What is Dyslexia?
Dyslexia is described as an individual who, even with a lot of tutoring, has difficulty reading fluently and if they are able to decode what they read than they are not unable to recall what they have read (because they use all of their working memory on the decoding).
A very common myth of dyslexia is that students see words backwards or reversed. Dyslexia is in fact a phonological deficit in which the individual cannot detect phonemes. Even with good hearing, certain individuals do not detect certain sounds (phonemes) correctly as a result of slow and inaccurate auditory processing. Even with 20/20 vision, this affects their visual input in terms of what words they see as even their visual processing will become slower and more likely to be incorrect since auditory processing precedes the visual with reading.
What many parents find most confusing and frustrating is that a child can read individual words, lists or paragraphs, but then cannot read a word they have just read ten times in a previous paragraph. This is because a dyslexic child reads from their working memory which becomes easily exhausted (after about 10-15 minutes). This is why Cellfield is a unique reading program because it improves and bonds the auditory processing to the visual by using the principles of neuroplasticity (reshaping the neural connections in the brain). This improves reading comprehension because the child is no longer decoding from their working memory but reading from the Parito-Occipito lobe.
Signs of Dyslexia
Preschool:
- late talker
- learns new words slowly
- difficulty learning nursery rhymes or playing rhyming games
School Age:
- difficulty pronouncing certain words such as animal (aminal), specific (pacific)
- inserting a similar but incorrect word when speaking
- reading below grade level
- difficulty remembering what he or she read
- difficulty processing and understanding oral instructions
- trouble remembering the sequence of events, instructions or with lists
- cannot sound out unfamiliar words even if they have received phonological instruction
- poor spelling
Teens and Adults:
- difficulty reading aloud
- struggles with time management and organization
- summarizing and memorization is a challenge
- struggles to learn a foreign language
What Causes Dyslexia?
There are many causes of dyslexia that involve both the nature and nurture factor. Certain children carry certain genetic predispositions. However, research has found that even among studies of twins–that there was only a 50% likelihood of the other twin also being dyslexic. Environmental factors such as environmental toxicity, nutrition, food allergies as well as emotional or physical trauma can greatly affect a child’s brain development and how certain genes will express themselves.