History of Dyslexia
Dyslexia was coined by Berlin, a German ophthalmologist in 1887. Dys means bad
from the Greek language; the root lexia is also from Greek relating to the written
word. In 1896 a British ophthalmologist, Hinshelwood, called Dyslexia “wordblindness”. Dyslexia was not defined more until 1925, when Dr. Samuel T. Orton
further defined Dyslexia in regards to letter reversal errors. He and emphasized that
dyslexic persons’ intelligence test scores do not correlate with their reading ability. In
1936, Dr. Orton and Ms. Anna Gillingham established the “Orton-Gillingham
approach”, which referred to their structured, sequential and multi-sensory
techniques. Programs incorporating the Orton-Gillingham approach are widely used
today by therapist and teachers who are specifically trained in this approach.
Dr.Orton, well-respected in his field, founded the Orton Dyslexia Society to promote
advocacy programs for Dyslexia. Today, the society is known as The International
Dyslexia Association.
Dyslexia: As Defined By School Systems
Dyslexia is a Specific Learning Disability that is neurobiological in origin. Schools
refer to Dyslexia as a “Specific Learning Disability” in their Individual Educational
Program (IEP). It is important to understand, however, that Learning Disability is
not a specific term. Learning disability is used for legislative, financial, and
educational purposes only. Learning Disability means a disorder in one or more of
the basic processes involved in understanding spoken or written language. It may
show up as a problem in listening, thinking, speaking, reading, writing, or spelling or
in a person’s ability to do math, despite intelligence. I prefer to suggest that it is
more of a diversity in learning styles.
Understanding Dyslexia Testing In Schools
Schools test only for “Learning Disabilities,” not specifically for Dyslexia. Only the
most severely Dyslexic children meet the criteria for a Learning Disability, or LD, and
get help through the Special Education system. According to the National Institutes
of Health’s research, 80 percent of children with a Learning Disability actually have
Dyslexia. Dyslexia is by far the most common learning disability. But only one in ten
children with Dyslexia qualifies for special education services. Dyslexic children who
do not qualify have a high chance for “falling through the cracks.” They’re in the
regular classroom, struggling far more than they should, and they’re at extremely
high risk for dropping out of school later. In public schools, you have the legal right
to an Individualized Education Program (IEP) if your child is found to have Dyslexia.
You do not have this legal cover in a private school; each individual private school
makes its own decisions as to how they will help those with learning disabilities.
There are the main challenges for a Dyslexic student:
Reading-Difficulties with accurate and/or fluent word recognition, decoding
(phonetics) of words, reading comprehension and slow growth of vocabulary.
Spelling-Visual memory weaknesses prevent a child from having a strong memory of
what many common words look like. Using multi-sensory materials and techniques is
the most effective help with spelling. 96% of the English words are regular. A
Dyslexic’s spelling word list should be very limited and the use of computers for
spelling word practice and tests is encouraged. Spelling words forwards and
backwards is a big help for long-term memory of spelling words. Please do not tell a
Dyslexic to use the dictionary to find the spelling of a word.
Sentence punctuation- Often, Dyslexic children omit ending punctuation and
capitals on words. For practice, type a paragraph with 5-6 lines in it on the
computer. Have your student add the punctuation and capitalization.
Handwriting-with their poor memory, dyslexic children experience difficulty
memorizing the sequence of movements which make up the writing of each letter. If
this problem is severe, it is called “Dysgraphia.” A Dyslexic’s handwriting should be
graded only on the content, rather than on the handwriting. The best help for
improving handwriting and memorizing spellings is to teach Dyslexic students cursive
handwriting and the use of a word processor is suggested.
Sequencing of Ideas-Telling a story in the right order or explaining what happened
can cause problems. Dyslexic older students need to be taught to use a rough
outline before writing an essay. At first, this will be time-consuming, but it will
results in confident writers.
Plenty of children struggle with reading. In a few months of receiving extra help,
they usually catch up. A child with Dyslexia has enduring and unexpected difficulty
with reading, spelling, and writing. A dyslexic child, although bright, will not just
“get it” after receiving extra help through traditional methods such a tutoring. A
Dyslexic person needs a different kind of help over a longer period of time.
Traditional instructional programs are not appropriate for people with Dyslexia.
Dyslexics do not process language as others do. They need instruction that is clear,
organized, and multi-sensory. Along with these techniques, the structure of written
English is taught-sounds (phonemes), prefixes, suffixes, roots and common spelling
rules. There are many good programs incorporating the Orton-Gillingham
Multisensory approach to learning. Some of the most popular Orton-Gillingham
programs include: The Stevenson Language, The Recipe for Reading, Spalding The
Writing Road To Reading, Wilson, Herman Method, Slingerland, and Alphabetic
Phonics.
All Orton-Gillingham programs have these features in common:
Phonology (study of sounds) and Phonological Awareness -the ability to
segment words into their component sounds.
Sound-symbol association-mapping speech to print
Syllable instruction- teaching of the six basic types of syllables in the English
language and the rules that dictate syllable division.
Morphology-the study of how roots and affixes combine to form words and
convey meaning.
Syntax-the set of rules which dictate the sequence of words in a sentence; this
includes grammar and the mechanics of language
Multi-sensory-using all
kinesthetic-tactile)
learning
pathways in
the brain (visual, auditory,
Systematic and cumulative-material is organized in the logical order of the
language beginning with the simplest and progressing to the more difficult
Direct Instruction-direct teaching of all concepts with continuous studentteacher interaction.
Diagnostic teaching- the teaching plan is based on continuous monitoring of the
student’s needs. Everything taught is learned so that it becomes automatic
before moving forward to the next step.
Synthetic and analytic instruction-Synthetic is used in spelling and writing
(which are harder than reading) and they require combining the parts of
language to form whole words; reading requires the analytic instruction which
teaches how reading can be broken down into its component parts.
Types of Dyslexia
Did you know that psychologists even categorize subtypes of Dyslexia. Dyslexia is
now understood to be seen as a heterogeneous, specific, reading dysfunction, with
each type having its own distinct coding pattern. A brief description of these types
of Dyslexia follows:
Dysnemkinesia: (Motor) Reversal problems in writing and printing. This literally
means “poor memory of motor movements and this type involves number
and letter reversals. It involves the frontal lobe, left hemisphere for right
handed and right hemisphere for left handed. This Dyslexia is much less
frequent than either Dyseidesia or Dysphonesia. The majority of Dyslexic
individuals do not have a problem with letter reversals. Scholastic
handicapping is relatively insignificant in students with this condition
compared with those with Dysphonesia or Dyseidesia. This Dyslexia is easily
cured in most cases. Dysgraphia, difficulty with writing, and Dyspraxia,
difficulty with motor skills, are names synonymous with Dysnemkinesia.
Dysphonesia: (Auditory) This Dyslexic has lots of trouble with phonics in reading
(decoding) and spelling (encoding) of words. It is also called Phonological,
Dysphonetic or Auditory Dyslexia. In Dysphonesia, students are able to spell
words by sight but they are poor at phonetic spelling of words. Students
should use the Orton-Gillingham method which is a multisensory approach
involving integration of the visual, auditory, tactile, and kinesthetic senses in
a specialized structured program.
Dyseidesia: (Visual) Sight word problems in reading (decoding) and spelling
(encoding) of words. This type of Dyslexia is very genetic. Students slowly
sound out words, but they have learned to read mostly by sight and they
struggle with irregular words (said, who, any). They spell phonetically. This
Dyslexia occurs in the left hemisphere for right-handed persons and some
left-handed persons have linguistic functions in the right hemisphere of the
brain. They rely heavily on time-consuming word-attack skills to decode
words so their reading is slow and laborious. Phonetic decoding of unfamiliar
or unknown words is poor; the dysphonetic individual has difficulty
syllabicating, sounding out, and blending the sounds to decode the word.
Word substitutions, such as home for house, are common. Students with this
type of Dyslexia learn to read and spell the best by the sight word approach,
also called the look/say method. An Orton-Gillingham method is suggested for
this type of Dyslexia, too. Other names for this Dyslexia are Surface Dyslexia
or Visual Dyslexia.
Dysphoneidesia: A combination of 2+3; this is also called Mixed Dyslexia. This is
a combination of phonological and visual Dyslexia. These students have
severe deficits in reading as well as visual motor integration and working
memory.
Dysnemkinphonesia: A combination of 1+2;
Dysnemkineidesia: A combination of 1+3
Dysnemkinphoneidesia: A combination of 1+2+3
Dysnomia: This is also named Semantic Dyslexia or Naming-Speed Dyslexia. The
student has trouble recalling the correct word so they like to say “the thingy”
when they cannot retrieve the word quickly.
Double Deficit: This is when a student has both Dysphonesia or Phonological
Dyslexia and Dysnomia.
Dyscalculia- this means difficulty with Math.