Portrayal of Dyslexia in Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief

Scene 1:

Percy is asked by his teacher to read out a sentence on the board. He squints at it, and eventually the movie shows the letters rearranging themselves to form jumbled-up words.

VS Reality:

While it is true that Dyslexics have problems with reading and phonological processing, the movie seems to have exaggerated Percy's Dyslexia.

According to Helen.I (1998) Dyslexics have problems reading like “seeing patterns in the background; print moving, fading, disappearing, swirling, blurring, sparkling or shimmering; seeing similar distortions in the environment such as blurriness and movement”

However, the moving and floating of the letters by themselves seems exaggerated and could be done so to make viewers pity Percy, at the same time hinting at some form of magical,mystical ability of a demigod.

Scene 2:

Percy goes to a mueseum, where he stares at the Greek words on a statue and like the words in the previous scene, they mysteriously rearrange themselves, this time to form comprehensible english words.

VS Reality:

As mentioned above, Dyslexia only causes mostly distortion in words, but floating and rearranging, and it definitely does not magically allow a person to understand a foreign language without any prior knowledge. It is obviously an exaggeration made by the film, perhaps to highlight how Percy might be seen as a "problem" child but there is something special about him. and eventually his Dyslexia, as well his behavioural problems like ADHD are explained as symptoms of a demigod, with Dyslexia being explained as a gift to read Greek, the language of the Gods.

Conclusion:

This movie has proven the Apparatus Theory correct, in that an ideal form of reality is created where Percy's Dyslexia is not his weakness, but his strength, although in reality the situation is not as ideal because Dyslexics still do face problems in terms of social stigma etc. This could be done to suit the theme of Mythology as well as to serve as a hook for viewers and attract them.