CHILDREN HAVING ACADEMIC CHALLENGES COULD BE SUFFERING FROM DYSLEXIA — EXPERT

Reporter : UGONNA AGU

A registered occupational therapist, Mr. Ikuomola Adebowale, has called on parents and care givers to pay attention to their children’s and wards’ academic performance to aid early detection of dyslexia.

Mr. Adebowale made the call during a telephone interview with Radio Nigeria in Owerri on the 2020 World Dyslexia Week. Dyslexia is a learning disorder that affects the area of the brain that processes language, making it difficult to read, spell, write and speak.

People living with dyslexia are often smart and hardworking, but have trouble connecting letters when seen.  Dyslexia awareness is celebrated from 5-11 October each year to help to bring attention to the issues that dyslexic people face on a daily basis. The Occupational Therapist, Mr. Adebowale, said although dyslexia had no known cure, early assessment and intervention could result in best outcome.

“Some people with dyslexia turns out with sensory development. These things are being noticed where some parents do not put caution into it or say the child is still under the age bracket of not being able to read or understand comprehension,” Mr. Adebowale noted.

The Abuja based therapist pointed out  that dyslexia could affect people even up till old age.  He called on parents and caregivers to reach out to professionals once they noticed any trace of academic disorder in their children.

Dyslexia International report of 2017 suggests that between five and ten percent of the world’s  population experience dyslexia, which equates to around seven hundred million people worldwide.