Year
2012-2013
Sigrid Kootstra
Contents
Dyslexia 4
Important to know 4
Main Dyslexia Symptoms 5
Dyslexia symptoms for early identification 7
Dyslexia symptoms for identification at later age 8
Provision 10
Extra knowhow for those who are interested 15
The brain 15
All types of dyslexia 15
References 18
Dyslexia
Dyslexia is a neurological-based, specific learning disability, characterized by language handling deficiencies, impairment in the ability to recognize and translate words into sentences. It is said that a reading disability reflects a continuous deficit as opposed to an arrest in development and can occur in a person of any level of intelligence. Dyslexia can be related to hormonal or hereditary influences, or brain injury. One in five children are thought to have dyslexia and it is found to be more prevalent in males.The difficulties caused by dyslexia do not accurately measure the sufferer's intelligence. Geniuses of our time, such as Einstein, have been affected by the problems of automatic decoding of words and formation of accurate sentences. It is said that many dyslexics "shine in the arts, creativity, design, computing and lateral thinking."The etiological basis suggests that reading disorders stem from difficulties in phonological processing, i.e. the brain's inability to translate images from the eyes completely and correctly to the ears and mouth. Symptoms of dyslexia range from reading and writing difficulties, to speech, direction, time, concentration, coordination, and even self-esteem issues. Other mental disorders are often found to be co-morbid, yet still separate from dyslexia. Common are disorders such as attention deficit and depression, enhanced by the general feelings of helplessness and confusion of dyslexia. Co-morbid problems tend to lessen once the individual seeks successful help with their dyslexia.
There seem to be four main disorder subtypes, surface dyslexia, phonological dyslexia, spelling dyslexia (word form), and direct dyslexia (there are 18 in total) . These different types of dyslexia range from either the loss of the ability to read phonetically, the loss of whole-word reading ability, or a combination of the two. Direct dyslexia refers to the ability of the sufferer to read words aloud yet with an inability to understand what they read. Other dyslexics can understand what they read but are unable to pronounce those same words.
Primary dyslexia is considered to be a dysfunction within the cerebral cortex, which seems to be hereditary. The condition of an individual with primary dyslexia is not thought to change with age. Secondary dyslexia, on the other hand, is thought to be caused during early fetal development and able to disappear gradually as the individual ages. Trauma dyslexia occurs when damage occurs to a sector(s) of the brain.
An alternative explanation for the existence of dyslexia is that the disorder is actually not a downfall, but actually a gift, a special form of thought. This group chooses to portray dyslexia in a very different light then the more conventional medical community. The idea is that reading difficulties are a result of disorientation and that levels understanding has to do with the confusion threshold of each individual. An entire therapy protocol referred to as Davis Orientation Counselling was developed with the idea in mind that the individual possesses the ability to correct their own disorientation through the mastering of the symbols that cause confusion.Unlike the medical model for dyslexia, the Davis model believes that such reading disabilities are caused by outside factors such as poor diet, print styles, certain sounds, scheduling changes, fear, change in the environment, etc. The general idea is to recognize the confusion and figure out how to control it so that it does not cause cognitive difficulties.
Simply stated, dyslexia is a type of reading disorder in which the student fails to recognize and comprehend written words. Dyslexia is a severe impairment in the ability to read, despite normal intelligence, normal opportunities to read, and an adequate home environment. Although the precise organic cause of dyslexia is unknown, it is generally thought that this problem results from difficulties with phonological awareness—a lack of understanding of the rules that govern the correspondence between specific sounds and certain letters that make up words (Lyon & Moats, 1997; cited in Gargiulo, 2004, p. 216). In other words, letter-sound recognition is impaired.
Important to know
It is important to identify students with dyslexia or other severe reading disabilities early, before they fall far behind their peers in word-recognition skills. Students who appear to be learning letter-names, sounds, and sight words at a significantly slower rate than their classmates are at a risk for developing later reading problems. And yet, despite the enormous problems children with dyslexia face, the general consensus among researchers is that they can improve. When the diagnosis of dyslexia is made in the first two grades, more than 80% of the children are brought up to grade level. However, if the diagnosis is not made until the fifth grade, only 10 to 15% are helped (Kirk et al., 2003).
Main Dyslexia Symptoms
A discrepancy between the pupil's ability and their actual achievement
If you notice that a child who appears to be average or bright when they are talking to you is struggling to read, spell or cope with math/s, this may be the strongest indicator that they may be dyslexic. It is very common for dyslexic children to be quite able, especially in the areas of creativity (art, drama, drawing, etc) and physical co-ordination (physical education, swimming, sports, model-making, etc.). However, there are differences in the neural links in their brain that makes it hard for them to deal with text (and often with numbers) without extra support. There are others who excel in math as long there are just numbers, famous example is Einstein. A reading age or grade level of two years below what you would expect from them is a sign of possible dyslexia. Obviously, this could also be caused by other factors such as lengthy absences from school due to illness.
A family history of learning difficulties
Dyslexia is most often inherited through the genes. It can also be caused by early ear infections or undetective eye problems like a lazy eye. In both cases it is harder for a young child to distinguish the difference between similar sounding words or to visualize words. The numbers of boys and girls who are dyslexic are roughly the same.
Difficulties with spelling
Spelling is the activity which causes most difficulty for dyslexic children. Noticing spelling errors in short, simple words is the way in which most dyslexic children first come our attention. Examples of words which cause particular difficulty are:any,many,island,said,they,because,enough, andfriend.
Other words will sometimes be spelt in the way that you would expect them to be spelt if our spelling system were rational, for exampledoes/dus,please/pleeze,knock/nock,search/serch,journey/jerney, etc. Visual learners will have problems with words which you can not touch or see, like maybe, throughout, responsibility, etc.
Dyslexic children also experience difficulties with 'jumbled spellings'. These are spelling attempts in which all the correct letters are present, but are written in the wrong order. Examples includedose/does,freind/friend,siad/said,bule/blue,becuase/because, andwores/worse. 'Jumbled spellings' show that the child is experiencing difficulty with visual memory. Non-dyslexic children and adults often use their visual memory when trying to remember a difficult spelling: they write down two or three possible versions of the word on a spare piece of paper and see which spelling 'looks right'. They are relying on their visual memory to help them, but the visual memory of a dyslexic child may not be adequate for this task.
Speech sound difficulties
Children with Phonologicaldyslexiahave a form ofdyslexiawhich involves difficulty with thesoundsof letters. It is a learning disability that falls under auditory processing and, in its more severe form, as Auditory Processing Disorder, or OPD. Words that are familiar can be read out as whole words but when new words are encountered, there is a difficulty in the sounding out of the letters or groups of letters especially b/p s/z/c/ m/n. Though the exact cause in unknown, it may be due to auditory processing problems such as the inability to distinguish between subtle sounddifferencesor hearingsoundsat the wrong speed.
Writing letters or numbers backwards
You will have noticed some children who mix up 'b' and 'd', or even 'p' and ‘q’ and the number 9. These letters are the same in their mirror image, and cause regular confusion for a dyslexic person. Some pupils make a point of always writing the letter 'b' as au upper-case or capital 'B', as they find this much easier to remember in terms of the direction it faces.
Difficulties with math/s especially with real life math,head calculations
One feature of dyslexia is difficulties with sequencing - getting things in the right order. Math/s depends on sequences of numbers - 2. 4. 6. 8. etc. Whilst many people are aware that dyslexic children and students have problems with reading and spelling, they do not know that math/s can also be a real challenge. They also face challenges if they have to make real life math exercises (word problems), because of the reading involved. Timetables involves memorization and this may also be affected.
Confusion over left and right, push and pull, up and down
A fairly quick way to establish this type of confusion is to ask a child to point to your left foot with his or her right hand. If you try similar instructions - in a non-threatening environment - you will soon be able to see if this causes difficulties or not. (Try it on a colleague - who is not dyslexic - and you can see how a non-dyslexic person is able to sort out the left and right elements quite readily.) You may also notice difficulties with east and west, push and pull, up and down or in following directions like 'Go to the end of the road and turn left, then right, etc'.Difficulties organizing themselves
Difficulty following 2- or 3-step instructions
'Go to Mrs. Brown and ask her if Peter Smith is in school today. Oh, yes, and ask if I can borrow her dictionary' - such an instruction is just too much! It involves both sequencing and memory skills, and you would be very surprised to see a dyslexic child return with the dictionary and information about Peter Smith! Dyslexic children love to take messages as much as any other child, but it has to be a less complicated instruction, e.g. 'Ask Mrs. Brown if I can borrow her stapler'.
Associated symptoms of dyslexia:
There are a number of associated symptoms of dyslexia. While they are not directly connected to reading or writing, they can affect some people with dyslexia. They include:
· Poor short-term memory
· Problems concentrating
· Short attention span
· Organization and time management problems
· Physical coordination problems - some people with dyslexia can appear unusually clumsy, and younger children can find it difficult to carry out tasks that require a degree of physical coordination
These are not direct dyslexia symptoms but can be associated with dyslexia.
Dyslexia symptoms for early identification
A pre-school aged child may:
· Talk later than most children – As a general rule children say their first words around one year and phrases around 18-24 months. Children at-risk for literacy problems may not begin saying their first words until fifteen months and may not speak in phrases until approximately 24-26 months.
· Use persistent baby talk
· Have unusual difficulty pronouncing words - "aminal" for animal, "pisgetti" for spaghetti, "lephant" for elephant
· Have trouble recalling words or finding the right words when speaking
· Be less sensitive to rhymes and have trouble reciting common nursery rhymes or may confuse words that sound alike
· Experience difficulty learning the names and the sounds of the letters of the alphabet
· Have trouble remembering the letters in their own name
A kindergarten or year 1 child may:
· Have difficulty separating syllables in words and blending syllables to make words
· Have difficulty separating sounds in words and blending sounds to make words
· Experience difficulty with learning the names of the letters of the alphabet
· Leave kindergarten without knowing the sounds of most of the letters
· Leave first grade without fluent reading skills, reading is slow and effortful
· Demonstrate the inability to read common one-syllable words or to sound out simple words such as mat, sat, tap, hop
· Consistently make reading errors demonstrating a lack of awareness to the relation of sounds and letters such as "like" for milk, "left" for felt, and "house" for "home"
Reading errors such as "sit" for set, "hit" for hat, or "cop" for cup demonstrate an attempt to match letters to sounds and are much more typical than the previous examples.
A child from year 2 on may:
· Mispronounce long, unfamiliar words or use imprecise language instead of the proper names of objects
· Demonstrate very slow progress in acquiring reading skills
· Fail to systematically sound out words
· Make unusual guesses at reading a word
· Spell the same word differently at different times
· Avoid reading aloud
· Have better listening comprehension skills than reading comprehension skills
· Skip over small words (like, an, the) while reading
· Have terrible spelling
· Avoid reading for pleasure
· Spend unusual amounts of time on homework
· Have a family history of reading and spelling problems
Signs for Children [age 5+]
· The following are signs that a child may have dyslexia. It is important to remember that a child may have some of these symptoms in varying combinations, but will rarely have all of them.
· Speech problems e.g. lisp, mispronunciation of words, words in wrong order. Dyslexics are often late talkers NOTE: some dyslexics learn to speak early and are very articulate.
· Difficulty in rhyming e.g. ‘book’ and ‘look’.
· Difficulty in hearing and pronouncing sounds.
· Attention problems – child does not appear to hear when given explanations. Daydreaming and switching off in class and at home.