This journal paper presented by Vellutino and his associates outlines the most important findings of research that evaluates possible causes of reading abilities in dyslexia over the past four decades. The main purpose of this paper is to provide a comprehensive review of research on the fundamental cause(s) of developmental dyslexia. The secondary purpose is to present the evidence that reveals the differences between early reading difficulties caused mainly by cognitive/biological deficits and those caused primarily by instructional deficits. The authors first propose a model that captures all the relevant knowledge and cognitive skills required for individuals in learning to read (Figure 1). This model certainly indicates that reading is mainly a linguistic ability rather than once popular notion that it is primarily a visual skill. The model that underscores all reading components are thus used to analyze manifest causes of reading difficulties. The evidence suggests that basic deficits in alphabetic coding would lead to inadequate word identification and which then contributes to reading difficulties. Moreover, both phonological awareness and orthographic awareness have an impact on the skills of alphabetic coding. Importantly, casual relationships between word identification difficulties and deficient phonological skills seem more prominent in learning to read in opaque orthographies such as English than in learning to read in more transparent orthographies such as
Today, there is a momentum towards researching the possible hereditary influences of developmental dyslexia. As recently as 2013, The Oxford Dictionary of Social Work and Social Care considers that there is an “inherited component” to dyslexia. (Harris & White, 2013, p. 179) Today’s social work perspective is more flexible with the term itself, as it is considered by to incorporate a range of difficulties with lexical information-processing. However, The Oxford Dictionary does not provide a context for these “difficulties” as they are experienced by the language-learner, and therefore seems to support (perhaps unwittingly) the notion that there is a so-called “normal” way for a person to learn language. Blachman (2013) advances a more orthographical conceptualization of dyslexia, whereby the dyslexic language learner defies common literacy principles in favor of their own. These tend to be more visually-oriented, so that a picture or a feeling is associated with an entire word, as opposed to the sound-to-syllable associations learners are “supposed” to
On that basis the rationale behind this assignment is to further understand the term ‘dyslexia’, to consider the definition and diagnosis, as well as the barriers to learning it can generate. Consideration will also be given to the strategies that can be employed to assist learning, as well as promote the
Shaywitz, S. & Shaywitz, B. (2005). Dyslexia (Specific Reading Disability). Biological Psychiatry, 57(11), 1301-1309. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsych.2005.01.043
This article described reading difficulties aligned to the Simple View of Reading (as cited in Gough & Tunmer, 1986). They went into depth about three types of poor readers: (a) dyslexia- those with poor decoding, (b) language comprehension- poor reading comprehension, and (c) listening comprehension- impairments in both decoding and language comprehension. Further, they broke down how each reading difficulty is believed to manifest, is measured, and what it specifically affects.
would help to facilitate word recognition. The evidence also suggests that in most cases deficits in phonological skills associated with the ability to use speech codes are likely causes of dyslexia. Definitions of phonological processing are complex, Arrow (2016) defines
The hypothesis that there is a significant visual component in dyslexia was supported by the research findings and furthermore, is echoed in current developmental dyslexia literature. The study found that dyslexic children had poorer performance on categorization tasks (letters, digits, and symbols) for both verbal and non-verbal stimuli. However, the study was limited and contradictory in some findings and demonstrates a need for further research to investigate such areas. Specifically, future research must address symbol processing and compare performance of typically-developing children to dyslexic children. Lobier, Zoubrinetzky, and Valdois (2012) found that children with developmental dyslexia demonstrated deficits in symbol processing compared to normal counterparts, while Ziegler et al. (2010) found that typically-developing children and dyslexic children had equal performance on symbol processing tasks. Additionally, future dyslexia research could include variables such as crowding effects and binocular vision involvement to address other visual components that may be involved with dyslexia
Convergent evidence from longitudinal studies on dyslexia supports this causal hypothesis. Scarborough (1990) identified PA and LK as candidate causal factors by reporting weakness in these two factors in pre-readers who later became dyslexic. However, dyslexic children in the study were less intelligent than normal readers, which cast doubt on the findings. Results from Scarborough’s study are further supported by carefully conducted studies. For example, Snowling, Gallagher, and Frith (2003) followed FR children and control children from the age of 3 years, 9 months to 8 years, and found that language and letter knowledge assessed at Phase 1 predicted phonological awareness and grapheme-phoneme skill at Phase 2 (6 years), which then predicted word-level reading skills at Phase 3 (8 years).
The most hopeful intervention is early intervention. Classroom intervention and pullout remedial approaches have shown positive results. Prevention programs that focus on phonemic awareness, phonics, and meaning of text in reading instruction of early grades can reduce the base rates of at-risk dyslexic students to below five percent. It will also significantly improve the core reading skills of the weakest readers in early grades. For older students, intervention programs that are described as strategy based and direct instruction have been most effective for their grade level. The combination program has been evaluated with sever dyslexic students in randomized experimental designs with control groups. This approach resulted in better standardized reading measures. Students with word-reading abilities below the fifth percentile before the implementation of the explicit programs tested in the average range of word identification following the interventions (Shaywitz, Morris, & Shaywitz,
In acquired dyslexia, especially on patients with the brain damage, it may develop under the selective process suggesting the dyslexia, at least to some extent, is a neuroanatomical distinct process. If the lesion disrupts the visual semantic route in specific, then the patient needs to rely upon the phonological route for reading. These patients may read regular words in a relatively easy process. The same patients may also be successful at reading the artificial nonsense words that are subject to construct using the standard phonetic rules, such as ‘midbod .' More so, since surfacing of dyslexics needs to rely on the phonetic analysis on the entire basis, they tend to be making several spelling errors that are phonetically plausible, but also visually incorrect. It justifies why patients diagnosed with dyslexics tend to be making phonetic regularization errors. Not all types of acquired dyslexics fall entirely on the phonological and visual developmental categories. Most patients diagnosed with dyslexia display the combination of both phonological and visual problems, and
This study is about the correlation of parents with dyslexia and their children’s increased risk of developing dyslexia. The literacy skills of the parents and the characteristics of children are studied. This study used experimental research grouping familial risk dyslexic and familial non-dyslexic with a controlled group. This study also used correlation looking at arithmetic, reading, rapid naming, and phonological awareness of those at risk.
There is a widespread consensus that the developmental deficits in phonological skills characterize dyslexia. Phonological skills as the broad umbrella term include phonological awareness (PA), which refers to the ability to reflect upon and manipulate the sound structure of spoken words (Goswami & Bryant, 1990; Mattingly, 1972); and phonological processing, which involves access to phonological codes without necessarily explicit awareness of the sound structure of spoken words (Melby-Lervåg, Lyster, Hulme, 2012). A large body of evidence found that dyslexic children are worse than both chronological age-matched children and younger reading-age-matched children in PA tasks, such as phoneme deletion and rhyme identification (Swan and Goswami,
The most common learning disability among students is dyslexia. This learning disability may be recognized by the individual’s lack of reading and spelling skills. Researchers suggest that dyslexia can be caused by numerous risk factors. Some factors may be genetic, therefore dyslexia is considered a heritable disorder. In a recent study, Thompsonet al. (2015), searched for families with children who had specify characteristics such as a family history of dyslexia or children having problems with their speech and language development. Children from families possessing these characteristics were evaluated for cognitive function, language skills, and literacy. Researchers found that a family history of dyslexia and low performance on language development measures were strong predictors of childhood dyslexia. However, no relationship was found between speech problems and dyslexia. There are many factors that can contribute to children developing dyslexia, however, it is important to be aware of any potential
The British Psychological Society (1999) gave a definition of dyslexia; ‘dyslexia is evident when accurate and fluent word reading and / or spelling develops very incompletely or with great difficulty.’
The observation of the dyslexia is explained in chapter 10 on page 466 - 467. Dyslexia refers to a reading disorder that involves difficulties with the words, letters, and other symbols recognition. The other signs of this disorder involve poor spelling and decoding skills as well as difficulty with fluency and comprehension. The subtypes of dyslexia are encompassed acquired, deep, development, surface, and phonological. The text enlightens the acquired and phonological dyslexia. Acquired dyslexia results from a trauma or injury to that part of the brain which controls reading and writing. The persons with acquired dyslexia make many word alternates that are semantically related to the object, for instance, laugh or cheer for applaud. The individuals
Dyslexia is a reading disorder which children have difficulty identifying words and identifying sounds when they relate to letters and words. Dyslexia is mainly found in children. Another name for Dyslexia is a Specific Reading Disability. Dyslexia can affect children in many ways, but it mainly affects how your brain works. Dyslexia is incurable and is a lifelong condition. Dyslexia was first found by Adolph Kussmaul, who was a German neurologist in 1878. The term Dyslexia was not identified until 1887 by an ophthalmologist, a person who studies diseases and disorders of the eye, named Rudolf Berlin of Stuttgart. In the year of 1925, an American neurologist named Dr. Samuel T. Orton created the first theory of how the reading disorder emerged.