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
i
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
1
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,
2
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?
3
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
4
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)
5
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.
6
“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.
7
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.
8
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.
9
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.
10
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.
11
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
12
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”.
13
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.
14
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:
15
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
16
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.
17
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.
18
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.
19
REFERENCES
Berninger, V. W., Nielsen, K. H., Abbott, R. D., Wijsman, E., & Raskind, W.
(2008). Writing Problems in Developmental Dyslexia: Under-Recognized
and Under-Treated. J Sch Psychol, 46(1), 1-21.
Davis, R. D. and Braun, E. M. (2003). The Gift of Learning. New York: Berkley
Pub. Retrieved from: http://books.google.co.id
Davis, R.D. (2006). Davis Dyslexia Association International. Positive Aspects of
Dyslexia. Retrieved from http://www.dyslexia.com/qagift.htm
Erkan, E., Kizilaslan, I., & Dogru, S. Y. (2012). A Case Study of a Turkish
Dyslexic Student Learning English as a Foreign Language. International
Online Journal of Educational Sciences (IOJES), 4(3), 529-535.
International Dyslexia Association. What is dyslexia? Retrieved from:
http://www.interdys.org/FAQ.htm
Kushwah, D. (2009). Children with Dyslexia – A Handbook for Parents &
Teachers. New Delhi: Readworthy Publication. Retrieved from:
http://books.google.co.id
Lawrence, D. (2009). Understanding Dyslexia: A Guide for Teachers and Parents.
New York, NY: Open University Press. Retrieved from:
http://books.google.co.id
Lyon, G. R., Shaywitz S., & Shaywitz B. (2003). A definition of dyslexia. Annals
of Dyslexia, 53, 1-14.
Marshall, A. (2009). When Your Child has … Dyslexia. Avon, MA: Adams Media.
Retrieved from: http://books.google.co.id
Martin, C. L., and Fabes, R. (2009). Discovering Child Development (2nd
Ed).
Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Company. Retrieved from:
http://books.google.co.id
Shayan, N., Tafti, M. A., & Ashayeri, H. (2011). Impact of Davis Dyslexia
Correction Method on the Adult Dyslexic’ Reading Skills. Journal of
Educational Psychology Studies, 7(12), 23-46.
20
Shaywitz, Sally. (2003). Overcoming Dyslexia. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
Retrieved from: http://books.google.co.id
Westwood, Peter. (2004). Learning and Learning Difficulties: A Handbook for
Teachers. Australia: ACER Press.
Top Related