Some people use learning disabilities interchangeably with dyslexia. Dyslexia is a learning disability, but a learning disability is not necessarily dyslexia. Many people think of dyslexia as individuals who see their letters backwards. This is a symptom of dyslexia and not all individuals have that symptom. Many are surprised to find out that even individuals who are blind can have dyslexia.
http://www.dys-add.com/dyslexia.html#anchorDefinitionSimple provides a good definition:
“Dyslexia is a neurologically-based, often familial, disorder which interferes with the acquisition and processing of language. Varying in degrees of severity, it is manifested by difficulties in receptive and expressive language, including phonological processing, in reading, writing, spelling, handwriting, and sometimes in arithmetic.”
In other words, dyslexia is the result of how a person’s brain developed. This does not mean that a person with dyslexia is brain damaged and that they aren’t intelligent. Quite the opposite, in fact. People with dyslexia have many strengths in the way they think that escape people who don’t have dyslexia.
Dyslexia basically gets in the way of how people hear and speak language. They can hear people speak fine, but the way their brain interprets it is different. Most of the time, it isn’t a big problem. However, it also affects the way they talk. If they have severe dyslexia, this can be a problem, but mostly because other people and themselves get so frustrated. Individuals with dyslexia sometimes can’t seem to find the word they want to say. They know the word they want and can give a great description of it, but until someone nearby gives them the word, they just can’t seem to get it out of their brain.
It might sound like, “We went out. We went out to the, well, you know, when you go swimming, and its blue and it has water, and, umm, you jump in it and get people wet, and you know you have to wear, what do call it. You wear them when you get wet.”
You may have figured out he meant swimming pool and bathing suits. He knew the words, but his brain just couldn’t find them. He felt stuck and you can imagine that this would make him very frustrated with himself over time. You can also see why a peer might get impatient with him. So, in the sense that dyslexia affects a person’s intelligence, it only seems to because the words they want get stuck.