According to Dyslexia Ghana:
Dyslexia is a “specific learning difficulty that mainly affects the development of literacy and language related skills. It is likely to be present at birth and to be life-long in its effects. It is characterized by difficulties with phonological processing, rapid naming, working memory, processing speed, and the automatic development of skills that may not match up to an individual’s other cognitive abilities. It tends to be resistant to conventional teaching methods, but its effect can be mitigated by appropriately specific intervention, including the application of information technology and supportive counselling”.
(Definition taken from The British Dyslexia Association)
They add more, however:
Dyslexia is “a specific learning difficulty that mainly affects reading and spelling. Dyslexia is characterized by difficulties in processing word-sounds and by weaknesses in short-term verbal memory; its effects may be seen in spoken language as well as written language. The current evidence suggests that these difficulties arise from inefficiencies in language-processing areas in the left hemisphere of the brain which, in turn, appear to be linked to genetic differences”.
According to one study, instructional accommodations needed by children with dyslexia to help remediate the difficulties experienced may not be effectively provided in Ghana, for a number of reasons – largely, educational attitudes and beliefs.
On the one hand, the study showed that 97.2% of Ghanaian teachers surveyed believed accurately that dyslexia is a learning disability that affects language processing. 80% also indicated definitely true or probably true to the statement that multisensory instruction is absolutely necessary for pupils with dyslexia to learn. 97.1% believed accurately that “children with dyslexia need more systematic, sequential and explicit reading instruction”, and 77.2% indicated either “definitely true” or “probably true” to the statement “individuals with dyslexia have trouble understanding the structure of language”.
On the other hand, 82.9% of the teachers indicated “definitely true” or “probably true” to the statement “Seeing letters and words backwards is a major characteristic of dyslexia”. This misconception is one of the most common misconceptions about dyslexia and this finding converges with findings of other research in the field (Wadlington & Wadlington, 2005). 77.2% believed falsely that dyslexia can be caused by a poor home environment / poor reading instruction. 74.3% of teachers surveyed believed that those with dyslexia have below average intelligence.
The majority of respondents had negative attitudes to having children with dyslexia in their classroom with one respondent explaining that: “it is disturbing because not all of them are like that. And they are many too [referring to potentially dyslexic children]. These children are drawing the good ones back.”
Dyslexia Ghana puts the figure of those with dyslexia as “about 10% of the population”.
See for instance:
>>dyslexiaghana.com/about-dyslexia/
>>air.ashesi.edu.gh/bitstream/handle/20.500.11988/96/diana.abraham—Abraham%20Diana-%20Thesis_442.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
