"Beyond Words" Event (30 Oct 2025) Q&A: Question 3

At our live events we usually have a Questions Box. Anyone attending the event can (anonymously) write down a question and we share all the questions and answers with everyone afterwards. This format allows people who don't want to stand up and ask a question in front of everyone to still be able to get answers to questions they may have.

Question:

"I cannot pronounce words correctly. My brain makes up words that sounds similar."

Answer:

The dyslexic mind loves thinking fast and saving energy where it can. Therefore it often overlooks details or makes "silly" mistakes. In part, this relates to preferring visual thinking over verbal thinking (the former is much faster!).

So, making up words that sound similar could be your brain trying to take a shortcut by using the sound of a word it already knows instead of figuring out the new sound.

But what is more likely, and which also relates to struggling to pronounce words, could be that you struggle to decode properly (meaning, break words into individual sounds and blend the sounds together).

Pronunciation can be tricky, especially in English, because the same word in different forms changes: nature (long a) and natural (short a); compose (2nd o is long) and composition (2nd o is short); electric (second c is hard - sounds like k) and electricity (second c is short - sounds like s).

The best advice I can give you is practise your decoding; just starting by trying to break words up into parts and pronouncing one part at a time. You don't necessarily need to start an official reading programme like ours where all the sound structures are practised. Most people have a good instinct for sounds and syllables once they start looking at the detail of a word and try to break it up into smaller sounds.

If you really do struggle and do feel like you need additional support, book a free consultation with us and we'll discuss your needs.