"Word Blindness"Dyslexia; A Difficulty With Words

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"Word Blindness"Dyslexia; A Difficulty With WordsBy Shelly IvesApril 17, 00

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ENG 10Dyslexia A fifteen-year-old boy researches dyslexia and then develops a screening test for dyslexia to be used on kindergarteners when entering school. What is it about dyslexia that a screening of kindergarteners is important? It is extremely important in that although they cannot read many five-year olds do recognize some alphabet letters and their sounds. The relationship between letters and letter sounds, or phonemes is the basic building block of all language including reading, writing and spelling. Dyslexic children often are either without these skills, or are slower with their concept of them and have problems with processing the information about phonemes. Her is the scary part, according to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), dyslexia affects at least one in five children in the United States, and is the most common known learning disability. (Reilly, R 001) Many of these children are unidentified, making screening extremely important. Early intervention will not cure dyslexia, but it can make a child's life with dyslexia a whole lot less frustrating. As future teachers we must understand the dyslexia disorder, its many twists and turns in research and teaching techniques, and also learn to discern it so well that we do not overlook the child that has dyslexia. The word dyslexia comes from the Greek language and means, "difficulty with words." Dyslexia's history, which is over one-hundred years, is riddled with disagreement and dispute over terminology and definition. There is more thatn one so called "official" definition. For years the dyslexic condition was labeled a "specific reading disability", as developmental dyslexia, or as specific developmental dyslexia. These three labels were used in an effort to separate them from "acquired dyslexia" or alexia, which is caused by disease or brain injury and also caused "word difficulties". I found three "official" definitions, the first is from the World Federation of Neurology, "...a disorder manifested by difficulty in learning to read despite conventional instruction, adequate intelligence and sociocultural opportunity. It is dependent upon fundamental cognitive disabilities which are frequently of constitutional origin. (Hurford, D. 18) In 14 the Orton Research Committee defined dyslexia as follows, "Dyslexia us one of several distinct learning disabilities. It is a specific language-based disorder of constitutional origin characterized by difficulties in single word decoding, usually reflecting insufficient phonological processing. These difficulties in single word decoding are often unexpected in relation to age and their cognitive and academic abilities; they are not the result o generalized developmental disability or sensory impairment. Dyslexia is manifested by variable difficulty with different forms of language, often including, in addition to problems with reading, a conspicuous problem with acquiring proficiency in writing and spelling." (7)The third definition, the one I personally prefer, was purposed in 14 by the International Dyslexia Association, "Dyslexia is a neurologically based, often familial disorder which interferes with the acquisition and processing of language. Varying in degrees of severity, it is manifested by difficulties in receptive and expressive language, including phonological processing, in reading, writing, spelling, handwriting, and sometimes arithmetic. Dyslexia is not a result of lack of motivation, sensory impairment, inadequate instruction or environmental opportunities, or other limiting conditions, but may occur together with these conditions. Although dyslexia is lifelong, individuals with dyslexia frequently respond successfully to timely and appropriate intervention." (7) Simply put, "it is a difference in the brain area that deals with language, and affects the underlying skills that are needed for learning to read, write and spell." (http//www.bda-dyslexia.org.uk) Other specialists have added listening and speaking to the list of skills affected by dyslexia. (Lokerson, J. 1)Margaret Rawson, founder of the Dyslexia Association and Dr. and Mrs. Samuel T. Orton did pioneering research on dyslexia in the early decades of the twentieth century. However ophthalmologists, not educators and medical doctors were the first to become aware of "word blindness." Dr. W. Pringl Morgan published his description of "word blindness" in the British medical journal, "The Lancet" in the year 186, and in 10 Dr. James Hinshelwood documented a boy whom he found to be quite intelligent but could not seem to read. Hinshelwood perceived that the lad's visual memory was unable to remember what words and even letters looked like and that it was caused either by brain injury or by a congenital defect. (6-7) In 15, Dr. Samuel T. Orton, a neuropathologist and psychiatrist, termed the "difficulty with words" as strephosymbolia, which means "twisted symbols." He was the first to document the reversal and mirror writing which so many today connect with the dyslexic disorder. Even though he also was the first to link dyslexia with language, the concept of which is still agreed upon today, he is still best known for his early research on visual processes and deficits. (-40) Perhaps one of the most interesting things about this disorder is that, "Dyslexia is a puzzling mix of both difficulties and strengths, and it varies in degree from person to person. Dyslexic people often have distinctive talents as well as typical clusters of difficulties." (http//www.bda-dyslexia.org.uk) "Possible Difficulties Reading hesitantly Misreading, making understanding difficult Difficulty with sequences, e.g. getting dates in order Poor organization or time management Difficulty organizing thoughts clearly Erratic spelling Possible Strengths Innovative thinkers Excellent troubleshooters Intuitive problem solving Creative in many different ways Lateral thinkers" (http//www.bda-dyslexia.org.uk)In an article by Susan Baum, "Gifted but Learning Disabled A Puzzling Paradox" these strengths and difficulties come full circle. She identifies the learning disabled gifted group into three categories 1) Gifted students whose learning disabilities are not obvious. ) Average students whose giftedness and learning disabilities are masked by their averageness. ) Classified learning disability students whose giftedness goes unnoticed because of their learning disability label. Dyslexic children can be very bright, perhaps not the best readers, they often get by just fine until they reach the upper grades where more reading is required and specific knowledge of what has been read is necessary. Fluent readers can easily read a passage with little or no glitches, they process the phonetic symbols into words very quickly, however for the dyslexic the process is much more difficult and because the information received is so chopped up it often interferes with comprehension and the storage of information. In the end they generally become overwhelmed. At this point they either quit or spend long tedious hours trying to make up for their lack of reading ability and comprehension. Comprehension comes down to the ability to understand words, and the ability to understand words gets very complex. "Phonological Core Deficits," which refers to a difficulty in the processing of oral and written language, is at the base of the dyslexic's reading and comprehension problems. Phonological deficits can be broken down into three major components. The first one is phonemic awareness, which refers to the sound structure of language. This component breaks down into being able to segment words into individual syllables or phonemes (phonemes are the smallest unit of spoken language, not written language) and blending sounds into words. "Children who lack phonic awareness are unable to distinguish or manipulate sounds within spoken words or syllables." (Reilly, R. 001) The second is sound symbol relations, or the ability to put sound to symbols, for example alphabet letters with their sounds. Third is the storage and the retrieval of the aforementioned phonological information from memory. If a child stores or remembers sounds, word segments or whole words incorrectly, and he/she retrieves them thus, he/she will have difficultly in using the information to pronounce words or letter sounds and blends correctly. Of these three components, "Phonemic awareness is the most important core and casual factor separating normal and disabled readers" (National Institute of Health, per Reilly, R. 001) Since dyslexia is a brain disorder, it is important to understand what researchers have concluded is going on in the brain when the dyslexic is exposed to words. First, it is considered a neurocognitive defect within the brain. "Research has shown that there is a neurological difference between the brain of a person with dyslexia and the rest of the population. People with dyslexia have a noticeably larger right hemisphere of the brain. This may account somewhat for the fact that people with dyslexia often have significant strengths in such right brain activities as art, athletics, -D visualization ability, music and creative problem solving skills." (Reilly, R. 001) Normally the right hemisphere identifies or recognizes the picture symbol then the left hemisphere gives it meaning and sound. Bakker places dyslexics into subtypes of perceptual and linguistic. Linguistics "read excessively fast and commit substantive reading errors, thus relying on the left hemisphere during reading,...while perceptualists read slowly and laboriously and thus continue to rely on the right hemisphere." (Goldstein, B. & Obrzut, J. 001) Bakker theorized that some dyslexics prematurely switch from the right hemisphere to the left and ignore the significance of the perceptual features necessary for reading, and that some do not make the switch from the right hemisphere to the left at all, thus not acquiring complex reading skills. Testing a child can get very complicated. Every dyslexic is the same in that they all have some kind of a problem with words, but each individual is different, unique, and special. This uniqueness requires a tester to remain open minded and able to investigate from many perspectives. Evaluators use many different tests to evaluate for reading, such as The Metropolitan Achievement Tests, Gray Oral Reading Tests, WRAT-R reading, and the WRMT-Word identification. For storage and retrieval tests like the SB-4-menory for sentences, Verbal Selective Reminding Test, Rapid Automatized Naming Test, and the Boston Naming Test are used. To test for phonological awareness tests like the WRMT-Word Attack, Test of Awareness of Language Segments (TALS), Teat of Auditory Analysis Skills (TAAS), Lindamood Auditory Conceptualization Test, and the Decoding Skills Test are used. (Frost, j., Emery, M. 15) According to the Dyslexia Associations definition of Dyslexia, this disorder is also inheritable. This means that if person is diagnosed with dyslexia, that there is someone else in that person's family or bloodline that also has dyslexia. To be inherited means that the gene is passed down from one generation to another generation. Does this mean that if a parent has dyslexia that the child will also have dyslexia? The answer is no. It does however, mean that that child has a 50% chance of inheriting the disorder, and some people are born with the gene but are not affected by it. Another interesting thing to note at this point is that being born with dyslexia does not mean that the disorder cannot be circumvented. A newborn's brain is very malleable, capable of change, it can be altered through growth and development. This is another reason why early intervention and further gene testing to locate the gene or genes responsible for dyslexia is so important. Knowing early just could be the complete solution. How do we as future teachers respond to these needs? First know the signs,PreschoolSpeaks later than most childrenPronunciation problemsSlow vocabulary growth, often unable to find the right wordDifficulty rhyming wordsTrouble learning numbers, alphabet, days of the week, colors, shapesExtremely restless and easily distractedTrouble interacting with peersDifficulty following directions and routinesFine motor skills slow to developGrades K-4Slow to learn the connection between letters and soundsConfuses basic words (run, eat, want)Makes consistent reading and spelling errors including letter reversals (b/d), inversions (m/w), transpositions (felt/left), and substitutions (house/home)Transposes number sequences and confuses arithmetic signs (+, -, x, =)slow to remember factsSlow to learn skills, relies heavily on memorizationImpulsive, difficulty planningUnstable pencil gripTrouble learning about timePoor coordination, unaware of physical surroundings, prone to accidents (quoted from http//www.kidsource.com/schwab/ld.common.schwab.html) Teachers need to seek testing for students, understand the disorder, and start early with teaching interventions like"Teach metacognitive strategies. Teach children similarities and differences between speech sounds and visual patterns across words.""Provide direct instruction in language analysis and alphabetic code. Give explicit instruction in segmenting and blending speech sounds. Teach children to process progressively larger chunks of words.""Use techniques that make phonemes more concrete. For example phonemes and syllables can be represented with blocks where the children can be taught how to add, omit, substitute, and rearrange phonemes in words.""Make the usefulness of metacognitive skills explicit in reading. Have children practice them. Try modeling skills in various reading contexts. Review previous reading lessons and relate to current a lessons.""Discuss the specific purposes and goals of each reading lesson. Teach children how metacognitive skills should be applied."Provide regular practice with reading materials that are contextually meaningful. Include many words that children can decode. Using books that contain many words children cannot decode may lead to frustration and guessing, which is counterproductive.""Teach for automaticity. As basic decoding skills are mastred, regularrly expose children to decodable words so that these words become automatically accessible. As a core sight vocabulary is acquired, expose children to more irregular words to increase reading accuracy. reading-while-listening and repeated reading are useful techniques for developing fluency.""Teach for comprehension. Try introducing conceptually important vocabulary prior to initial reading and have children retell the story and answer questions regarding implicit content. Teach children the main components of most stories (i.e., character, setting, etc.) and how to identify and use these components to help them remember the story.""Teach reading and spelling in conjunction. Teach children the relationship between spelling and reading and how to correctly spell the words they read.""Provide positive explicit and corrective feedback. Reinforce attempts as well as successes. Direct instruction and teacher-child interactions should be emphasized." (Frost, J. A. & Emery, M. J. 15)The teacher should provide direct instruction in language analysis and the alphabetic code, use techniques that make phonemes more concrete. For example these five characteristics make a word easier or more difficult1. "The size of the phonological unit (e.g., it is easier to break sentences into words and words into syllables than to break syllables into phonemes."). The number of phonemes in a word. (e.g., it is easier to break phonemically short words such as no, see, and cap than snort, sleep, or scrap."). Phoneme position in words. (e.g., initial consonants are easier than final consonants and middle consonants are most difficult.")4. Phonological properties of words. (e.g., continuant such as /s/ and /m/ are easier than very brief sounds such as /t/.")5. Phonological awareness challenges. (e.g., rhyming and initial phoneme identification are easier than blending and segmenting.") (Beginning Read...15)Future teachers can make an immense difference to the dyslexic children of tomorrow. Although it can't be cured, dyslexia can be changed. Through a teacher, lives can be improved; and brilliant and gifted dyslexic children can shine.The dyslexic child can learn to read, spell, and comprehend, but best of all their struggle can be eased. ReferencesBaum, S. (10). Gifted but Learning Disabled A Puzzling Paradox. ERIC Digest #E47. Retrieved February 17, 00, from OBSCOhost.Beginning Reading and Phonological Awareness for Students with Learning Disabilities. (15) ERIC Digest #540. Retrieved from EBSCOhost February 17, 00.Bower, B. (001). Audiovisual aids may lessen dyslexia. Science News,160 (10), 155British Dyslexia Association, Http//www.bda-dyslexia.org.uk/index.htm Retrieved from World Wide Web February 0, 00Fawcett, A., Nicolson, R., & Maclagan, F. (001). Cerebellar Tests Differentiate Between Groups of Poor Readers With and Without IQ Discrepancy. Journal of Learning Disabilities. 4 () 11.Frost, J. & Emery, M. (15). Academic Interventions for Children with Dyslexia Who Have Phonological Core Deficits. ERIC Digest #E5. Retrieved from EBSCOhost February 17,00.Goldstein, B. & Obrzut, J. (001). Neuropsychological Treatment of Dyslexia in the Classroom Setting. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 4 (), 76.Hurford, D. M. (18). To Read or Not to Read Answers to All your Questions About Dyslexia. New York, NY Simon & Schuster Inc.Kher, U (001). Blame It on the Written Word. Time Atlantic, 157 (1), 71.Kidsource, http//www.kidsource.com/schwab/ld.common.schwab.html Retrieved from the World Wide Web on April 15, 00Lokerson, J. (1). Learning Disabilities Glossary of Some Important Terms. ERIC Digest #517. Retrieved from EBSCOhost February 17, 00.Reilly, R. (001). Dyslexia Some Background, Some Technology Tools. Multimedia Schools, 8 (6), 70Test Pilot Dyslexia.(001). People,56 (1), 18Wanzek, J., Dickson, S., Bursuck, W., & White J. (000) Teaching Phonological Awareness to Students At Risk for Reading Failure An Analysis of Four Instructional Programs. Learning Disabilities Research and Practice, 15 (4) 6. cool man@ Please note that this sample paper on "Word Blindness"Dyslexia; A Difficulty With Words is for your review only. In order to eliminate any of the plagiarism issues, it is highly recommended that you do not use it for you own writing purposes. In case you experience difficulties with writing a well structured and accurately composed paper on "Word Blindness"Dyslexia; A Difficulty With Words, we are here to assist you. 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