When Ishiak Mikael Maato Abdullah Syakirin’s parents noticed their son was writing the letters “p” and “q”, and the numbers “2” and “3” in reverse, they were alarmed. That was back in 2020 when the sevenyear old’s “mirror writing” had them confused and worried about his future. Ishiak was already having speech problems by then and spoke in short bursts of words. Fortunately for him, his parents had decided to seek help. After tests by two medical professionals, Ishiak was diagnosed as dyslexic, which is a learning disorder that causes difficulty in reading due to problems in identifying speech sounds and learning how they relate to letters and words. He was also diagnosed as having attention deficit disorder, dysgraphia and dyscalculia, which mean difficulty in writing and understanding simple arithmetic concepts respectively. Syakirin giving Ishiak a helping hand while reading a book. AMIRUL SYAFIQ THESUN
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