Introduction
Dyslexia is a developmental disorder that was not clear to scientists until the 20th century. In 1887, physicians called this developmental disorder dyslexia after observation of an adolescent male who experienced significant difficulties in learning to read and write. Dyslexia is widely accepted to be a specific learning disability and has biological traits that differentiate it from other learning disabilities. It is the most widely known and most carefully studied of the learning disabilities, affecting 80% of all those designated as having learning disability (Lyon et al, 2003). Dyslexia became categorized as a learning disability in the 1896 and has been debated for many years (Snowing et al, 2003). It has been defined according to many in different forms and ways. These are some of the definitions that were found of Dyslexia: according to the US National Institutes of Health, Dyslexia is a learning disability that can hinder a person’s ability to read, write, spell and sometimes speak. In the 1980’s, the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) came about with an exclusionary definition of Dyslexia: If a child’s difficulty with reading could not be explained by low intelligence, poor eye sight, poor hearing, inadequate educational opportunities, and then the child must be Dyslexic. Despite this advancement in identification, the condition was first described in the medical literature by many physicians who studied several classes of individuals with obvious normal intelligence but could not learn to read (Siegel, 2006).
These cases were termed word blindness (i.e. inability by to read words). Dyslexia or learning disability is behaviorally seen as a discrepancy between reading abilit...
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...roblem. Learners with dyslexia will benefit from early identification, appropriate intervention and targeted effective teaching, enabling them to become successful learners, confident individuals, effective contributors and responsible citizens.
A means of updating health workers wit the tools and education should also be available. Encourage professionals to confidently identify the conditon and give appropriate remedy. Applications of these procedures will help eliminate this developmental disorder. Recently, a model to identify dyslexic individual is been proposed. It is called response to instruction and involves providing a classroom based-intervention and then providing more individualised academic intervention for children (Siegel, 2006). Government should provide the means for other stakeholders to participate in the use of these models to treat dyslexia.
“The Extraordinary Characteristics of Dyslexia” by Jake Horner is a definition essay on what it means to be dyslexic. He incorporates his own life story to support his definition and his ideas in his essay. Dyslexia is looked upon as a disability that should be treated even though dyslexia has to do with the way your brain processes the information given to you. Horner includes two types of thinkers, spatial and linear. Spatial thinkers are the dyslexic people in the world, and linear thinkers are the non-dyslexic people in the world (Horner 493). As I read this essay, it made me reflect.
The specific language based disorder of dyslexia is a learning “disability” or “syndrome” that creates an imbalance of reading, writing and comprehension skills in children and adults (Lucid Research, 2006; Shaywitz, 1998). Around 4 percent of the population are affected by the specific language based disorder (Lucid Research, 2006), as well as 80 percent of people with a learning disorder are reported to be dyslexic (Shaywitz, 1998). Dyslexia is not connected to low levels of intelligence, inadequate schooling and education or social circumstances, rather, an individual who is deficit in the phonological process, the breaking down of a word, and the auditory process, taking in sound and interpreting correctly (Lucid Research, 2006; Shaywitz, 1998; Wang and Yang, 2014). Since dyslexia is reported to be a life-long learning disability and symptoms are varied for each person, large amounts of research have been conducted in attempts to understand the severity and the impairments associated with
The exact cause of dyslexia is unknown. However, researchers believe dyslexia is a reading disability with underlying genetic, developmental and neurological causes (8). People with dyslexia have trouble reading despite normal or high intelligence and exposure to sufficient language instruction. Specific reading problems apparent in dyslexia include reversal of words and letters, difficulty in pronouncing new words, difficulty in making a distinction between similarities and differences in words (on for no), and difficulty in discerning differences in letter sounds (ten, tin) (2).
Rose, J. (2009). Identifying and teaching children and young people with dyslexia and literacy difficulties. Annesley, Nottingham, UK: DCSF Publicaitons.
Students with the learning disability can be taught in different ways that are more suited to their needs (54). Alternative lesson plans such as the Orton-Gillingham approach can help dyslexic students learn to read and write as well as their peers (9). Better learning programs can also help people with dyslexia overcome mental health issues such as low self-esteem. When students are doing well in school, they are more motivated to learn. Struggling students can also find better ways to study on their own, such as recording class lectures and listening to them at home (58). Regardless of the methods used to treat dyslexia, it is absolutely crucial for the child’s health to start therapy at a young age
Dyslexia has been a commonly known problem in the Unites States. Even though, dyslexia is a mental problem that causes disabilities in reading, most people do not know the truth about it. There have been movies where a person with dyslexia sees letters moving around, yet people with dyslexia do not have disabilities like moving letters around. The truth is that there are plenty of misconceptions. The myths going around of what dyslexia supposedly is, is not the truth. These myths are just misconceptions and the truths about dyslexia are more complex than what it seems like. Dyslexics have different learning processes and different ways of handling the problems at hand.
Robert Buck once said, “If children can’t learn the way we teach, then we have to teach the way they learn.” The Wilson Language Program has become disclosed to amplify this mentality. Dyslexia is a common disease among ten to fifteen percent of the United States, where a human being has trouble in learning to read or interpret words, letters, and other symbols. Programs are reaching out to try to terminate as much distress of dyslexia as possible. Up and coming programs, The Wilson Language Program for example, are making their best efforts to start working with children from a young age with the slight signs of this common problem. Catching dyslexia earlier in life brings more assurance that the child’s future will have little to no setbacks or disadvantages for success. In order to enhance the regressive literacy of dyslexic individuals, the Wilson Language Program is progressively being implemented into regular schooling to ensure that reading standards are met, through structure, hours of research, copious practice, and strong evidence.
Many of us can identify with struggling at least once during our school years. Imagine struggling every day and in every class just cause your learning strategy is not the same as everyone else. Dyslexia is a specific difficulty with learning how to read or write in nearly 3.5 million American children (Dyslexia Research Trust). This difficulty originates in children who are normally intelligent and receive adequate teaching; however, they are not able to process information as efficiently as regular learners. Dyslexia is an inherited condition, which children inherit from parents or family members. The condition results from abnormal nerve cells usually inherited which make children vulnerable to immune factors affecting brain development and causing deficiency of Omega-3. Dyslexia begins to become a problem when children are learning to read and write but, many children show signs of dyslexia before learning to read Dyslexics have problems concentrating in the classroom, pronouncing words properly and visualizing words. Many individuals often identify dyslexic people as people who...
Dyslexia is one of several distinct learning disabilities. It is a specific language based disorder of constitutional origin characterized by difficulties in single word decoding, usually reflecting insufficient phonological processing abilities. These difficulties in single word decoding are often unexpected in relation to age and other cognitive and academic abilities; they are not the result of generalized developmental disability or sensory impairment. Dyslexia is manifest by ...
Next, we need to tackle the many misconceptions associated with dyslexia. Many people acquaint having a learning disability as having a disease. This is completely false, dyslexia is not a disease, and therefore there is no magic pill that can cure it. Actually, there is no cure and it cannot be outgrown. According to the journey into dyslexia, “it is a lifelong issue.” However, it is manageable with the assistance and resources, those with dyslexia can continue to keep up and retain their grade level in
Whether we graduate from highschool or college we all hope to find a challenging career that will propel us forward in today's society. For those suffering from dyslexia this only adds to the frustration and fears associated with seeking employment. Many adults with dyslexia or other forms of learning disabilities never disclose their disability in interviews or once employed for fear of being discriminated against. Several investigators have noted, however, that many persons with learning disabilities adjust well to the demands and complexities of adulthood. (Greenbaum et al. 1996). The basic cause of dyslexia is still not known, however, much research is being done to determine the problems underlying dyslexia. In many cases, dyslexia is highly inherited. Studies have shown a number of genes that may set the stage for its development. Characteristics of dyslexia are now more apparent to educators than ever before. Early educational interventions are helping individuals to manage their dyslexia. There have been some studies that attend to accommodating persons with learning disabilities in post-secondary and occupational settings. Only a few articles will be reviewed having been found worthy of this subject. However, before reviewing the articles, in order to gain a greater understanding of the types of learning disabilities people face lets define one of the most significant learning problems: dyslexia. A Type of Learning Disability: What is Dyslexia? The word dyslexia is derived form the Greek "dys" (meaning poor or inadequate) and "lexis" (works or language). Dyslexia is a learning disability characterized by problems in expressive or receptive, oral or written language. Problems may emerge in r...
Treatment for dyslexia is left up to the parents of the child or the adult living with the condition. Between adults and children needing treatments, many of the same kinds of treatment can take place, but also different treatments and techniques will work depending on the type. Three common types of primary dyslexia consist of dyscalculia, dyspraxia, and auditory dyslexia. Dyscalculia relates to one’s ability to perform math skills and the capability of memorizing sequences. Dyspraxia involves difficulty conducting ordinary motor skills, such as waving goodbye and tying a shoe. Not only does this condition affect one subject of a school day, but it likely troubles countless situations in a typical educational setting in one day. A child has a higher chance of having success if the proper treatment at school and at home is available. Parents of a child with dyslexia should talk to the teachers and make sure programs exist in their children’s day and that it suit’s the dyslexic needs in education. Advice given to parents of the child undergoing the evaluation is to not coach up the child, rather let them show their strengths and weaknesses on their own. Programs that help the child show their strengths and work more on their weaknesses will help the child tremendously. The dyslexics attending school should not use the disability as an excuse for not completing work. Getting
Dyslexia is now a widely accepted condition that is prevalent in many classrooms. However, defining dyslexia is difficult as it can be described as a continuum. Although experts largely agree that dyslexia is identifiable as a developmental difficulty of language learning and cognition (Rose, 2009). Dyslexia can pose a host of difficulties for the child and can make daily activities and school life very challenging. The NCLD (2013) states children with dyslexia may have difficulties with ‘accurate and fluent spelling, accurate and fluent written expression, phonological awareness, memory, verbal processing speed and information processing.’ As teachers it is vital that we are aware of the underlying difficulties as the child’s consistent underachievement can appear on the surface as carelessness and lack of effort (Hodge, 2000). Dyslexia is not only about literacy, although weaknesses in literacy are often the most visible sign, it effects all areas of learning as the ability to read and write sufficiently permeates all areas of learning within the curriculum. ‘Dyslexia occurs across the range of intellectual abilities’ however, the difficulties posed by having dyslexia can affect a child’s ability to learn (Rose, 2009). Every child has the right to succeed and so the teacher must strive to provide the key for learning and implement effective interventions which develop the child’s literacy skills and help them reach their full potential (DCSF, 2007; DfES, 2004).
Dyslexia is a learning disability effecting thousands of students in schools across the world. As with many learning disabilities, dyslexia manifests itself differently in every person. Due to this inconsistency, many people feel it should not be qualified as a learning disability, but because so many students continue to have to overcome their dyslexia it continues to be diagnosed. Thankfully when teachers are aware of their students’ having dyslexia they are able to put supports in to aid their students’ learning. Many strategies exist to aid dyslexic people in carrying out their everyday tasks.