What is dyslexia?
- Dyslexia is a specific learning disability that is neurologic in origin. 60-80% of students with an identified specific learning disability have that disability in the area of reading and language.
- Difficulties can occur in reading, writing, spelling, speaking, processing oral and written language, word retrieval, mathematics
- 1 out of every 5-10 students has some degree of dyslexia
- These problems exist in spite of conventional instruction, adequate intelligence and socio-cultural opportunities
- Dyslexia may run in families
- Dyslexia is characterized by difficulties with
- decoding (symbol-sound) and encoding (sound-symbol)
- accurate and/or fluent word recognition
Characteristics of Individuals with Dyslexia
- Difficulties with decoding and/or reading comprehension
- Misshapen, laborious handwriting
- Extreme spelling difficulties
- Poor written composition
- Difficulties in sequencing and following directions
- Difficulty in recalling names of people, places and/or events
- Poor oral expression
- Difficulty with copying at near and/or far point
- Disorganization in school and at home
- Difficulties with time and space
- Slowness in completing tasks
- Poor performance on tests
- Inconsistencies in performance
Decoding, encoding and fluency are affected.
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Deficits in the phonological component of language
- awareness that “sounds make words”
ability to hear sounds, blend and segment sounds, isolate sounds and rhyme - deficits in the orthographic component of language
knowledge of the letter patterns representing sounds
(ex.: ‘a’ ,‘ai’, ‘a_e’, ‘ay’, ‘ei’, ‘eigh’, ‘ey’ all have the sound of long ā) - fluency, accuracy and comprehension difficulties result when the student lacks phonemic awareness skills and decoding/encoding automaticity
