This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English EducationReport.

Last week, we began a discussion of learning disabilities. Theseare disorders that cause unusual difficulty for a person to developskills needed for life. A person can have a learning disability inone or more areas like reading, writing, listening, speaking orworking with numbers. Today we talk about the condition known asdyslexia.

Researchers say eighty-five percent of people with a readingdisability have dyslexia. The experts say the brain fails to linkletters and sounds correctly in people with dyslexia.

The most common effects are difficulties reading, spelling andwriting. Some people have problems with only one of these skills. Orthey may have trouble with spoken language. They may find itdifficult to express themselves clearly or understand what otherssay.

Dyslexia also can affect a person emotionally. Specialists saystudents with dyslexia often think they are stupid and unable tolearn. They say children who feel like this are in danger of failureand depression.

Signs of dyslexia in young children include learning to talk at alater age than others, and difficulty pronouncing words. Dyslexicchildren also have trouble learning or remembering letters, numbers,days of the week, colors and shapes.

Older students may have difficulty learning a foreign language.They may read very slowly or have trouble remembering what theyread. Another possible sign of dyslexia is difficulty planning andorganizing time.

Researchers say dyslexia continues through life and there is nocure. They say the most important part of treatment is to find thecondition at an early age.

Specially trained educators can help teach people with dyslexiadifferent ways to learn. Schools can give students more time tocomplete tasks and provide help taking notes. Researchers saylistening to recorded books and writing with a computer can alsohelp.

There are organizations around theworld that work to improve the study and treatment of dyslexia. Onegroup is the International Dyslexia Association. You can learn moreinformation on its Web site. The address interdys.org. Again, theWeb site is interdys.org.

We continue our series on learning disabilities next week. Youcan find our reports on the Internet at WWW.51VOA.COM. ThisVOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach.This is Steve Ember.