Dyslexia Essay

Dyslexia is a learning disability effecting thousands of students in schools across the world. As with many learning disabilities, dyslexia manifests itself differently in every person. Due to this inconsistency, many people feel it should not be qualified as a learning disability, but because so many students continue to have to overcome their dyslexia it continues to be diagnosed. Thankfully when teachers are aware of their students’ having dyslexia they are able to put supports in to aid their students’ learning. Many strategies exist to aid dyslexic people in carrying out their everyday tasks.

Due to dyslexia’s prevalence in schools, there have many studies conducted to discover the causes of it. Unfortunately, even with numerous studies

According to dyslexic researchers, Emma Sumner, Vincent Connelly, and Anna L. Barnett dyslexia shows it itself via, “ …significant difficulties with acquiring orthographic knowledge and [children with dyslexia] show poor phonological skills” (Sumner, Connelly, and Barnett, 2013). Owen Barden, another dyslexia researcher states, “Dyslexia is a specific learning difficulty which mainly affects the development of literacy and language related skills… It is characterized by difficulties with phonological processing, rapid naming, working memory, processing speed, and the automatic development of skills that may not match up to an individual’s other cognitive abilities” (Barden, 2014). Finally, according to the International Dyslexia Association the formal definition of dyslexia is, “Dyslexia is a specific learning disability that is neurological in origin. It is characterized by difficulties with accurate and/or fluent word recognition and by poor spelling and decoding abilities. These difficulties typically result from a deficit in the phonological component of language that is often unexpected in relation to other cognitive abilities and the provision of effective classroom instruction” (International Dyslexia Association). Another definition for dyslexia, according to Emma Sumner et la, dyslexic researchers, is, “ Children with dyslexia have significant

As with many students with learning disabilities, students with dyslexia need more time. By giving students time to think about their work they are better able to complete it well. One suggestion is to “require the student to wait 5 minutes before starting a writing task” (Sparking new ideas for your classroom, 2017). During this time students should be thinking about what they will write, this way the student has begun to think about the assignment before completing it. Another idea is, during verbal questioning, to “State your question, pause, and then call on the dyslexic student first” (Accommodations are key to the success of dyslexics in school, 2017). Students with dyslexia might have a harder time recalling answers to the questions posed to them, so by calling on them first their answers are not taken by another student who has thought of multiple answers in the same amount of time. To go along with giving ample time for students with dyslexia to complete tasks, also assign projects with enough time for students to turn in drafts for feedback. If students are given assignments a few weeks before the due date then they are able to spend quality time working through their ideas (Accommodation are key to the success of dyslexics in school). Often it will take students with dyslexia more time to complete writing assignments because they pause more often while