Is Dyslexia A Disease That Needs To Be Cured?

 Myth: Dyslexia is a disease that needs to be cured.

Reality: Dyslexia is not a disease. It is a life-long condition and if it is not identified it will persist through adulthood. Many people believe that dyslexia can be cured like pneumonia or tuberculosis but the fact is that dyslexia can only be tackled using academic remedial strategies.

The only thing common between dyslexia and other diseases is that it has signs and symptoms but the similarity ends there. People also believe that it is a disease located in the child’s brain. The fact is that in the case of dyslexics differential wiring of brain circuits makes it difficult for the child to learn reading like an average kid does.  


Phonics To The Rescue

 It is possible to overcome difficulties in reading and writing using structured methods for ex. Phonic reading. The mechanism the brain uses to familiarise itself with and decode a word varies from that of an average reader. 

While a person reads the brain is very active and engaged in making connections. It has to associate letters to sounds and place all those sound in the right order. In order to make sense of what you are reading the brain has to connect letters, words and paragraphs together. The brain also has to associate a word with what it stands for. 

Let’s look at an example. When you reads the word ‘table’, the brain hast to string the sounds ‘t-a-b-l-e’ and also associate this word ‘table’ with a solid wooden object which has four legs and is used to place things. There are a lot of such connections the brain is busy making as we read and in case of dyslexics it just takes longer. Dyslexics have great difficulty figuring out what sounds a letter or a combination of letters stand for. 

Unfortunately, because most of us learn to associate phonemes with real world objects pretty easily we are unable to appreciate how it hard it is for kids who lack that cognitive capacity for no fault of their own. None of these cognitive dynamics are visible to normal people a teacher or the parent even if they observe a child working hard. As a result dyslexic kids are often mis-construed as lazy and stupid.  

However, through proper phonemic awareness and training these issues can be easily overcome. Dyslexic kids have to focus more on improving their reading skills beginning with the awareness of the sounds that each letter stands for and then moving on to letter combinations, sentences and paragraphs. Gradually a child with dyslexia figures out different ways of attacking and decoding words. It is possible for a child with dyslexia to read relatively effortlessly once they learn to think phonemically. 

Famous people like Albert Einstein, Sir Richard Branson, Agatha Christie, Whoopi Goldberg al went through these challenges. They are all proof of the fact that dyslexics can not only lead normal lives but can thrive, prosper and even become world famous!

Further Reading:

http://www.mdachennai.com

http://www.dyslexiaindia.org.in

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dyslexia

Do more boys suffer from dyslexia than girls?

Myth: Girls are less likely to be diagnosed with dyslexia.

Reality: The incidence of dyslexia is unrelated to gender, boys are not more likely to have dyslexia as compared to girls.

Dyslexia is a result of deficits in processing sounds associated with letters. Recent research has shown that there are no differences in processing sounds between girls and boys. Girls are not inherently superior at processing sounds compared to boys.

The reason why more boys are diagnosed as having dyslexia is that boys show external behavioural characteristics which quickly catch the attention of their teachers. Boys behave in more disruptive ways, acting out aggressively and demand more attention. Girls behave in more socially conforming ways and consequently attract less attention. Teachers are likely to become biased in favour of girls as a result of these behavioural differences. Thus more boys may be reported for a referral by their teachers.

The most important fact to know is that kids with dyslexia are gifted. Their talents are often overlooked and not appreciated simply because they are not performing well academically. They have a lot to contribute to how people think because they view the world differently than most other people.

Do All Children With Dyslexia Face The Same Difficulties?

Myth: All children with dyslexia are the same.

Reality: No two children with dyslexia will have the same difficulties. Cans and bottles are mass produced in factories not children.

The severity of a child’s dyslexia can vary from mild to moderate or severe. Dyslexia can manifest itself in different ways. Each child with dyslexia exhibits a unique pattern of difficulties in reading, writing, spelling and math. 

Some children are slow readers and their writing is incomprehensible. Other children may have difficulties in sounding out words and spelling them even if they have an excellent vocabulary.  

Some children may exhibit more problems with their organisational and orientation skills. Still others may have problems in memorising and recalling fundamental facts needing additional time to answer questions. There could also be children that exhibit all of these difficulties simultaneously.

Recent research has shown that there are several distinct categories of dyslexia.

In the interest of children it is best to only focus on one two key questions – 

How soon can the child be identified using objective parameters?

What are the most effective remedial strategies that will work with each child?’

Further Reading:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dyslexia

http://dyslexia.yale.edu/Stu_whatisdyslexia.html

http://www.ncld.org/types-learning-disabilities/dyslexia/what-is-dyslexia

Can Children Outgrow Dyslexia?

Myth: The child will outgrow dyslexia.

Reality: A child will not outgrow dyslexia. Many parents believe that dyslexia is an outcome of a child’s maturity and a part of his struggle to acquire basic academic skills at school.  For example, many young children have poor handwriting because their fine motor skills like pencil grip has not yet developed.

Dyslexia is a persistent problem which is pervasive across the skills of reading, writing and fundamental mathematics.  These problems will not disappear with age. Many adults realise that they were dyslexic in school when they reach college, begin their career as professionals or much later in life. They were never identified as children nor given any form of remedial instruction at school. As a result their self-esteem and their levels of confidence are marred for life.

Fortunately it is possible for children with dyslexia to do well in their lives. They need empathy and the motivation to persist from their teachers and parents. They need to be identified as early as possible and they require continuous academic support at home and school. They need support in the form of specific remedial strategies and targeted instruction to overcome their problems in reading, writing, spelling and math to overcome their shortcomings and succeed in school.

Further Reading:

http://www.dyslexiaindia.org.in/

http://www.mdachennai.com/

Are Kids With Dyslexia Lazy?

Myth: The child with dyslexia is lazy, stupid, obstinate, and has an attitude problem.

Reality: Dyslexia is known as a hidden disability because there are no outwardly visible signs.  The child looks like any other child.

Parents and teachers feel that the child is lazy or obstinate because he or she does not perform well academically. They are not able to keep up with their peers in class. The reason children with dyslexia are not able to do what is expected of them is because they need extra remedial support like a resource room in a school and/or the services of a special educator. They also need appropriate and effective learning and teaching strategies to help them overcome their academic deficits.

Recent research related to the theory of Multiple Intelligences, a concept developed by Howard Gardner, has shown that children with dyslexia have strong visual and spatial skills (the ability to be aware of objects in relation to one another and oneself in space). 

Dyslexic students are also believed to be high on artistic ability and creativity. Dyslexics can excel in the fields of computers, arts, architecture and design. Remember Ishaan Awasthi, the kid from the movie Taare Zameen Par ? His parents and all the teachers believe that he is good for nothing but he ends up winning the school painting competition. Ishaan struggles in his regular classes and is constantly made fun of by teachers and students.  Yet he is able to make a floating boat with some twigs, leaves and some odd bits of material he has collected.

 It is very much possible that your dyslexic child can dazzle us with similar artistic and creative brilliance as demonstrated by the young Ishaan.

It is sad that many kids with dyslexia can end up living their entire lives being told they are stupid and good for nothing.  Its too big a price to pay for no fault of theirs.

Further Reading:

http://dyslexia.yale.edu/Strengths.html

Are Dyslexic Kids Really Stupid?

Myth: Children with dyslexia are not as intelligent as their successful peers.

Reality: Dyslexia is not related to low intelligence. It is now known that Leonardo da Vinci, Albert Einstein, Winston Churchill all outstandingly brilliant in their lifetime were dyslexic.

A child’ intelligence is not affected by dyslexia. Dyslexia is a condition in which the core deficit is in the area of phonological awareness (awareness of speech sounds).  This core deficit in turn affects a child’s reading fluency despite adequate reading instruction at school.

Studies have now revealed that dyslexic children with or without substantial discrepancies in their reading abilities and intelligence measures have similar difficulties in information processing, neurological processing, genetic and physiological processing systems. Reading and IQ development are dynamically linked over time in typical readers. But interrelationships were not found in dyslexic readers. These findings suggest that reading and cognition develop more independently in dyslexics.

It is important to understand why reading skills develops differently across individuals because poor reading performance negatively impacts academic progress, the ability to enjoy literature and can create frustration, anxiety and a sense of low self-esteem.

Not all children with dyslexia will become extraordinarily gifted individuals or brilliant scientists or outstanding politicians but they have to the potential to learn. Early identification and adequate remedial support will ensure that children with dyslexia lead satisfying lives.

Further Reading:

http://www.dyslexiaindia.org.in/

http://www.mdachennai.com/