ABSTRACT
Dyslexia is a specific learning disability that is neurobiological in origin. WA has felt conflicted even by the word “dyslexia,” which, in Swedish, is directly understood as “word blindness.” In Swedish slang, students sometimes use the term “dysse,” which comes from “dyslexia,” to refer to classmates. In addition, factors related to morphological awareness, orthographic processing, and fluency are considered as prominent correlates of dyslexia. Yet there is also a persistent popular public perception or misconception that those with dyslexia experience words as “swimming on the page.” The visual difficulties experienced by those with dyslexia seem so far to be either consequences of inexperience with print or a manifestation of anxiety because reading is so difficult. Neurological signs of the potential for dyslexia have been demonstrated in newborns whose parents had some reading difficulties; these signs could distinguish the children’s reading performances years later.
