Dyslexia Studies

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.

A.About five to six percent of American public school children have been diagnosed with a learning disability; eighty percent of the diagnoses are dyslexia-related. But some studies indicate that up to twenty percent of the population may have some degree of dyslexia.

Assessing dyslexia can be difficult because dyslexia is a matter of degree and has similar characteristics to different syndromes. Teachers or often the first to notice signs of dyslexia in a child. When teachers notice abnormal literacy difficulties they can use an initial screening device like a checklist to look further into the possibility of this child having dyslexia. These screening devices are informal, but have shown to be useful in the preliminary stage. A professional trained in the assessment of dyslexia is required for a formal assessment and diagnosis.

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.

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).

i) Randomly partitioning children into two groups and measuring reading achievement before and after intensive training in phoneme-level phonological skills for one group and normal schooling for another group is superior to the measure variable design used in this experiment as it would be able to infer more causation. As the current study used measured variables, phonological skills cannot conclusively be suggested to have a causal effect on reading development as the relationship can only suggest the strength of the correlation between the two variables. However, if pre-test reading skills were measured at age five, then the intervention was implemented for half the students with the remainder being the control, then follow-up tests were conducted at age seven more causation could be inferred as there is a control group present to compare to and if confounds are controlled for (random assignment to reduce PAV confounds) there will be only one IV controlling the DV and thus causation can be inferred.

The term “dyslexia” was first introduced in 1887 by Dr. Rudolf Berlin when he suggested that difficulty with reading may be caused by “cerebral disease instead of brain injury” (Hennigh 1995).

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

Dyslexia is the most prominent learning disability here in the United State but, it is also the most misunderstood. For centuries, those with dyslexia have been labeled as stupid and incompetent, when in fact they extremely intelligent, excelling in areas such as art, science and music. Due to our lack of knowledge and understanding, we as a nation are ignorant, deeming truth to the stereotypes that have long been associated with this so called “disease.” In order to reverse the damage that has already been done, we must differentiate fact from fiction. In order to fully understand dyslexia, individuals need to be provided with resources that address every aspect of the disability, including what it is, the possible causes, signs, symptoms and treatments available. Awareness is key to change!

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).

There were 50 children between the ages of 8 and 12 referred for this test who were suspected of having problems and have had a diagnosis of dyslexia which is a form of learning disability. Just like in the other articles reading comprehension was tested along with word identification and word attack. For the internal consistency coefficients on reading passage comprehension the range was from 0.68 to 0.92 and on the concurrent validity estimates with similar measures between 0.55 and 0.71. For word identification the internal consistency was 0.91 to 0.97 and 0.89 and 0.90 on the Word Attack subtests. The validity for the Word Identification subtest ranged from 0.82 to 0.74, and for the Word Attack subtest ranged from 0.83 to 0.90 with similar reading measures (Meisinger, Bloom, &

Neuropsychological assessment also has its own role to play in the diagnosing and treating of dyslexia. . The assessments ensure that proper neuroimaging has been

The two scholarly journal articles reviewed are Gable and Hendrickson (1990) titled “Curriculum-Based Measurement of Oral Reading” and Wilson (2007) titled “Wilson Reading System Instructor Manual.” Both of these articles will exhibit the author’s purpose, beliefs, viewpoints, and significant findings related to valid reading assessments within a seventeen-year timeframe.

Since all Dyslexic children differ from each other and learn differently it is crucial that parents and teachers incorporate all of their senses into the learning process as their visual or auditory processing may be impaired. Lawrence states that a child may pass a hearing or vision test quite easily, yet they may not be able to process this information into their memory. This shows how simple exercises can have a long lasting positive effect on the child in these early school years.

Learning to read is one of the most foundational skills needed for educational success. As children learn to read they develop the ability to decode, interpret, and store information from what they are reading. Reading comprehension allows a child to gain meaning from text and decoding allows a child to process sounds into words. Reading is vital to educational success because it allows a student to learn new information and build upon their prior knowledge. Students who attain reading skills are more likely to achieve academic success while students who have reading difficulties are likely to struggle academically and fall behind their peers. Reading difficulties have been prominent within the US for years. For example, the most recent National Assessment of Educational Progress statistics shows that only about 33% of fourth graders are at or above proficient at reading (National Center for Educational Statistics, 2011). Studies show that the cause of reading difficulties is based primarily on genes, environment, and instructional experience (Vellutino, Fletcher, Snowling, Scanlon, 2004). Students with a language learning disorder have difficulty comprehending spoken and written language thus making it difficult to learn new information. Children with reading disabilities are more likely to struggle during elementary school years as students are asked to think about what they read more critically. Speech language pathologists and teachers can help