DYSLEXIA IS NOT LAZINESS
How many times have children been told this at home and at school? How many of us believed it? But what if the real reason wasn’t laziness or stupidity, but undiagnosed dyslexia? In the township, we don’t talk about learning defect problems such as dyslexia. Hell, most of us have never even heard of it. But it’s real. And it’s robbing our people of confidence, opportunity, and education. I recall a time when my cousin was called “slow” or “lazy” because she consistently received poor grades in school. Her parents used to berate her and say, “You can’t read or write, but you’re in grade 10?”. Essentially, at school, she never understood a thing that was being taught and continued to fail every year. As we speak, she is a high dropout and has become a statistic in the unemployment rate of South Africa. WHAT IS DYSLEXIA? Dyslexia is a learning difference that affects how the brain processes written words. It makes students struggle to read well, speak accurately, and convey information effectively. It has nothing to do with intelligence. Most people with dyslexia are smart, but they struggle with how reading and writing are taught in school. Dyslexia is highly genetic and runs in families. When a child in the township struggles with schoolwork, the default assumption is a lack of discipline. Parents believe that the child is lazy, unserious, or distracted by friends and technology. But calling a child lazy doesn’t push them to do better; it crushes them. They start to internalize failure. They believe, “Maybe I really am stupid.” That is because their inability to understand and process material is a diagnosis. This mindset is dangerous. It pushes kids to drop out, disengage from school, or suffer in silence with depression and anxiety. And the sad truth is that the problem was never laziness, but a condition no one took time to understand. African households love to say, “Education is the key to success.” But what happens when your child can’t fit into the rigid system, and education is locked inside? Do we blame the child, or do we challenge the system and ourselves as parents to do better? Refusing to learn about dyslexia, refusing to ask teachers for explanations, and refusing to seek professional help is laziness. It is lazy parenting and lazy community thinking. Instead of building bridges of understanding, we build walls of judgment. Children with dyslexia may struggle with basic reading and writing skills. This can show up as difficulty spelling even simple words, learning the names of letters, or sounding out new words. They may feel reluctant to read aloud in class or confuse the order of sounds within words. These challenges are not a reflection of intelligence but signs that a child learns differently. When these difficulties appear, it’s important not to dismiss the child as “slow” or “lazy.” Instead, early dyslexia screening and testing can help identify the issue and open the door to specialized support. With the right interventions, these learners can build confidence and develop strategies that work best for them. Dyslexia has 3 forms that all fall under the category of “specific learning disorder. There is dyslexia, which affects the child’s reading ability. Then we have dysgraphia, which affects the child’s writing ability. Lastly, we have dyscalculia, which affects the child’s critical thinking when it comes to numbers or solving Mathematics. Luckily, dyslexia is treatable. Currently, there are no medications that treat dyslexia, but there are educational interventions that can teach children effective new ways to learn and read. As a parent, you could ask the school administration for help finding one available to you. You could spend time reading aloud with your child. That time spent together can help them as they work on their reading skills. It’s also important to remember that dyslexia isn’t something that your child has control over. History is filled with people who had dyslexia and still succeeded. Albert Einstein, Whoopi Goldberg, and Richard Branson are among those people. They were not lazy; they just thought differently. If given the right support, children with dyslexia can thrive in careers that rely on creativity, problem-solving, and innovation. It’s time we stop confusing ignorance with discipline. Supporting a child with dyslexia doesn’t mean lowering expectations; it means changing our approach. It means being patient when they read slowly, helping them find other ways to learn, and most importantly, affirming them instead of tearing them down. If we claim to love our children, then we must also love them enough to understand that they learn differently. Dyslexia is not laziness. The real laziness is refusing to educate we on dyslexia and hiding behind excuses that keep generations trapped in shame.
To read more on dyslexia visit: https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/6005-dyslexia