Other way round

Imagine a ten-year-old walking to school, along the route she has walked for the past five years. When she gets to the corner at the end of her road she glances at her hands, knowing she has to turn towards the hand wearing a watch. At the next corner she looks expectantly to the left, where she knows she will see the school building. It isn't there. Puzzled, she turns to the right, spots the school and goes in. This could be the private world of a child who has dyslexia.

It is a condition that affects one in ten children. Dyslexia goes far beyond difficulty with spelling. Although its causes are not clear, there is some evidence that the brains of dyslexics do not cross-connect in the same way as those of other people. This means that information is processed in a different way and can lead to problems in some areas, while being an advantage in others. The most obvious difficulty is the trouble that many dyslexics experience in learning to read and write. This is because they may find it difficult to link a written symbol with a particular sound. It is not the same as just being bad at spelling, although that is often a symptom.