Dyslexia: Moving Forward in a Backwards World

Dyslexia: Moving Forward in a Backwards World

Gabriella V. Campas

University of Arizona

Abstract

This paper presents information on the developmental aspects of dyslexia and information that is useful for parents and teachers to support a child with dyslexia. This paper also discusses how dyslexia effects the skills and emotions of a child identified with disability. A child with Dyslexia can be misdiagnosed as a child with ADHD, or said cannot read when in reality CAN read but they use different strategies to read. With proper training and research teachers and parents both can create accommodations/modifications that promote success for the individual. Research conducted in the area of dyslexia and the function of the brain has discovered a gap between certain lobes that are important for word analysis and decoding of words.  

Keywords: Dyslexia, language, the brain, skills/emotions and accommodations/modifications.

Dyslexia: Moving Forward in a Backwards World

What does it mean to have dyslexia? It means that you are a person who has difficulty processing letters and sounds. That makes it hard to break words into separate speech sounds. You have deficits in spelling, phonological/orthographical processing, rapid auditory processing, and short term verbal memory (Ramus, 2003; Shaywitz and Shaywitz, 2005). Having dyslexia means that you are intelligent but you just lack the necessary neurological components that connect sound and letters. While many people believe Dyslexia is associated with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Dyslexia deals with the difficulty of processing language. Dyslexia also has a negative effect on a child’s ability to express themselves clearly, because they have difficulty finding the right words to say. Given the time and effort with a child with dyslexia you can improve, not cure, their reading deficit.

Dyslexia and the Brain

What areas of the brain are related to language and reading? In the brain there is a complex system that has many different functions related to how the brain interprets written text. The brain is what controls the body, analyzes and stores information. The brain is essentially made up of four lobes: frontal, parietal, occipital and temporal lobes. “In addition, converging evidence suggests that two other systems, which process language within and between lobes, are important for reading. The first is the left parietotemporal system that appears to be involved in word analysis—the conscious, effortful decoding of words” (Shaywitz et al., 2002). These areas of the brain are crucial to how a child maps out written words and letters and connects them to their corresponding sounds. According to Roxanne Hudson, Leslie High, and Stephanie Al Otaiba suggest the other system to be involved in the importance of reading “is the left occipitotemporal area. This system seems to be involved in automatic, rapid access to whole words and is a critical area for skilled, fluent reading” (Shaywitz et al., 2002, 2004).[pic 1]

Skills and Emotions

Children with Dyslexia have difficult time trying to express themselves clearly, because they can’t structure their thoughts during a conversation. They find it hard to find the right words to say. Every child with Dyslexia does not experience the same difficulties for instance some children have trouble even understanding what they are hearing especially when someone is making a joke or being sarcastic (Emily Lapkin). Dyslexia does not only affect reading and writing. There are many other everyday skills that children struggle with because of this reading disability. Social skills are critically effected by Dyslexia because it makes it hard for children to be successful in their academics, which makes them feel inferior to their classmates whom are successful in the areas they find difficult. Children with dyslexia have a better time listening to their teachers rather than reading. But because of this, children tend to struggle with canceling out outside noises, noisy classroom, unfocused child.

Memory is a huge area that is affected by dyslexia, because it takes them so long to read one sentence after they’ve gone to the next sentence, it’s likely they will forget what they’ve just read. Which children have a hard time grasping written text. Children with dyslexia struggle with such things like spatial concepts, directions “left” and “right”. Lapkin suggests that “this can lead to a fear of getting lost” (Lapkin).  Lastly, time management is another skill that is affected by dyslexia. In schools many classrooms have a schedule that they stick to and for children with dyslexia it can be hard for them to tell time or follow a schedule.