In my previous posts, I gave some explanation about dyslexics including; traits of dyslexia in adults, what dyslexia is like, what dyslexic children go through.
Today, I will write on other difficulties they face and classical warning signs.
There have been various theories about the cause of dyslexia. Some belief it to be as a result of trauma to the reading and writing aspect of the brain while the majority believe it to be as a result of a difference between the left and right hemisphere of the brain compared with others.
There are also other causes which could be visual or auditory. Visual dyslexia occurs when one is not able to write symbols in proper order while Auditory dyslexia has to do with not being able to hear letter sounds properly.
Classical Warning Signs for Dyslexics
Dyslexia can be diagnosed as early as age 1 but before a child is tagged as being dyslexic, he/she must have AT LEAST 3 of these signs.
-There will be a problem processing language and a specific example for this is speech delay. It is therefore important to note that there are other conditions that can cause speech delay, not just dyslexia. Language processing occurs in;
-Oral speech – They have a problem articulating e.g SS and H, M and N, instead of saying animal, they say aminal etc
-Processing through Auditory i.e they process auditory information a little slower than others.
-Processing through reading – They can read a word well on one page and not recognize the same word on the next page when you ask them to read a storyline, they have the tendency of predicting the next word that would fit the storyline rather than reading what is written.
They also miss out prepositions like in, out etc when they read.
Phonemic Awareness
The reason why dyslexics are not able to read by looking at every letter is that they lack PHONEMIC AWARENESS which is the ability to hear and manipulate each sound within a one-syllable word in your head.
Phonemic awareness is auditory skill children develop naturally but dyslexics can’t.
-Processing through spelling and written expression – They are terrible at spelling e.g what they write down has nothing to do with the spelling.
They leave out vowels in most cases when they write down words. They are more confused with vowel than consonants.
-Dyslexics get confused with direction i.e left, right, up down, before after ‘b’ ‘d’ yesterday tomorrow and this could also occur whenever they are stressed out.
-They also find it difficult memorizing things e.g Storyline, sequences like days of the week, months of the year, phone number, multiplication table, spelling their last name, alphabets…
As children begin school, the alphabet is the first major memorization path where intelligence will not help. Using visual or logical skills to memorizing letters, will be ineffective.
Other Warning Signs for Dyslexics
-They are often late at establishing a dominant hand, either left or right. According to research, by the 4th year, a child should have a well established dominant hand.
Sometimes they find it hard to tie their shoes.
-Finally, children with dyslexia often have another condition called ‘dysgraphia’ . Dysgraphia means difficulty writing. Dysgraphia will be discussed later on.
I’d stop here for now and hope to write other posts later. If you want to know more about this condition or know someone who may be interested, you can visit www. BrightSolutions.us for more information.
Stay Blessed.
Chidinma Oluchi.
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