About Dyslexia Essay Example for Free

About Dyslexia Essay Dyslexia is a severe mental disorder which deals with a person having difficulties learning. This medical syndrome occurs in all ethnicities and age groups. Dyslexia is not all about low intelligence, and a lot of people with dyslexia are very creative and gifted like prodigies. Around 15% of United States population is affected by learning disorders and the numbers are drastically increasing. One of the main causes of Dyslexia has to do with Genetics and two popular symptoms are incapability of relating symbols with sounds and repeated word guessing. Two treatments for dyslexia are Allopathic treatment and an organized language program which deals with letter sound system. I will demonstrate and describe Dyslexia’s medical aspects as well as it’ psychological and sociological features. According to the academic article â€Å"Dyslexia† written by Patricia G. Mathes and Jack M. Fletcher on page 289 â€Å"Dyslexia was first described more than 100 years ago.† At that time the cause of Dyslexia was by complexity in stocking up imagery impersonation of words. The first theory of dyslexia was called the strephosymbolia which was introduced by Samuel Orton and it acclaimed that children were having a hard time building control in the brain which lead to failure of suppressing mirror visual counterparts. However, Samuel Orton’s theory is not proven accurate but it persuaded other theories to come about as well as new treatments. (Mathes and Fletcher 289) â€Å"The underlying assumption being that by activating the auditory, tactile, and Kinesthetic modalities of learning, students are able to compensate for inherent weaknesses in the visual domain.† Even nowadays the Orton-Gillingham process of teaching reading is still used. See more: Sleep Deprivation Problem Solution Speech Essay These programs mainly focus on educating alphabetical interpretation and this also explains any success achieved by the patients. Treatments that do not involve multisensory methods but teach alphabetical decoding have also been successful. The results from these studies showed that imagery perception has nothing to do with reading skills and also that dyslexic and normal people have the same capacity of imagery perception. However, the precise cause of dyslexia has not been found yet but researches have shown that dyslexia is strongly bonded with genetics; this information is based on the article â€Å"Dyslexia† by Patricia G. Mathes and Jack M. Fletcher on page 291 â€Å"Studies of the heritability of dyslexia show that there is a strong genetic link for reading and reading disabilities.† A good example that proves this point is that an infant whose parents had reading or writing issues is really likely to have learning problems. Fraternal twins with genetic deficit being diagnosed with dyslexia are 50% and over 80% for Identical twins. Based on age, schooling and other traits the approximation of genetic involvement in dyslexia is anywhere from 50% to 80%. Chromosomes 6 and 15 have been recognized as the two genes involved in the cause of dyslexia. Studies have showed that Genetics is not evidently connected with dyslexia but with the reading skills. This research also illustrates that environment plays a huge role in deciding the reading conclusion in children. The development of reading issues in a child with genetic disposition for dyslexia also depends very much on what kind of reading facilities is the child offered at school and home. According to the article â€Å"Dyslexia† by Katy Nelson, N.D. on page 651†Diagnosis is difficult in part . . . rather than as a disease.† What makes is so hard to detect dyslexia is the fact that when during an examination of dyslexia the brain of the patient results in misunderstanding causing the patient to make mistakes and inaccurate information is taken. Based on the text â€Å"Dyslexia† by Ian Smythe it is stated on page 42 â€Å"It should be remembered that dyslexia has a genetic basis, and that at least one of the parent is at increased risk of being dyslexic.† This should be taken seriously and any signs intellectual problems of the parents should be analyzed carefully to eliminate any potential threats of dyslexia. The examination procedure will contain many cognitive tests like working memory and phonological treatment tasks. One of the main exams is for non word spelling in which anonymous words will be used. Many dyslexics are possibly recognized by the schools but there are plenty of instances where the doctor might be the first to be aware of the issues because due to their literacy inabilities numerous kids suffer from nervousness and stress. Symptoms of dyslexia may include difficulty understanding instructions, problems remembering sequence of things, seeing letters in reverse and reading below the expected level of the age of the child. According to the article â€Å"Dyslexia† by Katy Nelson, N.D. on page 651 it is mentioned â€Å"Ronald D. Davis, writing in the Gift of Dyslexia outlines . . . rather than through his or her physiologic eye†. In this paragraph Ronald D. Davis is tells us about one of the treatments of dyslexia which is called the â€Å"moving point of view† mode. Through this treatment a person diagnosed with dyslexia see what he or she thinks they see instead of what their eyesight actually sees. Dyslexics do this very fast so this leaves them puzzled to what the actual word says. How this process works is that the person with dyslexia has to instruct the mind’s eye to go back to a learned standpoint when they understand that it is being seen by the mind and not with their eyes. This can be achieved with evaluation examination by one on one exercise that teaches new mental insight pathways. Gifts of dyslexics such as their unique and enhanced imagination and inquisitiveness are put to use at these exercises consisting of innovative physical activities. This procedure also involves utilizing modeling clay called â€Å"koosh† used for retraining neuropath ways in the brain of a person with dyslexia. Another applicable treatment is the Allopathic medical treatment and it engages the use of anti motion drugs, this concentrates on the symptoms of balance and coordination which results from visual perception modification. Medication such as Cylert or Ritalin affect symptoms of restlessness, distractibility and low self esteem, nootropic drugs are considered to progress cognitive function. The stimulant drugs might be more successful for people with ADD OR ADHD than dyslexia. Side effects for the stimulants are insomnia, nervousness and are contraindicated with allergies, blood pressure and epilepsy. Long term side effects in children may lead to loss of consciousness, changes in nervous system and growth. Dependence might also be caused by decreasing normal levels of stimulants in the brain. Dyslexia can also be viewed through sociological perspective and racism as it is mentioned in the text â€Å"Race and dyslexia† by Asher Hoyles and Martin Hoyles. On page 214 there is an assertion that West Indian children with strong accents, whom the teachers couldn’t comprehend were sent to classes for children with special assistance. African American students have to deal with a syllabus that has less strictness and this leads them to special education. They also have to compete with white opportunities and racism in the shape of the curriculum. On page 214 Maud Blair explains how African American students feel about their teachers and the school which is that black students verified that they consider that they are being treated unjustly. They feel that the teachers function stereotypes which are degrading. Teachers discriminate against them, have low anticipation for them and also don’t listen to them. On page 215 current statistics have shown that black Caribbean students are three times more likely to get expelled from school then white students. Only 15% of the expelled students go back to school. There is very less other educational options which gets them engage in criminal actions. It is very difficult not to notice a relationship between dyslexia and racism. In June 2005 research from the Department for Education and Skills confirmed that 80% of the students expelled from school were dyslexic and 64% of them had special needs. Even the famous actor Danny Glover had to face racism when he was young he said â€Å"Kids made fun of me because . . . came out differently† this is stated on page 215. Psychology is deeply associated with dyslexia on the basis of neuroanatomy and neurolinguistics. Neuroanatomy is the study of arrangement of the nervous system and its composition. Neurolinguistics is the study of neural mechanism in the human brain that manages the fabrication, understanding and acquisition of language. Based on the article â€Å"Dyslexia: Neuroanatomical and Neurolinguistic Perspectives† by George W. Hynd and Cynthia R. Hynd on page 489 neurosciences concur that the whole brain is engaged in reading. This model of reading assumes that the visual matter is included in the occipital lobes where connections are made amongst visual stimuli and words or letters. Data is distributed with input from other sensory modalities in angular gyrus. The authentication proof for the existence of this functional system comes from the case study literature and the electroencephalographic. The variation between normal people and dyslexics with reading is examined by a computerized program which provides a diagram of regional brain electrical actions. The shared electrical activity was the same for dyslexics and normal people while the brain was resting. The brain of dyslexics in the areas hypothesized to be occupied in the functional system of reading illustrated less electrical activity than in normal people. (Hynd and Hynd, 490) dictates that the researches Cytoarchitectonic studies of dyslexic brains point out that dyslexics do not fully use the part of the brain which is significant in reading. The supposition is that this is because of some neuropath logical deficit. It is straightforward for educators and psychologists to visualize different allocations for reading accomplishment, math achievement, IQ and plenty more but for neurological development it appears nearly impossible for these specialists to imagine a separate distribution. It is almost as if a hypothesis is made that everyone was born with a perfect cerebral cortex. Some people even suggested that if the brains of the dyslexics were inspected no faults would be found. The reality is that not all brains are created the same and developmental anomalies in brains are present. (Hynd and Hynd, 491) states that â€Å"Gross and microscopic examination revealed abnormalities only in the left hemisphere.† This sheds light on the Galaburda and Kemper (1979) autopsy report that microscopic irregularity were discovered mainly in the left temporal and parietal regions. A fundamental idea to grasp from these researches is that brain damage doesn’t cause abnormalities. (Hynd and Hynd, 491) it is stated â€Å"These developmental abnormalities may be attributable to congenital factors, autoimmune disease, or, even speculatively, to cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection.† Neurodevelopment insufficiencies created by these aspects are possibly evident arbitrarily based on the level neurological development. The symptoms originated by trauma are copied from the effects of these deficiencies. (Hynd and Hynd, 491) mentions â€Å"A second but nonetheless important point is that the pattern of these neurodevelopment deficits appears primarily in the region involved in the functional system of reading.† The single pattern was unalike in every case but the efficient neurolinguistic structure was troubled by the abnormalities. The finest operation of the cortical regions concerned with reading skills is dependent on the power of the weakest bond. A breakdown might be brought upon by any deficit in the foundation of cortical regions which is appointed with reading. This clearly clarifies that dyslexics represent many symptoms; a reading malfunction of a distinct child is possibly resulted from a distinct sharing of neurodevelopment abnormalities. (Hynd and Hynd, 491) â€Å"Marshall and Newcombe (1973, 1980) have proposed a neurolinguistic model is reading that takes into account different reading skills deficits they have noted in their work with alexic adults with known brain lesions.† By corresponding examined reading deficits with restricted brain damage in their patients neurolinguistics have progressed their hypotheses. Diagrams of the brain damage of all the patients displaying comparable reading deficiencies by this method to figure out the general source. A dysfunction in the occipital lobe may be the reason for patients who have trouble entering the visual spatial features of words. (Hynd and Hynd, 492) â€Å"Taylor, Fletcher, and Satz (1982) have argued that the same type of model could be applied to children.† Reading complications would be depicted by the examples of reading actions demonstrated by dyslexic children and not by the neuropsychological symptoms. To build a neurolinguistic anatomical model these reading actions could then be related to the neuropsychological data. The neruolinguistic anatomical model is very significant because it has realistic functions and it helps researchers to comprehend the causes of dyslexia. Dyslexia is a very stressful disorder because it upsets the person diagnosed with it for the reason that he or she cannot read even if they are placed in the best education facility. There are many people who have dyslexia around the world and are affected by it immensely. Many people are influenced sociologically by dyslexia because they have to face the issue of self esteem and racial discrimination as it is briefly demonstrated in the article â€Å"Race and dyslexia† by Asher Hoyles and Martin Hoyles. Another discipline that involves dyslexia is psychology because there have been many researches on dyslexia and its treatments based on Neuroanatomical and Neurolinguistic standpoints, this information is stated in the text â€Å"Dyslexia: Neuroanatomical/ Neurolinguistic perspectives† by George W. Hynd and Cynthia R. Hynd. Everyone who has dyslexia should be treated because it can jeopardize their future.