What is Dyslexia? Dyslexia is a specific learning disability that is neurobiological 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. Secondary consequences may include problems in reading comprehension and reduced reading experience that can impede growth of vocabulary and background knowledge, as well as deficient numeracy, notational skills, motor function and organizational skills.
No two brains are alike. This cerebro-diversity, which refers to a collective neural heterogeneity of humans and to the individual strengths and weakness seen in us, is an asset. The brain of a dyslexic has subtle distinguishing properties seen in neuroimaging and cognitive studies. The unique organization of the dyslexic brain is independent of intelligence.
Since dyslexia has a neurobiological base, the neural circuit reflects both the biological and environmental influences. Hence the importance of a vibrant educational environment. The dyslexic brain is at a disadvantage in today’s school and social environment. The schools do not serve our children, instead they are labeled.
Mission: Build learning skills, not just repair a faulty learning pattern
Ways to enhance the learning potential of a poor performer in school:
The major predicament under the umbrella term of Learning Disabilities that affects learning in school children is developmental dyslexia. In developmental dyslexia the progress between word reading and higher order comprehension processes is not uniform. The difficulties faced by these students could be due to deficits in making letter/sound connections, grasping the phonological process, or reading fluency which is reflected as poor reading rate and/or lack of automaticity for common sight words.
Not all learning disabilities are reading disabilities and not all reading disabilities are dyslexia. Dyslexia is a language disorder but not all language disorders are dyslexia.
As teachers or instructors, we can
- Improve the level of performance
- Teach alternate techniques or materials
- Modify instructions
Tactics:
- Multisensory Teaching Approach
- Before alpha
- Strategies Intervention Model
- Instrumental Enrichment Programme
- Educational Therapy from NILD
Multisensory Teaching Approach:
The multi-sensory approach helps to establish automatic memory for students who have difficulty in language learning. The Orton –Gillingham method was developed by Dr. Samuel T Orton, a professor of Neuropsychiatry and Neuro-pathology at Columbia University, and Anna Gillingham, an educator and psychologist.
Children with dyslexia often exhibit weaknesses in auditory and/or visual processing. They may have weak phonemic awareness. They have difficulty rhyming words, blending sounds to make words, or segmenting words into sounds. They may also have difficulty acquiring a sight vocabulary. When taught by a multisensory approach, children have the advantage of learning alphabetic patterns and words by utilizing three pathways – visual, auditory and kinesthetic. Orton believed that teaching “the fundamentals of phonic association with letter forms both visually presented and reproduced in writing, until the correct associations were built up” would benefit students of all ages.
The approach is a phonetic, linguistic method used to teach reading, writing and spelling. It is a structured programme that is sequential and cumulative, leading naturally and logically into the next level. The tasks increase in difficulty gradually. The step-by-step progression builds in competence and mastery. Letter- sound association are first taught to the student, and this is followed by forming meaningful words. The letters are simultaneously introduced through all three modalities of touch, sight and hearing. This approach reduces the weaknesses by integrating all learning pathways.
Learning Strategies:
This programme, developed by the Kansas University Centre for Research on Learning, is designed with an aim to enable students to learn study skills and content material effectively. Each strategy under the system is task specific and is designed to meet specific curriculum demands. It enhances the skills required to gain information, to organize, store and retrieve information and finally express it effectively in writing. The focus is to teach students how to learn and how to perform academic, social, or job-related tasks effectively and efficiently, mastering the strategy and then learning to generalize it to other situations and adapting it to meet the required demand.
Instrumental Enrichment Programme:
Instrumental enrichment (IE) is a thinking skills programme developed by Prof. Feuerstein, a psychologist from Israel. IE improves how a person thinks. This programme is based on the hypothesis that people are not born with fixed intelligence; individuals have the potential to change or “be modified” when they are provided with the right kind of interaction. This interaction or “Mediated Learning,” helps the learner to develop the art of how to learn and become an independent learner. The instruments are paper and pencil exercises and each instruments deals with a different type of thinking skill. The tasks vary in their level of complexity and modality (written or graphic). The programme helps the students to think clearly and precisely, motivate themselves, improve their fund of vocabulary, improve academic skills, gain confidence and become qualitative and independent learners.
Educational Therapy:
Educational therapy techniques, developed by NILD, USA, utilize interactive language and dynamic intervention. This approach encompasses mediated learning, questioning, feedback, and guided practice. It develops core academic skills and fosters higher-order processing. Independent thinking is cultivated, along with the practical application of these skills in classroom and real-life settings.