Dyslexia
These are people with
Dyslexia,
Reading Problems, and/or
Disordered Reading Pattern.
What is Dyslexia?
Dyslexia is a term seen frequently in the popular press. It is used inconsistently and often in a very narrow way. Dyslexia really means a failure to learn to read efficiently, though one is bright enough to read and has been exposed to reading. In some parts of the country, Dyslexia seems to be synonymous with the problems of people who reverse letters and only those who reverse letters. Thus Dyslexia is seen, improperly, as a problem of visual perception distortion, only.
Reversal problems are very common. They do cause inefficiency and frustration, but they are not the major problem causing reading failure. Decoding (associating sounds with symbols as one analyzes a word) inefficiency is far more frequently the cause of reading failure. Decoding, the process by which sounds (that have been associated with letter forms) are understood as the component parts of words, is inefficiently mastered for many reasons. Auditory reception, auditory tracking and auditory memory are critical. Problems with reading that are based on auditory channel inefficiency are often part of an inefficient reading style.
"In brief, current studies comparing children with and without reading disorders have demonstrated that there are at least two major principles involved: success in learning to read and write is highly dependent on linguistic competence, especially analysis of speech sounds, fluent production, and verbal comprehension, and second, on short-term memory for temporal sequences. These two major dimensions are comprised of six categories of skills: (1) phoneme/syllable decoding, (2) phonological coding, (3) naming fluency, (4) short-term memory, (5) fine-motor fluency, and (6) language comprehension."
Reversal problems often coexist with the other inefficiencies McGuinness identifies. Be sure to look up all these sections relevant to the problems Diane McGuinness identifies in the index of the book if the student has been diagnosed as Dyslexic. Read all the sections relevant to all of these terms. Auditory perception and tracking is covered in the same section as phoneme/syllable decoding and phonological coding (Auditory Discrimination). Naming fluency is dealt with in Nominal Recall, and auditory memory is dealt with in the section on Auditory Memory. Fine motor problems are discussed in the section on Dysgraphia, and language comprehension in the section on Dysphasia. Try and recognize which of these dynamics are relevant to this student's Dyslexia/reading failures.
"Phonemic decoding and encoding is the central problem in the mastery of any phonetic writing system."
Reversal problems frequently co-exist with the far more destructive auditory processing problems. When a student writes reversed letters one is sure they are there. Some students reverse only in their reading and write quite well. Be sure to check the sections related to reversals , as well as the ones listed above, if the student has had any reading problems diagnosed. Severe reading problems (or severe dyslexia) do (does) exist without any reversed letters being apparent.
Students with problems with reading are often described with these terms:
-
dyslexic;
- trouble learning and remembering the printed word
or symbol;
- having bizarre spelling;
- skipping words or jumping lines;
- having disordered reading;
- reading below expectancy;
- reading below potential;
- reading approach inefficient;
- adding and deleting little words;
- adding and deleting endings; and
- substituting words.
The reading problem most frequently seen in Smith Clinic is the disordered reading pattern. This very inefficient approach to reading is characterized by additions, deletions and substitutions. It is complicated by random addition and deletion of whole words (usually very small words) and word endings. This is devastating to comprehension. It requires frequent rereading of the material (sometimes as many as five or six times). It results in confusion about specific detail. The reader who suffers from this pattern is able to manage the overall thrust of the reading material and finds great difficulty with fact and detail.
This pattern becomes debilitating at the junior high and high school level. The student with this pattern often feels that when he/she puts effort into his/her work (often far more effort than other students) and tries hard, he/she does as poorly as he/she does when he/she does not work at all. The student with this pattern is vulnerable to doing poorly on tests. The misreading of questions (particularly adding or deleting words indicating negatives) causes this to occur. The need to reread many times requires extra time, a luxury often unavailable in a test.
The student whose reading is disordered sometimes appears to the casual observer to read quite satisfactorily. The ability to provide general information or conclusions after reading paragraphs gives no inkling of the confusion and frustration experienced by the student whose reading is disordered.
When one's reading is disordered, the impact on self image is constant, devastating, insidious and often unnoticed. One's need to reread frequently leads one to negative conclusions about oneself. "Why are words there the third time I read it that weren't there in the beginning? ... Why did it not make sense the first time I read it? ... Why do I have to read it so many times?" When this pattern exists, gaining accurate details from reading is almost impossible. One takes twice as long (or three or four times as long) as the student in the next seat takes to read the page in Social Studies. When a student looks up after completing a page of reading assigned in class and sees far less capable students have long ago finished, the student's self image is again damaged.
When the disordered reader is in junior high, a troublesome pattern emerges. Test directions are easily misunderstood. The student who spends an hour to read an assignment that should have taken twenty minutes is then vulnerable if there is a test. When a quiz states, "From the list below select all those factors not relevant to ....," this student would easily omit the "not" and answer the test questions all wrong while knowing all the work. Here again there is a negative blow to self image.
As stated above, Dyslexia is a term used frequently for individuals with learning disabilities. Dyslexia means a failure to learn to read efficiently though you are bright enough to read and you've been exposed to basic reading instruction. In the popular use of the word it has grown to mean the condition which causes one to reverse letters (like b and d or m and w), to reverse words or read backwards (saw for was), etc. As discussed above, this reversal pattern is more precisely described as a position-in-space difficulty and poor auditory processing of linguistic information is usually the critical dynamic causing reading failure.
If this student does have inefficient reading, was exposed to basic reading instruction, and is intellectually capable of tasks as challenging as reading, the term dyslexia would apply. We are negative about the use of labels, but this term is so frequently encountered its relevance needs to be discussed and understood.
The presence of position-in-space reversals in the student's approach to reading would increase the likelihood of others (teachers, doctors, diagnosticians, etc.) using the term dyslexic when describing the student.
One shouldn't lose sight of the fact that this pattern has impact on far more than reading though the impact that is most obvious to the casual observer is with reading.
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