A video has offered an important insight into the life of those with visual dyslexia, recreating how words appear and change when reading.
Posted on YouTube on a channel called Dyslexia Improvement, the short clip shows how text can change for those who have this type of learning difficulty:
The clip illustrates different types of reading impediments, including the text appearing to move away from the page or split apart into pieces.
Advert
To those with visual dyslexia, the words could also seem wavy or shaky. Finally, while the words you are reading may be in focus, the rest of the text could swirl and move around.
And the comment section was flooded with reactions from people who have this condition, sharing their own experiences, while users who don’t have dyslexia also praised the ‘eye-opening’ video.
“I have dyslexia and [it] is so funny to see people actually see what it's like for us,” one person wrote.
Advert
“It’s affected me so much and because of it, I hate reading. And at a younger age, my teachers thought I misbehaved because of my dyslexia."
“I have most of these when I read,” another commented.
“Doing homework today I've had 3 of them. Haha, I have really bad dyslexia. But it's cool though, I'm about to graduate college and I'm extremely proud of myself.”
"This is a bit too extreme but yes, this is kinda what I go through. For me, words change into different words and I come to find out what I just read didn't make sense,” one user shared.
Advert
While someone else said: “I always just thought it meant having words or letters being seen backwards and this is really eye-opening.”
According to the NHS, up to 1 in every 10 people in the UK has some degree of dyslexia. It is described as a lifelong learning problem that could affect reading and writing.
There are also several other types of dyslexia including phonological, rapid naming, double deficit and surface.
Advert
In children, dyslexia usually becomes apparent once they start school, with signs including being confused by the order of letters in words and mixing up similar-looking letters when reading and writing.
If you think your child may have dyslexia, the first step would be to talk to their teacher.
An in-depth assessment from a specialist in assessing specific learning difficulties (SpLD), an educational psychologist or a speech and language therapist are further options to consider for additional support.
Words: Stefania Sarrubba