Sitting in English class, the student is terrified when the teacher calls on them to read aloud to the class. The student begins to recognize the words on the page but has trouble reading them out loud correctly. The student gets discouraged and begins to think they must not be as smart as the other students; however, this if often not the case for those suffering from dyslexia.

Dyslexia, also known as developmental reading disorder, is the most common learning disability with up to fifteen percent of the U.S. population living with it. Dyslexia is the term used when someone has a difficulty learning to read even though they are motivated and smart enough to learn.

“Usually, dyslexia is categorized by when a person has a hard time reading or writing words,” English resource specialist Tamara Sakuda said. “For some students, letters turns around. Some say they can’t decode or sound out the word, or they forget how the letter associates to the sound it is supposed to make. If you think about your brain as a filing cabinet, most dyslexic kids have a hard time taking in what they learn in class and filing it into where it belongs in their long term memory.”

For students, it’s a time-consuming diagnosis.

“Because I have dyslexia, it takes me a lot longer to do my homework,” senior Emily Norwood said. “I always get letters and numbers mixed up, and it slows me down when I’m reading. It can get really frustrating at times, but I have learned how to deal with it by having a lot of practice over the years.”

Although dyslexia presents a struggle in reading and some other areas, it does not hinder students in most other things.

“When I’m playing football or baseball, my dyslexia doesn’t have any effect on my performance because the disorder doesn’t have anything to with my athleticism or intelligence,” senior Chase Tucker said. “The way that I look at it is that my brain just works differently than most people’s do. Comprehending what words mean when I’m reading is probably the hardest thing that I have to deal with, but the only time where I struggle because of my dyslexia is when I’m learning at school or just reading in general.”

Tucker is involved in several other extracurricular activities while maintaining an A average in school. He believes his dyslexia does not hold him back and makes him a stronger person.

“The most important thing that having dyslexia has taught me is how to work hard,” Tucker said. “Most kids can just go through school like its a breeze, but it is a lot harder for me to get good grades. I have to spend a lot more time trying to understand things than other people. However, I think that having dyslexia has helped me a lot because I have learned the true meaning of hard work.”

Support from teachers or other people is important for people with dyslexia.

“The biggest thing I try to tell other teachers how to deal with dyslexic kids is that it takes the average student about 5 or 6 times to fully understand something, but a dyslexic student may have to practice it 50 times,” Sakuda said. “A big issue is that they are not given enough time to get to fully understand the material. A dyslexic student may read an entire paragraph on a page and read every single word, but they still do not know what the paragraph means because they have not had enough time to make the connection between the words and their meaning.”

Tucker wants other people with dyslexia to view their disorder the same way he does.

“Having dyslexia isn’t a bad thing and no one should be ashamed of it. For my senior project, I am going to hold a class for dyslexic students that are younger than me,” Tucker said. “I plan on telling them about my own experience I’ve had in high school having dyslexia. I will give them tips and strategies on how to get through it easier.”

Sakuda has high expectations for her students with dyslexia. Most dyslexic people have average or above average intelligence and work extremely hard to overcome their learning disability.

“It has absolutely nothing to do with their level of intelligence,” Sakuda said. “Some of the smartest kids I work with are just blocked by their dyslexia. One thing I’ve noticed is that dyslexic kids are very good at collaborating with other people and taking on leadership roles. I always tell my dyslexic kids to remember me because there is a significantly higher proportion of millionaires that have dyslexia than people who do not, so I keep thinking that one of them will remember me when they get older and become rich and famous.”