Dyslexia is a reading difficulty that does not comply with a person's age, grade level, intelligence, and sometimes profession. Dyslexia is both neurobiological and genetic in origin. Dyslexia affects the way a person processes language individually and often contributes to low self esteem unless treated.

Dyslexics have a language learning deficit; they physically learn and process language differently. Dyslexia is usually the result of poor phonological abilities (the way words are sounded out) that affect the way a dyslexic reads, writes, and spells. In other cases it can also negatively affect math.

The reading type of dyslexia is the most common. In reading, dyslexics show poor decoding and comprehension skills. This is usually caused by a lack of proper phonological abilities and/or improper perception of the printed materials (SSS/Irlen Syndrome).

The written form of dyslexia is know as dysgraphia. It is characterized by improper word spacing, letters that are both over and undersized, improper mixing of print and cursive script, and letters that are written backwards or in the mirror image.

A more recently discovered field of dyslexia is known as dyscalculia, or math dyslexia. Not much is known about the neural processing of dyscalculia so there are fewer proven tests and techniques to overcome it at this time.