Dyslexia Essay Research Paper Dyslexia is a

Dyslexia Essay, Research Paper

Dyslexia is a neurological syndrome in which other wise normal people have difficulty reading and writing. There are few different types of dyslexia, reading, writing and mathematics.

Many misconceptions go along with dyslexia, for example, people with dyslexia are mentally retarded, have vision problems or even labeled as just dumb (Connelly 18).

There are very detectable symptoms of dyslexia when a person is reading. Some of the people with dyslexia may skip words; reverse the order of letters in a word for example, was for saw (galenet 1). In addition, a person with dyslexia will be unable to distinguish between common letters and sounds. When a dyslexic person is reading aloud they might distort, substitute, omit letters or words.

Throughout all economic classes and intelligence ranges of people, about one in 25 is dyslexic in the field of reading (Connelly 18). The commonness of dyslexia in the United States is estimated to be about four percent of school-age children (Connelly 19). With those who are diagnosed with a reading disorder sixty to eighty percent are male (galnet 1). So many boys are diagnosed because the boys call more attention to their problem than girls do (galnet2). It is not uncommon for a person with dyslexia to get A s in science but to fail English.

Many people from around the country and world also suffer from the disorder of written expression. Students with the written form of dyslexia also reverse letters, make grammatical or punctuation errors within sentences, have poor paragraph organization skills, multiple spelling errors and excessively poor handwriting (Connely 22). When students have to take standardized writing tests in this area they are less able to do as well as they would on a reading or arithmetic tests (Connely 22). Teachers find out how severe the disorder is by giving the student a number of tests such as to copy information, writing to dictation, and writing spontaneously.

The prevalence of the writing expression dyslexia is sometimes followed with problems with eye-to-hand coordination. Writing dyslexia is sometimes found in association with reading and mathematical dyslexia (Connely 22). Usually when a person has the writing expression dyslexia, they have other learning disabilities (Connely 23).

Although the most common form of dyslexia manifests itself in the area of reading, it is not unusual for a person to be dyslexic in the field of math. Students with this may have trouble in understanding mathematical terms, operations, or concepts (Connely 21). Dyslexic students also may have weakness in reading numerical symbols or arithmetic skills. Children and adults with mathematics disorder may have trouble with problem solving or recognizing patterns (Connely 27).

Dyslexia in mathematics is common in approximately six percent of all school age students (Connely21). It is not known what the ratio of girls to boys is. Many students diagnosed with the mathematics form of dyslexia occur in the lower socioeconomic classes (Connely 21).

Sigmund Freud wrote that in 1900 that painful childhood experiences of hatred of one or both parents caused dyslexia (galnet1). Later studies showed that Sigmund Freud s ideas on dyslexia were incorrect. Dr. Samuel T. Orton was the one to first bring attention of dyslexia to American doctors and educators in the 1920 s. For years after people that suffered form dyslexia were still classified as emotionally disturbed, mentally retarded, or culturally disadvantaged (Connely 25).

During the 1940 s, more Doctors began to find why people have dyslexia. Some of these reasherchers came up with the idea of brain damage. Just because the people with dyslexia looked ordinary, they thought that the brain damage was insignificant Connely 21). Later studies showed that there was no brain damage involved with dyslexia. In 1966 name minimal brain dysfunction was introduced.

Researchers for dyslexia also at that time started giving concepts and terms for each of the observed reading, writing and arithmetic disabilities. A problem with reading was called dyslexia . The name for dyslexia came from the Greek dys which means poor or inadequate, and the lexis meaning words or language. If a person had difficulty in writing, it was called dysgraphia . Whenever a person had a problem with arithmetic, they were grouped as dyscalculia .

During the 1920 s and 1930 s students were becoming more excepted as individuals with normal or high intelligence the only difference being a need for special teaching methods (Connely 21). Since these students need customized, teaching methods a school was built in 1926 right near Buffalo, New York. The schools name was the Gow School. The school was made specifically for boys who were smart but had trouble with writing and reading. More types of schools were built like this one. These new types of schools were high-priced so if could not afford to send your son to the special schools they had to go to public schools. Although the public schools did provide special education classes, they were inadequate to the students needs.

Finally the federal government became involved and supported the Education for All Handicapped Children Act (Connely 28). Later this was renamed the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). This law made the states give