How come people with dyslexia only mix up symbols, but not objects in real life?

Question

How come people with dyslexia only mix up symbols, but not objects in real life?

Answer 1

They mostly don't understand the alphabetic principle which turns speech into print.  When you rely on the whole word method of reading, you don't notice that there are patterns to represent the spelling of phonemes, the smallest parts of speech.  They have to be directly taught through systematic phonics.  Reading can be taught so that a preschooler can become a fluent reader and good speller, or it can be taught through the long, slow, whole word method which relies on a very tiresome practice of memorizing spellings instead of learning the spellings of phonemes and the use of context to guess what the word might be.  I believe this method creates dyslexia in young learners.

Dyslexia means bad reader.  It's not a perception affliction or neurological disorder.  Intervention has to be early for the greatest benefits.

Answer 2

Because written language (which is really just an arbitrary set of printed symbols) are stored differently in the brain than physical symbols are, and dyslexia affects different areas of the brain differently.

Answer 3

Here's some reliable info about dyslexia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dyslexia

Answer 4

ok dyslexia does not mean bad reader. I wish that was all there was to it for my kids. How is it not a neuroligical disorder when it's how the brain interpets how to process the images. Yes they can mix up objects. Take a red light for example. The red can be at the bottom and the green at the top for dyslexic people. They have just learned that when it's green go and red stop. No matter what position it is in. Just like it's not always just letters but the whole word. For ex. my daughter's first indication was when she wrote her whole name backwords without missing a beat. She wrote nonnahs. I had to stop and think to type backwards. But she wrote it like second nature. This was in K.

Answer 5

because understanding symbols in place of letters, numbers,etc. requires encoding and decoding.  Looking at real life objects doesn't require those skills.  You know what it is when you look at it.  It's not going to be something else if you flip or turn it (like p, q, g, b, and d- all of those are sticks and circles, but the circle is in a different place)- no wonder learning to read is so tough!