Overcome Dyslexia and Become a More Comprehensive Reader Reading comprehension is a skill that has to be learned by most of the population. This includes adults that have been reading for many years. There is a difference between reading and reading comprehension. Read is defined as, “to look at and understand the meaning of letters, words, or symbols” (Read, 2014). Comprehension is defined as, “the act or action of grasping with intellect” (Comprehension, 2014). Even as an adult, people may have difficulties with reading comprehension. There can be visual learning disorders such as dyslexia. There are many learning techniques and strategies that can negate or even overcome these visual learning disorders. This paper will discuss a few techniques and strategies that when used can improve reading comprehension such as vocabulary building, effective reading, and reading strategies. With these techniques the road block of dyslexia may no longer be an issue. Dyslexia Misconceptions of Dyslexia The largest misconception is that dyslexia changes the word to read backwards in the reader’s brain. While this is one possible effect, dyslexia covers a wide range in the visual learning disorders. While dyslexia is not limited to a specific gender, race, or age group; it does tend to affect males more than females. Males make up 75 – 80% of people diagnosed with dyslexia (Chivers, 2006, p. 20). Dyslexia has various symptoms that can help diagnose children, students, and even adults. Identifying Dyslexia There are various symptoms that help identify dyslexia; such as poor reading and spelling abilities, switching the directions of letters in words, and problems building short-term memory (Thomson, 2009). There are many other sym... ... middle of paper ... ...ed by most, and how dyslexia can cause problems with reading comprehension. It also discussed ways that we can mitigate these problems for dyslexic people, but these skills can and should be used by all learners. Reading comprehension is a perishable skill, one that if you don’t work on increasing your reading ability by building your vocabulary, learn to read effectively, or using the correct reading strategies for the type of reading material being studied will diminish. Even with the largest vocabulary, if the words are not understood literacy cannot be achieved. Literacy is the key to comprehensive reading. It also gave some of the tools for reading and understanding different types of literature and how to get the important information out of each one. Edmund Burk said “To read without reflecting is like eating without digesting” (Gallagher, 2003, p. 11).
Reading is on the decline and our reading skills are declining right along with the amount of reading we do. This is happening right across the board through both genders, all age groups and education levels, people are busy and they just do not have time to read books that they are not required to read for school or work. There are serious consequences to this neglect of reading that will continue to worsen if ignored. We need to take notice of what is happening to our culture and stop this situation from continuing, we must act to correct these issues that we are faced with. These things are discussed in the essay “Staying Awake’’ by Ursula K. Le Guin who uses the NEA essays “To Read or Not to Read’’ and “Reading at Risk’’ to support her argument that there is a decline in the amount of time that we are spending on reading and our ability to understand what it is that we are reading.
The specific language based disorder of dyslexia is a learning “disability” or “syndrome” that creates an imbalance of reading, writing and comprehension skills in children and adults (Lucid Research, 2006; Shaywitz, 1998). Around 4 percent of the population are affected by the specific language based disorder (Lucid Research, 2006), as well as 80 percent of people with a learning disorder are reported to be dyslexic (Shaywitz, 1998). Dyslexia is not connected to low levels of intelligence, inadequate schooling and education or social circumstances, rather, an individual who is deficit in the phonological process, the breaking down of a word, and the auditory process, taking in sound and interpreting correctly (Lucid Research, 2006; Shaywitz, 1998; Wang and Yang, 2014). Since dyslexia is reported to be a life-long learning disability and symptoms are varied for each person, large amounts of research have been conducted in attempts to understand the severity and the impairments associated with
The long disputed debate about the primary cause of dyslexia is still very much alive in the field of psychology. Dyslexia is commonly characterized as a reading and writing impairment that affects around 5% of the global population. The disorder has frequently been hypothesized to be the result of various sensory malfunctions. For over a decade, studies have made major contributions to the disorder's etiology; however, scientists are still unclear of its specific causal. Initially, dyslexia was thought to be a reading disorder in children and adults (1). Later it was suggested to consist of both a visual and writing component, therefore characterizing it as more of a learning disability which affected people of normal intelligence's ability to perform to their fullest potential (5). In the current research, cognitive and biological perspectives have often been developed independently of one another failing to recognize their respective positions within the disorder's etiology.
Finding a definition of literacy is not as easy as it sounds. The Webster definition says that to be literate is to be” able to read and write.” But to some researchers, this definition is too simplistic, leading to multiple models of literacy. Most Americans adhere to the autonomous model, which falls closest to the standard, dictionary definition. Believers in this form say that literacy is a cognitive activity that students learn like any other basic skill. It has a set of proficiencies that one must master in order to be capable of decoding and encoding text (Alvermann, 2009; SIL International, 1999). A competing theory is the ideological model, which claims literacy is intrinsically linked to culture, and therefore what constitutes a “literate” individual is ever-changing. Society is the largest influence on literacy, according to this thought, and it is affected by politics, religion, philosophy and more (Alvermann, 2009; SIL International, 1999). These two are just the tip of the iceberg. For example, some studies recognize “literacy as competence,” which is a “measure of competence to do a given task or work in a given field,” (SIL International, 1999) such as being computer literate. Although more researchers are recognizing and exploring multiple literacies, the one that most influences American schools is the autonomous, cognitive model – the ability to read and write. For many, it seems a simple task, but millions of adolescents are struggling or reluctant readers, and there are many reasons why young readers have difficulty with reading. XXXXXX------NEED HELP WITH THESIS STATEMENT HERE PLEASE—(This paper will focus on the effects of low reading skills, some of the possible causes of reluctant and struggling readership...
The causes of reading difficulties often arise because of learning disabilities such as dyslexia, poor preparation before entering school, no value for literacy, low school attendance, insufficient reading instruction, and/or even the way students were taught to read in the early grades. The struggles that students “encounter in school can be seen as socially constructed-by the ways in which schools are organized and scheduled, by assumptions that are made about home life and school abilities, by a curriculum that is often devoid of connections to students’ lives, and by text that may be too difficult for students to read” (Hinchman, and Sheridan-Thomas166). Whatever the reason for the existence of the reading problem initially, by “the time a [student] is in the intermediate grades, there is good evidence that he will show continued reading g...
Dyslexia is a learning disability that causes reading difficulties in adults and children who may not have difficulties in other areas of life. Dyslexia is not caused by a vision problem, rather is caused by the brain (What Parents Need). Early studies drew attention towards a possible abnormality in specific stages of prenatal maturation of the cerebral cortex and it suggested a role of atypical development of brain asymmetries (Habib, 2000). Neuropsychological studies have provided evidence that the main mechanism leading to children’s learning difficulties is phonological in nature, a basic defect in segmenting and manipulating the phoneme constituents of speech (Habib, 2000).
Reading comprehension may be the most important skill for any student to acquire and is therefore an area of particular interest to educators. Without adequate comprehension skills, students are limited in their reading, analytical and occupational abilities. To many, including the student’s themselves, comprehension or “good reading” skills begin and end with simple decoding. It is thought that if students can ‘read’ and define the vocabulary they are reading, then they also comprehend what is read. True comprehension goes far beyond decoding, however. True comprehension requires visualization of a text, predicting events in the text, making inferences about the text and clarifying what is not understood about the text in order to lead to higher level thought processes such as personally connecting with the text. Reluctant, beginning or low-skilled readers often do not have the ability to visualize, predict, inference or clarify what they are reading and so they do not truly comprehend what the text is or what it means. Too often, these readers do not understand that “good readers” go through a series of mental processes in order to comprehend the text in ways which the low-level readers never even imagined. As educators, it is our job to show reluctant, beginning or low-skilled readers what these processes are and how they work in an attempt to boost the self-confidence and independence of these readers. One excellent way to set about this is through a strategy called a “Think Aloud”.
Some experts believe that the condition may be hereditary. Others suggest that it may be caused by differences in the structure of a person's brain and the way that brain functions (Dyslexia). The main sign of dyslexia is reading and writing letters in the wrong order. Some other signs are problems in organizing language (both written and spoken),memorizing, spelling, reading, writing, learning sounds and symbol as well and also difficulties in solving math problems (Ruth). Children with dyslexia have a normal or above-average intelligence but dyslexia can affect their learning, which may cause them to fall behind. There are many things that people can do to help with their abilities to learn with this disability. There is no medication to take for dyslexia but there is a treatment. Dyslexia is a life-long condition. With proper help people with dyslexia can learn to read and/or write well (Teacher Strategies for Dyslexics). The treatments for dyslexia are simple but the individual must be willing to work hard. Once a child is able to understand ways to cope with dyslexia, he or she will be then able to overcome the common mental disorder that come with this learning
It is a “reading world” we live in and students should be guaranteed every opportunity to succeed in this information driven society. Children today are overwhelmed with more reading material than ever before on billboard, television, the Internet and at school, causing reading to become a relevant and essential need in the life of every child (Lumpkin 1972). Being able to read has become the core of our information driven society. Yet, reading difficulties continue to plague the foundation of our education system creating a problem that only seems to be escalating. Hasselbring affirms that reading difficulties are a serious concern to our nation’s students claiming that, “as many as 20 percent of 17 year olds... [are] functionally illiterate and 44 percent of all high school students…[are] described as semi-illiterate”(2004). This is a harsh reality to face – a reality that stems from difficulties developed at the elementary level where reading complications arise and usually go unchecked. These reading difficulties are carri...
2.2 Reading with understanding strategies used to teach reading understanding skills that might influence poor reading understanding
Dyslexia is a specific learning disability that is characterized by difficulties with accurate and/or fluent word recognition and by poor spelling and decoding abilities. A lot of the time, these troubles are from a problem in the phonological element of communication that affects classroom instruction but not other cognitive capabilities. Some of the weak points of a person's brain with dyslexia deal with reading comprehension, note taking, and remembering what words look like.
Developmental dyslexia is a specific learning disability characterized by difficulty in learning to read. Some dyslexics also may have difficulty learning to write, to spell, and, sometimes, to speak or to work with numbers. We do not know for sure what causes dyslexia, but we do know that it affects children who are physically and emotionally healthy, academically capable, and who come from good home environments. In fact, many dyslexics have the advantages of excellent schools, high mental ability, and parents who are well-educated and value learning. Letter reversal (b for d, p for q) and number reversals (6for 9) and changed order of letters in words (tar for rat, quite for quiet) or numbers (12 for 21); difficulty in writing , persistent
There is no question that there is a need to identify and label those who have dyslexia in order to give them the educational and emotional tools they need to succeed. Yet it is also evident that it is highly important to acquire the diagnosis as early as early as possible. Marder (1992) discovered that children with learning disabilities are less likely than their peers to enroll in programs of higher education or complete high school. Early identification of predictors of reading disability in pre-reading children offers a chance to eliminate these significant personal and social costs.
Some difficult areas that one might see problems with include speaking, reading, and writing. Signs and symptoms of dyslexia associated with speaking include mispronunciations, problems following instructions, struggles with word retrieval, problems comprehending concepts related to word and sentence structures, and problems gaining vocabulary. Signs and symptoms of dyslexia associated with reading include word reversals, skipping of words, word replacements, trouble distinguishing between letters that look similar, and poor understanding of oral reading. Signs and symptoms of dyslexia associated with writing include exclusion of beginning or ending letters and problems with numeric cognition. Although there are many signs and symptoms for dyslexia, there is no specific pattern that effects everyone the same, but many times one might present multiple characteristics of the disorder. (SO
This means that without reading one’s daily life is affected in many ways. Palani (2012) explains that reading is a vital tool for the handover of knowledge and, reading skills promote positive academic activity. If students reading levels are low, it automatically implies difficulties in the acquisition of several other subjects. Deavers (2000) explains that pupils who miss the opportunity to enjoy and master reading, find it difficult to acquire good reading habits in their later years. Issa et al (2012) explains that there is an ultimate bond between good habits of reading and the academic performance of students. Reading is a complex activity that involves both word recognition and comprehension. Word recognition refers to the process of distinguishing how written symbols correspond to one’s spoken language. Comprehension is a process