Seven myths about dyslexia put to rest

As researchers who study dyslexia, we often read articles or overhear conversations that completely misunderstand what dyslexia is – or how it can be treated.

Dyslexia is the term used to describe someone with reading difficulties – and it affects up to 10% of Australians.

A reader with dyslexia may have difficulty in reading unusual words like yacht; have difficulty with nonsense words like frop; misread slime as smile; struggle to understand passages; or struggle in a number of other ways when reading.

To coincide with Dyslexia Empowerment Week – aimed at raising awareness and understanding of the disorder – we highlight the seven most common misconceptions about dyslexia.

Myth 1: I’m a bad speller because I’m dyslexic

Some researchers and organisations include spelling problems in their definition of dyslexia. This can be a problem because spelling and reading are different skills even if they are both based on written language.

There are some processes involved in both spelling and reading, so some people will have problems with both skills. But research has clearly shown that many people are good readers, but poor spellers; or good spellers, yet poor readers.

To avoid grouping different kinds of problems together, it is less confusing to use the distinct terms dysgraphia (or spelling impairment) for problems in spelling, and dyslexia (or reading impairment) for reading problems.

To help dyslexic pupils, go to the root of how children learn

Dyslexia isn't just about bad spelling – teachers need to try a variety of strategies to build confidence.

 

 

I have this issue with how I hear words, Gareth, a 31-year-old graphic designer, tells me.

"So for example, while I was growing up, it was really hard to tell the difference between the words 'girl' and 'grill' because the 'ir' and the 'l' kind of overlapped in time unless you spoke really slowly. My teachers were always just flabbergasted that I couldn't tell."

To most of us, it seems obvious that the "ir" sound in "girl" comes before the "l", but for Gareth, like many dyslexic sufferers, a dysfunction in the processing of neurological signals relative to each other in time, means that the letters tend to slip.

This problem snowballs when it comes to learning to read. It's vital to be able to hear the sounds of the words and associate them with a symbol before you can decode them on a page.

But like all neurological disorders, dyslexia is not a static condition. The brain has an astonishing capacity to adapt and overcome hindrances which may be present in our neurobiology when we're born – an ability referred to as neural plasticity.

This process works through a combination of repetition and feedback, in other words, practising. It's the same way a violinist gradually learns to find finger positions on the strings.

System is skewed against dyslexics

Through persistence, and repeatedly trying to hear the differences between words, Gareth says he's overcome many of the problems he faced when younger. But he feels that the education system is skewed against dyslexics.

A Child's View of Sensory Processing

Learn about sensory processing from a child's prospective.

What is Sensory Processing Disorder?

What is Sensory Processing Disorder? Can a person have SPD but not have Autism? How can we help students/people with SPD? You can find answers to these (and more questions) in the following video.

Autism research isn’t helping people live with daily reality

In the summer of 2010 as England was being knocked out of the World Cup in South Africa, something all together more hopeful was happening in London. A group of scientists, social researchers, parents and autistic people got together to join a discussion at the Institute of Education on research into autism.

The enthusiasm for the chance to debate and discuss complicated and emotionally charged issues like the “cure” and “prevention” of autism versus notions of autistic differences and what some call “neurodiversity” was astonishing – despite, and perhaps even because of, widely opposing views.

It led colleagues and me at the Centre for Research in Autism and Education to consider the need to find out what people with autism and their families thought about the current direction of research.

In a project called A Future Made Together, funded by the charity Research Autism, we conducted the most comprehensive review of UK research into autism ever undertaken.

We consulted with more than 1,700 autistic people, their families, practitioners and researchers to understand what they thought of current autism research in the UK and where the funds towards autism research should be prioritised.

How to teach … autism awareness

To mark World Autism Awareness Day here are some lesson resources and teaching tips to help teachers support those directly affected and ensure all students understand the disorder.

 

  

Autism is a disability that affects how a person communicates and socially interacts. Since it has no physical signs, some students can find it hard to understand.

Autism affects millions of people around the world, including more than 700,000 in the UK, and early diagnosis and intervention are essential.

Ahead of World Autism Awareness Day on Wednesday 2 April, we have a collected a range of useful resources to help teachers ensure all students understand the disorder and help support those directly affected.

The autism spectrum disorder (ASD)-friendly classroom presentation by Humans Not Robots raises awareness of some of the needs and difficulties presented by students with autism. The presentation explains what ASD is and how it affects communication, social and thinking skills.

The guide stresses the need for an individualised approach when working with ASD students but includes some "catch-all" strategies such as starting lessons with short, fun and factual activities that provide immediate structure and awarding points for meeting pre-agreed targets. Suggested changes to the classroom environment include: reducing background noise, using natural lighting and avoiding "busy" displays or posters.

Also from Humans Not Robots is this strategy bank for students with ASD. Ideas include: following very clear classroom routines; supporting oral presentations with charts, diagrams and pictures; setting tasks with clear goals; and using short, simple instructions.

Dyslexic pupils not helped by reading method

Up to 400,000 dyslexic children may be hampered in learning to read by the Government’s insistence on the use of synthetic phonics to teach them, says a report to be published today.

A poll of more than 500 literacy teachers reveals that more than half (52 per cent) believe that the Government’s approach is either “ineffective” or “not very effective” in helping dyslexic pupils.

They believe that children with other disabilities and the most able pupils could also be held back. The poll, carried out by ReadingWise UK – designers of online literacy materials – casts doubt on the Government’s favoured strategy for improving reading.

“Literacy support needs to be tailored to the learning pace, experience and needs of the individual child – delivered by teachers with the appropriate specialist training to identify those who might struggle,” said Dr Tilly Mortimore, senior lecturer at Bath Spa University’s School of Education.

“Neither children who are fluent readers, nor those at risk of Special Learning Difficulties/dyslexia or other reading disabilities are likely to find a ‘one size fits all’ intensive synthetic phonics programme helpful. Furthermore, the Government’s punitive testing regime risks undermining both teachers and learners.”

Brain scans are fascinating but behaviour tells us more about the mind

This is good, talking to people is better. Peter Byrne/PA

Imagine you’ve suddenly been given a job as a car mechanic but there’s a slight hitch: you know nothing whatsoever about cars, there are no books to help you, no internet and no-one who is willing to tell you anything. You’ve got some cars that work perfectly and a handful that seem not to work so well or are behaving differently. What do you do?

You will probably come to the conclusion that the easiest way to find out how cars work is to look at the engines of the ones that won’t start, are making an unusual noise, or won’t drive in a straight line, and see how they are different from the cars that are working normally. This same principle can be applied to understanding how the mind works.

In 1861, a doctor named Paul Broca was working with a patient “Tan”, a name bestowed upon him because it was one of the only things he could say. Tan had gradually lost his speech over a 21-year period, yet he was still able to understand what was said to him and had no obvious loss of intellectual function. Broca was an astute man and when this patient died he made a request to look at Tan’s brain. As he suspected, he found that a specific area of the brain had been damaged, a part of the frontal lobe, so he concluded that this area must be vital for speaking but not so for understanding speech.

Should we do away with ‘dyslexia’?

Many children have difficulty reading, but should we label this dyslexia? shutterstock

In their recently published book, The Dyslexia Debate, Joe Elliott and Elena Grigorenko controversially call for the term “dyslexia” to be abandoned. They argue it is an imprecise label that does nothing to assist the children to whom it is applied.

So what is wrong with the term “dyslexia”?

No-one is denying the reality of children’s reading difficulties, or that these need to be identified and treated as early as possible. What is in question is whether we should give the label of “dyslexia” to children with reading difficulties.

It is important to note that reading ability falls on a continuum in the population; it is normally distributed like height or weight. Thus, deciding whether a child does or does not have dyslexia will always involve applying an arbitrary cut-off.

In this sense, a diagnosis of dyslexia is similar to a diagnosis of obesity. It is quite different from a diagnosis of, say, measles where it is clear when someone has it and when they do not.

Autism and intellectual disability incidents linked with environmental factors

An analysis of 100 million U.S. medical records reveals that autism and intellectual disability (ID) rates are correlated at the county level with incidence of genital malformations in newborn males, an indicator of possible congenital exposure to harmful environmental factors such as pesticides.

Autism rates—after adjustment for gender, ethnic, socioeconomic and geopolitical factors—jump by 283 percent for every one-percent increase in frequency of malformations in a county. Intellectual disability rates increase 94 percent. Slight increases in autism and ID rates are also seen in wealthier and more urban counties.

The study, published by University of Chicago scientists in the March 13 issue of PLOS Computational Biology, confirms the dramatic effect of diagnostic standards. Incidence rates for autism and ID on a per-person basis decrease by roughly 99 percent in states with stronger regulations on diagnosis of these disorders.

“Autism appears to be strongly correlated with rate of congenital malformations of the genitals in males across the country,” said study author Andrey Rzhetsky, professor of genetic medicine and human genetics. “This gives an indicator of environmental load and the effect is surprisingly strong.”

Superior Visual Thinking May Be Key to Independence for High Schoolers With Autism

Researchers at UNC’s Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute (FPG) and UNC’s School of Education report that teaching independence to adolescents with autism can provide a crucial boost to their chances for success after high school.

“We explored many factors that contribute to the poor outcomes people with autism often experience,” said Kara Hume, co-principal investigator of FPG’s Center on Secondary Education for Students with Autism Spectrum Disorders (CSESA). “It’s clear that teaching independence to students with autism should be a central focus of their activities in high school.”

According to Hume, independence is the biggest indicator of which students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are likely to live on their own, have a job, and participate in their communities after high school. “However, adolescents with ASD have trouble observing their peers and picking up on skills important for developing independence,” she said.

Hume also said students with ASD experience difficulties with communication that inhibit their ability to ask questions and express preferences, and many have trouble dealing with new situations. This resistance to change can create problems when teachers and caregivers try to reduce their roles.

Autism: Why it’s not “Rain Woman”

Women have fewer cognitive disorders than men do because their bodies are better at ignoring the mutations which cause them

 

AUTISM is a strange condition. Sometimes its symptoms of “social blindness” (an inability to read or comprehend the emotions of others) occur alone. This is dubbed high-functioning autism, or Asperger’s syndrome. Though their fellow men and women may regard them as a bit odd, high-functioning autists are often successful (sometimes very successful) members of society. On other occasions, though, autism manifests as part of a range of cognitive problems. Then, the condition is debilitating. What is common to those on all parts of the so-called autistic spectrum is that they are more often men than women—so much more often that one school of thought suggests autism is an extreme manifestation of what it means, mentally, to be male. Boys are four times more likely to be diagnosed with autism than girls are. For high-functioning autism, the ratio is seven to one.