Can you get rid of dyslexia?.One can be born dyslexic. It is something which can be born as. The current term of late it is that it is part of a range of neuro divergence.
Dyslexia became the subject of greater research arising from the number of WW1 veterans who had suffered war related head injuries in that conflict. They were individuals who as a consequence of their injuries who appeared to have lost the ability to perform various tasks related to basic or moderate levels of literacy. Tasks which prior to their injuries, they may not have encountered particular difficulties.
In respect of people who are born dyslexic, naturally, for those who live in societies with access to education and a developed education system, individuals may be initially slow in learning how to become literate in comparison with their peers.
Dyslexia can and does pose difficulties for an individual hoping to enjoy the learning process in an educational environment. Most would consider such an environment to be known as a school.
The good news is, lots of teachers and crucially, teacher training schools are not oblivious to the phenomenon known as dyslexia.
You will excuse me if I don’t go in depth as to the particular indicators of a person being dyslexic. In my case, I was kept behind a year whilst at infant school, and then was immediately ‘jumped back up again with my previous classmates. The actual diagnosis only came during secondary school and only identified by an experienced teacher, who remarked that I might be, after I was reading aloud in class from a text book. I kept skipping lines and repeated the same lines in other parts of the passage.
When I’m tired, I substitute the letter ‘b’ for the letter ‘d’ and sometimes substitute the letter ‘d’ with the letter ‘g’ usually when writing the word ‘and’. Dyslexia is after all, referred to as a Specific Learning Disabilty. One is sure that you appreciate that learning is not the same as being able to think or quite simply, the ability to find out information by being able to ask questions.
If you wish to investigate the topic further, there are a number of organisations separate to existing public bodies which can provide an overview of the subject.
The easy go to source for a general overview is, of course, Wikipedia. Amongst the range of veritable organisations from whom you may get a more detailed insight is the British Dyslexia Association.
Dyslexia. Yes, it can make it harder to learn. However, it is not an impediment in respect of creative thinking or appreciating educational endeavour. It’s just that it can make it harder, especially if it might take a bit longer to be just as speedy as one’s peers in the early years at school.
There is but one cause for mild caution. Now that there is greater awareness, comes the possibility of mis-identification. Equally, in former times, a lack of general awareness had possibly led to the galling problem of youngsters being ‘written off’. A case of ‘On the one hand but on the other’.
However, one of the likely reasons for preceding lack of interest in the subject is that quite simply, many people who are dyslexic find ways round any of the problems the condition can present or bypass them altogether and build on their existing strengths. Equally, universal education up to the age of 16 and 18 respectively is still quite a new experience in history.
Can you treat it. No. It is not a disease. It does not require therapy. Are there perhaps particular teaching styles which work better than others? Yes. Are there practical ways of doing things everyday in adult life can do which help overcome difficulties that most others don’t have to experience? Yes. Such practical steps can be taught, passed on, shared as well as learnt by direct personal experience. One can ask question s and rely on others to provide an answer or, better still whe possible, work it out for oneself.
Is there a way to get over dyslexia?
There are 3 types of dyslexia and a way to accommodate all three.
About 5% of dyslexia is due to instability of the words on the paper. This can be helped in some cases by the use of Irlen lenses. If you or a student complains that the words do not sit still on the page, check out Irlen Lenses.
About 10% of dyslexics have good phonetic decoding skills, but do not comprehend what they have read Hyperlexia has been used to describe this, but whatever you call it, some children do not understand the words they can read aloud. One solution to this is they record themselves reading and then listen to it for comprehension.
The remaining 85% of dyslexics have a problem with phonics. Shaywitz at Yale has found a dysfunction in the angular gyrus. The AG is a brain system necessary for phonetic decoding, and since we teach reading by phonetic decoding, they cannot learn to read. No amount of “teaching the right way” can make up for actual brain dysfunction.
How do you teach dyslexics to read? Speed reading. The first rule of speed reading is do NOT decode, it wastes time. Dyslexics start ahead of the game. (And perhaps so should all children).
Dyslexia is not just reading is a common conclusion about dyslexia. If a child cannot read, that will lead to diverse educational and psychological consequences. A child may have another learning issue independently of dyslexia. Eliminate phonetic decoding and deal with the specific issues that may or may not be there.
Is there a way to get over dyslexia? No!! But there is a way to get around dyslexia. In the same way we accommodate the blind and the deaf, do not teach reading using phonetic decoding, just as we do not use lig
ht or sound for the blind or deaf.