Research Project on Dyslexia
Can you imagine what it must be like to look at a book and all the words seem to be jumbled and puzzled? Or you attempt to write a note but no one can make out what you are writing. Those are the things that people with dyslexia have to face each day.
Dyslexia is not just a severe reading disorder characterized by reversals. And it is not due to brain damage as traditionally thought for the past century. It is a syndrome of many and varied symptoms affecting over 40 million American children and adults (Dyslexia Online, 1).
Dyslexia is simply a term that means dysfunctional or impaired reading ability (Fisher, 12). In and of itself that does not explain anything about what people with dyslexia are truly dealing with, such as reversals, rotations, blockages or problems in gestalt perception. The dyslexic child can not derive meaning from words unless they hear the word. Seeing them does not set off the process of encoding and decoding that ordinarily allows us to scan printed symbols and perceive them meaningfully (Smith, 90).
A child with dyslexia uses their strong visual memory to recall the physical appearance of words. They usually learn to read by the whole word approach. As they memorize words, they develop an adequate sight vocabulary and they may be a good reader at the first and second grade levels. It is in the middle of the third grade usually when the reading vocabulary suddenly expands and they find it difficult to memorize all the words (Dyslexia Online, 1).
Children with dyslexia are usually unable to sound out unfamiliar words because they lack phonic ability. Children with dyslexia usually have problems in visual-motor coordination with the result that their handwriting is awkward and illegible. Dyslexic children may also have trouble with directionality, sequentualization, and with learning to tell time. Memory and the retrieval of words, names of people of objects, and dates cause problems for the dyslexic child ( Fisher, 13).
Dyslexia is more likely in males than in females, by a ratio of six to one. Generally they have average to above average intelligence. They show no specific neurological disturbance. Dyslexic children usually do reasonably well in academic areas other than reading and spelling, and usually come from a family where the father, uncle, or male cousin have a history of reading problems (Evans, 24) . A dyslexic child uses 4.6 times as much area of the brain to do the same language task as a normal child. This means their brains are working a lot harder and using more energy than is normal. People often do not see how hard it is for dyslexic children to do a task that others do so effortlessly (Silverstein, 51).
There is four main forms that dyslexia takes. These include: reversal, rotation, blockage and gestalt perception. All of these forms are difficult to surpass. A reversal is when they see a mirror image of a printed letter. Take the letter “E”. I child with dyslexia would see a line with three prongs facing to the left rather than to the right. This is likely to cause confusion when a “b” becomes a “d”, or a “p” becomes a “q”( Smith, 92).
A rotation describes any severe diversion from the normal vertical orientation of a printed letter or a combination of letters. In writing we allow for normal deviations due to personal styles of writing and slanting.
Rotations fall clearly outside the range of expected variation. A blockage is an interruption of uncertain nature that occurs somewhere in the chain of information processing. It prevents the eye from telling the brain what is being seen. With gestalt perception the child sees all the words as parts of a whole. They can not distinguish one part from another (Smith, 24).
Young children tend to reverse words, phrases, and letters during the early writing stages. They may sometimes print letters backwards. Many parents become concerned that their child could be dyslexic.
However, this is very normal and developmentally appropriate for children who are just learning to read and write. If the child still exhibits these type of behaviors at the end of first grade the parent should look further into the situation. In the first few years of school children are taught the concept of left and right and well as top and bottom. Thus, they will gain an ability to perceive the differences of similar letters such as; p, d, q, b ( Puckett and Black, 381).
Physical activities such as dancing or throwing a ball helps children realize their right from left. It helps to label things as right and left sides. Certain games children play enhance their ability to distinguish up and down, over and under, front and behind, top and bottom. As all these directional opposites become clear in a child’s mind the more likely they are to show signs that a dyslexic child would show. When an adult sees that a child is overwhelmed with a confusing letter it is best to talk about the placement of the curved lines on the straight lines. Adults must observe children who have dyslexic tendencies and ensure that their development stays on track. If the signs are still present after first grade they should probably been seen by a professional (Puckett and Black, 381).
There is considerable disagreement about the causes of Dyslexia. However, most experts have suggested that it is present at birth (Evans, 70). They also believe there is a sex linkage since far more boys that girls suffer from the disorder. It is also nowbelieved that it may be related to problems with the eye, and the inability to focus both eyes on the same point. Also, evidence has shown that there is physical differences in the brains of dyslectic individuals ( Fisher, 18). Some research also shows that hearing problems at an early age could be a cause of Dyslexia (Dyslexia Online, 1).
There are many types of treatments used today. The main thing is to teach by using all five senses, multi-sensory learning. Since the dyslectic child may have trouble seeing or saying what is being taught, teachers must bring in other senses. The answer is to involve the use of touch and movement. This will give the child’s brain tactile and kinetic memories to hang on to, as well as the visual and auditory ones (Dyslexia Online, 1).
Another treatment involves the use of antimotion sickness medication (Smith, 93). However, there is no real results proving this to be a desirable method of treatment. In most cases, the brain learns to compensate for the faulty extrasensory connections by age ten or eleven. By this time unfortunately, the child is already behind (Evans, 70).
Children suffering with dyslexia can lead a normal life and reach academic success. However, they will be forced to work harder and study more than their peers.
Their teachers will be forced to create a curriculum that is developmentally appropriate for them and that leads them to reach their full academic potential.
Some look at dyslexia as a gift rather than a disorder. Dyslexic people are visual, multi-dimensional thinkers. They are intuitive and highly creative, and excel at hands-on learning. Because they think in pictures, it is sometimes hard for them to understand letters, numbers, symbols, and written word, but they can learn to read, write and study efficiently when they use methods geared to their unique learning style.
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