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The first thing that needs to be said is that dyslexia is not brought about by poor parenting. On the contrary, it is the concerned parents of dyslexic children who have taken the initiatives that have brought dyslexia to the forefront of the learning difficulties arena.

To be quite honest, nobody quite knows at the moment. There has been a real increase in the amount of research taking place, and a number of possibilities are beginning to emerge, but the waters are still fairly murky. The overall picture is that dyslexia can be caused by inherited factors, and/or hearing problems at an early age.

Inherited factors

It is clear that dyslexia is very frequently found in families, and is often accompanied by left-handedness somewhere in the family. This does not mean to say that a dyslexic parent will automatically have a dyslexic child, or that a left-handed child will necessarily be dyslexic. But where dyslexia is identified, between a third and a half of children have a history of learning difficulties in their family, and more than half have a family member who is left-handed.

These ectopic clusters of cells are mainly found in the left and the front of the brain - the areas which are important for reading and writing. Another area of the brain - the magno-cellular system, which deals with our ability to see moving images - is smaller in the brains of dyslexic people. This makes reading harder, where the brain has to quickly interpret the different letters and words which the eyes see as they scan words and sentences.

With the use of EEG (electroencephalogram), where small electrodes with wires are temporarily attached to the outside of a person's head, it has been possible to see increased brain activity on the right side of the brain when a child is beginning to learn to read. Increased activity is noticeable on the left side in an advanced reader.

Hearing problems at an early age.

If a child suffers frequent colds and throat infections in the first five years, the ears can be blocked from time to time so that hearing is impaired. The parents can easily be unaware of this until a doctor actually looks into the child's ear. This condition is sometimes known as 'glue ear' or 'conductive hearing loss'. If the difficulty is not noticed at an early stage, then the developing brain does not make the links between the sounds it hears.

A delay in phonemic awareness causes lifelong difficulties - dyslexia - if corrective action is not taken at a very early stage. The most common treatment is the insertion of a tiny tube or grommet into the child's ear. This allows the fluid to drain off so that the child's hearing is restored.

Learning strategies can make a huge difference

Learning strategies to overcome the difficulties associated with dyslexia can make a huge difference to the performance of a dyslexic child or adult. In particular, a 'multi-sensory' method can really help: this involves teaching children to learn spellings, for example, not only by hearing and saying the sounds of the letters, but also by using their visual and tactile (touch) memories by writing the letters in the air, on the carpet, making them with plasticine or in very large (joined) handwriting on big sheets of paper. This gives their brain a visual and tactile memory of the word as well as the memory of hearing the sounds of the letters. Joining the letters together - in joined handwriting - helps the brain to remember the order of the letters in a word.