There is no doubt that reading and writing are vital in today’s society. Without basic comprehension skills you simply cannot become educated let alone survive. It was a common belief that anyone who wanted to read, or to learn to read, would be able to, right? With Dyslexia, that is not the case. Dyslexia is described as the difficulty to comprehend language through reading and writing, despite a normal level of intelligence. Dyslexia is not only the most common learning disability, but is also highly recognized. There are three proposed distinctions within dyslexia that includes auditory, visual, and attentional. Understanding dyslexia would help the educational community as long as the medical community. Although the scientific community has extensive research on Dyslexia, there are still neurological aspects to consider and to learn about. Dyslexia is a complex disability that has interested physicians for centuries. Students with dyslexia should not be overlooked and deserve equal opportunities in the classroom.
Growing, developing and learning are the facts of life for all children. Each day children are faced with many new concepts and various challenges. Can you imagine how it feels for a child to face not only new challenges life has, but to face these challenges while living with a learning disability? These challenges are met not just when they begin school either. Students suffer from learning disabilities from the moment they begin learning, not when they start school. Learning disabilities are real and they affect millions of people. “One such disability that affects over approximately 15 percent of the total American population is dyslexia” ( Nosek 5).
I have Dyslexia. Dyslexia is a learning disorder that involves difficulty in learning to read or interpret words, letters, and other symbols. However, it doesn’t affect a person’s general intelligence. Living with Dyslexia is an everyday struggle. When I was younger, learning was something that I considered to be a nuisance; especially when I entered into middle school and high school. I noticed that there were things that I had trouble with that my peers didn’t seem to have a problem with.
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
For dyslexia to be recognised as a Special Educational Need and the requisite educational support given, an ‘official’ assessment by a dyslexia specialist or educational psychologist is required. These assessments are mainly completed following a referral to the Local Authority usually by a SENCO or parent. This assessment results in a report which outlines not only the child’s difficulties and ways to improve, but also the strengths the child has. It is argued that identifying the strengths of the child is vital to developing a plan to assist a child with their weaknesses. Peer (2006) amongst others is keen to dispel the myth that dyslexia is linked to intelligence; in fact the contrary can be said. Often dyslexic learners have very well developed interpersonal, creative and oral skills, if these skills can be harnessed as a means of developing weaker areas it is argued progress will be made.
According to The International Dyslexia Association, the impact that dyslexia has is different for each person and depends on the severity of the condition and the approaches of the remediation. The
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,
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
The challenges and barriers identified for teachers are directed at meeting the individual needs of their students. The lack of time and the need for more expertise in the area are a matter of concern for students with dyslexia. Lack of teacher training and expertise creates difficulties when considering the importance of teachers to be able to create Individualised Learning Programs which will effectively accommodate these learning difficulties.
According to the article “A New Perspective Dyslexia” the author informs us about information that teachers and parents, who be stuck in the myths of dyslexia. This article will give you information that will might save our world’s next great inventor, engineer, or scientist. It starts by explaining on how this article will surprise you by learning that you, or someone you might know is dealing with this disorder and also to inform us news that we can share with others about it. It informs us that dyslexia is not news because we know what is, what to look for it in a person, and how we can help people with this disorder. it make us guess what this disorder this is by telling us some hints like how it is not rare, and how it affects about five
There are many people suffering from dyslexia but most of them are considered dumb and parents do not take the alternative of taking their children to a medical checkup like Richard’s Wanderman parents did. That’s the reason why children are discriminated and many others don’t know the real problem of this child. It is difficult for a child with dyslexia to learn in a normal school because the teachers assume that the child is capable of learning, hence why the teacher do not give special attention to a child. Many children are going through the same problem, such as failure like Richard Wanderman. The reality is that children with such sickness deserve to be in a special school where they can have all the help needed to learn and improve their skills.
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
People with dyslexia are slow, but that doesn’t mean that they are not intelligent. I think that people with this disorder have the most creative and outgoing minds in the world. People with dyslexia may have intelligent levels over one hundred. Brilliant mind come with brilliant ideas. Athletes, writers, actors, and even characters have or had dyslexia. Here are some of the brilliant minds you may know: Albert Einstein, Thomas Edison, Benjamin Franklin, Mozart, John Lennon, Tom Cruise, Magic Johnson, and Walt Disney. All of these dyslexics have come to be some of the greatest minds and just look were that put them. Don’t put people with dyslexia down encourage then to go on because some day they could do great things for are world. (Sollier)
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.