Mehra said his mother, as a caregiver had played an important role in helping him cope with the condition’s challenges (Instagram/iStock)
Popular television actor and the recent winner of Bigg Boss 18 has revealed he was diagnosed with dyslexia—a major learning difficulty that affects a person's ability to read, write, and spell—as a child. In an interview, Mehra said his mother, as a caregiver, had played an important role in helping him cope with the condition’s challenges.
"My sister and I have been taught to focus on our own achievements. You'll see our home filled with medals from various extracurricular activities, dramas, sports, and academics. My sister was excellent in her studies, whereas I struggled. I was dyslexic, which wasn't diagnosed until much later," he said in a recent interview.
What is dyslexia?
Experts say dyslexia is a learning disability that makes reading and language-related tasks harder and happens due to disruptions in how your brain processes writing so you can understand it. Most people are diagnosed with dyslexia in childhood and it is typically a lifelong issue.
According to doctors, dyslexia falls under the umbrella of “specific learning disorder,” which has three main subtypes:
Doctors say dyslexia interferes with how your brain uses spoken language to decode writing. Your brain has trouble processing what you read, especially breaking words into sounds or relating letters to sounds when reading.
Dyslexia is uncommon overall but widespread enough to be well-known. Experts estimate it affects about 7 per cent of people across the world, regardless of sex and race. However, for many people who have symptoms that are not severe enough for diagnosis, dyslexia can affect up to 20 per cent of the world’s population.
What causes dyslexia?
According to doctors, even though the exact cause of dyslexia is not clear, it may happen due to:
Genetics
Dyslexia is highly genetic and runs in families. A child with one parent with dyslexia has a 30-50 per cent chance of inheriting it.
Differences in brain development and function
If you have dyslexia, it means your brain formed or works differently than expected.
Disruptions in brain development and function. Infections, toxic exposures, and other events can disrupt fetal development and increase the odds of later development of dyslexia.
Risk factors
There are several risk factors that can contribute to whether someone develops dyslexia. They include:
- Toxic exposures and pollution increase your risk of developing dyslexia.
- Lack of access to reading material, especially in children who grow up in households where reading is not encouraged.
- Learning environment limitations
Signs and symptoms of dyslexia
As a child gets older, dyslexia can often look like this:
- Difficulty spelling simple words
- Trouble learning the names of letters
- Problems telling apart letters with similar shapes, such as “d” and “b” or “p” and “q.”
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Trouble rhyming
- Reluctance to read aloud in class
- Trouble sounding out new words
- Trouble associating sounds with letters or parts of words
- Trouble learning how sounds go together
- Mixing up the position of sounds in a word
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