Reading is one of the most important skills that children learn in school.

Unfortunately, children with dyslexia often find reading to be difficult and exhausting. This dyslexia-related fatigue comes as the result of having to exert more focus and energy than other children to accomplish any task that involves reading, writing, or spelling.

Many people do not recognize nor appreciate how hard and frustrating dyslexia can be for children. They do not understand that reading, especially reading out loud, induces a high level of tiredness which then leads to fatigue and exhaustion.

The way dyslexic children read is different from non-dyslexics. They are not lazy, bored, or unintelligent – they simply have a brain difference that makes reading harder for them!

They struggle to sound out words, memorize sight words, and understand the meaning of what they’ve read. This means they often expend more energy when reading than their classmates do because it takes them longer to complete these tasks.

Often your lively, vibrant children begin to yawn as soon as they are asked to complete a reading assignment.

In spite of the yawning, they may be enjoying what they are doing. It just exhausts them.

Here are 3 reasons why dyslexic students may always seem tired!

1. Many of them have difficulty with eye tracking.
   • They have trouble following the words and lines on a page while they are reading.
2. When reading, there is an increase in the brain activity in children with dyslexia that is absent in their non-dyslexic peers.
   • You can read about that here.
3. Most of our dyslexic children have problems with working memory.
   • This skill plays an important role in learning from kindergarten to college.
   • It is critical for learning new information.

Following is an activity from PBS.org simulating the difficulty children with dyslexia experience while reading. Try it.

Take a few moments to familiarize yourself with this phoneme translation key. Then use it to read the passage that follows aloud.

Phoneme translation key:

When you see		Pronounce as
q z p b ys a, as in bat e, as in pet		d or t m b p er e, as in pet a, as in bat

Passage:

We pegin our qrib eq a faziliar blace, a poqy like yours enq zine.

Iq conqains a hunqraq qrillion calls qheq work qogaqhys py qasign.

Enq wiqhin each one of qhese zany calls, each one qheq hes QNA,

Qhe QNA coqe is axecqly qhe saze, a zess-broquceq rasuze.

So, qhe coqe in each call is iqanqical, a razarkaple puq veliq claiz.

Qhis zeans qheq qhe calls are nearly alike, puq noq axecqly qhe saze.

Qake, for insqence, qhe calls of qhe inqasqines; qheq qhey’re viqal is cysqainly blain.

Now qhink apouq qhe way you woulq qhink if qhose calls wyse qhe calls in your prain.

Translation:

We begin our trip at a familiar place, a body like yours and mine.

It contains a hundred trillion cells that work together by design.

And within each one of these many cells, each one that has DNA,

The DNA code is exactly the same, a mass-produced resume.

So, the code in each cell is identical, a remarkable but valid claim.

This means that the cells are nearly alike, but not exactly the same.

Take, for instance, the cells of the intestines; that they’re vital is certainly plain.

Now think about the way you would think if those cells were the cells in your brain.

How did you do?

Were you able to finish the paragraph?

Imagine having this experience every time you picked up a book or magazine to read… all day, every day.

You would get tired too, wouldn’t you?