Living with a learning disability? Read on

Understanding dyslexia and normalising conversations around a condition that affects 10-15% of Indian children

- GARIMA SADHWANI

ANISHA DHINGRA, a counselling psychologist based in Haridwar, was barely 13 when she got singled out in class one day. A school counsellor, who had been observing her notebooks and had spoken to her teachers, told her parents that she should be taken to Delhi to get a psychological assessment.

Dhingra, now 25, says, "I remember crying a lot when this happened, because I couldn't comprehend why I was being taken to a doctor or why I had to take psychiatric medication."

Dhingra was diagnosed with dyslexia. But for the longest time, she found it difficult to understand, acknowledge, and accept her diagnosis.

Dyslexia, a neurobiological learning disability, is defined by the International Dyslexia Association as "difficulty with accurate and/or fluent word recognition and poor spelling and decoding abilities."

It goes on to add, "Secondary consequences may include problems in reading comprehension and reduced reading experience that can impede growth of vocabulary and background knowledge."

According to a 2022 study published in the Indian Journal of Psychological Medicine, the prevalence of specific learning disabilities (SLDs) in India is estimated to be around 3-10%. The Dyslexia Association of India also says that "between 10% and 15% of Indian children are dyslexic."

A struggle in itself While dyslexia is a learning disability, it doesn't just affect one's academic life, the impact of the disability pervades a person's socio-economic life and their relationships too.

Mimansa Singh Tanwar, a clinical psychologist at Gurugram's Fortis Memorial Research Institute, tells FE, "Due to a lack of awareness, learning disabilities are often associated with only academic impairment, which is why their impact on other aspects of life often goes unnoticed or is not understood very well, even by people who've been diagnosed with them."