Dysnemkinesia

Visual perceptual reversals involve mistaking one symbol for another due to confusion in orientation, directionality, or spatial relationships.

Our dysnemkinesia assessment evaluates reversal problems with letters and numbers. Specifically, we review awareness of shape and formation of letters and numbers, distinguishing normal orientated visual symbols when mixed between mirrored or inverted symbols, and assess the individual’s ability to accurately match.

1. Written Reversals / Unknown.
   • Assessment includes unknown lower-case letters and whether the capital letter is known along with whether there is a reversal when the letter is written and if the formation of the letter was performed in a regular manner.
2. Evaluation of Reversal Problems:
   • Letter Reversals: Using both commonly confused reversal, such as "b" and "d," "p" and "q," or "n" and "u" and most of the other lower-case letters we assess the frequency of recognising correct orientation errors and compare this to age matched normative data.
   • Number Reversals: Numerical symbols from 2 to 9, including digits like "6" and "9", are assessed for ability to discern between mirrored representations is assessed.

The test reveals how often the individual confuses or reverses symbols determining whether reversal errors are developmentally appropriate for the individual's age. This provides insight into the severity of the reversal problem and which letters or numbers create the most confusion for them. It is indicative of a potential learning difficulty and indicates areas for targeted intervention and practice.

Reversal problems can hinder reading fluency, writing proficiency, and mathematical accuracy, affecting academic performance. Persistent reversal errors in older children may indicate potential learning disorders, such as dyslexia or dyscalculia. Reversal difficulties may stem from weaknesses in visual-spatial skills, attention, fine motor control, laterality issues or mixed dominance.

A guide to a multisensory learning approach, creation of laterality awareness, elimination of midline issues, visual discrimination exercises, and hand-eye coordination activities is provided once information from the laterality and eye examination are combined.