About 10 per cent of young children suffer from Dyslexia or Learning Disability. That is, in a school of 1,000 children, at least 100 could be Dyslexic

Poor school performance should be seen as a symptom reflecting a larger underlying problem in children. We should scientifically analyse this symptom, discover its underlying cause and find a remedy.

Some children doing poorly in school are actually intelligent. Their overall brain growth is normal, but minuscule brain areas concerned with skills of reading, writing, spelling, language or arithametic have not developed adequately. Poor discipline, broken homes, discordant eveironment, etc., lead to poor school perfomence too.

Children with Learning Disability are slow in learning, but they have noraml or above normal intelligence.

In children with Learning Disability, the brain mechanisms for learning are present but do not function the way they should.

The discrepancy between the child's good intelligence and his poor academic performance is the heart of the matter in Learning Disability.

Famous Dyslexics include Edison, Einstein, woodrow Wilson and Winston Churchill. Churchill's father wrote of him, 'I have an idiot of a son'.

These slow learners suffer from the neurological disorder called Dyslexia. They do not have mental retardation.

Diagnosing Learning Disabilities early in childhood is of great consequence for the parent, the teacher and above all the affected child who then receives special remedial coaching.

It is now widely accepted that a dyslexic's brain cells are arranged differently or function differently from a normal person's. These brain cell abnormalities are produced by genetic and environmental factors. 85% of dyslexics have immediate relatives with the same disorders. Thus dyslexia is genetically inherited. Dyslexic boys outnumber girls three to one. The vulnerability of the male suggests that genes carried on the X chromosome play a part.

Some people's dyslexia may on the other hand be caused by changes in the brain resulting from illness or accedent - before, during or after birth. These are the environmental factors. All these various insults to the brain produced deficits in information procesing leading to various learning disabilities without actually causing mental retardation.

If the child struggles with basic accademic skills such as reading, writing, spelling, arithmetic or speech beyond the first standard, LD should be suspected. These children are excellent with their hands and sometimes are able to understand and answer questions orally but has difficulty to understand by reading and to express by writting. Spelling mistakes and inability to understand the concepts of numbers are often seen. The dyslexic child may not be able to substract or divide, but he may be excellent with motors and machines. Music and art could be his forte. He is disorganised and clumsy, looses his books and pencils and forgets his homeworks. They have difficulty fathoming right and left and often grope for the right word or right meaning.

A range of tests are administrered to the child to find out the factors hindering progress at school.

An efficient assessment procedure by a multi-disciplinary team can clearly outline the relevant skills a child has or has not mastered, pinpoint patterns of errors, and provide direction for systematic remedial instruction.