If you have a dyslexic child, it is likely that something like the this has happened:

“Please go to the left.” Your child promptly goes to the right. You smile slightly and say:

“No, your other left.”

Children with dyslexia do not just have reading issues. They also have problems with both a sense of direction and following directions. We will examine both in this post.

Sense of Direction

Dyslexics are challenged by linking the words left and right, forward and back, up and down, and East/West/North/South with an actual direction. In fact, if you try a series of tests with a pair of directions, like left/right, it’s almost random that the child will go in the correct direction.

The issue is not understanding what a direction is. If you point in the direction and say “go this way” a dyslexic child will go in the direction you point. Part of the problem is linking the directional word with the actual direction.

Another part is that dyslexics look at the scene in front of them in its entirety. They literally see the big picture. It’s not labeled at the edges with directions for left/right and up/down. It is a wholistic view without consideration of movement in a particular direction.

This also appears in reading. If you open a book, and turn it upside down, many dyslexics are perfectly comfortable reading the inverted right page from right to left and from the bottom up. Then they will proceed to do the same to the inverted page on the left. The rotation doesn’t matter because the orientation doesn’t matter when looking at the whole picture.

Workarounds

Dyslexics spend a lot of energy in trying to figure out what physical direction to go in when instructed to do so. As in reading issues, math difficulties, and understanding time, a person with dyslexia will develop personal tools that helps with physical directions. Some examples of these tools include:

  • My watch is on my left hand so that is left. And, therefore, the opposite direction is right.
  • I know that the big building over there is to the north. If I picture myself lying down on my face with my arms straight out and my head pointed north at the building, my feet will be to the south. My left hand will face west and right arm to the east.
  • When a sense of up and down is needed, a dyslexic may recall a picture of their body. They will visualize that picture and think my head is up, so my feet are down.
  • Other dyslexics may work through the sense of touch. They think I feel my feet are on the ground so that is down and the opposite direction, toward my head, is up.

You can see that all of this is a lot of mental work! That is why sometimes there will be a slight pause after you ask a child to go in a particular direction as they work through their personal tools for physical directions.

These tools/internal thinking processes are personal to each dyslexic. Talk through each direction with your child. Ask them what they see when they hear a direction to go a particular way. Do it in a non-threatening manner. Help them develop their own way of handling each direction.

This can be done through trial and error. Treat the discussion as a game. You want your daughter or son to have fun. After trying, you may need help from a dyslexia expert to surface these personal tools. That’s OK too.

Following Directions

Closely related to the processing of physical direction is following a set of instructions to accomplish some task. Dyslexics have trouble reading a set of directions and doing the correct actions in the proper order.

In addition to understanding physical paths, dyslexics have a different way of processing short-term memory. There are physical differences in the dyslexic brain from that of a non-dyslexic that account for this. Some experts think dyslexic children have less short-term memory. Others think they have the usual amount of memory, but they are using it differently, such as the creation of the wholistic picture we talked about above.

Academic theories and explanations aside, dyslexics also develop personal ways and tools to handle following directions.

For example, a person with dyslexia may have a terrible time following written instructions for making a recipe, assembling a toy, or using a tool. But if that dyslexic person watches you or a video of how to do those things, they will get the steps right. They may need to watch more than once. That’s fine. Remember, they are shifting all the images of the individual actions around in their head to form a seamless picture of the entire process.

Please note that they assemble the complete process. After watching someone do the work, many dyslexics do the entire procedure without thinking about the individual steps.

In a similar way, other people with dyslexia look at illustrations in a printed set of directions and picture in their mind how the pieces fit together. They may even ignore the words in the directions. Often, without reading the words, they visualize how the pieces and actions fit together and successfully complete the process.

Some dyslexics like to verbally sound out the steps to get the sequence right.

Personal Tools Are the Key

With both physical directions and procedural directions, personal tools are the key for both dyslexic children and dyslexic adults. Helping kids discover these tools/methods will be a boon for their self-image. Adult dyslexics may have developed these tools without ever discussing it with anyone. They may be pleasantly surprised that their hard work was actually a stroke of genius and not because they were less than “normal” in some way.

Dyslexic differences can help all of us see: Dyslexics are Amazing