Paper Example: Dyslexia

Slide 1: Dyslexia

Dyslexia is a learning challenge or disorder whereby a person experiences difficulties in reading, spelling, and writing (Nordqvist, 2017).

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The children who have the disorder are hardworking and smart. However, they find it hard to connect letters to make a word.

Approximately 5-10% of American children experience dyslexia. However, some of them never discover it until they are adults.

Children with dyslexia have a healthy vision as the rest of children but take longer to process words, thus making it harder to read, spell or write.

Slide 2: Causes of Dyslexia

According to medical research, dyslexia is caused by family genes (Nordqvist, 2017).

The learning disorder is passed from parents to children and from one generation to another.

The condition originates from brain differences where language processing occurs.

When imaging scan is done on such a brain, it is discovered that the brain areas that should be active are slower than usual.

Children with dyslexia often mix up numbers when reading. For example, when reading the word "cat", they may pronounce it as "tac" (Nordqvist, 2017).

The disorder is different from every child. Some children overcome it with time, while others cannot manage it.

Some children with mild dyslexia can prosper and even go to college. Therefore, the disorder should not be a discouragement in terms of goal achievement.

Slide 3: Symptoms of Dyslexia

The following are some of the disorder symptoms which mainly show during childhood. They include

Challenges in pronunciations. Most children have a problem with mixing up letters during articulation (Nordqvist, 2017).

They have slowed growth rate. Children with dyslexia learn to walk, talk, or crawl much later compared to other children.

Poor coordination. Children with dyslexia may be slower than others in doing things.

The children also often confuse right and left sides.

They may mix up numbers. Particularly when reversing the letters of the word.

Poor memory in spelling. Dyslexia children easily forget the spelling of words, thus learning the same word many times.

Speech difficulties. These children may omit or forget middle letters in a word. For example, when pronouncing the word "unfortunately," they one may remember 'un' and 'ly' while forgetting the rest of letters (Nordqvist, 2017).

Children with dyslexia find it hard to concentrate.

They also have poorly sequenced ideas. When talking, children with dyslexia reveal disconnectedness of ideas.

Slide 4: Theories that Explain Dyslexia

Several theories have been used to describe the occurrence of dyslexia in children. Although their weaknesses in explanation have challenged most of them, some remain valid despite the critics. Below are some of those.

Phonological theory (Ramus et al, 2003). This theory states that children with dyslexia have challenges in storage and retrieval of sounds and representation. The people with dyslexia require correspondence of grapheme-phoneme in the learning of the alphabetic system. The theory further explains that if the representation, storage and retrieval of the alphabetic sounds are poorly done, there is a high possibility that learning will be affected. The theory also supports its finding by explaining that on phonological awareness tasks, the dyslectics perform poorly. They consciously manipulate and segment speech sounds. More supporting details state that the cognitive deficit is particularly to phonology. However, other theorists have challenged this theory saying that even though the phonological information of the argument is accurate, the approach has been extended or exaggerated, thus making it more vulnerable and weak to proof.

Rapid auditory processing theory. This theory seeks to challenge the phonological theory. It indicates that the sensory deficit lies in the reception of short or quick sounds. The approach shows that children with dyslexia have poor performance in several auditory tasks, especially in order judgment and discrimination of letters. There is also evidence that people with dyslexia have a poor perception of specific contrasts. The difficulties are representing fast, and short sounds cause slower learning abilities (Ramus et al, 2003).

The visual theory. This theory closely relates dyslexia with poor vision, especially when the words are at a far distance. It adds that the dyslectics find it challenging to read a page of a book while holding it. However, this theory does not disregard the phonological theory. It instead adds the visual problem to the phonological deficit. At the genetic level, the visual impairment is classified to two pathways; parvocellular and magnocellular. The theory specifies magnocellular as the significant pathway which is often disrupted in the vision of some children with dyslexia, thus causing the slowed brain processing speed. The disruption also causes the abnormality of binocular control and impaired visual attention. Psychological studies further show decreased sensitivity in magnocellular range. This means that the people with dyslexia experience temporary high frequencies and low frequencies (Ramus et al, 2003).

Slide 5: Diagnosis of Dyslexia

Once the mentioned symptoms are noted in children, parents take a step further to learn the difficulties in the learning abilities of their children. The parents suspicious of their children having dyslexia should inform their school teachers for further guidance. Early intervention of dyslexia can help overcome to manage the learning ability of a child. The following diagnostic tests are carried out to determine the dyslectic areas of a child (Nordqvist, 2017).

Recognition of words

• Intelligence
• Oral skills
• Decoding of sounds
• Knowledge of vocabulary
• Process of phonology
• Frequency and atomicity of language skills.
• Early development and history of the family
• Comprehension level of reading
• Background information of the child

During the tests, the examiner should rule out other difficulties like hearing, visual, economic and social factors and problems in following instructions.

Slide 6: Treatment of Dyslexia

Psychological examination. This involves tapping the senses of the child, which include hearing, vision and touching. These techniques help the teacher come up with a suitable program for the child's intervention.

Support and guidance. Dyslectics requires a close watch from the people surrounding them. Children will need close supervision by their parents and teachers. Showing them support and guiding them, where they have difficulties help maintain or raise their self-esteem (Nordqvist, 2017).

Continued evaluation. Children with dyslexia might be difficult to evaluate since they may not know the areas they need improvement in, thus may take longer to improve. On the other hand, adults have the evaluation advantage because they can point out areas they need improvements for better help.

Slide 7: Reading Strategies to Help Children with Dyslexia

Fluency in reading. This process involves reading simple words more often. The reading process helps the children keep the memory of the pronunciation and spelling of the words. Fluency development helps to comprehend and understanding of various words (Levinson, 2019).

Eye-tracking. Most dyslectics have a problem in moving their eyes smoothly from one word to another. This problem makes them often skip words, thus showing poor reading abilities. Tracking involves strengthening eye muscles and allowing the brain and the eyes to work together. Another eye-tracking step is practising reading out loud. When reading the words out loud, one can quickly tell when skipping words, especially if the sentence sounds ambiguous.

Use of phonic alphabetic chart. The ability to read words depends on how fast the child can decode words. It is for this reason that the phonic chart was developed to help with unfamiliar sounds which then help decode words.

Decoding unfamiliar words. This is one of the primary problems with phonological dyslectics. Decoding involves use of phonics chart. If the words are so hard to pronounce at once, it is advisable to separate syllables first, read them separately they join them to read the word. This process has worked before for so many children and even adults (Levinson, 2019).

Preparation of reading process. It is crucial to prepare your brain for the operation of reading. This ensures that the eyes are ready to work with the brain and the mouth. Often, the unprepared mind will assume that you have read a particular word, but the truth is that you skipped it. Children often experience these difficulties leading to the repetition of a sentence in reading.

Listening to audiobooks. Children with dyslexia can be provided with audio-recorded books. Listening to these books will help the children learn how to pronounce words and earn the frequency of reading. For children with concentration problems, their listening lessons should be done in an empty room that has little attention distracters.

Making time to read. Teachers and children with dyslexia must make them love the reading sessions. This is achievable by creating more time to read. Also, readings can involve most fun words which create the interest of the children.

References

Levinson, H. N. (2019). The Reading Process in Dyslexia. In Feeling Smarter and Smarter (pp. 147-156). Copernicus, Cham. Retrieved from https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-16208-5_16

Nordqvist, C. (2017, November 22). Dyslexia: Symptoms, treatment, and types. Retrieved from https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/186787.php

Ramus, F., Rosen, S., Dakin, S. C., Day, B. L., Castellote, J. M., White, S., & Frith, U. (2003). Theories of developmental dyslexia: insights from a multiple case study of dyslexic adults. Brain, 126(4),841-865.Retrieved from https://academic.oup.com/brain/article-abstract/126/4/841/331904