Management of dyslexia depends on a multitude of variables; there is no one specific strategy or set of strategies that will work for all who have dyslexia. Some teaching is geared to specific reading skill areas, such as phonetic decoding; whereas other approaches are more comprehensive in scope, combining techniques to address basic skills along with strategies to improve comprehension and literary appreciation. Many programs are multisensory in design, meaning that instruction includes visual, auditory, and kinesthetic or tactile elements; as it is generally believed that such forms of instruction are more effective for dyslexic learners. Several special education approaches have been developed for students with dyslexia. Adaptive technology, such as specialized computer software, has resulted in recent innovations helpful to many people with dyslexia. One factor that characterises the field of dyslexia remediation is the stream of alternative therapies for developmental and learning disabilities. These controversial treatments include nutritional supplements, special diets, homeopathy, and osteopathy/chiropractic manipulation.
Definition Dyslexia is characterized by learning difficulties that can include: Difficulty with oral language:
Late in talking Difficulty in pronouncing words Difficulty in acquiring vocabulary or age appropriate grammar Difficulty following directions Confusion in right/left, before/after, top/bottom, etc. Difficulty in learning alphabet Difficulty in learning nursery rhymes or songs Difficulty with word retrieval or naming problems Difficulty with reading:
Difficulty learning to read Difficulty with phonological awareness (identifying rhyming words or counting syllables) Difficulty with phonemic awareness (hearing and manipulating sounds) Difficulty with auditory discrimination (distinguishing different sounds in words) Difficulty in learning the sounds of letters Difficulty remembering names Difficulty in remembering the orders of letters Misreading common words Omitting common words Guessing through longer words Poor reading comprehension Slow, laborious oral reading Difficulty with written language:
Trouble organizing ideas on paper Many spelling mistakes Performs well on spelling tests, but continues to have spelling mistakes in daily work Difficulty in proofreading
Writing systems and orthography
A writing system is a type of symbolic system used to represent elements or statements expressible in language. The orthography of a language specifies the correct way of using a specific writing system to write the language. Where more than one writing system is used for a language, for example for Kurdish, there can be more than one orthography.
Alphabetic orthography Most teaching is geared to remediating specific areas of weakness, such as addressing difficulties with phonetic decoding by providing phonics-based tutoring. Some teaching is geared to specific reading skill areas, such as phonetic decoding; whereas other approaches are more comprehensive in scope, combining techniques to address basic skills along with strategies to improve comprehension and literary appreciation. Many programs are multisensory in design, meaning that instruction includes visual, auditory, and kinesthetic or tactile elements; as it is generally believed that such forms of instruction are more effective for dyslexic learners. Despite claims of some programs to be "research based", there is very little empirical or quantitative research supporting the use of any particular approach to reading instruction as compared to another when used with dyslexic children. Torgesen (2004) emphasized the importance of explicit instruction for remediation as well as the need for intensity that is completely different from regular classroom instruction. To make gains in reading, students need highly structured, sequential interactive activities and close monitoring, directly connecting the known with the new, with sufficient time for practice of new skills to build automaticity and fluency. The size of the instructional group is also important, ideally between 1:1 and 1:3.
Interventions in a Latin alphabet writing system There is little empirical or quantitative research supporting the use of any particular program for reading instruction when used with dyslexic children. In 2007 the researchers Joseph Torgesen and Richard Wagner have shown that, when teaching children with reading disabilities, programs including systematic and explicit instruction in phoneme awareness and grapheme-phoneme correspondence are far more successful than programs that do not.
Academic remediations With early identification and treatment is key to helping individuals with dyslexia achieve in academic and life. Appropriate remedial instruction is a structured literacy approach:
Phonology – is the study of sound structure in the spoken word. These skills included rhyming, counting words in a spoken sentence, and clapping syllables in spike words. The ability to segment words into their compound sounds, phonemes. Sound-Symbol Association – once awareness of phonemes of spoken language, the learner must map the phonemes to symbols (printed letters). This skill must be taught in two directions: visual to auditory (reading) and auditory to visual (spelling). Syllable Instruction – a syllable is a unit or written language with one vowel sound. Instructions must included the 6 basic syllable types in English (closed, vowel-consonant-e, open, consonant-le, r-controlled, and vowel pair). Morphology – morpheme is the smallest unit of meaning in any language. The study of base words, roots, prefixes and suffixes. Syntax – set of principles that dictate sequence and function of words in sentences. This concepts includes grammar, sentence variation, and mechanics of language. Semantics – aspect of language with focus on meaning. Systematic – an organization of material that follows a logical pattern of the language Cumulative – the steps of teaching is based on previous concepts. Explicit Instruction – requires the deliberate teaching of all concepts with student-teacher interactions. The remedial structured literacy instruction can take place either in the classroom or via one-on-one reading tutoring, in either case with a trained provider. One-on-one tutoring can be hard to access due to high costs.
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