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Whoopi Goldberg And Dyslexia

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Whoopi Goldberg & Dyslexia “What I remember about being a kid was that I felt pretty protected, I wasn’t afraid, and I had a mother who understood after a while that there was something different about the way I learned,” (“W.G. Speaks Up”). Caryn Elaine Johnson, more familiarly known as Whoopi Goldberg, is one of the many people who lives with dyslexia. Dyslexia has been estimated to affect every one in ten people (“Dyslexic Facts”).
Dyslexia has physical and mental symptoms. A physical effect of dyslexia is poor handwriting (“Facts”). Dyslexia also causes many people to experience glare on what they are reading when they read black text against a white background (Brunswick 58). Some mental effects are people might often skip or leave out words. They also often require extra time and effort (Shaywitz). A mental symptom or sign of dyslexia for pre-school children is they might not be speaking by two to three years of age (Brunswick 5). For ages five to eleven years old, children may avoid reading out loud, and when they do read out loud, they might skip or leave out words and phrases (6). Secondary school children might experience bad time management skills (7). People in adulthood may have poor spelling (8).
Although people with dyslexia never grow out of the learning disability, there are many devices and aids to help alleviate the symptoms. Many of those devices and aids are classroom strategies, websites, and physical objects. One thing schools could do is to avoid the use of fluorescent lighting and work on colored paper. Teachers could also provide information in size twelve font or larger (Brunswick 129). Physical objects that might help someone with dyslexia are colored lenses or colored plastic overlays for paper. These objects help when dyslexic readers experience glare when they are reading black text against white background (58). A program that could help a child with dyslexia is a phonological training program. This program has children play a series of computer games that teach phonological skills through the use of artificially slowed & amplified computer-generated speech (103). Nessy Brain Booster is a program that is designed for teens and adults to help develop independent study skills

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