Practice by reading the text below and matching cause and effect in the table that follows.
For many sufferers of dyslexia, the knowledge that they have this learning difficulty came too late to help. Having been through, and often dropped out of, the standard school system, they are left with a low sense of self-worth and the conviction that they are mentally below par. Yet in reality, dyslexics often have above-average intelligence. The problem, it appears, is that they have trouble translating language into thought and thought into language. The two-dimensional world of reading and spelling is a constant source of frustration, and those suffering from dyslexia need more time and help in reading and spelling. Undiagnosed, children see a difference between themselves and their peers but don’t know how to express it to others and continue quietly struggling to compete in a world for which their mind is not geared. Teachers and even other students push them to simply ‘try harder’ or ‘just concentrate and you’ll get it’.
Moving from childhood to adolescence, the situation becomes worse. Young teenagers are academically left even further behind, and this is often noticed by fellow students, an embarrassing situation for people already going through hormonal and biological changes. Anxiety and anger build from repeated failures, low school results and an inability to follow the flow of lessons that other students seem to comprehend with relative ease.
Motivation then becomes a problem as these young teens are mislabelled ‘lazy’, or ’emotionally disturbed’, and some schools then probe into the home life of a student in order to uncover causes for these problems. This inevitably adds pressure to an already tense situation.
Fear of humiliation combined with an unimpressive academic record often combines to discourage students from continuing to university or further education. For those that do pursue an academic path, they often find college just as hard, if not harder. Finding some solace in menial jobs which do not require the academic skills they could never master, many intelligent people with dyslexia never get to explore their true abilities and so are left with low self-esteem that follows them throughout their adult life.
| 1 Symptoms not recognised in childhood | a Lack of ambition |
| 2 Peer pressure | b Feeling of inferiority begins |
| 3 Incorrectly diagnosed | c Chronic low self-confidence |
| 4 Fear of further humiliation | d Deeper investigation into the wrong areas |
| 5 Never realising full potential | e Additional stress at an already difficult age |