Dyslexia
The generally agreed upon definition of Dyslexia is that of a specific reading disability due to a defect in the brain’s processing of graphic symbols. Dyslexia is a type of learning disability that alters the way the brain processes written material. While most children learn to associate specific sounds (phonemes) with letters (graphic symbols), the brains of dyslexic individuals process information in such a manner as to make those associations difficult if not impossible without specific interventions.
According to Wikipedia, some universally noted signs and symptoms for Dyslexia are as follows:
Pre-school age children
It is difficult to obtain a certain diagnosis of dyslexia before a child begins school, but many dyslexic individuals have a history of difficulties that began well before kindergarten. Children who exhibit these symptoms have a higher risk of being diagnosed as dyslexic than other children. Some of these symptoms are:
- Learns new words slowly
- Has difficulty rhyming words, as in nursery rhymes
- Late in establishing a dominant hand
Early primary school-age children
- Difficulty learning the alphabet
- Difficulty with associating sounds with the letters that represent them (sound-symbol correspondence)
- Difficulty identifying or generating rhyming words, or counting syllables in words (phonological awareness)
- Difficulty segmenting words into individual sounds, or blending sounds to make words (phonemic awareness)
- Difficulty with word retrieval or naming problems
- Difficulty learning to decode words
- Difficulty distinguishing between similar sounds in words; mixing up sounds in multisyllable words (auditory discrimination) (for example, “aminal” for animal, “bisghetti” for spaghetti)
Older primary school children
- Slow or inaccurate reading
- Very poor spelling
- Difficulty associating individual words with their correct meanings
- Difficulty with time keeping and concept of time
- Difficulty with organization skills
- Due to fear of speaking incorrectly, some children become withdrawn and shy or become bullies out of their inability to understand the social cues in their environment
- Difficulty comprehending rapid instructions, following more than one command at a time or remembering the sequence of things
- Children with dyslexia may fail to see (and occasionally to hear) similarities and differences in letters and words, may not recognize the spacing that organizes letters into separate words, and may be unable to sound out the pronunciation of an unfamiliar word.
If we understand that the effects of dyslexia are caused by processing errors in the brain or faulty wiring, it follows that we can eliminate or vastly improve those effects by addressing the problems neurologically.
The past 5-10 years have seen an explosion in research focusing on the relationship of cognitive functioning, processing of information and the neuro-plasticity of the brain. Scientists and neurologists have determined that the brain possesses the ability to “re-wire” around damaged or non-functioning areas and to build new neuro-pathways to improve performance.
Rather than simply offering strategies and compensations for learning with dyslexia, The Therapy Group provides a web-based consulting service with programs designed to specifically address the neurological deficits associated with dyslexia.
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