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| How
and What acts as a serious hurdle in knowing , creating awareness about
Dyslexia is the nature of the ailment itself - Photo Credit StockSnap |
The two case studies may be or may not be related to Dyslexia but that make me and others significantly concern about the state of child health and dealing with it.
In past two months I picked two incidents of two students. First a Class XI student of a well known school in Gurugram near New Delhi, had allegedly murdered a 4 years old student of the same school in the school premises (at the Wash Room) with a hope that the scheduled Examination and proposed parent-teacher meeting be postponed. As he was not prepared for the examination and not doing well in study. He is now in judicial custody.
Second incidence was of Class IX student of a Kolkata School . The student allegedly doctored his Math paper with higher marks on which he did poorly. He was caught by the teacher and his parent was called by the authority . The father told the school to send the boy home as he was then out of station. The boy left the school but did not turn up home. He is yet to be traced for more than one and half month.
I refer the above two real life stories for a perspective of different psychological and physiological symptoms we primarily unable to or do not recognize a problem and surprise when it comes on the floor.
Dyslexia can be mistaken for laziness or inefficiency
How
and What acts as a serious hurdle in knowing , creating awareness about
Dyslexia is the nature of the ailment itself. The disorder involves
reading , learning , interpreting of anything and is not marked by a
serious change in physical activity. Parents often fail to understand
the reason behind the poor performance of the children in studies and
call them inefficient or lazy.
More
than just a simple reversal of letters or numbers , Dyslexia is a brain
dysfunction that causes a child to wrestle with spelling , writing ,
reading and even speaking. With this condition learners strain to
process or identify some types of information , from identifying letter
sounds or the actual symbols to understanding blends and comprehending
what they are reading.
Till now Dyslexia can't be completely cured but can be accommodate by individual care and plan case to case basis.
Although
there are no official statistics of dyslexia children world wide,
experts estimate it to be around 8 to 20 per cent based on studies done
in developed countries.
A
mass awareness program is needed to the people understand about the
disorder . There should be specialists in the school to examine the
children as many among them may be suffering from the disorder., but
have to bear the wrath of their guardians for being non-performers.
Signs of Dyslexia
- Letter Reversal
- Paring letters with sounds or matching sound to letters
- Switching beginning sounds when pronouncing words or phrases, like using 'mawn lower' in place of Lawn Mower in conversation.
- Trouble reading aloud or grouping phrases or words.
- Inability or difficulty with sounding out new words.
- Difficulties with handwriting or getting letters in the wrong order when writing
- Trouble with rhymes and rhyming words.
- Trouble in addition of simple numbers say 2+3 = ?
- Exhibits difficulty recalling known words or texts
- Substitutes one small sight word for another such as a l, he ,the ,there ,was
Strategies
- Provide calm and quite place for activities
- Use books on tape
- Use books with large scripts and big spaces between lines
- Provide copy of lecture notes
- Don't count spelling on spelling on History , science or other similar texts
- Allow alternative forms for books , reports
- Allow use of computer for in-class essays
- Use multi-sensory teaching methods
- Teach students to use logic rather than rote memory
- Present material in small units
Excerpted from LDA of California amd UC Davis M I N D Institute Q U I L T S Calendar
No Cure , yet , but scientists may have found the cause of dyslexia
A report was published in Statesman dated Oct 18 2017 stating that Researchers from universities
conducted
an experiment published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B , to
determine how the cells in the eyes may affect the brain.
They conducted a study with sixty people. They examined eyes of 30 with learning disability and 30 without it.
They
found differences in the shape of spots located in the red , blue and
green cones of the eye , which are responsible for color.
For
the normal , the blue-cone had a different shape in each eye - one that
was round and another that was more oblong . Analysts argue the
asymmetry allows the signals in one eye to override the signals in the other . Producing a single image in
the brain created by the dominant eye.
As
for the dyslexic , the blue cones were symmetrical. Scientists believe
the identical arrangement produces 'mirror' images in both eyes that may
confuse the brain . Hence , there is no dominant eye.
The
lack of asymmetry might be the biological and anatomical basis of
reading and spelling disabilities. For dyslexic students there two eyes
are equivalent and their brain has to successively rely on the two
slightly different versions of a given visual scene.
The researchers said
in a statement.
Our observations lead us to believe that we indeed found a potential cause of dyslexia
However
, scientists say it's treatable, because there is a preventable,
minuscule delay that occurs before the mirror images are sent to the
brain.
The
discovery of delay between the primary image and the mirror image in
the opposing hemispheres of the brain , allowed us to develop a method
to erase the mirror image that is so confusing for dyslexic people.
the
authors said.
By
using a "mirror lamp" they're able to flash into the eye so quickly
that it cancels one of the identical images before it reaches the brain.
However more research is needed to ensure the technique works.
Some Extraordinary People dealt Dyslexia differently
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| John Hoke |
John Hoke Nike’s chief design officer, finds that he often gets off to a
running start – idea-wise – when he doodles and listens to others at
the same time. He has dyslexia, which makes him doodle as a form of
communication. He explains how he runs a tight ship at the iconic
company in a interview in the Statesman 11 December 2017.
As
a kid in the 1970s, he was a runner and a good
athlete. He was wearing the Nike waffle trainer shoe. When he was done
with it, he would cut it in half and look at the two sections and obsess
about how it was made. One summer, he was floating in the pool on a raft
and thinking, if it is take a raft, shrink it and put it on foot,
would that help cushion the rear-to-forefoot transition blow of running?
He began to doodle and draw that. He sent – at the time, the president
was Phil Knight – a letter. Phil sent him a letter back, “Hey, when you
get
old enough, could you come work for me?”
On his work and design front he stated boldly
Sneakers, body sketches, architectural retail spaces. I’m dyslexic, so my first real language was drawing. I doodled everything. I find that I listen better when my hand is busy. And I find that when I am listening intently and gestural moving my pen, some interesting things come out. I came to this idea that my dyslexia is not actually a burden —it is a gift because it makes me look at the world differently.
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| Dr Richard Kwok (seated) with his daughter ST PHOTO: AZMI ATHNI |
Dr Richard Kwok is successful engineer with a doctorate . happy marriage and two children.
Dr Kwok was
regarded as stupid in school, but discovered he was dyslexic later in
life. He is now Chief Technology Officer at Singapore Technologies
Kinetics.
Yet
, as youngster , copying notes from teacher's blackboard was very
difficult Je had to copy word by word instead of sentence by sentence.
But Dr Kwok realized it when his son was diagnosed with dyslexia , he had the same problems and found out that he had dyslexia.
His
son Kwok Ting Yu did not have to struggle alone like his dad.After the
diagnosis the young Kwok received intervention training at the Dyslexia
Association of Singapore , which helped him pick up reading skills.
Final Thought
Early diagnosis and intervention of Dyslexia is crucial and important for young children who might face ridicule environment in their surrounding. It’s hard when someone we care about is suffering. We don’t suffer alone in this world. By choosing these gentle words,we open the door to real help in what can feel like an impossible situation. We all take our turns hurting. With this mindful tool, we can teach each other true compassion as well.
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