Dyslexia

What is Dyslexia ?

Dyslexia is a neurologically based specific learning difficulty that is characterised by difficulties in one or more of reading, spelling and writing. Accompanying weaknesses may be identified in areas of language acquisition, phonological processing, working memory, and sequencing. Some factors that are associated with, but do not cause, dyslexia are poor motivation, impaired attention and academic frustration.

The extent to which dyslexia is apparent in a particular language is affected by the quantity and quality of exposure to that language and other languages. Dyslexics are likely to have greater difficulty with languages that have more complicated orthographic, phonological and/or grammatical systems.

It has been estimated that 3% to 5% of Singaporeans may be dyslexic. The difficulties caused by dyslexia can be overcome with specialist teaching and the use of compensatory strategies.

Josh's story - a typical dyslexic ?

The best way to really understand dyslexia is to know how it effects dyslexic people. Of course every dyslexic is different but Josh's story is fairly typical of the dyslexic children we see at the DAS.

Even before Josh began Primary school it was clear that he was a highly capable child; he had little difficulty understanding new ideas and he was exceptional at creating things with his hands - he never failed to impress if he was given a paintbrush, lego or even a puzzle.

Josh was eager to start school and initially he learnt quickly and thoroughly enjoyed it. However as school began to focus more on reading and writing he struggled to keep up with his peers. Josh's teachers could not understand why a student who seemed to be intelligent and who could express himself so effectively when he spoke was producing such poor written work. Without an alternative explanation many decided he was just careless, lazy and/or disobedient. It didn't help that Josh was very disorganised and couldn't remember a list of instructions, such as the homework he had been set.

Josh always dreaded being asked to read aloud. He read so slowly and inaccurately that his teachers felt he was 'playing the fool' and his peers just thought he was a complete fool (and they willingly told him so).

Josh didn't say much about what was happening at school but his mother realised that his nightmares and bouts of sickness were almost always linked to an event at school or his returning to school after a short break.

However Josh's greatest problem was not other people's opinions but how he had begun to feel about himself. Josh was fully aware that he was underachieving and he knew that he had not been able to do what other children in his class were capable of. It was incredibly frustrating for him; he understood what he had been taught but he could never demonstrate his knowledge to anyone else because tests always required him to read and write. With no other explanation for his problems Josh eventually decided that the only reason he could be having such difficulty at school was because he was stupid.

The situation would most likely have continued had it not been for one of Josh's teachers. She recognised that his difficulties were suggestive of dyslexia and persuaded Josh's parents to take him to see one of the Dyslexia Association's Psychologists. It took some time before Josh's parents arranged the meeting because they had to be convinced that Josh was not simply 'being a mischievous boy'.

Following the psychological assessment Josh and his parents were told that he was severely dyslexic. Josh's parents were surprised to find that rather than being upset at the news, Josh responded incredibly well. He finally had proof that he was intelligent and he now understood the reason for his difficulties at school. The assessment was very much a turning point for Josh; he began to attend special lessons for a couple of hours a week. The lessons not only taught him the literacy skills that he lacked but the teachers ensured he developed the self-belief needed to tackle his difficulties.

Josh was not suddenly cured of his dyslexia and he certainly had to work harder than others of similar ability who did not have dyslexia. However he developed sufficient skills and strategies to allow him to cope well enough to achieve his academic potential. In fact Josh is now consistently achieving top grades in his academic work and unless you know him well it is as if he does not have a learning difficulty. But he has managed to be so successful because of his own hard work and the skills and strategies he has been taught.

As we stated at the beginning of this story every dyslexic is different but Josh's story is very common amongst the dyslexics we see at the Dyslexia Association of Singapore.

Signs and Symptoms of Dyslexia :

Literacy difficulties

• Difficulties associated with reading
• Reads below grade level
• Hesitant and laboured reading, especially when reading aloud
• Has difficulty tracking words along a line of print
• Skips or re-reads a line of words in a passage
• Leaves out words/inserts words that are not there
• Has difficulty remembering/understanding what has been read
• Has difficulty extracting the most important points from a passage
• Ignores punctuation, e.g. not pausing for commas etc
• Complains that words or lines of text on page seem to move, yet standard eye examinations do not reveal a problem

Difficulties associated with writing

• Poor handwriting
• Spelling errors occur frequently even when copying
• Spelling the same word several different ways in the same passage
• Poor standard of written work compared to oral ability
• Messy, badly organised work
• Cannot write in a straight line
• Has trouble copying from the board in class
• Mixes capital and small letter within words e.g., dyslexia
• Poorly organised compositions
• Lack of punctuation, or totally inappropriate use of punctuation
• Letters, syllables and words omitted, inserted or placed in the wrong order

Common errors in reading and spelling

• Confuses with letters that look alike e.g. b/d, p/q
• Confuses between similar sounding words e.g. "one" and "won" when spelling
• Substitutes words of similar meaning e.g., road for street
• Reads and/or spells some words backwards e.g. "was" for "saw", "on" for “no”
• Makes anagrams of words e.g. "tired" for "tried", "wives" for "views"
• Mixes up words that start with the same letters e.g. there, that, those, then, the
• Misreads little words, such as a for and, the for a, from for for, then for there, were for with
• Omits or adds letters in words e.g. lip for limp
• Omits or repeats little words like the, and, but, in
• Unable to write down a word even when the letters are dictated
• Unable to identify the appropriate letter when given a sound

Short-term and/or Working Memory

Many dyslexics are 'quick forgetters'. They may learn and understand how to do something but they will need frequent reminders before they remember. It is not uncommon to have to keep repeating something over and over to dyslexics to try and ensure they remember it. For example, they may have excellent long-term memory for movies, experiences, locations and faces, but poor memory for sequences as well as unfamiliar facts and information

Sequencing

A lot of dyslexics have difficulty sorting or ordering information. This means that the dyslexic individual may have difficulty in Mathematics, remembering a list of instructions or giving a good verbal explanation.

Speech

• Delayed speech
• Finds it difficult to express thoughts
• Communicates more with gestures rather than words
• Has difficulty findings the words he/she wants to use
• Has difficulty reporting events in their correct order
• People who do not know the child well have difficulty understanding what he/she says
• Has difficulty putting thoughts into words
• Mispronounces long words, or transposes phrases and words when speaking
• Has trouble attaching names to things and people
  

Time/Math

• Has difficulty telling time, managing and being on time
• Can count, but has difficulty counting objects and/or dealing with money
• Can do arithmetic, but has problems with problem-solving questions
• May have a problem with numbers and calculations involving adding, subtracting and time tables
• May be confused by similar-looking mathematical signs; e.g., + and - ; < (less than) and > (greater than)
• May be confused by terms, e.g., deduction, minus and subtraction; adding versus find the total
• May reverse numbers, and read or write 17 for 71
• May transpose numbers i.e., 752 for 572
• May have a difficulty with mental arithmetic
  

General

• Disorganized
• Easily frustrated or emotional about school, reading, writing, or math
• Appears bright and articulate but performs unexpectedly poorer than expected in the academic areas
• Performs much better when tested orally, but not in written form
• Has difficulty sustaining attention
• Has a poor sense of direction and/or confusion between left and right
• Has difficulty remembering the days of the week, months of the year etc
  

Common signs of dyslexia :

Preschool

• Later than expected speech development
• Poor vocabulary development
• Enjoys being read to but shows little interest in letters or words
• Hesitant and effortful reading especially when reading aloud; may lose place in text and miss out words, add extra words or substitute words
• Difficulty in learning the names of letters or sounds in the alphabet; difficulty in writing or saying the alphabet in order
• Difficulty in learning days of the week
• Difficulty in learning nursery rhymes and playing rhyming games
• Confusion of similar letters such as “b” and “d”, “p” and “q”
• Confusion of words that look alike such as “on” and “no”, “was” and “saw”
• Difficulty in learning spelling
• Unusual spellings; a word can be spelled in different ways in one piece of work
• Confusion between upper and lower case letters
• Difficulty in breaking words into syllables and putting syllables back in correct order; for example, “bisghetti” for “spaghetti”
• Short-term memory limitations
• Mirror writing
  

Primary School

• Slow to learn the connection between letters and sounds
• Confuses basic words (run, eat, want)
• Makes consistent reading and spelling errors including letter reversals (b/d), inversions (m/w), transpositions (felt/left), and substitutions (house/home)
• Transposes number sequences and confuses arithmetic signs (+, -, x, /, =)
• Slow or poor recall of facts > Slow to learn new skills, relies heavily on memorization
• Impulsive, difficulty planning
• Unstable pencil grip
• Trouble learning about time
• Poor coordination, unaware of physical surroundings, prone to accidents
• Slow to learn prefixes, suffixes, root words, and other spelling strategies
• Avoids reading aloud
• Has difficulty with handwriting; may have awkward, fist-like, or tight pencil grip
• Avoids writing assignments
  

Secondary School

• Usually reads below grade level
• May reverse letter sequences e.g., solid for soil, left for felt
• Slow to learn prefixes, suffixes, root words, and other spelling strategies
• May have difficulty with spelling; spells same word differently on the same page
• May avoid reading aloud
• May have trouble with word problems in math
• May avoid writing
• Has difficulty with handwriting; may have awkward, fist-like, or tight pencil grip
• Slow or poor recall of facts
• May have difficulty with comprehension
• May have trouble with non-literal language e.g., idioms, jokes, proverbs, slang etc.
• May have difficulty with planning, organizing and managing time, materials and tasks
  

College

• May read very slowly with many inaccuracies
• Continues to spell incorrectly, frequently spells the same word differently in a single piece of writing
• May avoid reading and writing tasks
• May have trouble summarizing and outlining
• May have trouble answering open-ended questions on tests
• May have difficulty learning a foreign language
• May have poor memory skills
• May work slowly
• May pay too little attention to details or focus too much on them
• May misread information
• May have an inadequate vocabulary
• May have an inadequate store of knowledge from previous reading
• May have difficulty with planning, organizing and managing time, materials and tasks

For more information and support, visit http://www.das.org.sg/.