Understanding Dyslexia: Types, Myths, Impacts, Strengths, and Causes

This presentation provides an overview of dyslexia, including its types, myths, impacts, strengths, and causes. It explains how dyslexia affects learning and social-emotional well-being and provides insights into ongoing research and the SEND Code of Practice 2015.

Dyslexia
Name
Institution
Date

Meaning is dyslexia
It is a condition leading to reading and interpretation of figures difficulty (Frith, 2017).
Does not affect general intelligence and normal vision and hearing (Simmons and Singleton, 2008).

Myths about dyslexia
Some common myths about dyslexia include
 Dyslexia is uncommon
 Smart people cannot develop dyslexia
 One can outgrow dyslexia
 Dyslexia is permanent and cannot be cured
 Dyslexia cannot be diagnosed
 Dyslexia results from lack of phonics instructions

Types of dyslexia
Broad dyslexia classification
They include primary, secondary and trauma dyslexia (Alsobhi, Khan, Rahanu, 2014).
Differences
Primary dyslexia Secondary dyslexia Trauma dyslexia
Dysfunction of the left side of the brain Caused by problems with brain
development
Caused by brain trauma or injury
Does not change with age Changes with age Does not change with time although its
rare

Specific dyslexia classifications.
Phonological, rapid naming deficit, surface,visual dyslexia and double deficit (Ziegler et al, 2008).
Attack different brain parts and linking to different gene combinations (Giedd, 2008).
Differences
Double deficit dyslexia Surface dyslexia Visual dyslexia Rapid naming deficit Phonological dyslexia
Individuals has problem
isolating letters quickly
when they see them.
Its very hard to
remember words by
sight
Kids can not recognize
whole words by sight.
It gets hard to name
many things in a row..
Individuals cant break
sounds and match them
with written symbols.

Impacts of dyslexia on learning
Experience organization difficulties.
Slow reading and writing speeds.
Mistakes during copying
Reduced concentration spans
Poor skills on notes taking
Difficulties in retaining sequences such as alphabetical orders.

Impacts of dyslexia on learning continued…
 Very slow during processing of the content read.
 Difficulties in understanding new terms
 Short concentration spans. These people tend to loose concentration very easily

Social and emotional impacts of dyslexia
Apart from being having a series of effects on learning, dyslexia has also some emotional and social effects to those who suffer
from it (Terras, Thompson, and Minnis, 2009).
These effects include
 Reduces capability of retrieving words reduces the interactive capability of the child with friends.
 The same problem causes problems in expressive language of the dyslexic people.
 May also cause the children experience reduced self esteem (Nalavany, and Carawan, 2012).

Strengths of dyslexia
Dyslexia condition has some strengths that those suffering from it experience (Everatt, Weeks and Brooks, 2008).
These strengths include:
 Seeing bigger pictures
 Easily finds the odd one out
 Exhibits good spatial knowledge
 Has sharper peripheral vision
 Are very creative

Causes of dyslexia
Dyslexia has been seen to be family related.
Specialists explains that it is because it is usually inked to different gene types that affect how the brain processes reading and
language (Gabrieli, 2009).
There is still ongoing research on the causes of dyslexia.

Causes of dyslexia- Ongoing research
MRI scans has been used in monitoring the peoples brain in order to its determine the causes.
This has explained dyslexia to be caused by slow words processing speed, temporal processing and phonological viewpoint deficit
of the brain.
Electromagnetic brain simulation of people with dyslexia is also underway and will provide important information on its causes.

Co-occurring conditions
Dyslexia can also be contributed by environmental risk factors. These predisposing factors include:
 Dyslexic history of the family and other learning disabilities
 Low birth weight and premature birth
 Exposure of the fetus to drugs.
 Pregnancy infections that retards the development of fetus brain.
 Individual differences in the parts of the brain that enable reading.

Policy/code of practice 2015
The Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) Code of Practice (DfE, 2015) emphasizes expectations for identifying SEN
in schools and the assessment of children’s progress. Some of these expectations include
 Teachers should convey high expectations about progress in reading and spelling to children and parents,
 Schools should help parents / careers understand their child’s strengths and difficulties,
 School should be able to identify and access relevant resources for advice, training and expertise
 Children will be taught systematically from the start to become aware of the individual phonemes in speech, and how to map
sounds on to the written letter(s).

References
Alsobhi, A.Y., Khan, N. and Rahanu, H., 2014, July. Toward linking dyslexia types and symptoms to the available assistive
technologies. In Advanced Learning Technologies (ICALT), 2014 IEEE 14th International Conference on (pp. 597-598). IEEE.
Everatt, J., Weeks, S. and Brooks, P., 2008. Profiles of strengths and weaknesses in dyslexia and other learning
difficulties. Dyslexia, 14(1), pp.16-41.
Frith, U., 2017. Beneath the surface of developmental dyslexia. In Surface dyslexia (pp. 301-330). Routledge.
Gabrieli, J.D., 2009. Dyslexia: a new synergy between education and cognitive neuroscience. science, 325(5938), pp.280-283.
Nalavany, B.A. and Carawan, L.W., 2012. Perceived family support and self‐esteem: The mediational role of emotional
experience in Adults with Dyslexia. Dyslexia, 18(1), pp.58-74.

References
Simmons, F.R. and Singleton, C., 2008. Do weak phonological representations impact on arithmetic development? A review of
research into arithmetic and dyslexia. Dyslexia, 14(2), pp.77-94.
Terras, M.M., Thompson, L.C. and Minnis, H., 2009. Dyslexia and psycho‐social functioning: An exploratory study of the role of
self‐esteem and understanding. Dyslexia, 15(4), pp.304-327.
Ziegler, J.C., Castel, C., Pech-Georgel, C., George, F., Alario, F.X. and Perry, C., 2008. Developmental dyslexia and the dual route
model of reading: Simulating individual differences and subtypes. Cognition, 107(1), pp.151-178.