Have you ever wondered if you, your child, or a friend might be dyslexic? Dyslexia is a condition that is inherited, and ranges from mild to severe. A dyslexic person's brain does not function in the same way an average person's brain functions. The weakness is related to the processing of language. The word dyslexia comes from the Greek words dys (difficulty) and lexia (language).
Dyslexia is not simply a reading disorder. Dyslexics may also have difficulty with writing, spelling, pronunciation, and mathematics. On the other hand, many dyslexics have strong creative and artistic skills.
In some countries, children who have signs of dyslexia are tested around the age of 8-10. Teachers may notice that a student's letter reversals are not improving, or that a student's spelling and penmanship is extremely poor. These students may also have poor attention spans in some subjects. Students who are diagnosed with dyslexia, may receive extra help. For example, dyslexics may be allowed to listen to audiobooks, or record their teacher's voices.
In other countries, children are never tested. Some are placed in special classrooms with others students who have various learning difficulties or physical disabilities. Others are not allowed to go to school at all. They are never given the opportunity to prove that they can learn in a different way.
How are students with learning difficulties treated/taught in your country? Do you know someone with dyslexia? If you're a teacher, have you ever taught a student with dyslexia or another learning difficulty?
Please share your thoughts and stories in the comments below.
dyslexic: a person who has dyslexia (noun); of or related to dyslexia (adjective)
dyslexia: a brain disorder that results in difficulties in language processing (noun)
Comments
@Hardi Thank you for opening up to us about your learning difficulty. You have helped me learn so much about dysgraphia. You are not the only person who has to look up words like necessary! I often double check words that have double letters. I've never been a great speller. Sometimes it helps if I say the word out loud to myself how it would sound phonetically (fon-et-ik-al-lee). (For example I have trouble with "definitely" but if I remember the word "finite" it helps.)
Thank you, Tara! Your interview with Mr. Taylor is not only interesting, it's inspiring! I learned many things from his experience, and how he accepted his condition. Most importantly, how he linked music to overcome his struggles.
The interview was fantastic! It's natural! I hope a lot of EC members would be inspired by this video. By the way, Mr. Bimal shared your video clip in our gallery yesterday. : )
Here you will find an interview that I did with Jonathan Taylor. I hope you find it interesting! Thanks.
@ Sister
Great job for sharing your beautiful voice! Congratulations, for sharing your first recording! Thanks for introducing yourself, you made a huge step in becoming a better English speaker. Don't worry about making mistakes, we are all here to improve our English. I hope to hear more of you in the coming days.
See you around,
Your bro
Wow, Tara! This is a very informative blog. I didn't know that there's an existing condition like dyslexia. I learned a lot about your blog. Thanks for sharing! : )
Mitran: Practice make excellence. Come on with it my buddy!
@Mitran Did I pronounce your name properly?
Audio and voice recording >>
introduce
babies
nice
Good to hear I could be little useful. :)
Since u said it was interesting, I write more. :P
U must be careful, when you say that my post was interesting. Once I get to move, I'm difficult to stop. U don't want your blog to get floated with my blabbering. :P
My dysgraphia might not be very classical case, so it might not help to understand the dysgraphia too well, but as a example of a person with the writing difficulties. I might be a good specimen. :P
When I was first visited the specialist(speech therapist). The specialist said to my dad to bring me to psychiatrist, since on her opinion it was psychical problem. So we went to psychiatrist with recommendations from therapist, but for my surprise the psychiatrist was not interested about my writing at all. She only asked to you hear some voices inside your head? Is someone who actually doesn't exist tell you to do something.. Do you sometime see something, that u know, that actually doesn't exist... I did not hear any voices in my head, so I told I don't.. She said to come back next week.. And then next week she again asked the same questions, but I don't remember having any discussion about my writing problems with her. :P So, maybe specialists could not determine the exact problem I had.. But after a while I have told, that I have dysgraphia...
Most I actually liked to go psychologist. The psychologist was nice lady not like most of the speech therapists were. I went something like 3 times to psychologist. But I think I was not too interesting to her.. too normal. So they stopped my visits to there, saying, that I don't need it.
.....People have difficulties to take you seriously, when you make such writing mistakes like I do. They think a person who makes such errors, must be something.... below.. maybe idiot. They look down to you. Especially Estonians. I almost don't use Estonian social media in Internet. Sometime when I post some comment to some Estonian on-line news. Then sometime, some other readers start picking about my writing. They may say, "First learn how to write, then come back." They may also ad "It's embarrassing to read." Or if I write something that they actually like, they may just say "Well, it's all very interesting and true, but you make so stupid mistakes, that it's hard to take you seriously." Well, although I know to expect such things. It still makes me boil with madness.. They usually don't pick fight with foreigns, who make typical mistakes for foreigner Estonian language learners. They understand that foreigns might have difficulties with Estonian grammar. But when someone like me, switch "p" with "b", they don't understand how it's possible..
It's difficult to find those mistakes by my self, when rereading a text, that I just wrote. I could find syntax errors. But the switches between those specific consonants (kgc, pb, td). It is hard to notice them in fresh work, that is still fresh in your head. When read in next day, I usually notice the errors. But not always.
In English I have for now memorized. "pig" and "big" So I pay attention in there when writting.. I likely don't switch between those two words anymore. also "cross" and "gross", I already know, which is which, without dictionary's help.. But since I don't know correct English pronunciation. there's still many words that I need dictionary help to know which character I need to use. have no The spell checker won't help in there. For spell checker, both "P" and "b" would be correct..
But I think, that I already write much better in English than in Estonian. Or maybe it's just that for English I use the spell-checker's help. I haven't installed Estonian speller to my computer, since I need it less, and I don't know how to install it so, that I could use them parallel on Linux.. and switch between of them on fly.
One word that I still rely for spell checker, or dictionary, is necessary. I can't remember whether it was neccesary, neccessary, or necessary. I always write "neccessary". But really, just by writing with spell checker, I've got better.. I think. But there's still a lot of words, where I make mistakes.. writte instead of write and moore instead of more and so on....
Okay I think I already wrote too much.. soon the 4000 character limit would kick on, when I continue. So I end here. :P ^_^
@Hardi Your description is better than a writing sample! It's also interesting that printing is more difficult for you than cursive. Thank you so much for helping us understand dysgraphia from the perspective of someone who has struggled with it. I've learned so much from you!
Usually the parents will turn to medical experts for help. You bet it's very very hard for those students with learning difficulties to excel in the well-known fierce competition between Chinese students. So, the parents who have a child with such learning difficulties will have to admit the fact and will try to maintain a relatively good education for their children.
Sometimes you just feel sorry for those students, even though more and more people are trying to do something to help them.
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