Dyslexia and Learning Difficulties in Children - Assignment Example

Dyslexia and Learning Difficulties in Children Introduction Cortiella & Horowitz (2) reveal that learning disability (LD) is not only common amongst students in schools and colleges, but also to people in the workplace. However, specific learning disability (SLD) is used to define school-age population and is used in the special education law, the Individual with Disability Education Act (IDEA). IDEA defines SLD as a disorder in one or more rudimentary psychological processes required in understanding or using language. The disorder manifest itself in the spoken or written language and the victim is unable to listen, read, speak, write, think, perform mathematical calculations, or spell. The major terms included in SLD are conditions such as brain injury, dyslexia, perceptual disabilities, minimal brain dysfunction, and developmental aphasia. However, these disabilities are not characterized by loss of hearing, visual, or motor abilities. In the U.S. today, approximately 1.7 percentage of the population, translating to about 4.6 Million Americans have learning disabilities. In the United Kingdom, it is estimated that 4-8% of schooling children in England possess dyslexic signs with boys more affected than girls (Cortiella and Horowitz 4). Additionally, males report higher LD incidents compared to females, while people living in poverty, report higher prevalence unlike those living beyond the poverty line. Further learning disability is lowest amongst Asians and highest in multi race population except blacks and Hispanics. Thesis This paper explores dyslexia and Learning Disabilities in children and evaluates the disorder in terms of definition, signs and symptoms, treatment, and effective teaching methodology and teacher knowledge for disease management. Overview of Dyslexia Dyslexia is a common form of specific learning disability impacting a child’s area of reading (Payne and Turner 3). Additionally, dyslexic children demonstrate characteristics such as struggling with phonemic consciousness, word decoding, and phonological processing. Struggles with phonemic awareness result in incapacitation to realize, think about and work with distinct sounds in different words. Phonological processing causes a child to detect and discriminate variations in speech sounds or phonemes. Additionally, dyslexic children experience difficulties in areas such poor reading rate, comprehension, slow growth of vocabulary, spelling, rhyming, and written expression. Dyslexia is the most common and well-recognized SLD (Payne and Turner 3). It is a lifelong disorder and once a person is born dyslexic they remain so till adulthood. However, there is a misconception that dyslexic children are lazy or have poor intelligence or have impaired vision. Additionally, dyslexia is not the outcome of poor instruction, teaching, or nurturing, thus not associated with intelligence. On the contrary, Payne and Turner (4) highlight that dyslexic children have a neurological disorder that makes their brains to interpret and process information differently. Unlike other SLDs, Dyslexia’s prevalence is among people from any ethnic and financial background evident in one member of the family being dyslexic. However, dyslexia effect varies from one child to the other with the only shared trait being lower reading levels compared to children their age. Dyslexia differs from reading delay that may reflect mental retardation. Amongst school attending children, dyslexia evidently comes out clearly since, unlike other children, dyslexic children have difficulties learning, communicating, or relating with others which then affects their self-esteem, motivation, and confidence level. Such struggles make it impossible to process, store, and retrieve information, at normal speed, time, organization, and sequence (Payne and Turner 8). Fortunately, early evaluation of dyslexic children makes it possible to recognize the underlying disability and diagnose it at that time. Although the disability is not cured, provided interventions guarantee success at school, community, relationships, and at work. However, for individuals whose learning disabilities are not evaluated, they grow without ever knowing why they experience difficulties with their academics, jobs, or in their relationships with their friends and relatives. Signs and Symptoms Symptoms are sensed by patients while signs are visible to the doctor. There are numerous signs and symptoms linked to dyslexia. First is demonstrated difficulty to learn from a child despite possessing usual intelligence and obtaining proper parental and teaching support. Delayed milestone attainment where a child learns how to talk, walk, crawl, throw, or catch concepts compared to most of the kids (Payne and Turner 7). Besides slow learning to speech, the child normally misconceives ordinary words, has difficulties rhyming, and fails to distinguish varying words and sounds. Difficulty with Phonological Awareness Dyslexic children normally demonstrate problems with phonological awareness where they fail to focus on speech sound as distinct from its meaning. The development of phonological skills in children takes the order of rhythm, rhyme, and onset and rime (Payne and Turner 9). This is followed by phonemic awareness that involves isolation, blending, segmentation, and manipulation. Rhythm and Rhyme When learning English, the first thing a child gets to learn is gaining awareness of rhythm through syllables which are separated to facilitate spelling and reading. Increasing awareness of words result in identification of rhyme and children who fail to notice or create rhyme are susceptible to the unsuccessful development of reading and spelling skills. Onset-rime division in syllable As children attempt to segment syllables, they naturally turn to onset-rime division where onset comprises of the segment of a syllable preceding a vowel, while the vowel and other following consonants comprise the rime (Payne and Turner 10). For dyslexic children, the level of phonological awareness is low and any changes in the sound that makes up words result in changed meaning. This indicates lack of awareness that words can be segmented into sound units or phonemes, and syllables that begin with an onset and end with a rime. Phonemic Awareness Phonemes are the crucial aspects of reading and writing and dyslexic children are unable to tune into distinct sounds, play them, fragment them, combination them, and switch them. Poor phonological awareness makes it difficult to distinguish the distinct sounds prior to attaching letters to sounds, thus making it difficult to read an alphabetic language like English. Difficulty with verbal memory Verbal memory of dyslexic children is poor making the child unable to remember even a sequence of verbal information for limited time durations (Payne and Turner 14). As a result, such children do not remember short lists or sets of simple instructions. Sometimes, the sequence of ideas expressed by dyslexic children seems illogical to persons without the condition. Consequently, the child learns sets of data very slowly, which result in longer time to learn the alphabet letters and their pronunciation. Additionally, the child finds it difficult to remember days, months, arithmetic tables, or colors. Difficulty with Verbal Processing Speed Verbal processing speed involves the time lapse between processing and recognition of familiar information verbally such as digits or letters. Slow processing speed requires that children have additional time to respond to oral questions, make decisions from a range of activities, and complete seatwork assignments in class. Understanding Dyslexia In order to remember information, children require proper link of three basic skills. These skills are perception, memory, and recalling. Perception involves seeing words exactly as it is, memory involves storing information in the brain, and recall involves extracting information whenever the need to use it arises (Payne and Turner 136). For dyslexic children, they have severe difficulties in remembering, perceiving, and recalling and skilled and special teachings are required to overcome such difficulties. Dyslexics require explicit teaching strategies to assist them to use their memories efficiently, thus recompense for any weakness. Perception The mode of information input into memory is through the human senses. In order for children to process information effectively, their senses must be utilized to the full such that the child sharpens and strengthens their capability to perceive, recall, and store information (Payne and Turner 137). For instance, some children do not remember visual images of words, but recall patterns of sounds. With such identification, the teacher can play to their strengths, but without disregarding the prerequisite to nurture their weakness. Memory Once information has been perceived, it is stored in the human memory for future retrieval. However, Payne and Turner (138) reveals that dyslexic children have difficulties storing information in their memory and the teacher should teach appropriate strategies to store information storage such that the strategies link with the brain of a typical dyslexic child. For instance, dyslexic children attuned to their right hemisphere of the brain often use the right hand side of the brain more fully for some activities. The right-hand side is linked with activities such as non-verbal, spatial, and visual activities, thus utilizing only colour, rhythm, entire object, and imagery to process. For any memory strategy, the teacher must ensure that the right hemisphere intellectual does not engage too much with the left hemisphere functions such as linear learning, and sequential and orderly thinking. Remembering Dyslexic children find it difficult to acquire literacy skills and may experience much anguish and traumas upon feeling that their peers mentally abused them due to the challenge in learning within the school setting (Payne and Turner 141). The best way to determine a child’s remembering ability is through written exercises. Such exercises are a crucial way of determining a child’s understanding of words and recalling them. For the literate children writing practice can revolve around letters, names, and sounds that can or cannot be accompanied by pictures. When helping dyslexic children at an early age, the progress is initially slow but with time, children adjust and progress accelerates. At this point, the individual styles of learning must be considered to achieve success and guarantee motivation to learn. Dyslexia Treatment Dyslexia lasts for a lifetime. However, early diagnosis coupled with proper intervention results to successful reading and writing. Most children with dyslexia require the assistance from a tutor, therapists, or tutor with special training using structured language or multi-sensory perspective. It is crucial for affected persons to be taught through methods involving the various senses, such as hearing, touching, and seeing (Reid 52-52). For the students receiving assistance from external therapists, a collaboration between the therapists and classroom teachers to facilitate academic modification that assist affected students to succeed. For instance, the teacher can adjust to have dyslexic students have extra time for task completion, or the teacher can assist such students to take notes, or undertake appropriate assignments. In addition, teachers of dyslexic students can permit alternative assessment options, or use taped tests for students to listen to in the form of books-on-tape and from writing on computers. Dyslexic students should also be assisted with emotional issues that at times result from challenges in school. Through the assistance of mental health specialists, struggling students can gain relevant support and managing strategies (Reid 72). Effective Teaching Methodologies for Dyslexic Children The two commonly used dyslexia teaching methodologies are content and process methodologies. Content methodology is characterized by explicit phonological awareness training and great focus on word-level work and phonological decoding. Additionally, content, methodology constitutes of reading texts while practicing comprehension strategies and reading of progressively difficult text both independently and under supervision (Thomson 6). Content methodologies are crucial given that the heart of dyslexia is phonological discrepancy that must be managed. Consequently, specialist teaching for dyslexics is fundamental at the earliest stages, especially where it is multi-sensory and phonologically oriented. Multi-sensory phonic is indispensable in teaching dyslexic children as it involves the simultaneous association of auditory, visual, and kinesthetic learning to construct memory and enhance learning. Process Methodology The teaching process includes multisensory, phonetic, and cumulative and sequential features. Other features include provision of mental modelling, and success opportunities, small scaffolded steps, and assuring automatization through assessment and practice. Probably, the most elaborate means of an ideal teaching process is an examination of involved practices in successful specialist schools for individuals with dyslexia. Teacher Knowledge The level of teacher knowledge is crucial and any teacher should understand the primary risk signs of dyslexia and where to seek advice on the steps required to assist dyslexic children (Thomson 13). Additionally, teachers’ working knowledge must be such that it is integrated within their training, especially for those educating beginner readers, and rationalized through in-service preparation. The recommendation for teachers’ knowledge in all schools is that all teachers have primary skills required to identify dyslexic students. Additionally, some teachers in all schools must possess advanced skills to deal with dyslexic children, while in some of the schools within the same locality there should be teachers with specialist skills of identifying and supporting dyslexic students. Managing dyslexic students also requires that teachers are figureheads for the dyslexic groups in promoting supportive learning environments that guarantee success, elevate student’s motivation through both activities and literacy materials, and the teacher demonstrates confidence towards possible progress in students and celebrates instances of progress (Thomson 13). Additionally, the teacher should validate the learning style of students by developing a climate of trust to enhance positive change, providing timely feedback, and ensuring that the students work under successful learning strategies. Works Cited Cortiella, Candace and Sheldon Horowitz. The State of Learning Disabilities: Facts, Trends and Emerging Issues. New York: National Center for Learning Disabilities, 2014. This article offers current facts about learning disabilities, prevalence, and disease manifestation. The article serves well in introducing dyslexia is the most common form of SLDs. Payne, Trevor and Elizabeth Turner. Dyslexia : a parents and teachers guide. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters, 1999. This book offers critical information about Dyslexia as special learning disorder and highlights great examples of how teachers can deal with Dyslexic students. Additionally, the book offers information relevant to understand the difficulties in dyslexic children reading, writing, and spelling among other signs. Reid, Gavin. Dyslexia and Inclusion: Classroom Approaches for Assessment, Teaching and Learning. London: Routledge, 2012. For this research paper, this book offers fundamental information regarding dyslexia treatment and management from specialists, tutor, or therapists. The book also emphasizes the importance of collaboration between external specialists and teachers of dyslexic students for adjustments in classroom operations. Thomson, Jenny. Good Practice in interventions for teaching dyslexic learners and in teacher training in English‐speaking Countries. United States: Dyslexia in the UN Literacy Decode, 2010. This report offers crucial contribution regarding the relevant interventions for students with dyslexia. Some interventions include using the right teaching methodologies and ensuring that the teachers have the relevant training to effectively support dyslexic students. Read More