Being able to read and write with ease is something most of us simply take for granted. But imagine what it would be like to look at a page of text and see distorted letters swirling before your eyes, or not seeing the difference between the letters “b” and “d”, etc. Sounds pretty awful, doesn’t it?
However, this is a problem that affects from 5% to 10% of the world’s population, making their lives more difficult each and every day. Dyslexia Awareness Month is the perfect time to think about how much harder dyslexic people’s lives are than our own and try to be more understanding of their situation.
History of Dyslexia Awareness Month
Dyslexia was first identified in German physician Oswald Berkhan in 1881 and officially named “dyslexia” by ophthalmologist Rudolph Berlin 6 years later. Berkhan discovered the existence of the developmental reading disorder later named dyslexia while studying the case of a young boy who had severe problems learning to read and write properly, despite being overall bright and intellectually and physically capable.
Since dyslexia was discovered, physicians the world over have been working on different ways to help the dyslexic manage their disorder, and a special dyslexia font has been invented to help those afflicted to read more easily. Dyslexia Awareness Month was Created by The International Dyslexia Association and takes place over the entire course of October each year.
How to Celebrate Dyslexia Awareness Month
The best way to celebrate Dyslexia Awareness Month would be to do your best to see for yourself what being dyslexic means, and just how much it can impair your abilities to do different things you usually never think twice about, like reading your favorite magazine or billboards. Many images and videos have been made to help people understand how dyslexia works, so take the time to go through some of them in order to understand the extent of dyslexic people’s hardships.
Another thing you could do is take part in the various Dyslexia Awareness events organized worldwide to help people become more aware of the disorder. These include exhibitions of art created by the dyslexic that are visual representations of how they see the world. There are also dances organized in various places that anyone wishing to support the cause may attend and encourage others to attend as well.
There are also numerous workshops you can attend that will teach you what you can do to make the lives of those with dyslexia around you a bit easier—even something as small as a bit more patience and understanding can go a long way. You will also learn how to recognize the signs that your child may be dyslexic in order to prevent him or her from experiencing the embarrassment and frustration that accompanies not being able to read properly.
Early detection of dyslexia can work miracles for a child’s self-esteem by helping the child understand he or she is not worse or less intelligent than other children, and that steps can be taken to reduce their problems at school. And if you do not have enough time to do any of these things, you can also donate a bit of money to The International Dyslexia Association, that has been working tirelessly for years to make sure dyslexic children, teens and adults don’t fall behind and miss out on all of the benefits a good education has to offer.
