Does dyslexia worsen over time? Understanding how symptoms may change with age

Does Dyslexia Get Worse As You Age?

Dyslexia is a common learning disability that affects reading, writing, and spelling skills. It is a lifelong condition that people are born with. Dyslexia is not something that can be "cured", but with proper support and accommodations, people with dyslexia can succeed in school and life.

One common question that parents and individuals with dyslexia often have is: Does dyslexia get worse with age? The short answer is no - dyslexia does not typically progress or worsen as a person gets older. However, there are some important points to understand about how dyslexia may change over time.

Reading Difficulties May Persist

While dyslexia itself does not get worse, the core difficulties with reading, writing, and spelling can persist throughout life without proper support. Evidence suggests that the majority of children with dyslexia continue to read slower and less accurately than typical readers as adolescents and adults.

Reading fluency and reading comprehension - the ability to read smoothly, automatically, and quickly and to understand what is read - tend to be ongoing areas of difficulty. The good news is targeted intervention and accommodations can greatly help reading skills.

New Demands May Bring New Challenges

As students with dyslexia move up through grade levels, the academic demands typically increase. Older students are expected to read more complex texts, write longer assignments, and work independently. If not addressed, dyslexia can make it very difficult to manage these new challenges.

Adults with dyslexia may struggle when reading technical materials for their career or helping their own children with homework. The dyslexia does not get worse, but new environments require new coping strategies.

Some Skills May Improve With Time

While the core difficulties persist, some skills like vocabulary knowledge and world knowledge tend to improve over time, even without intervention. Adults with dyslexia often develop excellent compensation strategies to work around problem areas.

Evidence shows that with age, the gap in oral language skills between typical readers and readers with dyslexia becomes much smaller. Adults with dyslexia can display strong verbal abilities.

Related Cognitive Difficulties May Emerge

Dyslexia has been linked to weaknesses in certain cognitive skills like working memory, processing speed, and executive functioning. These related cognitive difficulties may become more apparent as demands increase.

For example, dyslexia is associated with impairments in working memory - the ability to temporarily store and manipulate information. Managing long, complex reading assignments requires strong working memory.

Anxiety and Depression May Develop

Without proper support, children and adults with dyslexia are at higher risk for developing mental health conditions like anxiety and depression. Struggling academically or in the workplace can damage self-esteem over time.

Counseling and building self-confidence are key for helping students and employees with dyslexia cope with emotional challenges.

Early Identification and Intervention Are Critical

While dyslexia itself does not get worse, the negative consequences can certainly accumulate over time without identification and support. This makes early screening and intervention for dyslexia essential.

With effective reading, writing and spelling instruction starting in the early grades, many students with dyslexia can get on track to develop age-appropriate academic skills.

Accommodations and Assistive Technology Help

In school and the workplace, accommodations and assistive technology tools can help people with dyslexia overcome or bypass their challenges. Some examples include extra time on tests, audiobooks, text-to-speech software, and organizational apps.

Accommodations provide the support needed to display learning and compensate for dyslexia-related difficulties, without changing the core content being taught.

Dyslexia Is a Lifelong Condition

While dyslexia does not get worse, it is important for parents, educators, and employers to understand that dyslexia is a lifelong learning disability. With the proper support and environment, people with dyslexia can thrive academically and in their careers.

The brain differences associated with dyslexia do not go away, but the challenges can be managed successfully at any age.

Key Symptoms of Dyslexia

Dyslexia is characterized by difficulties with specific language skills, particularly reading, that are unexpected compared to a person's other abilities. The severity of symptoms can vary greatly from person to person.

Here are some of the most common symptoms of dyslexia:

Difficulty Reading Words and Text Fluently

People with dyslexia often read slowly and laboriously. They may struggle to sound out unfamiliar words and read in a choppy, uneven manner. Quickly reading a simple text can be very challenging.

Problems Spelling Words and Writing

Individuals with dyslexia tend to have poor spelling skills and struggle putting their thoughts down on paper. This is true even if they are very bright and have excellent ideas. The writing process is slowed down by having to think about how to spell words.

Letter and Number Reversals

People with dyslexia frequently confuse letters and words that look similar, like "b" and "d" or "was" and "saw." Transposing numbers like 21 and 12 is also common.

Difficulty Rhyming

Because dyslexia affects phonological processing, the ability to hear and manipulate sounds in words, mastering rhyming can be challenging for children with dyslexia. They may have trouble generating rhyming words or recognizing rhyming patterns.

Problems Remembering Facts and Sequences

Individuals with dyslexia often have trouble recalling dates, names, telephone numbers, and random facts due to working memory deficits. Memorizing a sequence of steps or events can also be difficult.

Difficulty with Word Retrieval

Some people with dyslexia experience "tip of the tongue" moments where they can't quite pull up the word they want to say. Word retrieval weakness is related to the phonological processing challenges.

Poor Organization and Time Management

Weak executive functioning skills are common in people with dyslexia. This can lead to issues keeping materials orderly and managing time effectively. Staying organized for school or work can be challenging.

Difficulty Learning a Foreign Language

Learning a foreign language relies heavily on sound-symbol correspondence skills, a weakness for individuals with dyslexia. Even people who are very bright struggle to master a second language if they have dyslexia.

Causes of Dyslexia

Research suggests that dyslexia is caused by differences in brain structure and function that impact how language and reading skills develop, causing the symptoms associated with the condition. Some key evidence for the biological basis of dyslexia includes:

Genetics

Dyslexia tends to run in families, indicating there is a genetic component. Studies reveal that if one parent has dyslexia, a child has a 40-60% chance of inheriting it. The likelihood is greater if both parents have the learning disability.

Brain Imaging Studies

Imaging research shows structural and functional differences in key language areas of the brain between typical readers and readers with dyslexia. There is evidence that these brain differences are present very early in life before reading problems emerge.

Neurological Studies

People with dyslexia exhibit differences in how the brain processes information from the senses, particularly auditory information. Problems integrating and organizing sensory input are observed.

Phonological Processing

A core neurological weakness in dyslexia is the inability to break words into component sounds and manipulate those sounds. This phonological processing problem interferes with matching sounds to letters.

Rapid Auditory Processing

Many individuals with dyslexia have difficulties processing rapidly presented verbal information and perceiving subtle differences between speech sounds (phonemes). This contributes to reading flu

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. Always consult with a healthcare professional before starting any new treatment regimen.