Specific Learning Difficulties:

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Specific Learning Difficulties

• Dyslexia is one of many labels for a Specific
  Learning Difficulty.
• Others include
• Dyscalculia.
• Dysgraphia.
• Dysphraxia.
• Developmental Co-ordination Disorder (DCD).
• Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD).
• Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).

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Specific Learning Difficulties

• Specific Learning Difficulties are usually caused
  by inherent, sensory, physical, or neurological
  factors and they
• Can cause a person to learn differently.
• Are not linked to intellectual impairment (except
  incidentally).
• May coincidently exist with problems with motor
  co-ordination / skills attention, social
  perception and social interaction.
• Are life-long.
• Specific Learning Difficulties affects the
  learning of about 4-10 of all people.

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DyslexiaGreek "dys" meaning difficulty, and
"lexis" meaning words.

• Sometimes known as specific learning
  difficulty, dyslexia is a problem in the
  acquisition of reading, spelling and writing.
  Frequently mathematics and aspects of spoken
  language are affected.
• The term developmental dyslexia is often used
  to describe those who fail to acquire written
  language easily and whose written language is
  delayed.

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Characteristics of Dyslexia

• Common characteristics of Dyslexia include
• Short Term Memory Difficulties.
• Reading and Writing Difficulties.
• Visual Processing Difficulties.
• Auditory Processing Difficulties.
• Time Management Difficulties.
• Organisational Difficulties.

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Persisting factors.

• There are many persisting factors in dyslexia,
  which can appear from an early age. They will
  still be noticeable when the dyslexic child
  leaves school
• Obvious 'good' and 'bad' days, for no apparent
  reason,
• Confusion between directional words, e.g.
  up/down, in/out,
• Difficulty with sequence, e.g. coloured bead
  sequence, later with days of the week or
  numbers,
• A family history of dyslexia/reading
  difficulties.

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Pre-schoolLanguage

• Has persistent jumbled phrases, e.g. 'cobbler's
  club' for 'toddler's club'
• Use of substitute words (near misses) e.g.
  lopital for hospital, lampshade for
  lamppost.
• Hesitates because he cannot find the words he
  needs and cannot remember the name for familiar
  objects e.g. 'table, chair'.
• Difficulty learning nursery rhymes and rhyming
  words, e.g. 'cat, mat, sat'.
• Confuses up and down and left and right.
  
• Later than expected speech development.

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Pre-school non-language indicators.

• May have walked early but did not crawl - was a
  'bottom shuffler' or 'tummy wriggler'.
• Persistent difficulties in getting dressed
  efficiently and putting shoes on the correct
  feet.
• Enjoys being read to but shows no interest in
  letters or words.
• Is often accused of not listening or paying
  attention. or having difficulty in carrying out
  more than one instruction at a time.
• Excessive tripping, bumping into things and
  falling over.
• Difficulty with catching, kicking or throwing a
  ball with hopping and/or skipping.
• Difficulty with clapping a simple rhythm.

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Pre-school non-language indicators 2

• When colouring in the child has difficulty in
  keeping the colours within the shape.
• When colouring in the child may have difficulty
  in keeping within the lines.
• All young children may make mistakes like these
  and many will grow out of them, but it is the
  length of time these continue which give vital
  clues as to possible signs of dyslexia.

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Primary school age 1.

• Has particular difficulty with reading and
  spelling.
• Puts letters and figures the wrong way round.
• Has difficulty remembering tables, alphabet,
  formulae etc.
• Leaves letters out of words or puts them in the
  wrong order.
• Still occasionally confuses 'b' and 'd' and words
  such as 'no/on'.

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Primary school age 2

• Still needs to use fingers or marks on paper to
  make simple calculations.
• Poor concentration.
• Has problems understanding what he/she has read.
  
• Takes longer than average to do written work.
• Problems processing language at speed.

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Primary school age non-language indicators

• Has difficulty with tying shoe laces, tie,
  dressing.
• Has difficulty telling left from right, order of
  days of the week, months of the year etc.
• Surprises you because in other ways he/she is
  bright and alert.
• Has a poor sense of direction and still confuses
  left and right.
• Lacks confidence and has a poor self image.

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Aged 12 or over.As for primary schools, plus

• Still reads inaccurately.
• Still has difficulties in spelling.
• Needs to have instructions and telephone numbers
  repeated.
• Gets 'tied up' using long words, e.g.
  'preliminary', 'philosophical'.
• Confuses places, times, dates.
• Has difficulty with planning and writing essays.
  
• Has difficulty processing complex language or
  long series of instructions at speed

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Aged 12 or over non-language indicators

• Has poor confidence and self-esteem.
• Has areas of strength as well as weakness.

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Theoretical Explanations of Dyslexia

• Its explained in the literature at different
  levels
• Biological Level
• Cognitive Level
• Behavioural level

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Biological Level

• Right Hemisphere Preference
• Right Hemisphere skills such as visual spatial
  awareness dominate over left hemisphere skills
  involving language, symbols , reading
• Inhibited Primary Movement
• Genetic Chromosome Research
• MRI Characterisation
• Inheritance

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Cognitive Level

• Working Memory
• Phonological Processing Difficulty
• Processing Speed
• Visual Processing Difficulty
• Automaticity Reading Fluency

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Behavioural Level

• Speech and Language Difficulty
• Pattern of errors in reading and writing
• Difficulties with Rote learning
• Sequencing difficulties
• Poor concentration
• Organization
• Left Right Confusion
• Self esteem

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Effects of Dyslexia

• The effects of dyslexia may include
• Making errors with numbers (telephone numbers,
  reversing bus number etc).
• Difficulty with organisational skills, including
  time management.
• Misplacing personal items such as keys.
• Making mistakes copying things down
  (instructions, number etc).

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Effects of Dyslexia II

• Also
• Confusing dates, and missing appointments.
• Difficulty with orientation, e.g. with maps or in
  strange towns.
• Confusing left and right.
• Problems with explaining ideas and concepts,
  particularly on paper.
• Word finding difficulties, and mispronunciation
  of long words.

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Research shows that dyslexic people do improve
with

• Small group (or one-to-one) support.
• As early identification and remediation as
  possible.
• Understanding and encouragement.
• A structured multi-sensory method of teaching
  e.g. sound-symbol associations, and
• simultaneous oral spelling.

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Research shows that dyslexic people do improve
with

• A structured approach based on established
  phonetic principles.
• Matching task to learner - ie. individualised
  instruction based on careful assessment.
• Teaching to strengths and the persons learning
  style to help remediate the weaknesses whilst
  utilising their strengths.
• Mnemonics and concrete aids.
• Help with organisation.
• Patience and understanding

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Dyslexic people do not improve with

• Unspecific remedial methods, i.e. more reading,
  more spelling.
• In a child's particular instance, being left to
  grow out of it.
• Training visual or auditory perception alone
  (unless within written language itself).
• Punishments, threats of being disciplined or
  sacked, ridiculed in front of others.
• Inappropriate labelling, name calling e.g.
  thick, stupid, lazy.

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Processes of Reading

• Goal of Reading is to understand a piece of Text
• (Ellis 1993)
• Basic processes
• Eye Movement
• Letter Identification
• Word Identification
• Word Meaning
• Syntax
• Semantics
• Discourse Integration

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Eye Movements

• Saccades ( Eyes move laterally across the page
  in a series of jerky jumps called Saccades)
• Around 10 of Saccades in Reading move backwards
• Saccades take around 10-20 milliseconds to
  complete and are separated by fixations lasting
  around 200-250 milliseconds
• The length of each saccade covers around 8
  letters
• Information is only extracted during the fixation

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Fixations

• Rare words are fixated for longer
• Predictable words from context are fixated for a
  shorter time
• Words preceded by a rare word have a longer
  Fixation time (Spillover)
• Words that are not fixated are Common, Short or
  Predictable

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Perceptual Span

• Perceptual Span (effective field of view)
• Total Perceptual Span is the total area from
  which useful information is extracted. It extends
  typically 3 or 4 letters to the left of the
  fixation and up to 15 letters to the right.
• There are two other main spans the letter
  identification span and the word identification
  span
• Word Identification Span is the shortest

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Letter and Word Identification

• Letter Identification does not have to be fully
  complete before Word Identification
• Word Superiority Effect (Reicher 1969)
• Task - Identify Letters in positions in words
• Performance is superior when word is known
• This indicates that knowledge about the word
  informs the ID of letters.

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Main stages in Natural Language Understanding

• Prosody (Rhythm ,Intonation, Metre)
• Phonology ( Phonetics of Words)
• Morphology (Word and Phrase Construction)
• Syntax (Grammars, Sentence Structure)
• Semantics (Meaning)
• Pragmatics (Effect of Language, Chants etc)
• World Knowledge

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Elements of Reading(National Reading Panel)

• phonemic awareness
• phonics
• fluency
• vocabulary
• text comprehension

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Word Recognition Clues

• phonics
• sight words
• context clues
• structural analysis

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Towards Reading

• Try to provide a positive, productive period to
  contribute actively to the lesson.
• Try to give the child the opportunity to
  practise his reading skills and show off his
  ability.
• Participate in his reading experience instead of
  listening.
• Encourage reading by looking at books together.
  Rag books, board books are
• great for younger children.
• Read aloud together - use expressive features,
  different voices to encourage the child to try
  this too.

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Towards Reading

• Joining a library can help establish a good
  attitude towards books.
• Encourage the child to look at things for
  information e.g. cereal box, streets, roads,maps.
• Reading should be fun so try not to pressure
  him/her and dont expect too much too

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Towards Reading

• Read stories at bedtime where it is quiet and you
  can be comfortable together.
• Make sessions fun by playing around with rhyming
  words and associated words.
• Read books that are comparable with his reading
  ability. There are many graded
• series that can be purchased even for the older
  child.
• To build self-belief it is sometimes better to
  start on an easier book to encourage and
• boost his confidence.
• Praise him for the attempted words he gets
  correct. Always look for the things that
• he can do rather than what he cannot.

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Towards Reading

• Use bookmarkers to keep place in a book.
• Encourage the child to try to decode the words
  himself. Dont leave him to struggle though! If
  he is stuck - give him a clue e.g. look at the
  beginning of the word, are there familiar
  letters, look at the picture, look at the words
  around, try giving the first sound.
• Give him the chance to make up stories whilst
  you write them down for him. Then as he
  progresses, ask him to write them down as clearly
  and as accurate as he can.
• In time, you could ask him to transfer his story
  onto a PC to make it more presentable.

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Activities to help with Reading 1

• 1. Say nursery rhymes together they help to
  encourage rhythm at an early age.
• 2. Finger play e.g. poems and songs which have
  hand actions.
• 3. Read to the child poetry, (especially funny
  or nonsense poems) and stories.
• 4. Act out a mime of a rhyme or something that
  has happened and then guess the
• mime.
• 5. Find pictured to talk about and help the child
  to notice details e.g. Is the man in
• front of or behind the lady? Is the boy climbing
  under or over the gate?

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Activities to help with Reading 2

• 6. Play games e.g. hunt the thimble and say is
  it inside the pot, under the pot, on top of the
  pot?
• 7. Watch television together. It can be a useful
  way of learning if you talk about what is
  happening.
• 8. There are some very good puzzle books e.g.
  joining dots, mazes and simple picture crosswords
  are all useful.
• 9. Encourage the child to help with tasks e.g.
  laying/cleaning the table, setting out play
  things and putting them away.

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Types of Reading Text Materials

• narrative text materials
• stories, fiction, inspirational
• informational text material
• textbooks, content area materials, instructional
  materials

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Literature-Based Reading Instruction

• Strong relationships among language systems oral
  language, reading, writing.
• Immerse children in language and books.
• Children should have early experiences with
  writing.
• Children need time for independent reading.

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Explicit Code-Emphasis Instruction

• Systematic, direct instruction of alphabet code
• Mapping linkage of letters and words
• Early attainment of decoding skills
• Children need an early start in reading

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Improving Fluency

• Repeated reading
• Predictable books
• Neurological impress method
• Read-along method

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Reading Comprehension

• Depends upon what reader brings to the text
• A language process
• A thinking process
• Requires interaction with the text

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Improving Reading Comprehension

• Building vocabulary
• Using basal readers
• Activating background knowledge
• Language experience method
• Reading-writing connection
• Learning strategies
• Encourage wide reading

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K-W-L
K W L
What we know What we want to find out What we have learned
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Word Webs
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Specific Remedial Methods

• Multisensory methods
• Orton-Gillingham
• Wilson
• Fernald
• Others
• Reading Recovery
• Direct Instruction
• Using Computers

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Dyslexia and the Use of Assistive Technology
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Characteristics of Specific Learning Difficulties

• The following are common characteristics of
  Specific Learning Difficulties
• Memory Difficulties
• Writing Difficulties
• Reading Difficulties
• Visual Processing Difficulties
• Auditory Processing Difficulties
• Time Management Difficulties
• Organisational Difficulties

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Memory Difficulties

• Audio Recorder
• Sticky Notes
• Electronic To Do Lists / Task Lists

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Organisational Tools

• Mind Mapping Software
• Outline Tool

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Keyboarding

• Smart Keyboards
• Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs)
• Desktop or Laptop Computer

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Visual Difficulties

• Good lighting.
• Coloured Overlays.
• Choose a clear font and think about the visual
  presentation.

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Reading from the screen

• Text to Speech can be useful for students with an
  auditory learning style.
• Text to speech can be used for reading a whole
  range of text documents (web pages, Word
  Documents and PDFs etc).
• Text to speech can be used in conjunction with
  OCR to read printed books or papers.

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Writing on the Screen

• Good Keyboarding skills.
• Speech Recognition programs.
• Spell Checking.
• Word Prediction.

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Conclusion

• Technology can help support the needs of students
  with specific learning difficulties.
• Sometimes simple technology can work more
  effectively.
• Technology does not replace the need for
  specialist learning support, but it does give
  students more independence and freedom to work
  using their skills and strengths.