The effects of dyslexia on speech include delayed development, comprehension errors and problems speaking accurately. Many children who have dyslexia develop language skills late and might have trouble communicating verbally after they acquire the ability to speak. Part of the trouble that many dyslexics have with communicating is in clearly understanding other people’s speech.
Most people who have dyslexia tend to have some difficulties with speech. Factors that increase the problem include the level of difficulty experienced while reading and what specific type of dyslexia the person has. The most significant verbal disabilities are found in patients who have auditory dyslexia, which is the rarest form of the disease.
There are several ways in which the effects of dyslexia on speech can impede a child’s verbal development. Children who have the condition often struggle to build a good vocabulary, which can impede both verbal and written communication. They also are often unable to put words in the correct order or use the correct syntax. If a child does not have a significant vocabulary or cannot speak in complete, mostly grammatically sound sentences by the age of 5, then dyslexia might be the cause.
One of the effects of dyslexia on speech originates with the way the dyslexic person processes sound. People who have auditory dyslexia might have difficulty understanding what is being said to them. They might struggle with rhymes and separating words at the correct syllables. The way they hear words might be distorted, and they might process words in the incorrect order. This can impair the individual’s ability to respond correctly.
Another one of the possible physical effects of dyslexia on speech is the inability to read aloud. In many cases, this is because the individual cannot decipher the text. There are other situations in which the text might be mostly clear to the person, but he or she is not able to make the connection between reading and oral expression. People who have dyslexia can also have trouble understanding certain types of sounds. For example, they might be able to understand vowel sounds but struggle with consonants.
The effects of dyslexia on speech have been studied. Researchers have worked to develop a system by which patients who have the auditory form of the disease can be trained to understand speech more clearly. This includes the development of strategies for comprehension that patients can focus on when listening to another person speaking.