UNDERSTANDING DYSLEXIA

(A Unique Way Thinking of the Dyslexic)

PSYCHOLINGUISTIC

By

Mardiana

2223102330

7 D | English Department

TEACHERS TRAINING AND EDUCATION FACULTY

SULTAN AGENG TIRTAYASA UNIVERSITY

2013

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Pages

TABLE OF CONTENT ................................................................................ i

CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION ................................................................. 1

1.1 Background of Study ....................................................................... 1

1.2 Identification of Problem ................................................................. 2

1.3 Limitation of Problem ..................................................................... 3

1.4 Objectives of Study .......................................................................... 3

CHAPTER II. FRAME OF THEORY ........................................................ 4

2.1 Specific Learning Disability ............................................................ 4

2.2 Dyslexia ........................................................................................... 5

2.3 Reading Disability: Dyslexia ........................................................... 6

2.4 Causes Dyslexia ............................................................................... 8

2.5 Symptom of Dyslexia ...................................................................... 10

CHAPTER III. DISCUSSION ..................................................................... 13

3.1 Ishaan Nandkishore Awasthi .......................................................... 13

3.2 The Treatment .................................................................................. 16

CHAPTER IV. CONCLUSION ................................................................... 18

REFERENCES .............................................................................................. 19

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CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of Study

Over many years students with learning problems have been given a variety

of labels, including ‘dull’, ‘educationally subnormal’, ‘slow learners’, ‘low

achievers’, ‘at risk’, the ‘hard-to-teach’ and ‘learning disabled’.

Specific Learning Disability (SpLD) means a disorder in one or

more basic psychological processes involved in understanding

or in using language, spoken or written, that may manifest itself

in an imperfect ability to listen, speak, read, write, spell, or to do

mathematical calculations. The term includes such conditions as

perceptual disabilities, brain injury, minimal brain dysfunction,

dyslexia and developmental aphasia (cited in Westwood, 2004,

p. 72).

In any educational setting, many smart and intellectually capable children

face specific learning difficulties in the presence of other symptoms such as

incoordination, left-right confusions or poor sequencing. In reality, these children

suffer from dyslexia, which is known as the most frequent learning disability in

children and persists throughout life.

Dyslexia is difficulty in the use and processing of linguistic and symbolic

codes, alphabetic letters representing speech sounds or numeric representing

numbers or quantities. It can affect spoken language, written language and

language comprehension. Dyslexia is the most-common learning disability,

affecting nearly 10 percent of the population, despite intelligence, motivation, and

education. While not the result of neurological damage, it is the product of

neurological development. Dyslexia commonly runs in families and varies from

mild to severe. Children don’t outgrow dyslexia, and adults with dyslexia suffer

emotionally and financially because of it.

This neurological syndrome is accepted to affect 5-10 % percent of children,

particularly boys (Krzyzak, 2006; Stein, 2001 cited in Esra, Kizilaslan & Dogruu,

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2012, p. 529). Severe reading difficulties are reported to occur in all languages.

However, the highest frequency of reading disability is observed in English-

speaking countries (Grigorenko, 2001 cited in Westwood, 2004, p. 74).

Learners with dyslexia are lack solid foundation in their native language.

They are generally confronted with foreign language learning difficulties.

Findings from several studies on dyslexic students learning a foreign language

indicate that this group of students often faces serious problems in the language

classroom. These problems get even more serious in contexts where dyslexic

children are required to learn a foreign language at the primary school level.

Therefore, it is of great importance that learners with dyslexia are provided with

extra assistance and support in the language classroom.

Ronald D. Davis, a dyslexic who is an artist and engineer who overcame his

obstacles and found the key to unlocking his own learning disability does not

view dyslexia as a result of such factors as brain damage or brain dysfunction

(Shayan, Tafti, & Ashayeri, 2011). Once, as a guest on a television, Davis was

asked about the positive side of dyslexia. As part of his answer, he listed a dozen

or so famous dyslexics. The hostess of the show then commented that wasn’t it

amazing that all those people could be geniuses in spite of having dyslexia. Then

Davis said that the hostess had missed the point that their geniuses didn’t occur in

spite of dyslexia, but because of it. The fact that there are so many famous and

geniuses people who successfully overcame their dyslexia, it appears that

although any treatments cannot cure dyslexia, but a single program or a

combination of approaches may eliminate or minimize many of the symptoms of

dyslexia and enable the children to learn efficiently (Marshall, 2009).

1.2 Identifications of Problem

The identifications of the problem are:

1. What is Specific Learning Disabilities?

2. What is Dyslexia?

3. What is Reading Disability: Dyslexia?

4. What is Causes Dyslexia?

5. What is Symptom of Dyslexia?

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1.3 Limitations of Problem

The limitations of the problem are:

1. Specific Learning Disabilities

2. Dyslexia

3. Reading Disability: Dyslexia

4. Causes Dyslexia

5. Symptom of Dyslexia

1.4 Objectives of Study

The objectives of the study are:

1. To know what is Specific Learning Disabilities

2. To know what is Dyslexia

3. To know what is Reading Disability: Dyslexia

4. To know what is Causes Dyslexia

5. To know what is Symptom of Dyslexia

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CHAPTER II

FRAME OF THEORIES

2.1 Specific Learning Disabilities

For many years educators have believed that some students have a specific

learning disability (SpLD) that is not due to a general lack of ability and is quite

unlike the problem experienced by other low-achieving students. Westwood

(2004) said that students with a specific learning disability are typically of at least

average intelligence, are free from sensory impairments, have no significant

health problems, emotional disturbance or socio-cultural disadvantage, and have

been exposed to appropriate teaching. Even given these positive conditions they

still fail to gain normal proficiency in the basic skills of reading, writing and

mathematics.

Definition of SpLD is used in the US, under the reauthorized and amended

version of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act of 1997:

Specific Learning Disability (SpLD) means a disorder in one or

more basic psychological processes involved in understanding

or in using language, spoken or written, that may manifest itself

in an imperfect ability to listen, speak, read, write, spell, or to do

mathematical calculations. The term includes such conditions as

perceptual disabilities, brain injury, minimal brain dysfunction,

dyslexia and developmental aphasia (cited in Westwood, 2004,

p. 72).

Much research effort has been directed toward identifying different types of

learning disability. The most obvious broad categories are those that identify the

specific skill area in which the individual is having problems:

Severe reading disability (Dyslexia)

Severe problems with arithmetic and mathematics (Dyscalculia)

Severe problems with written expression and handwriting (Dysgraphia)

Severe spelling difficulties (Dysorthographia)

Severe problems in recalling names, symbols and vocabulary (Dysnomia)

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These various types of SpLD are not mutually exclusive and any individual

may have difficulties in more than one of the above areas. Dyslexia, for example,

usually impairs all aspects of literacy development including reading, writing and

specific learning disabilities 73spelling – and many dyslexic students also have

difficulties with mathematics.

2.2 Dyslexia

For most of the century-plus that people have been interest in dyslexia,

discourse about the disability has been marked by disagreement and dispute. Even

now, there is more than one “official” definition, and terminology is still in flux.

It wasn’t until the mid-1930s that the term dyslexia began to more

commonly appear in the literature. Dyslexia is a word of Greek origin. It begins

with a prefix ‘dys-’ that means impaired or absence. Its base word ‘lexia’ means

word or language. so, literally the word dyslexia means an absence of language or

impairment in word-level processes in written language, that is, in oral reading

and written spelling.

For years the condition was referred to as specific reading disability;

another term often used is developmental dyslexia, or even specific developmental

dyslexia. All are meant to distinguish it from the word problem caused by brain

injuries or disease – called acquired dyslexia, or alexia. The World Federation of

Neurology offers a definition for specific developmental dyslexia as follows:

“…a disorder manifested by difficulty in learning to read despite

conventional instruction, adequate intelligence and socio-

cultural opportunity. It is dependent upon fundamental cognitive

disabilities which are frequently of constitutional origin.”

(Kushwah, 2009, p. 2)

The International Dyslexia Association, which used to be the Orton

Dyslexia Society, named for Samuel T. Orton, the American doctor who, with his

wife, did pioneering work in the field in the early decades of the twentieth century,

adopted a newer, more precise, more inclusionary definition of the reading

disorder in 1994 to replace the many vague, exclusionary definitions that had been

floating around.

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“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 in arithmetic. Dyslexia is not a result of lack of

motivation, sensory impairment, inadequate instruction or

environmental opportunities, or other limiting condition, but

may occur together with these conditions. Although dyslexia is

life-long, individuals with dyslexia frequently respond

successfully to timely and appropriate intervention.” (Kushwah,

2009, p. 2)

Further, the International Dyslexia Association recommended the current

definition of dyslexia as the unexpectedly low accuracy and/or rate of oral reading

or spelling of neurobiological origin (Lyon, Shaywitz, & Shaywitz, 2003).

Nevertheless, many diagnosticians and interventionists continue to focus only on

the reading and not on the spelling problems of dyslexics. Dyslexia is typically

thought to be a reading disorder.

2.3 Reading Disability: Dyslexia

Dyslexia is the best-known form of learning disability. The term is often

used to cover severe difficulties with all aspects of literacy, including reading,

writing, spelling and comprehension. Within the domain of dyslexia, researchers

have attempted to identify additional ‘subtypes’ reflecting the particular areas of

difficulty the learner may have. But sub-typing of students with dyslexia has

created much more confusion than clarity in the field. For example, the following

subtypes are described by some experts in the literature as cited in Westwood

(2004):

1) Visual dyslexia and auditory dyslexia (Johnson & Myklebust, 1967).

Children with visual dyslexia are reported to have significant difficulties

in discriminating among letter shapes and retaining sequences of letters

in long-term memory. They are slow at processing print and often reverse

letters and words in their writing. Auditory dyslexics are said to have

problems with auditory discrimination, sound blending and phonics.

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More recently these auditory processing problems would be described as

deficits in phonological skills.

2) Dyseidetic and dysphonetic dyslexia (Boder, 1973). Readers with

dyseidetic dyslexia have problems in storing and retrieving the visual

images of words or significant parts of words (orthographic units). The

difficulty is most apparent in their limited sight vocabulary and poor

word recognition skills. The dysphonetic form of dyslexia impairs the

easy learning of letter-sound correspondences and is reflected in a

reader’s poor ability at decoding and blending letters and syllables.

Students with the most severe reading problems have a combination of

dysphonetic and dyseidetic weaknesses.

3) Logographic dyslexia and alphabetic dyslexia (Seymour & Evans, 1999).

Logographic subtype is characterised by severe problems in learning and

remembering words by sight recognition method. The learner does not

easily build a sight vocabulary. Alphabetic dyslexia is diagnosed in

learners who have severe difficulty in understanding and applying phonic

knowledge.

4) L-type (fast and inaccurate reading) and P-type dyslexia (slow and

fragmented reading) (Bakker, Licht & van Strien, 1991).

5) Orthographic dyslexia (Mather & Goldstein, 2001). The reader has

difficulty in remembering commonly occurring letter groups

(orthographic units) such as –tion, pre-, -een.

6) Phonological dyslexia and surface dyslexia (Genard et al., 1998; Manis

et al., 1996). Phonological dyslexics have difficulty in applying phonic

principles to unfamiliar words or pseudo-words. Surface dyslexics are

weak at word identification and building a sight vocabulary. Gernard et

al. (1998) also report that many dyslexic students have problems with

both decoding and sight recognition.

7) Dyslexia associated with scotopic sensitivity syndrome (Irlen, 1991). It

has been suggested that perhaps up to 50 per cent of disabled readers

experience this problem to some degree.

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2.4 Causative Factors

There are many theories concerning the factors that may lead to specific

learning disability. In some cases a learning disability may be due to multiple

contributory factors.

1) Genetic Factors

It has been known for many years that in some cases of genuine SpLD

other members of the child’s family may have similar problems, suggesting a

genetic influence (Cavey, 2000; Grigorenko, 2001; Stanovich & Siegel, 1998

cited in Westwood, 2004, p. 75). In the case of reading disability Lyon,

Fletcher and Barnes (2003, p.558) as cited in Westwood (2004, p. 75) state:

Genetic studies do provide strong evidence for the

heritability of reading difficulties and help explain why

reading problems have always been known to run in

families … [and] … the quality of reading instruction may

be more critical when there is a family history of poor

reading.

Prior (1996) in Westwood (2004, p. 75) reports that the estimated

concordance rate for reading disability in identical twins is 71 per cent

compared with 49 per cent in non-identical twins. She also reports that at

least 33 per cent of reading disabled children has a parent or sibling with

reading disability, compared with approximately 9 per cent for non-reading

disabled children.

2) Neurological Factors

It is known that in some cases a student with SpLD may exhibit what

are termed ‘soft’ neurological signs, suggesting either immaturity of the

child’s central nervous system or some slight variation from normal brain

function. These ‘soft’ signs include a tendency toward clumsiness, confusion

of left and right, and a failure to establish a firm lateral preference. But not all

SpLD students show these signs.

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Stanovich and Siegel (1998) in Westwood (2004) remark that the

phonological processing difficulties evident in most reading disability cases

may be, due in part to atypical brain symmetry or function. It is hypothesized

that in some dyslexic students’ poor phonological skills may not be due to

lack of teaching or experience but to subtle differences in brain structure and

functioning (Miles & Westcombe, 2001 as cited in Westwod, 2004).

3) Phonological awareness and rapid automatic naming

In the field of psychology, attention in recent years has focused on

significant weaknesses in phonological awareness and rapid automatic

naming as the underlying language-based causes of reading and spelling

disability. It has been suggested that deficiency in phonological processing

may represent the single most important causal factor in specific and general

reading problems (Lyon, Fletcher & Barnes, 2003 as cited in Westwood,

2004). Inability to understand how words can be decomposed into sounds, or

great difficulty in carrying out the process and retrieving sounds from

memory, may account for the reading and spelling difficulties typical of

SpLD students. Inability to retrieve words or letter-sound correspondences

quickly from memory impairs decoding skills, restricts development of a

sight vocabulary, and severely disrupts comprehension.

4) Visual perception

In the early years of research into learning disability much attention was

given to assessing student’s visual perceptual skills. As cited in Westwood

(2004), Stein (1993), for example, suggested that some dyslexic students have

unstable binocular fixation, giving rise to visual confusion when attempting to

process printed text. Watson and Willows (1993) in Westwood (2004) also

confirmed that some students with learning difficulties do have deficits in

visual perception, visual memory, Visio-spatial ability, and visual-motor

skills. It was soon discovered however that while visual perceptual problems

were implicated in some cases of SpLD they were certainly not evident in all

cases.

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5) Dyspedagogia (Inefficient Teaching)

It must be stated again that inefficient or insufficient teaching can create

learning difficulties: but by definition a learning disability is not due to poor

teaching or restricted opportunity to learn. It is obvious; however, that poor

teaching will certainly exacerbate any underlying disability and make a bad

situation even worse.

2.5 Symptoms of Dyslexia

Parents should be mindful of their child’s reading ability. Their vigilance

can help detect problems that may not be obvious in a school setting. The

following excerpt is taken from Overcoming Dyslexia by Sally Shaywitz and may

be helpful as a handout for parents.

1) First Grader

Listen carefully as child begins to read. For a first grader, is there

evidence that he is trying, although imperfectly, to link letters with sounds?

(Is he) matching sounds to letters in each position in a small word (beginning,

end, and middle?) He should also be recognizing common letter groups

[(blends, Digraphs, etc.) and patterns (silent e words, adjacent vowels, etc.)

2) Second Grader

By second grade, children basic tools for reading should be in place. In

particular, second grade should see the emergence of a child’s ability to read

easy multisyllabic words (such as rabbit, butter, and sleepy). This important

step involves paying attention to the individual parts within the word. He is

(recognizing) the inner details of longer words as well. Parents should be

concerned if their second grader is not yet sounding out words, is taking wild

stabs at words, is not able to read new or unfamiliar grade-level words, has

not yet penetrated the inside of a word when he is reading, cannot decode

most single or some easy multisyllabic words, is not building a vocabulary of

words that he can read fluently, or doesn’t seem to enjoy reading.

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3) Third Grader

As child progresses through third grade and higher, parents focus shifts

from wondering if she is learning to read, to wanting to know if she is

learning to read a critical core of words fluently. Reading is changing in

character now. Words are more complicated, and there are many more of

them. In class the emphasis is less on teaching reading than on using reading

to gain information. It is therefore easy to understand why reading problems

are so often diagnosed for the first time in third grade. Since dyslexic readers

often do not use a decoding strategy to identify a word and instead rely

heavily on the surrounding context to figure out its meaning, parents should

notice if their child uses word substitutions; these replacement words make

sense in the context of the passage, but do not resemble the pronunciation of

the original word. For example, a child might read car for automobile.

Making repeated substitutions is a sure sign that the reader is using context to

guess at the meaning of words she has been unable to decode.

a. Pay attention to the overall rhythm of child’s reading. Is it smooth or

hesitant? She should be reading most of the words on the page fluently.

Slow or choppy oral reading with words omitted, substituted, or

misspoken are important clues that a third grader is not on track for

becoming a skilled reader.

b. Poor spelling is often a sign of dyslexia. Spelling and reading are

intimately linked; to spell correctly a child relies on his stored

representations of a word, and these are imperfect in dyslexia. Spelling

difficulties may be an indication that the child is not paying attention to

all the letters in a word and not storing that word correctly.

c. Handwriting (can) be an important clue to dyslexia. Children who are

dyslexic frequently have abominable handwriting – a problem that

continues into adulthood. I believe this difficulty reflects the dyslexic

child’s problem of appreciating the sounds that make up a word.

d. Bright dyslexic adolescents love to think, but for them it’s hard to take in

the raw material – the printed words – that serve as the source of

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inspiration for new ideas. They must devote their full concentration to

decoding words instead of attending to issues of comprehension.

Reflecting the lack of fluency, they read slowly. The lack of fluency

causes significant problems for dyslexic adolescents as they try to cope

with large volumes of written work. For example, homework

assignments are often incomplete or take a great deal of time to complete.

Fluency is what binds a reader to the text. If a child cannot effortlessly

decode a critical mass of words on the page, he cannot engage the text.

He’ll be at odds with it.

e. Reading for (a dyslexic child) is fragile, and the process can be disrupted

at any moment. Any little sound that draws his attention away from the

page is a threat to his ability to maintain his reading. Dyslexic readers

often require an extremely quiet room in which to do their reading or to

take tests.

f. Persistent difficulties in learning a foreign language provide an important

clue that a student may be dyslexic.

g. One final clue to dyslexia in children and adults alike: they are in pain.

Dyslexia inflicts pain. It represents a major assault on self-esteem.

(Dyslexic students may have) a reluctance to attend school or moodiness

or spoken expressions such as “I’m dumb”.

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CHAPTER III

DISCUSSION

Language is a tool for human to communicate with each other. It is all forms

of communication in which a person’s thoughts and feelings symbolized in order

to convey meaning to others. Moreover, language is purely human. Therefore, the

ability in learning and using language are only owned by human being. And this

capability is already owned by human since they were babies.

Noam Chomsky believes that children are born with an inherited ability to

learn any human language. He claims that certain linguistic structures which

children use so accurately must be already imprinted on the child’s mind.

Chomsky (1965, 1986) as cited in Martin and Fabes (2009, p. 193) believes that

every child has a ‘Language Acquisition Device’ or LAD which encodes the

major principles of a language and its grammatical structures into the child’s brain,

that allows them to understand the properties – the universal grammar – of all

human languages. The LAD acts as a guide, or blueprint, for recognizing language

input and detects the regularities in language. Thus following the biological theory

of Chomsky, all babies without any exception, are born with the capacity to learn

any language, as well as children with dyslexia.

The International Dyslexia Association defines dyslexia as unexpected

problems of neurobiological origin in accuracy and rate of oral reading of single

real words, single pseudo-words, or text or of written spelling. However, prior

research has focused more on the reading than the spelling problems of students

with dyslexia.

3.1 Ishaan Nandkishore Awasthi

Taare Zameen Par is an India film acted by Aamir Khan and Darsheel

Safary. This film is about a boy named Ishaan Awasthi which is in the second

year in his third grade. Ishaan is a dyslexic. But his parents didn’t know about this.

This film provides a story about dyslexic children with above average ability.

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Ishaan can’t read even though he was in the third grade. He was called

dumb. He was called lazy. But he isn’t. He is dyslexic.

No one knows about Ishaan’s learning disability. He can’t read so people

called him dumb. He can’t write so people called him lazy. Not only his parents

but also his teacher didn’t know his real condition. Ishaan has an elder brother. He

is very clever. He got A for every subject in school. He is also good at tennis. But

Ishaan is not.

Ishaan’s dyslexic is not caused by a genetic factor, but rather by neurology

factor. As explain by Sally Shaywitz in her book Overcoming Dyslexia cited in an

eBook of Reading Horizon, child with dyslexic or learning disability more

noticeable when he entered the third grade of primary school, and Ishaan was in

the third grade. His learning disability can be seen when he was in the English

class and asked to read a sentence which is in English. But Ishaan can’t read the

sentence even one single word. He said that the letters were dancing. It was the

same like Brad, another dyslexic children, as cited in Frank (2002, p. 38) when he

was asked to read a story he said that the letters seem to dance and wiggle on the

page. Sometimes they appear to be superimposed, and he can never understand

the main point of the story. For Brad, reading is a worst form of punishment; he’d

rather clean his room than asked to read a story.

Ishaan also has difficulties in mathematic. When there is math test in his

class, he can’t finish his test. Soon as he saw the first question which is about

multiplication (3 x 9 = …), he was immediately imagined that he was in the outer

space and bring the earth as the third (3) planet to destroy Pluto, the ninth (9)

planet, and finally he got the answer that earth won. And the answer of the first

question (3 x 9 = …) is 3. That is a perfectly wrong answer. And Ishaan need

along time to finish that question.

Davis, in his book The Gift of Dyslexia (1994) claims that dyslexia as a gift.

The mental function that causes dyslexia is a gift in the truest sense of the word: a

natural ability, a talent. It is something special that enhances the individual.

Further he explains that dyslexics don’t all develop the same gift, but they do have

certain mental function in common. Davis listed the basic all dyslexic as follows:

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1. They can utilize the brain’s ability to alter and create perception (the

primary ability)

2. They are highly aware of the environment

3. They are more curious that average

4. They think mainly in pictures instead of words

5. They are highly intuitive and insightful

6. They think and perceive multi-dimensionally (using all the senses)

7. They can experience thought as reality

8. They have vivid imaginations

Those eight basic abilities, if not suppressed, invalidated or destroyed by

parents or the educational process will result in two characteristics: higher-than-

normal intelligence, and extraordinary creative abilities.

Besides reading and mathematic, Ishaan also has difficulties in writing.

When he was doing his homework with his mother, his handwriting is bad. Not

even can be read, but all the spelling is wrong. He wrote “Tabl” and “Tabel” for

“Table”, letter “d” for “b” and vice versa. And he kept repeating his mistakes in

writing the words. Actually, if Ishaan’s parents have knowledge about dyslexia,

they will know that their child was dyslexia. But because of the limited

knowledge of his parents, Ishaan labeled as dumb and lazy kid because of his bad

reading and writing.

Ishaan’s parents then take him to a boarding school in the middle semester.

In his new school and environment, Ishaan doesn’t reveal his learning

development but instead he got red mark for all subject and punishment from his

teacher. That is mishandling of child like Ishaan. Those kinds of punishments

made dyslexic children more frustrated and desperate. Dyslexic will felt scared

and angry because no one knows about their real condition, just like Ishaan. Until

one day, there is a new temporary teacher come to his school and replace the

previous teacher.

This new temporary teacher named Ram Shankar Nikumbh and acted by

Aamir Khan. This new teacher bring a new teaching method to Ishaan‘s art class.

They were singing, dancing and having fun in the class. But Ishaan still feel mad

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and can’t study at class and Nikumbh also felt something wrong with Ishaan and

finally realize that Ishaan is a dyslexic

3.2 The Treatment

As a temporary teacher who was once dyslexia, Nikumbh treat Ishaan with a

good way. He teaches Ishaan by developing Ishaan’s ability and interest, which by

playing with color and another interesting technique. Nikumbh start to teach

writing to Ishaan by writing one-by-one letter on sands and teach to differentiate

the letters then teach Ishaan to feel the letters in his hands. And then Ishaan learn

to make some letters using clays, learn to write and count numbers in the stairs,

listening to an English speaking tape and reading an English text book. And

slowly but sure, Ishaan’s handwriting is better, his spelling is better, and fluent in

reading and writing day by day.

Dr. Sally Shaywitz author of Overcoming Dyslexia, explain a solution for

overcoming dyslexia that programs that teach phonics systematically and

explicitly are the most effective: a program that teaches how to break the reading

code in a sequential, systematic and cumulative format that helps all readers

understand, retain and apply this code. They need to be taught the foundational

concepts that govern the language.

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Most students are able to read high school-level words upon completion of

the reading program. This does not mean that they are reading at a high school

level, which includes vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension; however, those

areas will continue to improve as they are exposed to additional text.

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CHAPTER IV

CONCLUSION

Dyslexics are not dumb or lazy. They are brilliant and they had a higher-

than-normal intelligence. The dyslexic brain is different from ordinary brains.

Some people suggest that dyslexic people tend to be more ‘right brain thinkers’.

The right hemisphere of the brain is associated with lateral, creative and visual

thought processes. It may be easier to understand dyslexia in terms what it is not –

it is not a physical disease or illness, it is not a problem with the children’s ayes or

ears, and it is not a result of poor schooling or parental neglect.

Dyslexia is also not a mental deficiency. Many of the world’s most brilliant,

scientists, creative artists, prominent entrepreneurs, and prolific writers had

childhood histories of dyslexia – and many attribute their success to out-of-the-

box thinking style or the inner drive that is part of their learning profile. So

dyslexia is best understood as pattern of strengths and weakness which probably

arises from normal variations in brain structure and development.

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