What is Dyslexia? Part 2
Mmaotho Segotso | Friday August 14, 2020 12:07
Dysgraphia: A disorder involving difficulties with writing or typing, sometimes due to problems with hand coordination and eye–hand coordination; it also can impede direction- or sequence-oriented processes, such as tying knots or carrying out repetitive tasks.
In dyslexia, dysgraphia is often multifactorial, due to impaired letter-writing automaticity, organisational and elaborative difficulties, and impaired visual word forming, which makes it more difficult to retrieve the visual picture of words required for spelling.
Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD): A disorder characterised by problems sustaining attention, hyperactivity, or acting impulsively. Dyslexia and ADHD commonly occur together. Approximately 15% or 12–24% of people with dyslexia have ADHD; and up to 35% of people with ADHD have dyslexia.
Auditory processing disorder: A listening disorder that affects the ability to process auditory information. This can lead to problems with sequencing. Many people with dyslexia have auditory processing problems, and may develop their own logographic cues to compensate for this type of deficit. Some research suggests that auditory processing skills could be the primary shortfall in dyslexia.
Developmental coordination disorder: A neurological condition characterised by difficulty in carrying out routine tasks involving balance, kinesthetic coordination, difficulty in the use of speech sounds, problems with short-term memory, and organisation.
How is it diagnosed?
If your child isn’t meeting expectations for reading, as parents you can ask the school district to perform an evaluation and share the results with you. The evaluation will test your child’s intellectual capacity and reading skills, to see if there is an achievement gap. It should also rule out other potential causes like environmental factors or hearing impairment.
The school should then make recommendations on how they can support your child and maximise their learning.
If you are unhappy with the quality of the evaluation, you can also secure a private evaluation by a psychologist, a neuropsychologist, a reading specialist, a speech and language therapist, an educational evaluator or a school psychologist. This external evaluation can also be used to advocate for your child and get the accommodations and services she might need.
When should a Child be evaluated?
Dyslexia can begin to reveal itself at a young age, psychologists suggest waiting until kids are at least six years-old and have had some formal instruction in reading to seek out a formal evaluation.
But Dr. Shaywitz notes that as soon as a gap between intelligence and reading skills is apparent — and evidence shows it can be seen in first grade — it’s a good idea to get help. Schools sometimes encourage parents to wait until the third grade to see if their child truly needs an intervention, but Dr. Shaywitz argues that the earlier intervention is important not only to help kids catch up, but to boost their fragile self-image, which is damaged by continuing struggle in school and comparisons with peers.
Accommodations For dyslexic children
Accommodations Involving materials
Clarify or simplify written directions. Some directions are written in paragraph form and contain many units of information. These can be overwhelming to some students. The teacher can help by underlining or highlighting the significant parts of the directions. Rewriting the directions is often helpful.
Present a small amount of work. The teacher can tear pages from workbooks and materials to present small assignments to students who are anxious about the amount of work to be done. This technique prevents students from examining an entire workbook, text, or material and becoming discouraged by the amount of work.
Block out extraneous stimuli. If a student is easily distracted by visual stimuli on a full worksheet or page, a blank sheet of paper can be used to cover sections of the page not being worked on at the time. Also, line markers can be used to aid reading, and windows can be used to display individual math problems. Additionally, using larger font sizes and increasing spacing can help separate sections.
Highlight essential information. If an adolescent can read a regular textbook but has difficulty finding the essential information, the teacher can mark this information with a highlight pen.
Develop reading guides. A reading guide helps the reader understand the main ideas and sort out the numerous details related to the main ideas. A reading guide can be developed paragraph-by-paragraph, page-by-page, or section-by-section.
Accommodations involving interactive instruction:
Repeat directions. Students who have difficulty following directions are often helped by asking them to repeat the directions in their own words. The student can repeat the directions to a peer when the teacher is unavailable. If directions contain several steps, break down the directions into subsets. Simplify directions by presenting only one portion at a time and by writing each portion on the chalkboard as well as stating it orally.
Maintain daily routines. Many students with learning problems need the structure of daily routines to know and do what is expected. Provide a copy of lesson notes.
The teacher can give a copy of lesson notes to students who have difficulty taking notes during presentations.
Use step-by-step instruction. New or difficult information can be presented in small sequential steps. This helps learners with limited prior knowledge who need explicit or part-to-whole instruction. Simultaneously combine verbal and visual information. Verbal information can be provided with visual displays (e.g., on an overhead or handout). Write key points or words on the chalkboard/whiteboard. Prior to a presentation, the teacher can write new vocabulary words and key points on the chalkboard/whiteboard.
Use balanced presentations and activities. An effort should be made to balance oral presentations with visual information and participatory activities. Also, there should be a balance between large group, small group, and individual activities. Use mnemonic instruction. Mnemonic devices can be used to help students remember key information or steps in a learning strategy.
Emphasise daily review. Daily review of previous learning or lessons can help students connect new information with prior knowledge.
Accommodations involving student performance
Change response mode. For students who have difficulty with fine motor responses (such as handwriting), the response mode can be changed to underlining, selecting from multiple choices, sorting, or marking. Students with fine motor problems can be given extra space for writing answers on worksheets or can be allowed to respond on individual chalkboards/whiteboards. Place students close to the teacher. Students with attention problems can be seated close to the teacher, chalkboard/whiteboard, or work area and away from distracting sounds, materials, or objects.
Design hierarchical worksheets. The teacher can design worksheets with problems arranged from easiest to hardest. Early success helps students begin to work. Display work samples. Samples of completed assignments can be displayed to help students realise expectations and plan accordingly.
Use peer-mediated learning. The teacher can pair peers of different ability levels to review their notes, study for a test, read aloud to each other, write stories, or conduct laboratory experiments. Also, a partner can read math problems for students with reading problems to solve.
“If anyone ever puts you down for having dyslexia, don’t believe them. Being dyslexic can actually be a big advantage, and it has certainly helped me.” Richard Branson (CEO)