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Health and
Fitness
Battling Dyslexia
Most of our formative years is spent in school learning some form of
educational tool to enrich the survival kit. Far from being a means to an
end - that is to learn an occupation to win the bread - education has
become an end within itself. Children these days are akin to racehorses
with higher and higher grades being the Derby. Imagine a child in this
scenario, unable to run the race - in fact sometimes unable to decipher
what the race is. This is not a night mare situation but a reality.
Statistics reveal that 25% of children between the ages of 2-10 display
dyslexic symptoms and by the age of 15 nearly 10% are dyslexic.
What is Dyslexia?
'Dys' means 'difficulty' and 'lexia 'means 'words'. Dyslexia is a disorder
that affects millions of people all over the world. It is one type of
specific learning disability that affects a person's ability to read.
A Dyslexic learns at his/her own level and pace, and typically excels in
one or more other areas. Some of their problem areas include difficulties
with concentration, perception, memory, verbal skills, abstract reasoning,
hand-eye coordination, social adjustment (low self-esteem is a commonly
observed behavioral characteristic), poor grades, and underachievement.
Often, people with Dyslexia are considered to be lazy, rebellious, class
clowns, unmotivated, misfits, or of low intelligence. These
misconceptions, without understanding dyslexia's effect on the person's
life, lead to rejection, isolation, feelings of inferiority,
discouragement, and low self-esteem. A closer look at most of the
underachievers in the class might reveal that they are not how they are
out of choice rather because they just are made that way. A little bit of
empathy and understanding might go a long way in making their life easier.
What they need around them is a support circle of friends and family who
understand them and accept them for what they are.
The following extract from International Dyslexia association might throw
more light on the disability
"Dyslexia is one of several distinct learning
disabilities. It is a specific language-based disorder of constitutional
origin characterized by difficulties in single word decoding, usually
reflecting insufficient phonological processing abilities. These
difficulties in single word decoding are often unexpected in relation to
age and other cognitive and academic abilities; they are not the result of
generalized developmental disability or sensory impairment. Dyslexia is
manifest by variable difficulty with different forms of language, often
including, in addition to problems reading, a conspicuous problem with
acquiring proficiency in writing and spelling.
Can individuals who are dyslexic learn to
read?
"Yes, if children who are dyslexic get
effective phonological training in Kindergarten and 1st grade, they will
have significantly fewer problems in learning to read at grade level than
do children who are not identified or helped until 3rd grade." For those
who have not acquired phonological training by first grade, software
programs, such as the Language Tune up Kit is a highly effective approach
that teaches the dyslexic student how to read. "74% of the children
who are poor readers in 3rd grade remain poor readers in the 9th grade.
This means that they can't read well as adults. "It is never too late for
individuals with dyslexia to learn to read, process and express
information more efficiently. Research shows that programs utilizing
multi-sensory structured language techniques can help children and adults
learn to read.
Is Dyslexia a Brain Dysfunction?
Though it is not scientific evidence to support the same , evidence points
to the fact that the brain of a dyslexic differs from that of a normal
person. This leads to a significant motor co-ordination problem which is
why many of the dyslexic read ‘b’ as ‘d’ and ‘p’ as ‘q’, wear their shoes
on the wrong foot and have trouble tying their shoe laces. Similarly
arithmetic is a waterloo for them as it demands spatial abilities. The
wiring of the dyslexic brain makes them particular slow as far as spatial
abilities is concerned. This is why dyslexic make dangerous drivers and
poor navigators.
Who gets dyslexia?
The reasons for dyslexia may be neurological and genetic. According to an
American study the risk that a child will have dyslexia is increased from
4 to 13 times if one of the parents has dyslexia too. A human being,
however, is not merely a slave to his genes, as the dramatic findings of
an experiment at the Glenwood State School demonstrated.
So what do we do about it?
The first president of the United States, George Washington, was dyslexic.
So was Albert Einstein. Some famous dyslexics include children’s book
writer Hans Christian Anderson, U.S. Army General George Patton, Italian
artist, painter and inventor Leonardo Da Vinci, telephone inventor
Alexander Graham Bell and actors Whoopi Goldberg, Henri Winkler and Tom
Cruise.
Thought to be genetic and hereditary, some forms of dyslexia can also be
caused when hearing problems at an early age affect a person’s language
comprehension skills. Doctors still don’t know for sure what causes
dyslexia, but they say there is a correlation between left-handedness and
the learning disability in many families. It is estimated that one in 10
children is dyslexic. And more males are affected than females.
Dyslexic children can usually succeed at the same levels as others once
they are diagnosed and start receiving extra support and attention at home
and school. Children suspected of suffering from dyslexia undergo a series
of reading, spelling, drawing, math and intelligence tests, as well as
visual tests, laterality tests, visual scanning tests, sequencing and
other tests to examine which brain functions are interfering with their
acquisition of normal school learning.
Dyslexia also affects adults, but those who receive attention early in
life often learn how to compensate for the disability by adulthood.
Dyslexic adults, however, tend to continue to have difficulty with
language skills throughout their lives. But a dyslexia diagnosis is no
barrier to success.
Making Life Of A Dyslexic Better
Glancing at the list of super achievers who have battled and overcome
dyslexia, it is clear that it is no barrier to success in life. We just
need to redefine the concept of success. Does success get restricted to
the narrow parameters assigned to it.
While researching for this article I found
this link especially
useful. I would suggest everyone to have a read through it.
– Smitha
V
March 23, 2003
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