What are the Causes of Dyslexia?
Laura Perkins
The University of Virginia’s College at Wise
What are the Causes of Dyslexia?
Giannouli and Pavlidis (2014) define dyslexia as a disability that is characterized by severe difficulties in spelling and reading, problems with putting thoughts into written words, and issues with performance in school and everyday life when compared to the effort that is put in. This means that throughout childhood and into adulthood a person can never learn how to read efficiently and effectively. It has been theorized that at least 4% of the population of school children has this disability. (Wilcke, Weissfuss, Kirsten, Wolfram, Boltze, & Ahnert. 2008) Dyslexia can range anywhere from reading being a mild inconvenience to never becoming literate. Although dyslexia is normally easy to spot and diagnose in children and adults, it has been shown that no one truly knows the main causes of dyslexia. There have been many studies into what the possible causes could be, and everything from genetics to home life has been considered. This paper will look at some of the possible causes of dyslexia, including, genetic, hereditary, neurological and home environment and family, and then discuss what the author believes to be the cause based on the information that is given. The first cause that is going to be examined is the possible genetic causes.
Genetics
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Through years of research it has been found that possible defects in two chromosomes and a certain gene could cause dyslexia. In the chromosomes the defects could either be sixth or the fifteenth chromosome. The main gene that is believed to cause dyslexia is the DCDC2