Today it is widely known and admitted that many children are born with learning disabilities. In spite of this fact, most of the known learning disabilities in children cannot be diagnosed before school age. What is even worse is that the problems observed in these children are mostly attributed to studying less than enough rather than any specific learning impairment. Nevertheless, nowadays there is a growing awareness to deal with children with learning difficulties and the difficulties themselves.
Although there is not a universal definition accepted for learning disability, one of the definitions that is widely held by experts is explained in Valuing People Now (2009) which defines learning disability as following: “A significantly reduced ability to understand new or complex information, to learn new skills (impaired intelligence), with; a reduced ability to cope independently (impaired social functioning); which started before adulthood (18 years), with a lasting effect on development”. As it can be inferred from this definition, people with learning difficulties are mostly in a disadvantaged position both in society and schooling. And one the biggest member groups of this disadvantaged community is people with “dyslexia”.
Lyon (2003) defines dyslexia as “a specific language-based disorder of constitutional origin characterized by difficulties in single word decoding, usually reflecting insufficient phonological processing”. He continues to state that manifestation of dyslexia is not dependent on age or cognitive and academic abilities. He maintains that dyslexia shows its effects in various forms of language, reading being the most observable one. Even though there is no consensus over the causes of dyslexia, three main factors are believed to lead to dyslexic development: 1) inherited factors 2) hearing problems at an early age 3) improper brain development. These three factors are said to be the basic causes of dyslexia. However, there are also some scientists like Philip J. Landrigan who alleges that there is evidence that shows exposure to chemicals in the environment causes dyslexia as well.
Franck Ramus (2004) state that scientists are puzzled not only by the plurality and complexity of symptoms of dyslexia but also its co morbidity with other developmental learning disorders like specific language impairment. Therefore, he states that symptoms observed in dyslexic individuals may also be shared by other learning disabilities. Nicolson et. Al (2001) state that one of the most significant symptoms of dyslexia apart from difficulties in reading-related symptoms is difficulty in “skill automatisation”. That is to say they claim that dyslexic individuals can fulfill the process of automatising skills after repetitive practices at a considerably slow pace. Another important symptom they mention, is significant reading delay. They put forward that dyslexic individuals can start reading at least 18 months later than typically developing individuals. Other symptoms of dyslexia seem to be delayed speech, early stuttering and cluttering, difficulty in learning the alphabet, difficulty in mastering shoe-tying, slips of the tongue, getting visibly tired after reading for a short while and so on.
Tijms et. al (2003) allege that using some psycholinguistic treatment techniques for dyslexia have proven to be effective. However, he also states that results may not be long-lasting. Nowadays there are on-going studies and research in order to find a treatment for dyslexia. Nevertheless, this does not remove the necessity for us to prepare and establish educational systems taking dyslexic individuals along with others who suffer several kinds of learning impairments. From a teachers’ perspective I believe that instead of ignoring these individuals we should come up with solutions to accommodate them in our learning environments.
REFERENCES
Lyon, G.R. (1995). Toward a definition of dyslexia. Annals of Dyslexia, 45, 3–27.
Nicolson, R. I., & Fawcett, A. J. (1995b). Dyslexia is more than a phonological disability. Dyslexia: An International Journal of Research and Practice, 1, 19-37.
Nicolson, R.I., Fawcett, A.J., & Dean, P. (2001). Developmental dyslexia: the cerebellar deficit hypothesis. Trends in Neurosciences, 24 (9), 508–511.
Ramus, F. (2004). Neurobiology of dyslexia: A reinterpretation of the data. Trends in Neurosciences 27(12):720–26.
Ridge, Melanie. (2009). A Health Needs Assessment for adults with learning disabilities, autism and Asperger syndrome. Bromley PCT.
Tijms, J., Hoeks, J.W.M., Paulussen-Hoogeboom, M.C., & Smolenaars, A.J. (2003). Long-term effects of a psycholinguistic treatment for dyslexia. Journal of Research in Reading, 26, 121-140.
Valuing People Now: A new three- year strategy for people with learning disabilities, Department of Health 2009
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