Thyroid Disorders & Treatments Thyroid Related Disorders

Dyslexia

On the basis of recent research, it is evident that some learning disabilities (dyslexia) appear to be more common in families in which someone has had hyperthyroidism or Hashimoto's disease than in the general population.

Children with dyslexia may have a variety of problems, including delays in physical or speech development, poor spelling or handwriting, stuttering, right-left confusion, and reversals of numbers or letters. They may be good at math and have better than average verbal skills, and are often especially gifted in other ways, including athletics, art, and music. On the other hand, they may have real difficulty reading and paying attention in class. Therefore, though these children are usually very bright, poor academic performance is not uncommon and may lead to loss of self-esteem. The condition occurs more commonly in males than females, and affected children are often left-handed or ambidextrous.

Therefore, if you or someone in your family has thyroid dysfunction or chronic thyroiditis and there are children in the family with these sorts of learning and/or attention problems, you would do well to have them checked by a specialist in learning disabilities, who should be available through their school or your family physician.

Dyslexia is treatable anytime - the earlier the better - and the academic improvement in special-help programs may be striking. Remember that the learning disabilities are not caused by thyroid problems and, in fact, are usually more evident in males, while the related thyroid troubles tend to occur in the females in the family.