Dyslexia and Reading Skills
Posted on March 21, 2010 by Big Universe in Uncategorized.
True dyslexia affects between 5% and 17% of the United States population, and in some countries this is even higher at a huge rate of 50%! So what is dyslexia?
Dyslexia is defined as a disorder that manifests itself as a difficulty with reading, spelling, and even sometimes mathematics. It is separate and distinct from reading difficulties resulting from other causes, such as a non-neurological deficiency with vision or hearing, or from poor or inadequate reading instructions.
Dyslexia is thought to be the result of a neurological defect, and though not an intellectual disability, it is variously considered a learning disability, a language disability, and a reading disability, among others. Dyslexia is diagnosed in people of all levels of intelligence (normal to above).
Children may have dyslexia or a learning disability if they have one or more of the following symptoms:
- Letter or word reversals when reading. (Such as was/saw, b/d, p/q).
- Letter or word reversals when writing.
- Difficulty repeating what is said to them.
- Poor handwriting or printing ability.
- Poor drawing ability.
- Reversing letters or words when spelling words that are presented orally.
- Difficulty comprehending written or spoken directions.
- Difficulty with right – left directionality.
- Difficulty understanding or remembering what is said to them.
- Difficulty understanding or remembering what they have just read.
- Difficulty putting their thoughts on paper.
Children with dyslexia do not exhibit these symptoms due to poor vision or hearing but because of brain dysfunction. The eyes and ears are working properly but the lower centers of the brain scramble the images or sounds before they reach the higher (more intelligent) centers of the brain. This causes confusion as well as frustration for the learner.
When a child is having learning difficulty, it is best to have your child examined, a neurodevelopmental exam to be exact. This includes testing of hearing, vision, neurological development, coordination, visual perception, auditory perception, intelligence, and academic achievement.
The main reasons for reading problems are:
- Ineffective reading instruction
- Auditory perception difficulties
- Visual perception difficulties
- Language processing difficulties
Over 180 research studies to date have proven that phonics is the BEST WAY to teach reading to all students. They also have shown that phonics is the ONLY WAY to teach reading to students with dyslexia and other learning disabilities.
Children and adults who do not learn to read through an intensive phonics program often have one or more of the following symptoms:
- Below grade level reading achievement
- Slow reading
- Poor comprehension
- Fatigue after reading only for a short while
- Poor spelling skills
- Lack of enjoyment from reading
If it is found that your child suffers from a learning disability, most of the time this can be resolved with a few simple techniques and procedures. But it does take a little extra time to get your child up to speed. In my opinion, if these techniques are provided with lots of love, patience, and understanding, then that will make the situation so much easier and it will give your child confidence that he or she CAN move ahead and start learning in a whole new productive manner.
Week 7 High Frequency Word List
1. get
2. into
3. not
Week 8 High Frequency Word List
1. me
2. run
3. red
**I forgot to post my three words for my word list last week, so I doubled up this time! 
**
~ Amy E. Snyder
“True dyslexia affects between 5% and 17% of the United States population, and in some countries this is even higher at a huge rate of 50%! ”
Anything that occurs in 50% of a population is by by most definitions normal. I have to believe that any dyslexia evaluations that result in a 50% rate for a country’s population are using different standards than what is commonly used in the US or UK. I suspect that a literacy standard is probably being used that has little relationship to even your description of dyslexia.
Reading difficulties caused by visual problems seeing text in a clear, stable and uniform manner are a primary cause for about 10% of dyslexics. These visual problems can be removed when See Right Dyslexia Glasses are used. More information about visual dyslexia can be found at dyslexiaglasses.com along with who will or will not be helped by a visual intervention.