Surface dyslexia is a type of dyslexia, a learning disorder that affects a person’s ability to read and spell. It is characterized by difficulty in recognizing familiar words, and may manifest as a tendency to read words by their appearance rather than their meaning. People with surface dyslexia may have difficulty with word decoding, the ability to use letter-sound correspondence to read words. They may rely heavily on context and visual clues, such as the length or shape of a word, to guess at its pronunciation and meaning. This can make reading slow and laborious, and can lead to errors and misunderstandings. Surface dyslexia is thought to be caused by a disruption in the brain’s ability to process visual and linguistic information.