North West divulged to the public that she has dyslexia during an Oct. 18 TikTok livestream with her mom, Kim Kardashian.
The 10-year-old girl was casually on her phone when she looked into the camera recording the livestream and said, “Guys, I have dyslexia. Do you even know what that is?”
Kim was a bit distracted since she was helping North, her eldest child, do something on her phone. Moments prior, North seemingly asked her mom how to spell a word.
Realizing what had just occurred, Kim said, “Northy, you are sure spilling the tea on here.”
An unbothered North was completely unfazed by her mom’s comment and asked the livestream’s viewers if she should “drop an album.” She briefly giggled, and her mom smiled at the thought. Kim then lightly warned the tween that she’d end the livestream if North couldn’t maintain her privacy.
“I am going to get off this live right now because you are just saying way too much. I love you, but… I purposely don’t talk about stuff that you are going through,” Kim said.
Dyslexia is defined as a learning disorder that includes difficulty reading, problems identifying speech sounds, and learning how speech and words relate, according to Mayo Clinic. The source additionally noted that “dyslexia is a result of individual differences in areas of the brain that process language.”
In school-age children, symptoms of the learning disability can look like reading significantly below their age level, spelling trouble, having difficulties with reading and writing tasks, or avoiding reading altogether.
Other, more auditory-related symptoms could be issues processing and understanding what’s being said and trouble sounding out and pronouncing words.
Notably, the learning disability has other symptoms related to trouble with speech, memory and reading. While there’s no cure, students can be successful if they receive the support they need, especially early in their academic journeys.
The National Institute of Child Health and Human Development notes that risk factors for learning disabilities “may be present from birth and tend to run in families. In fact, children who have a parent with a learning disability are more likely to develop a learning disability themselves.”