Dyslexia and Dyscalculia
Dyslexia and Dyscalculia are disorders that result in problems with reading, writing and/or counting. Both are common in people with an ASD disorder. On this page you will find information about these disorders and their overlap with ASD. Dys in Greek means limited, lexie means word. So, loosely translated dyslexia means limited reading. Calculia means counting, so dyscalculia means limited counting.
Dyslexia has first been dexcribed by Oswald Berkham, in 1881. The name Dyslexia had then not yet been invented. This happened only in 1887 by Rudolf Berlin. He described a boy who had difficulty learning to read and write. Yet this boy had a normal intelligence.
Surveys done show that Dyslexia and Dyscalculia have neurological causes. There are many forms and causes for Dyslexia and Dyscalculia. What is known is that Dyslexia and Dyscalculia have something to do with the visual and auditory information not properly being processed. This means that what you see (read) and / or hear is not properly processed. It is also known Dyslexia / Dyscalculia can be inherited. When someone in your family has Dyslexia / Dyscalculia it is likely that this will occur more often
Why the combination with ASD disorders
Dyslexia and Dyscalculia are common in people with ASD. But why is this common? There is not much described about this combination. But there will be given a possible cause. Note that this is a presumption that exists in the world of psychiatry. It is not a proven fact!
It's hard to say what exactly the reason is. The most obvious reason is that both ASD and Dyslexia and Dyscalculia cause problems with information processing. These points overlap each other so very much and it is therefore expected that the Dyslexia and Dyscalculia in people with ASD is caused by the ASD. the cause can be neurological, but also learned. Often it is important for children with ASD to learn reading and math in a different way than in people without ASD. If this is not done, they develop reading and numeracy problems.
