Dyslexia

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CONTENTS
What is Dyslexia?
How did my child get dyslexia?
What about letter reversals?
Dyslexia Basics
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Gov't Assistance
 Help ,where to find it.
What about other Parents
Local Parent Groups
How to speak to your childs teachers
links to website training/education
The diagnosis
Testing Available
New studies
Reading material

Adults with Dyslexia



How to cope
The psycological impact
Humor in the situation
Why Me? or my child


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What is Dyslexia?
'Dys' means 'difficulty' and 'lexia 'means 'words'. Dyslexia is a disorder that affects millions of people all over the world. It is one type of specific learning disability that affects a person's ability to read.

A Dyslexic learns at his/her own level and pace, and typically excels in one or more other areaa. Some of their experiences include difficulties with concentration, perception, memory, verbal skills, abstract reasoning, hand-eye coordination, social adjustment (low self-esteem is a commonly observed behavioral characteristic), poor grades, and underachievement. Often, people with Dyslexia are considered to be lazy, rebellious, class clowns, unmotivated, misfits, or of low intelligence. These misconceptions, without understanding dyslexia's effect on the person's life, lead to rejection, isolation, feelings of inferiority, discouragement, and low self-esteem.

From the International Dyslexia Asscociation:


What is dyslexia?
"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 variable difficulty with different forms of language, often including, in addition to problems reading, a conspicuous problem with acquiring proficiency in writing and spelling.
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Can individuals who are dyslexic learn to read?
"Yes, if children who are dyslexic get effective phonological training in Kindergarten and 1st grade, they will have significantly fewer problems in learning to read at grade level than do children who are not identified or helped until 3rd grade." For those who have not acquired phonological training by first grade, software programs, such as the Language Tune-Up Kit, is a highly effective approach that teaches the dyslexic student how to read.

"74% of the children who are poor readers in 3rd grade remain poor readers in the 9th grade. This means that they can't read well as adults.

"It is never too late for individuals with dyslexia to learn to read, process and express information more efficiently. Research shows that programs utilizing multisensory structured language techniques can help children and adults learn to read.

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How did my child get dyslexia?

"The causes for dyslexia are neurobiological and genetic. Research shows that individuals inherit the genetic links for dyslexia. One of your immediate family members (parent, spouse, aunt, uncle, brother, or sister) is dyslexic. More than one of your children could also be dyslexic."
From the Learning Disabilities Association of America:

"Many children, including children with learning disabilities, do not learn to read in the first grade because they lack the basic readiness skills or the school's method is not appropriate for them. They may be allowed to fail for two or three years without effective intervention. Unless these children are identified early and appropriate instruction provided they may be passed along in school until basic reading instruction is no longer available. Quality reading programs must be available across the age range if we are to significantly reduce illiteracy. While accommodations may be appropriate, they must not be substituted for direct reading instruction.
"Common educational practice is for schools and adult literacy programs to adopt a single method for teaching reading, with the assumption that it will be effective for everyone. Research indicates that some students with learning disabilities need a multisensory phonics approach, with instruction in phonological awareness; some students need a more meaning-based approach; while other students need interventions to address comprehension problems. For many students a combination of approaches is effective." Software programs, such as the Language Tune-Up Kit, are an effective aid in addressing the needs of teachers and parents who wish to provide remedial reading instruction.

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Letter Reversals
Letter reversals are not common to all who have learning challenges. However, recent research suggests that dairy products are a common cause of this situation. Students who consume cow's milk, cheese and ice cream often exhibit the symptoms of letter reversals, confusing the letters "b", "d", and "p" with one another.

The solution to letter reversals? Eliminate dairy products from the student's diet for two weeks. Substitute a product like "Rice Dream", which is a cow's milk substitute based on rice, not soy. It contians vitamin B12, which helps maintain healthy nerve cells and red blood cells, and is also needed to make DNA, the genetic material in all cells. If a noticeable change has occurred after two weeks of this test, your student should eliminate dairy products from his or her diet, and may be allergic to dairy products as a whole.

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Dyslexia Basics
The first president of the United States, George Washington, was dyslexic. So was Albert Einstein. Dyslexia, which comes from the Greek meaning “difficulty with words,” is a language-based learning disability. It affects the ability of a person — even one with above-average intelligence — to read, write and spell. Dyslexics also may have problems putting things in order, following instructions, and differentiating between left and right.
Thought to be genetic and hereditary, some forms of dyslexia can also be caused when hearing problems at an early age affect a person’s language comprehension skills. Doctors still don’t know for sure what causes dyslexia, but they say there is a correlation between left-handedness and the learning disability in many families. It is estimated that one in 10 children is dyslexic. And more males are affected than females.

Dyslexic children can usually succeed at the same levels as others once they are diagnosed and start receiving extra support and attention at home and school. Children suspected of suffering from dyslexia undergo a series of reading, spelling, drawing, math and intelligence tests, as well as visual tests, laterality tests, visual scanning tests, sequencing and other tests to examine which brain functions are interfering with their acquisition of normal school learning.

Dyslexia also affects adults, but those who receive attention early in life often learn how to compensate for the disability by adulthood.

Dyslexic adults, however, tend to continue to have difficulty with language skills throughout their lives. But a dyslexia diagnosis is no barrier to success.

Some famous dyslexics include children’s book writer Hans Christian Anderson, U.S. Army General George Patton, Italian artist, painter and inventor Leonardo Da Vinci, telephone inventor Alexander Graham Bell and actors Whoopi Goldberg, Henri Winkler and Tom Cruise. — By Ephrat Livni, ABCNEWS.com - Sep. 12, 2002