
- Words may seem to float off the page, blur or run together
- An uncomfortable glare from white paper or whiteboards
- Confusion with letters/ numbers/ signs
- Confuses letters such as b and d / p and b
Writing
- Difficulty with spelling
- Confusion of small words such as which/with, on/of, on/no
- Omission of words or ends of words, especially when under pressure
- Awkward handwriting
- Slow writing speed, so it takes longer to complete a piece of work
- Poor notetaking skills
Other difficulties
- Problems organising written work
- Poor concept of time
- Short concentration span
- Easily distracted
- May reverse or miscopy numbers in mathematical computations
- Poor spatial awareness
Possible secondary characteristics of dyslexia
- Anxiety
- Stress
- Panic
- Lack of Confidence
- Tiredness
- Frustration
