Children’s Learning Difficulties
Dealing with the problem of learning difficulties in children's books, Theresa Breslin's excellent book “Whispers in the Graveyard (1994)” is chosen to represent children's dyslexia while “The Turbulent Term of Tyke Tiler (1977)” written by Gene Kemp is the other selection related to a late developer. Based on the research, there are some features often identified in children with learning difficulties: being teased or bullied, misbehaviours, and the lack of self-confidence (Prater, 2003: 58). These three elements can be found in both cases, indicating these features are general situations that happen in children’s school times.
The protagonist Solomon in “Whispers in the Graveyard” is portrayed as a dyslexic boy who is having reading disabilities. He cannot distinguish letters and numbers; reading and writing seem to be impossible works for him. His general education teacher does not understand him well, keeping teasing him in class. Knowing his difference with other students, Solomon develops a method to “read” books. He gets his
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classmates to read him the sentences and then memorises them, or just using the illustrations to remember the context. Ms Talmur finds out his strategy of learning and keeps encouraging Solomon to learn by saying Solomon is a clever boy (Kemp, 1994: 41). Rather than being encouraged, Solomon acts furiously by smashing her personal belongings on the floor, feeling shameful and irritated because he thinks Ms Talmur takes pity on him. In Solomon’s case, his lack of self-confidence can be imputed to his former teacher’s behaviour that he teases and bullies his student. Besides, Solomon is also a pathetic figure who misunderstands Ms Talmur’s kindness and misbehaves, trying to hide his poor academic performances. All these events match the research results of how children with learning difficulties behave in their school lives. As to the character Danny Price in “The Turbulent Term of Tyke Tiler,” he has a problem of speech impediment.
Different from the protagonist Tyke Tiler, he is much less intellectual and identified as a late developer from his teachers. This book describes the friendship between Tyke and Danny and the attempts of Tyke to prevent the troubles of Danny's irresponsible actions (Cross, 1979: 136). As a gentle-natured boy with learning difficulties and is mildly kleptomaniac, Danny is often abused by his classmates Martin Kneeshaw and Kevin Simms. They even plant stolen goods on Danny, bullying him when his protector Tyke is sick and off school. Timid Danny is so afraid and runs away to hide from school when he is falsely slandered as a thief. Although readers may think Danny is a coward who always intends to evade troubles, he really is at a disadvantage who does need Tyke's help (Cross, 1979:
136). Different from Solomon’s story that he is portrayed as the protagonist and used first person perspective, Danny is not described in first person narrative in the book. As a reader, we look into Danny’s life through his best friend Tyke’s eyes. Luckily, as a sensitive girl and Danny’s best friend, Tyke understands Danny very well (or we can tell that she is the one who knows him entirely in the world). Portrayed as a classic figure with learning difficulties, Danny is viewed as a trouble maker and an innocent child who is always bullied by strong and mean classmates. Having a friend to rely on, Danny refuses to face his troubles and always gets his problems solved by Tyke. The most vivid picture of his characteristic can be seen when he is hiding in his safe place and waiting for Tyke to find him. He also appears to be shielded by the teachers' awareness that he is in need of special care and child guidance when Tyke is caught while trying to return the money Danny stole from their classmate. “You see, Bonfire took Danny home to tea to have a cosy chat with him, and he had ice cream and jelly and cakes and sausages, while I was kept in after school, writing lines for Mrs Somers, the old ratbag (Kemp, 1977: 33).” Although it is an injustice result for Tyke, she is still willing to protect her best friend. Being a child with learning difficulties, Danny grows readers' compassion and makes us think more about the situations children are encountered.
Doctors B. Eide and F. Eide have a private practice in neurolearning in the pacific northwest. They list their relevant memberships in the International Dyslexia Association, and the Learning Disabilities Association of America. As of the publishing date they are board members for SENG (Supporting Emotional Needs of the Gifted). The doctors also travel as lecturers on the subject. The novel approach taken in their book, The Dyslexic Advantage, is that rather than viewing dyslexia as only a learning deficiency they highlight what might be considered its talents and skills. Using their many years of experience both in education and science, they focus on bridging what is known about the physical makeup of a dyslexic brain with what they have
Our abilities are often what we use to define our worth. Whether we fail or succeed our future lifestyle is open to our discretion; however, we fail to realize outside influences have the ability to cripple us. One way in which this is true is through the education system. If we fail to meet the average or typical standards of others we often mark ourselves as useless. Children, and adults, facing adversity in literacy see this as a daily struggle no matter what their individual disability is. In “Dyslexia” by Eileen Simpson, and “The Library Card”, by Richard Wright, details are what define their disabilities to their audiences. Through the descriptions presented in “Dyslexia”, we have the ability to place ourselves into Simpson’s point of view; meanwhile, in “The Library Card” it is easy to draw a connection between this story and the struggle of those in slave narratives such as the one written by Frederick Douglass.
“The Extraordinary Characteristics of Dyslexia” by Jake Horner is a definition essay on what it means to be dyslexic. He incorporates his own life story to support his definition and his ideas in his essay. Dyslexia is looked upon as a disability that should be treated even though dyslexia has to do with the way your brain processes the information given to you. Horner includes two types of thinkers, spatial and linear. Spatial thinkers are the dyslexic people in the world, and linear thinkers are the non-dyslexic people in the world (Horner 493). As I read this essay, it made me reflect.
The author read books which his peers thought were “too hard” for him but that was how he became a strong reader. He realized teachers made books a public humiliation for children who had to read aloud.
Robert Buck once said, “If children can’t learn the way we teach, then we have to teach the way they learn.” The Wilson Language Program has become disclosed to amplify this mentality. Dyslexia is a common disease among ten to fifteen percent of the United States, where a human being has trouble in learning to read or interpret words, letters, and other symbols. Programs are reaching out to try to terminate as much distress of dyslexia as possible. Up and coming programs, The Wilson Language Program for example, are making their best efforts to start working with children from a young age with the slight signs of this common problem. Catching dyslexia earlier in life brings more assurance that the child’s future will have little to no setbacks or disadvantages for success. In order to enhance the regressive literacy of dyslexic individuals, the Wilson Language Program is progressively being implemented into regular schooling to ensure that reading standards are met, through structure, hours of research, copious practice, and strong evidence.
The Graveyard Book is a tale about Nobody (Bod) Owens, a human boy who was raised in a graveyard. Bod came to the graveyard as an infant, escaping his death by The Man Jack. Adopted by the ghosts of the deceased Mr. and Mrs. Owens, Bod is raised among the dead who inhabit the graveyard. Taught by the spirits and given Freedom of the Graveyard, he learns special talents like “fading” in order to live in the graveyard comfortably and undetected, safe from the man Jack, who is still searching for him. On his journey through childhood and adolescence, he befriends a human girl named Scarlett, helps the spirit of a witch, opens and subsequently escapes a ghoul-gate, dances the Macabray (a dance of the dead), and even attends school outside of the
This essay shows us how determined, beyond all measures, Fredrick Douglas was to learn to read and write. Douglas’s primary reading source came from his mistress. Prior to her adopting her husband’s malevolent ways, she taught Douglas the alphabet, and since then opened a door filled with eagerness for him to learn more, even if it was without her help. “Mistress, in teaching me the alphabet, had given me the inch, and no precaution could prevent me from taking the ell.” (Douglas, 2004, p101). Fredrick continued his voracious reading of many books, and sneaking of newspapers in the Masters house. He also used friendship to facilitate in his learning to read journey. “The plan which I adopted and the one by which I was most successful, was
Dyslexia is one of several distinct learning disabilities. It is a specific language based disorder of constitutional origin characterized by difficulties in single word decoding, usually reflecting insufficient phonological processing abilities. These difficulties in single word decoding are often unexpected in relation to age and other cognitive and academic abilities; they are not the result of generalized developmental disability or sensory impairment. Dyslexia is manifest by ...
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...
Pauc, R. (2010). The Learning Disability Myth: Understanding and overcoming your child’s diagnosis of Dyspraxia, Dyslexia, Tourette’s syndrome of childhood, ADD, ADHD, or OCD. London: Virgin Books.
Next, we need to tackle the many misconceptions associated with dyslexia. Many people acquaint having a learning disability as having a disease. This is completely false, dyslexia is not a disease, and therefore there is no magic pill that can cure it. Actually, there is no cure and it cannot be outgrown. According to the journey into dyslexia, “it is a lifelong issue.” However, it is manageable with the assistance and resources, those with dyslexia can continue to keep up and retain their grade level in
The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman was a wonderful book with a lot of themes, but one theme that stood out to me was love and compassion because Bod's family was murdered, he was just a baby he had no family, no one to take care of him but Mrs.Owens stepped up and took the responsibility of taking care of him and loving Bod. Bod created a family in the graveyard with Mrs.Owens,Mr Owens, Silas and their all ghost besides Silas, who was a Vampire and he is the only one who could get out of the graveyard. All of them together guarded him and made sure he was safe and sound. How nobody Came to the Graveyard In this essay, chapter 1 shows Love and compassion is being shown because this is the chapter where it all started, this is where Bod was forced to not have a family anymore but with all that negativity into something positive came out of it.
The start of this short story consisted of the story of a body. This body was the grandfather of Miranda and Paul. Their grandfathers widow exhumed his body three times, moving the body all over from Texas to Louisiana. She wanted his body with her constantly. When the grandmother passed she was burried next to his body. The grounds they were burried on soon were sold. The bodies were dug up and moved left were they once layed were empty graves. One day, Miranda and Paul went out to go hunting. They stumbled upon the empty graves. When they saw them they layed down their guns and hopped the fence wanting to seach for treasure. After hopping the fence, they both climbed in the graves and dug around on the dirt. Miranda
Analysis of The March of the Dead by Robert W. Service, The Souls of the Slain by Thomas Hardy and Slain by T.W.H. Cross
Fyodor Dostoyevsky creates an uncommon form of a true story in his book, The House of the Dead. He does this by providing an accurate point-of-view from what has happened to him when he was in a Siberian military prison serving four years of his life. Dostoyevsky was put in prison because he was part of the Petrashevsky Circle, a group of writers that got together to oppose writings of western philosophy. ¬¬All of the writers took part of this knowing it was illegal and all of them got caught, including Dostoyevsky himself.