Understanding Dyslexia: Recognition, Symptoms, and Teaching Approaches, Exams of Cognitive Development

Download Understanding Dyslexia: Recognition, Symptoms, and Teaching Approaches and more Exams Cognitive Development in PDF only on Docsity! II 159 A UTH OR TITLE EC 112 241 E vanagh, James - -Yen m hien, Grace Developmental Dyslexia and Related Reading Disorders. INSTITUTION Rational Inst. of Child Health and Human Deve orm nt (HIE), Bethesda, Md. Iluaan Learning and Eehavior Branch. REPORT NO MEN-NIB-78-92 PCB DATE 78 NOTE 61p. AVAILABLE FROM National. Institute of Child Health and Aman Development, (CHEW /NIB), fethesda, Maryland 20014 (Single copy free) ED RS PRICE DESCRIP,TORS ABSTRACT. mE-$0.83 EC-$3.50- Plus rostagel Cognitive Development; 31Dyslexim: 'Etiology; *Learning DiSabilities; *Low Achieveme---t factors; *Reading Difficulty ; Read itg Prcces se Remedial- Reading; *reaching Methods' The 8-chapter bookie gives an overview of what is known and what remains to be kmown a out elopmental dyslexia. Chapter 1 defines the scope of reading problems in general, while chapter 2 defines dyslexia-"children bhc have difficulty learningt to read, for no apparent reason",. Chapter 4 outlines the ncrral reading process. Possikle causes for dyslexia, including educational, biological, and psychological factors, are discussed in chapter 5. Developmental, corrective,' and remedial teaching methods are explained in chapter 6. Chapters 7 and 8 deal with prognosis and needed resea rch re specti vel y. (PHR ) ******* ** ********** ***** *** . Reproductions supplied by EDES are the bez from the original accume ******** 41***4** #4 *** ,* ****** that can be made U DEPARTMENTOF HEALTiL COUCATIONL WELFARE .NATIONALASTITLITEOF EOU6TIOW Tai DO(LINENT HO RE EN !"RE FRO, 'DUCE D EXA11C6A4 RECEIVED F RON TtET'ERSONO OR6ANIZAT ION OR IN, AY:IN5 IT POINTSQF VIEW OR °PIN IONS STATE .00 NOT N EC F4AR ILY RE PRE. 5ENT OFF ICIAL#A7IONAL INSTJTurr OF EDUCATION POSITION ORP9LICY Ef.S. Department of ii61i11,rEducatiqn 1 and. Welfare.. Public Health Service National Ikitutes of Health Prepared by Jane F Kavanagh, PhD!, Chief Grace Yen4ornshian, Ph*D. hni Le4ning.atid Behavior Branch Natinpal itistitite of Child Health and 1u nap De elopont National lastitutes of Heilth Bethesda14d. 20014 life, National iiisti4 of Child filth and Human Development (II Ic HD) is icated,t6 the principle that 1116 eat plias' es' of ,t.k life cyde ottlixception'al,opport uni- ties for pren-titirig-Oisordelijettnapiket,indivklual,s at .0 ti their live-: 7 such condition/ which !may .roots in lift ut shows up (Iiing the school years and through aOlthoOd is the reOng disorder, iievelopniterital dysle Theiiic h i c research aimed- at irnpro diagin6is anq.opierapy. for children who suffer from !learning disaVility, which affects millions of America s, Through ftiiarnen4 research, we live to gain a better / urilerstipiding of the normal reading process and identify, factor Mich peeni othevilise natal Oildren from learn. in roil This knowledge 'pay help us. detect and prevent exia before problem s'de velop, This booklet is. an overview of lithat is nown and what rennins to be learned aboW dyslexia: It is -written for people whir have One .bacgiollnd in the olds of reading aid readicg:disorOef, and who: work with readifig-inipaired: children Such people.. include leering disability 'specialists elemental school reading teachers; and guidance counse lots! Parents, pediatricians, and others who' have a sp'ecial interest in rea(itg disorder .1-14 also hid it informatiye to read this review of current nowledge s about dyslexia. 4 awn Kretchrtier, PhD, ()reword ,, , to advanced societies, the ability to read is the ,single Sc-_ope'--.,01. ,, 'nosy iropOriaot foun(lation on which future learning is based. Without (his ahilily,' which most kmericaos take for: Reading Problems granted, an individual Is liodicappedjilnianyMys, Success in school depends upon it So does obtaining,* keeping a good job. NO being able to read, or read well, call: deprive an individual of the advantages that are cool mai to most .: ./Arneriaans.: i: :- . Yet despite the importance of the ability tO read and -r. , ---, iVurnatioir s-cornmornent-to an adequate ediicatio for all, I. reading problems plague our educational splern to a degree!, . , if , that is alarming. It has been estimated that-me out of every four, students nationwide has significant reading. problems; , as rnany as half bf the students in sothe school systems read A 4 I. below expectatips for their age. And the phenomenon knows nohowidiryit affects people at all levels of society, white and black, rict and poor, male and female, The educational cost of requiring children to repeat a . Ode due to a, reading problem reaches nearly $2 billion a year But more ,important than the dollar cost to the school system is the cost to the nation, and to the children them.,:, selves, of al.lowiog students. who cannot .read to leave school and enter society without,the basic skill they need to . function in societyl is here that the statistics arc truly larming: about half of the nation's unemployed youths 'age. , 6 V 4' 71'e 'IA I r 111" 4 14 t s, I Defining Dyslexia -One of the basic problems associated with dyslexia is use ofthe term: Early researchers investigating the disorder began to use "dyslexia,'' ,'word blindness" and other words to'describe roan: different conditions related to read . mg disordersi Some used the term very broadly, while t ers used a strict or narr9iv deOnitioni Because of the. co,nfu. siOn, many investigatdri. even :reftised. to acknowledge the existence of therierm; they coined new phrases., and rived --bfoaderlertslike"reading, disorders" to refer to dyslexic conditions: Progress in reading research suffered- tremendously from this confusio. Vast amounts of data were collected which proved to be'of littlealse in advancing the knowledge of'dyexia..Differing testing methods, experimental. proce .durecontrol groups, and research` objectives. were .dne in ., large part to different interpretations of dysloia, And he- cause the early research .varied so greatly, much cif it was incomparable; one piece of evidence could not be used as a steppirig stone for further researa As more knowledge accumulated, the term dyslexia ,began to take on a more specific definition,Todiy.edticatol's generally agree that there is A broad range of reading prob lems among schoolchildren for .which specific causes have been ,ideptified, But there retrain a srua4r group of chit- (Jun:who hav(difficuli learning to read:, for no appareint reason: These children are called dyslexic: Another problem idle broad scope of the term dys- lexia,,Sinee it refers to all reaang prOblems of an undeter- 'mined nature, it is unlikely that there is just one cause; and v one type. of dyslexia. An examination of the syMploMs- of dyslexia shower errors in a wide range of skills, from identi- fication of simple combinations of-letters to comprehension and retention of material that has been read. As the causes ,. -----of-dyslexia., are.-identified they will probably be eliminated. from the category of dyslexia and terriiedspeciffureading----- diWders In this way_ , the term dyslexia should -become increasingly narrow in scope until there won't be a need for the term because all causes of reading disorders will have been identified. But until we know the- how and why of dyslexia, edu-cators: won't be sure that they are focusing their efforts in the rightfarea or that they aren't wasting their time on a theory that n' alid. The NoRnal Reading Pmcess 10 4.arning a complex skill like reading deNnils. laining many: coni0o.nent ,skills. The skilled reader .reads so' rapidly and smoothly that it is di icuTt tdi lTerthliate the components of (he prOcess. The knkledge of the language', intelligence, horie background, motional. stability, qual4..of...0Kation vatio, Slight dekiencies , in piny of.' these, area with .normal corisiderin all the varli aNes' iiivolve(10-nany. resorchervare :stiTrised that reading prohlerns.arenThoreicominon than they are Experts agree that the essential skill IN reading is ek, traoing the meaning from a print e([ nr writ ,message much likte(iracting the meaning from a. spoken niessage. To read, in' individual' must recognize botl) the yrOnis arid the meaning thcy represent. But there are two schools of thought on just how this., is done. One school holds that children must first recognize letters and words and then comprehend the meaning these .. doers ii l varids represent. The.,second, school believes there i interrnediai,e step after rerognition., when the \: child tninsform the written letters and words ink spoken words and then iiiinprehends' the leaning.. For the ;1(14); cat6 of this solid thory of readinp the intei =mncliate *11 imporhni, Children who have trouble killing to real show ,a great diversity of syrrirtorns due to the complexity of the reading process.: Even children with dyslexia show marked differences among themselves. Their only uniform charac- teristic is a reading level sign thatiily below what one would expect for their age and intellectual level, This lag in reading ability has usually been'expressed as a delay in time, such as a two-year delay, For example, a fourth grader is said to read at a second grade level, While this method of measurement as been convenient, it is mis- leading: a kvo-year lag in eading ability for it fird grader is much more severe than a two-year lag for a tenth grader, because the delay shows th.ar the third grader learned few of the skills involved in reading while the tenth grader mas- ered.eight year or _(.(y of the skills a tenth grader needs, So with each grade advancement, the same two.year delay becomes proportionately kss severe, Surveys that apply the same time delay to children ()I different developmental levels only confuse our understand ing of dyslexia, For example, surveys have shown that only ri of third graders are delayed in reading by two or more years, while 2 of ninth graders are delayed by the me two or more years , But Ile Ivo.yalr delay in younger chil ken is much more severe than in older children, so a corn parisOn between the delay of third graders and ninth graders . 4111. iim ism oy. N IL m y.. M s.% :71....1,1i.M .L...M ....1.. .... / hased on 311 arbitrary figure is really not a true comparison ;(, Sono researchers have proposed using a ratio, such as reading age divided by mental age, io assess reading ahil ity! The use of such a ratio would he more accurate and helpful in cortiparing the reakig delay of children at differ cot stages of Jeveloptnent. Because advanced reading abilities arc based on the acquisition, of more elementary thities, dyslexic children are likely to ex hi hit different symptoms at various stages of development. For example, the iourtger dyslexic, wlio is just beginning to learn to read, usually his trouble recogniz, ing or decoding vords and simple phrases. Tile older child nia have rnastered this level of Jeveloproent, but Inds it hard to comprehend or remember what was read, An older child retarded at a more elementary level can still have dt billy decoding Nods as well as understanding what is read Sand Nam, v1D one of the first major- re searchers in the area of dyslexia, identified the dyslexic er rors which are most widely knovu today. These4rrors in- clude reversals in reading (b for d ajid tar fur rat) and the omission or addition of entire words. Orton also studied the unusutilly high number of dyslexics \kilo. were left handvd or anhideMrous, or had trouble differentiating between right and left! This research formed the basis of the theory that a neurological dysfunction rniaht be a rkie of dyslexia. Possible Causes of Dyslexia 18 When researchers, clinicians and reading authorities rst began seirchitig for the cause of dyslexia, they looLed for one factor as the excinsive source of the r'oblem, liow most experts agree that a nu.mber of factors robidbly moor in combination to produce the disorder, although sonic ree searcbers still emphasize one factor as theiprimary cause, Although impressive evidence has been massed re . lilting dyslexia to speck theories, behaviors, and neurology is characteristics, dyslexia remains a mystery, Only after nub more eximinientation and research will the dyslexic, puzzle be solved, Pasible causes of dyslexia may be grouped into three broad categories: educational, psychological and bio- logical, ,Educauerial CAWS Inadequate teaching methods A child's primary task in learning to read is to link words as he or he knows.theffi (spoken wqrh) with nys- terious: 'graphic slf Olds! A large group of epe(ls believes that the source of dyslexia lies in the inethods used to teach children how to translate printed words into recognizable sounds, Methods of teaching reading are:nurnetoos and vs= led, They change from year to year based on pop' [ilk- theo= ries which may be unsubstantiated by hard evidence, One of the more widely used techniques is the whole; word approach, or he sec-say method. Using, this ap proach, children learn to view words as whole units, as complete symbok representations, rather than as groups of individual letters with correspOnding sounds (phonemes), A second teaching method popular in recent years is the phonetic approach: children. learn about 'letters, their sounds and their order even before they barn about whole vbfds, The child who learns to read through this approach has\ the crucial skills which enable him to learn new words 4(1 to benefit from the unique properties of an alphabetic writing 4stem7to recognize words never seen in print; and to construct written words from, their pronunciation. These skills are not possible with languages composed of different characters for each word, such as Chinese, Olden who are unaware of the phonetic structure of English have great- er thificulty in spelling, pr`onouncing and comprehending written words. I Many reading authorities contend that the best w4iy to teach reading is to use ,a, blend of the whole-word and riiionetie,approaches: while children memorize increasingly greater number of words by the shapes, they also learn the 19 1 4 20 phonetic rues necessarriordecodikuz,ncwi, unfamiliar words, Either approach can present its on prohlerns, Marq ---,reading authorities sal] that the .i,vho learns to read only h' recognizing the moat shares or words may memor- le enough shares to deceive parents and leaders into thiolcingttat the earl stages of rektng are tog mitstered, Eventually; though,, tile child 1t becorre stranded at i elementary reading level ad, worse yet, Jt lack the 'skills necessary to acquire ION Yu& These skills are supplied through the phonetic ap proach. But pItpetic reasoi4 1$ pritnaril Lisa in the oiore advanced tages cif laming to read, At a very young age, ii is easier to rnemoriv the sap of the word "dog" than to goithrough the more Intellectual process of stringing together its ihreC component !formes , "11," "'A," and Conscquently,t-chldreo susce[lble to tile' pitfalls of the phonetic approach may get stuck in a sounding-out stage, They can sound out 11(1'4' acii.'im"' and "0" phoriernes hot and combine then into the word log," . Dilcultes in whie-word recognition can lead to omission of unfamiliar words (A 1=IGJSE for, A PICTURESQUE 1-100E)i Icklitio of words (ONCE. UPON A THE I WAS fcr ONCE I.VAS), substitution of words with uly go ivalent rtiean4g (VEN1 for DOVE), or similar ilehavorsin iliese instances, the child Is trying to Inaccurate inteagence tests Dyslexia is a reading disability in a child of 'normal intelligence, This definition presupposes he ability to accur alely measure intelligence, which N the function of tests of intelligence (II). tests), tare must he taken when interpreting 1.Qi tests he cause the results can he influenced by factors other than intelligence. Viany tests, especially written tests, require considgrable verbal skills to complete, and are therefore unsuitable for the poor reader. But even if a test requires only minimal verbal abilities, dyslexic readers may Lke the exam reluctantly and therefore do poorly: Dyslexic 6ildren frequently become accustomed to failure and do net care how they do on any written exam. This defeatist attitude is especially apparent in older dyslexic children: After years of frustration, ihq have more than just a reOing disahih Iythey have a strong aversion to books and the reading process, Some ducators assert that poor reading test scores intro -called dyslexic children are due to faulty, inade . pale tests rathet than to problems of the children: Reading tests must he at fault, they say, if the tests indicate hat children of known normal intelligence read at a subnormal level: These people, however, lack convincing evidence to support their view of dyslexia as a nonexistent condition, Ttj For expple,they caortot pinpoint:those aspects of reading or intelligence ems kyhicti muse only a fe 'riormar chil dren so much trouhlt Other researchers believe that all dyslexic conditions --,.-aje--.1'..kresult of low intelligence, regardless of what iiitelli gene tests may reveal. Ceriait,hs..lexia may contribute to reading problems in children of helow nortmil intelligence, But present evaluation pro.cedures.ard scie.ntific kriMdge make differentiating dyslexia from lovv intelligence extremely Ault and inaccurate. Dyslexia is conspicuous in the bright child: it often remains hidden in the child of below normal intelligence, Among other facto_rs which can inOuence outcome of intelligence examinations ar rnalnorition, the child's cultural environment, prior educational Operience, ity with intelligence exams, and even. 110 the child fels at the time of the test. chol second major school of itibught among reading experts links dyslexia to psychologica or emotional disturb inces, Such disturbances can erntrgfrom a number orsit- odor's: homes ip which parents continually argue and dis- cipline is inconsistent the absence ,c' of a parent, 'frequent change of schools rind poor relatiOships with 'pellets, If the child has a physical handicap or some distinctive pitysi- 26 .'1 I 0 J 28 I ; , F requil'es that individuk sense what.:k before Problems ii visual acdity. and fusion, limited eye move rnent, abnormal eyeball conflguni1ion and other visuosensO. ry:dilticulties can decrease clarity aid shafpness, of small number of researchers believe such vision problems are the main cause of dyslexia; some optometrists. in parti- cular attribute ! dyslexia to abnormal eyeball .shape, However, most reading experts agree that basic visual, diffi- culties and -impaired control over eye movements are not etioug- h to account for the problems of the dyslexic .child:. *dies have indicated that degree of control over eye, movement is not a critical factor in learning to read: only minimal control is required:. . ":. At another level, vision .requires ihe,acctirate inter- pretation of what is vispily sensed, A ,child with higher- level visual problems, often called visuokrceptive' has trouble distinguishing one visual form., from atiothe.ra, circle from a square, or "a" from "e.,". for exampl( Research has been largelyoinconsistent in pinpointing a vis7 tioperc6plivc skill d:Ocit in reading disabled children, even the results which indicate this deficit exists have shown only. a small percentage of dyslexics to he 'deficient in 4visnoper- ceptive skills, ..Sbme researchers, supported .by valid evidence,Ihey fizeIhat the reading disabled children most frequently lack- ing: in .higher-101 visual skills are children (ages 54) who are beginning to learn to rod. Visuoperceptir deficits, hotever, are not the characteristic:behaviors gerentialing older dyslexic ,children (ages 9.12) from their normal reading peers, according to the same evidenct Thu :older dyslexics, show their most marked difficulties. in skills associated with :languag6 use and "'abstract concept formation. Severhi nations have been suggested for this difference. Someex- perts believe that even though visuopercsptive, handicap children have the capability to read, they must go throug a period 'of adjustment to their handicaps during initial read= ing instructiOn. As a preventive measure, some schciois sys. tetnatically teach higher -level visual perceptive skills in the., first grades,. Other expert's se(reading w.Ora4614 process in younger children,'whereas older .'children rely more on context, 'meaning, scanning for chunks of informa !ion, and other .advanced conceptual skills; While deficient visuoperceptive skills, may be respOn- sible for:reading failure }in younger .years, effects are believed.to be tran ient an cannot account for the massive failings of older dyslexic children... Retarded language de velopinOntRetarded oralidan gu'age, development has frequent.heem suggested 35 a sig=: iiihoant contributor to dyslexia: Poor readers often have a very limited, vocabulary and use an even smaller part of that vocabulary in everyday :speech; Their grammaticar construc. tions are linguistically immature, Children with retarded oral .0 29 language development can usually function adquately in normal 'spcaking situations, b.til they arc easily cotifuscd by untpmmon..u.sages lhe,language::TheAming patterns of poetry, present diffictiltio, for exampk; Nny.iime's th'e chil- dren u.nderind: the meaning. of poems, ,hut they cannot re lace a word with another fhyming word...Their lim- d language. abilities do not permit them lo'play ,with Ian- a0 or the sounds' of language..Thus, these children may .. have trouble segmenting od.'rearianging language sounds when they attempt to speak .in pig hitin. Conversely, 'general language...disabil4, especially . :am* Older childio, might ,be: the' result 44 inadequate reading abilities. The child who cannot read properly could be expected to aoquire vocabulary, georal infprthation: and nom gramrnatical constructions 41 a s!ow.r,ate,,The most widely lield interpretation, however, says qyd6da is the hal, ripplifig'maphstation of an overall language din- ili- ty Most of theevidena,supportsihis.condusion. Additional :.suptiOrt for language-based origi,.of dyslexia':comes froth studies in 'which. verbal and ,tionvOal stimuli *ere presented to grou0 of normal and reading ippaired, childi ert In study, .gogd and por .r'eaders kre shown s_ veral cards One at a time. Prin-ted qn- each bard was eithe 'a verbal: stimul6 (nonsense syllablt) or a 'nonverbal stun lus (non on (lesign,or 'phoigraphed face), Four of the stimuli kepi' reappearing, but otherwise the stimuli were different. 'The' children's task was to tell. if they ,. 3' must remember what they noted that even nonlinguistic e by their names than by their f it is not surprising that mistak, ) be based on phonetic confusio al similarities (jai-jam) or fun, ence eves suggests that vision n ilation for maximum dexelopmi im birth apparently do not see Doi*, and persons with acquire than those deaf from birth, all an in normal-hearing persons. nemorySince most researchers ;ration have presented stimuli co taneously, the failures they repo rt-term memory disorders. ogue, listeners hold small piece and words) in short-term mei )n is amassqVo complete who' furation o f t ills short-term mem, interrupting someone who is lisl the listener can usually repeat tl the speaker said them, but typi spoken communication. The cal into a linguistically' complete read; li are ins or recall -char) (jar=. spend eople ell as fns t still eating lively lid be nforl until fights In be to a few para- rords :ept:. If reading .1 sion of general I makes use of shoe ry system at the p to remember what Sequential f ered by some to 1 felted by confusic quencp of sensori, visual sequential p the dog run as 1 letters Within wor faulty auditory sec in which vb9rds arc al linguistic :abilitit mal reading acquis In their stip have found that st digit and figure se more pronounced mixture of auditoi suggested that lat predicted from sei ual stimuli than frc Impaired d reading acquisition 34 ERIC and writing, particularly reversals (b for d) .and rotations (p for d)4 Normal children quickly outgrow these developmental dysfluencies i. hut dyslexic 'children may continue to exhibit impaired directional sense for long periods of time. Some researchers believe. a continuation of impaired directional sense beyond ve nine or ten strongly indicates the possi- bility of dyslexia. . An impaired sense of direction seems limited only to manipulations of symbolic figures Abilities in sports, :where quick directional decisions are required, are normal in the dyslexic child. While experts concur. that confused, direc- tional sense may .contribute to reading difficulties in younger children, the imphirmeni does not appear to be a primary source of dyslexia in older children, DeopmentaI Difiercnces in the ages at which dyslexic children 'express deviant behaviors nave led some researchers to suspect that dyslexic children may have slower brain avel-, opment than normal children. The dyslexic child's problem, they say, is a simple lag in brain maturation, not an impair- ment in brain functioning , In normal children, developmental skills such as per- ception, directional sense and mtersensory integrati that are necessary to the :acquisition of reading emerge a_ _ore or less fixed 'chronological a The early stages, (ages 5-8) of (aiding acquisition depend mainly on highirdevel visual whereas later reading advancement (ages 9.12) re- 'quires abilities in language use and abstract concept forma. lion, ' *ponds of the clevOopmental lag. theory, believe . dyslexic children develOp the same skills' as normal chil= dren, but ai,a mud' slower rate, Consequently,the 'types of difficulty dyslexic t hildrea shoCv' change as the children grow' older, By age" 6 normal children have mastered the higher.level visual skills necessary, to succeed in begitming reading programs, but dyslexic children' have not The 6- year.7.olds do not seem to differ. in language use because [lei. tiler group has yet attained the linguistic skills necessary for feading. But by: the time normal phildren develop these lin- guistici abilities, the dyslexic children, still lagging behind,' thenormal grQup, sh6v language.related By this time the dyslexic 'children havp caught up with normal dren in mastering higher =level and,niaynow be failing advanced reading instruction just when they are ready to'proht from.teaching at the elenentary level i dysloic children grow, an increasingly loner .period of time required for them to 'master .each new reading skill; One possihle explanation is that perhaps dys. lcxic childreh imply stop improving their reading abilities as they grow up, Whatever the reason, olOr dy l xi Phil= 37 A Do ERIC | Cerebra/ dominance theoryOne of the earliest and best known of the neurological theories concerns cerehral dominance: the ,ahility of one portion of the brain to predom. male in controlling certain behaviors, The human brain is divided into left and right hemi- spheres, each having primary dutiesiln most people the right hemisphere is mainly responsible for nonverbal, per. . ceptual abilities, Damage to the right b ain can cause im. paired judgment of tonal patterns and special. directions, and poor recognition of geometric desigrs, The left hemi. sphere reguli. es verbal functions, including speech (in most ' people) and fu'r dons related to written language: Left brain dysfunction, al_ _fore,- could be expected to cause impaired speech, comprehension, or writing and reading abilities An interesting relationship exists between the hemi- spheres regulating language function, and hand preference, The vast majority of people (about 93%)are right.handed, near. ly all having language controlled by the left side of the brain But only about 70% of left.handed people have language con. trolled by the left hemisphere; the others have language func, lion in the right brain or divided among the two hemispheres: The , cerebral dominance theory maintains that the failure of a single hemispherft to dominate verbal func'. lionsthe perception of graphic symbols ad the language functions associated with reading-4esults in dyslqia, Pro- 43 f-J 42 poneins of the theory believe that in the normal brain visual imprints made on the verbal dominant h_emisOere are used to build associations between letters and spoken ,words. If for some reason the verbal controlling hemisphere fails to dominate verbal functions, the person also perceives the visual imprints simultaneously made upon the nonverbal hemispher,e. These imprints, however, appear backward, as if viewed through a mirror. A child with poorly established cerebral dOinance, so. the theory goo, is unable to inter- pret writte symbols, or interprets they in'theHltve.rsed',,, direction in s',yhich they are perceived (d for b, saw for was). Since 'about 30 of left-handed persons have Ian- guakge located , in the right' or in both hemispheres, cerebral dominance re9rch has .sometimes identified these indivi- duals as prime4ndidatesifor' 4sleia:7Tests for hcmisplier- , ic dominance hake been conducted by noting preferences in listening, clapping, jumping, sighting with one eye, and bal- ancing on one 'ot. Failure to demonstrate a decided prefer- ence for one side 'or the oth6, the theory maintaius, indi. cates a defect in brain, development which is fully or partial- ly responsible for dyslexia Solid evidence to s. i,liort the :cerebral dominance Ai theory has been lacking: Most recent studies have not sup . ported the concept that dyslexic children differ greatly from normal readers in right-hand or lefthand preferences.. 4/1 neurological basis for dyslexia, Result from this method have been disappointing for the most part, There seems to he no direct relationship between the severity of dyslexia and the degree of EEG abnormality; Also, normal readers often show a great amount of "abnormal" brain actiyity. One hypothesis which may explain the poor FICirdyslex:iii correlation suggests that FEG abnormalities in dyslexic chil- dren may result frog the stress of:fr.listrated attempts to read rather than from the physiolOy of the disorder:. Finger recognition k another test: used by neurologi. oily inclined researchers; in this test, the suspeeted.dyslex- ic child interlocks his fingers and moves each one dually in response to a researcher's light tap, Poor readers seem to have more trouble responding than do their normal reading, .counterparts; Studies, however, hav:e been incon . clusive in determining whether finger recognitiop is a,good indicator of dyslexia: In siiimmary, neither neurological theories nor a neti . rological basis for dyslexia has been hrmly eStablished. This same evidence, however, has maintained a strong interest in the neurologic orientation,. Many experts believe cattered findings from EEC and finger recognition tests, and behav- ior correlates such as intersensory integration deficits, se= quential perception difficulties and general linguistic disabili . ties, fit neatly into 'a neurologicalframework, rA yJ 45 ss 46 L 'complete medical evAluations of dyslex[c\children have failed to reveal which Add he used to ,diagnose However, there is reason to believe that ogic disorders may he active in some while Ad forms of dyslexia may not neurologic impairment at all! Genetic factors Dyslexia seems to run in families lexic childreti have family histories of th on the genetic aspects of dyslexia are s yet to determine how the disorder expre as contrasted to how it shows up in thei sible that the same behaviors are pas: child in some formsofdyslexia but not ii The nature of dyslexia's genetic 1: because nongenetic influences such as f attitudes and familial interaction may fig interaction between genetic and social great importance to dyslexia research, adequately examined, The fact that dyslexia allectS fro. as many males as females suggests that significantly to the disorder i But factors a large number of consistent patterns reading problems. unidentified neurol- cases of dyslexia, he associated with up to 40% of dys- e disorder. But data larse. Research has ises itself in parents r children. It is pos- ;ed from parent to 7 others. nk is hard to isolate amily size, parental ure in dyslexia. The inheritances is of iut has not yet been ,...... i three to six times genetics contributes other than a child's Teaching Methods I A 48 V L Just as children with dyslexia comprise. a heteroge neous group, the teaching methods used to help them are similarly varied: Some methods seem very effective with particular groups of children, but ire ineffective with othe ers: Still other methods achieve mediocre results no matter what the characteristics of children enrolled in the program: There is no .proof that any one method will work for all children: Until we know which programs ar6the most effective, remediation should be designed to meet each child's needs! All remedial procedures will vary in effectiveness from child to childbut without an individualized program, it's always pssible that a child who isn't making any pro . gress is just floundering in the wrong. remedial program: A properly designed remedial..prprkshould. cons der all characteristics of the child. It should be based on the child's estimated capacity and behavioral symptoms, and the suspected causes of the problem: Program designs should include the methods and materials to be used, and the tasks in which the child is expected to become competenl.: Most programs designed to help the dyslexic can be grouped into three sate ones: develgpm -mai, corrective, and remedial, Some programs may encas aspects of more than one approach or perhaps all thr The develop -denial 'a roach has bee described as a more of the same" approach: teachers use the same, basic ERIC 0 50 methods that were used in the regular classroom and proved ineffective at the time on the premise that the methods were sound and the child just needs extra attention. The in-. creased attention is usually in the form of small group or tutorial sessions, where the ,teacher chi work on 'reading with each child. Many researchers and educators find this approach to be of questionable value They .loint out that if the original program \6s not effective, no amount of inten- sified instruction using the same method will be fruitfit The corrective reading approach 6ses small groups of tutorial sessions like the developmental approach, but empha . sizes the child's arts and intdrests. By emphasizing the pos- itive andnot the negative, researchers hope to encourage ail: 'dren to rely on theirown abilities to overcome their difficulties. The third approach, called remedial, was developed primarily bkause the first two systero were plagued with failure: Proponents of the remedial approach try to amelio- rate the psychological problems which underlie poor read- ing! While the program may utilize a child's assets, it is di- rected mainly at the psychological deficiencies and tries to remedy the .underlying factors contributing to the problem: Supporters of the system believe that it is essential to deter thine first which skillsi cause the most difficulty and then apply individualized techniques that will best remedy those , deficits: Most current methods for teaching dyslexics use this remedial ap roach: u 0*Iri " ' i earlier the disability is discoverel,ribe greater the '1)000-, tae of children who'a.chjev-e normal reading kills. evene problems are more often ingrained by the time fa, chi reaches the .nOer :grades., niakiq reinedigtiOn more dd... cult, And older students are frequently less motiv ated ,I) cause of repeated failure, making r.ernediatioi) even .harder '. 54 Thy. length of reniedialion Also afte is dyslexic's dlances Often: rem dial pro'grams are offered only in gb school,. even though. they may be'. needed tivougOigh school and collegespecially if a .dysloic child is disc* ored late in elementary school.. Reniedi:al prcgrams. shotqd available as long as IN student. ina1(6 gains and is thot.i; idtcd to learn: Adults can make .signifi'cani progresitoo, so ther6 is no reason to shut out the older Adepts. The 'personality and level of motivation ago important ,Because' the ability read is vital' hi a child's healthy, ego dyslexia may ,detriniental, to 'eriloticn41 aljustment', Whilei dyslexics nk 'havOtrong:egos at first, repeated failure will inevitably ak caOiN serious personality, problep., The child with dyslexia ray react to.repe4ted fake with anger, depression, tesi nation, and even total compromise ,pf *3pe P, and r ay need 'Cooseling to overcome these problems, A. dOlexic'ehild will be able to make gains with o side help, hurt; the assistance oust he 60)4, thoi6Ligh, a--d aimed at all factors which could retard progress. For the child identified early, with supportive fa)liily and friends, with a strong self-image, and with a proper remedial pro- gram of sufficient length, the prognosis is very good. 58 relyirIg on the see.say method used in some American schools? And do Erurepean reading selections, often written in their best authdrs, affect the *cone of learning-Wead programs? lie Rowers to t se, questions would clear up a great deal of controversy ab ut dyslexia and teaching meth. odd, A culture.free intelligence test is needed. Svc a tot would help separate clikiret vho do poorly on the test ae, to dyslexia from other children who score lovi because of ; their .cultural background, . Also needed is ..a valid; early detection system that could be tised before the child begOs, formal reading -at. a tine when the central nervous system may be more re pen! SIN tip chile; and when the child has no yet 'stilled from the shattering eliect of repeated ocademic fib, 9 PISCRIMItiATION PROHIBITED.. Undo provisions of applicable public laws enacted by Conarear since LOthr. iur person in the United Si teees Agit Or the gicured of.race,eob or. natiorial detkin. *ft ot handicap be radial& front partici- pation in= he denied' the ben50 Of, or be subjected to dis- crimination under any program or activity receding Federal financial anixtance In addirnn Executive Order 11141 pro- habits diaubninarion en the basis at age ;!= contractors and autronnactors in the retiOnninee of Federal contracts. Therefore the Wiltronat- instirure of Child Health and 'Amin (eve /optima,. NIH . HS, net be iterated in con.pliaoce, with these taws and ear-entire order-