Schooling necessarily implies literacy skills which are thus strongly emphasized. But, for dyslexic children this often means having a rough time in school as their literacy skills are not well-developed. The neurological deficiency in their brain hinders their ability to read, write and spell and use numbers correctly; this makes them backward when compared to their classmates and may easily lower their self-esteem making them feel stupid. Also, it does not help that apart from special dyslexia school and in spite of a growing awareness of this problem, people are still largely ignorant of how to deal with dyslexics. Teachers get frustrated with dyslexics and tend to slot them as ‘slow learners’; classmates poke fun at their ‘stupidity’ and parents too have a hard time in keeping up the morale of their child as well as their own.

In order that dyslexic children do not land up with a low self-esteem, it is vital that as part of dyslexia strategies, educators should praise dyslexic children and award them credits, stars, merit certificates similar to other children. Completing any written work is twice as hard for them when compared to non-dyslexic children. Children with dyslexia often excel at sports, arts and crafts and this should be encouraged by the school and parents. This will instill self-belief in them and give them something to be proud of. Schooling need not be a torturous process for dyslexics if schools are sensitive to their needs and appropriate steps are taken in that direction.