Dyslexia
Ricky Smith
Liberty University
Dyslexia is a learning disability that many children have but are misunderstood until they have actually been diagnosed with the learning disability. Dyslexia does not mean that children are not smart; it just means that they learn different. This is why it is sometimes for parents to understand why their children are not doing well in school and struggle sometimes with a simple task of reading a book. My book report is about a 280 page book called “Can’t Rad, Can’t Write, Can’t Talk Too Good Either: How to Recognize and Overcome Dyslexia in Your Child.” In the book “Can’t Rad, Can’t Write, Can’t Talk Too Good Either: How to Recognize and Overcome Dyslexia in Your Child,” the
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According to the NCLD or National Center for Learning Disabilities, both children and adults with dyslexia possess a neurological disorder that makes their brain see and interpret information in a different way (NCLD, 2014).Dyslexia is a learning disorder that people carry throughout their life and causes difficulties in a number of areas which can include reading, spelling, and writing. Some people with dyslexia can have trouble speaking as well. In the beginning of the book, Mike’s mother shares insight about Mike’s early years as a child. During the time that Mike was a little over two years old his family felt that he had his own language. Although he loved to talk to everyone he met, many people did not understand him. And his parents were not able to tell people what he was saying because they did not understand Mike either. Mike’s family saw him as a normal healthy child with a unique way of communicating. They had no idea that Mike was already displaying signs of a learning disorder that would follow him all his life. The book was published in 1974 so during the time when Mike grew up no one understood anything about dyslexia. Not even Mike’s pediatrician who said that he was going through a stage and would grow out of it. His mother and father did not think about it too much after that. They just went along with their son and his special language. By the time Mike reached the age
The BDA Dyslexia Friendly Schools Pack for Teachers (2009) provides an overall guide of what dyslexia is and how a dyslexia friendly school should be delivering education to the dyslexic learner. The writers begin with a definition of dyslexia stating that “dyslexia is a learning difference, a combination of strengths and weaknesses”. This is an informative definition as opposed to the recommendation of Norwich et al (2005) that exemplary schools should promote an inclusive school system whereby dyslexia is considered but not in isolation. The BDA (2009) state that importance ought to be
In the essay “On Being Seventeen, Bright, and Unable to Read,” David Raymond offers information on him having the experience of dyslexia. He explains how dyslexia plays a major role in his learning. In a positive and negative way. Dyslexia doesn’t only stop him with other educational activities but effects his self-confidence. While dyslexia brought Raymond many struggles as a child, it also played a huge role in Raymond’s confidence such as him saying that he wanted to die since he was different to everyone else. David visibly tells us how his dyslexia held him back from every day activities as a child. While reading, he says, “My family began to suspect I was having problems almost from the first day I started school.” This quote makes
On that basis the rationale behind this assignment is to further understand the term ‘dyslexia’, to consider the definition and diagnosis, as well as the barriers to learning it can generate. Consideration will also be given to the strategies that can be employed to assist learning, as well as promote the
Dyslexia is the term used to describe a cognitive disability in learning that affects reading, writing and communication despite an average level of intelligence and an equal access to education. (Le Jan et al., 2010). Dyslexia is commonly used as a blanket term that covers many smaller forms of cognitive impairment including surface dyslexia, phonological dyslexia, hyperlexia, letter identification dyslexia and letter position dyslexia. Most dyslexics suffer from multiple forms of these specific dyslexias and cases of pure developmental dyslexia are quite rare. (Castles, Bates, & Coltheart, 2006).
Several studies have shown that when dyslexia is undiagnosed, it can cause a lot of frustrations and anxieties in the individuals involved (Riddick & Edwards as cited in Glazzard, 2012). Dyslexia is a ‘hidden’ disability, as there are no obvious external signs for people to recognize (Riddick as cited in Glazzard, 2012). It is not like some other disabilities, as for example down syndrome, or cerebral palsy which people can recognize from the moment they see them. People can get confused and assume different reasons for the children’s poor performance in school. That is why, when dyslexia is undiagnosed, the characteristics like ‘stupid’, ‘thick’, and ‘lazy’ are commonly used to describe students with dyslexia. People who are not aware about dyslexia cannot find any other explanations for them who are not doing well at school. Lack of assessment may result in low self-esteem compared to non-dyslexic students (Humphrey as cited in Glazzard, 2012 ). On the other hand, lack of appropriate help and support can have long-term effects for people with dyslexia when reaching adulthood (Morgan & Klein,
Mary Emma Campbell, freshman human development and family life education major with a concentration in child life said, “This ended up being much more difficult than I expected, it gave me a glimpse of what dyslexic students deal with daily.”
First, Ruth’s presentation about dyslexia was very intriguing to me because it gave me the opportunity to dig deep into a topic that is currently very controversial at my school. That is, I have three students who are struggling readers that the Special Education teacher believes are showing signs of dyslexia. However, in my work with all three students, I noticed one or two struggles, but I don’t think it’s enough to start announcing that these students are dyslexic. For example, one common struggle is that they sometime replace the letter “d” with the letter “b.” But apart from that struggle, when I provide reading support to these students, they perform just as well as their peers in regards to sounding out words and phrases. Thus, after Ruth presented, I wanted to know more about dyslexia, so I asked, “is there different levels of dyslexia such as mild, moderate, and severe?” To my surprise, the professor responded, either you’re dyslexic or you’re not; there is no in-between. As I am now reflecting on this experience in class, I now have another question that is nagging at me: considering everything I’ve said about these three young ladies, do you think it’s possible that these students are dyslexic? Truth be told, I also struggled with distinguishing between the letters “d” and “b” as a child, but I don’t think I’m dyslexic; so what’s the next
Dyslexia is a lifelong struggle with constant challenges with reading and speaking. About five to ten percent of the United States population deals with the learning disorder dyslexia (Van den Honert, n.d.). It is a neurological condition that is mainly caused by genetics but there are some rare cases in which it is acquired. Dyslexia interrupts the normal processes of reading and speaking (Van den Honert, n.d.). All of which are used in daily life and this makes life and school so much harder for dyslexics. They must learn to live with the condition for their entire life and there is not really a treatment for it. With the constant struggle and reminder of their
The characteristics of a dyslexic person can be very different from one person to the other, just as the characteristics of students without disabilities are different. These students show a different combination of learning problems. “Such characteristics are learning style, motor dexterity, time/math, memory/cognition, language/reading skills, behavior and vision. Sometimes the dyslexic youngster has early or late developmental stages, such as crawling, walking or talking” (Grolier’s).
According to the Dyslexia & Learning Disability Centre in Las Vegas, Dyslexia is an ability within the sensory mechanism of the nervous system to perceive the world with a multidimensional view. However it comes with poor word reading, word decoding, oral reading fluency and spelling. Though with appropriate teaching methods, dyslexic individuals can learn successfully throughout their lives. Also, when properly trained and informed, a dyslexic can use their
Due to phonemic awareness, which is concerning or involving the discrimination of distinctive speech elements of a language, speaking and spelling words is difficult at times. This can cause dyslexic children to have a hard time in social situations. According to Artemisa Shehu, Eralda Zhilla, and Eglantina Dervishi in their essay “the impact of the quality of social relationships on self-esteem of children with dyslexia”, about 5% of primary school children in the U.S. have communication problems and 3.8% of children aged 8-11 have a phonological problem. At around this age, kids become more self-conscious about what they do or how they look. If a child cannot read or speak very well and gets picked on about it, their self-esteem is harmed. This is challenging, because if a child is not helped, they will think the dyslexia is their fault. In the same essay it states, “Dyslexia is a problem that makes the child feel ashamed, because they cannot perform the task properly and it makes the child feel incompetent in the eyes of parents, feel lazy in front of teachers, feel stupid in the eyes of friends, and guilty at the sight of them” (Shehu, Zhilla, and Dervishi). These children with learning disabilities usually get named as “special” children with “special” needs. A young child trying to fit in with their peers finds it very difficult when they are constantly thought of as
Discussions of dyslexia require a definition of the term, and this is where we can come into some confusion if we are not careful. In fact, the “problem” itself exists in the defining of the word, and thus the labeling of those to whom the definition applies. However, with some knowledge of the etiology of “dyslexia” we can begin to ply our beliefs off the population of “dyslexics” and start to gain some understanding of their experiences with language learning. This is, after all, the intention of this research. Guardiola (2001) also assisted in redirecting the academic focus in this direction, towards the etiology of the term and how its history has shaped current social work, education, neurobiology, and psychology perspectives.
That was the question going through not only my mind but probably my parents as well. I was very confused. What was dyslexia? Why would it matter if I had it or not? How would it help me? These were the questions running through my third grade mind. I soon finished the third grade and moved into summer, continuing the tutoring. Entering the fourth grade the first thing I did was get retested. And this time the results came back differently. I am dyslexic.
Children with dyslexia have face difficulties, especially on the academic aspect. It is important to improve the interest on learning. The intervention strategies are mainly focus on the reading and writing part. Family Level Parents can use positive attitude to treat the dyslectic children as normal children. Raventeet (1998) stated that there would be the negative effect if we label dyslexia.
Before writing systems were developed, it is believed that dyslexia has been prevalent throughout the evolution of mankind. The general term for dyslexia is identified by a wide range of learning difficulties that involve the interpretation of words, letters and other symbols; however, dyslexia does not define one’s comprehensive intelligence. According to the University of Michigan, 70% - 80% of people with reading difficulties, are likely to have some form of dyslexia. It has been reported that between 5% - 10% of the population has dyslexia, but estimated that there are to be as high as 17% of non-reported cases.