{"id":2052,"date":"2022-04-27T08:02:28","date_gmt":"2022-04-27T08:02:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/therapeuticliteracycenter.com\/?p=2052"},"modified":"2022-04-27T08:02:28","modified_gmt":"2022-04-27T08:02:28","slug":"what-is-dyslexia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/therapeuticlearning.com\/2022\/04\/what-is-dyslexia\/","title":{"rendered":"What is Dyslexia?"},"content":{"rendered":"
We often wonder: Is my child dyslexic? or, Am I? and, What is Dyslexia exactly? However, in our experience, and in that of most people working in the field, not everyone who has difficulty with language or reading has \u201cdyslexia.\u201d<\/p>\n
When you hear the word \u201ccheese,\u201d what comes to mind?
\nSome people picture a slice of yellow American cheese in its own individual wrapper. Others see a \u201cwedge\u201d of white cheese just cut from a \u201cwheel.\u201d Still others picture Swiss or blue cheese.
\nWhat about products with cheese \u2013 cheeseburgers, cheese danish, cheese pizza, cheese puffs. How about cheese concepts \u2013 \u201cHow Cheesy\u201d or smile and say \u2018Cheese!\u2019\u201d
\nThey all contain cheese, but what exactly is cheese?<\/p>\n
The same can be said of \u201cdyslexia.\u201d
\nEveryone has different ideas about what dyslexia means. The word \u201cdyslexia\u201d is actually a medical term meaning \u201cdifficulty with words.\u201d That\u2019s a pretty broad concept.
\nLet\u2019s narrow this down just a bit.<\/p>\n
There is current brain research indicating that people with dyslexia probably have physiological differences in the brain structure and how it processes, or thinks about, information.
\nAt the Learning Center, we look at dyslexia from an educational standpoint. In other words, what can we do to overcome any limitations dyslexia might place on students\u2019 ability to learn. We have worked with students with reading disabilities for over 13 years, and in that time we have come to recognize a couple of major symptoms that we would call \u201cclassic dyslexic symptoms.\u201d These are: A significant phonemic awareness deficit, and a strong visual spatial thinking style.<\/p>\n
What Is Phonemic Awareness and How Does It Affect Reading?<\/span> The basic reading process is made up of three parts: Auditory (phonics), Visual (sight word recognition), and Language (the ability to use context clues and learn and apply new vocabulary). A phonemic awareness deficit almost always keeps a person from being an efficient reader and speller. It usually causes individuals to be \u201cdisabled readers\u201d in spite of the best efforts of parents and teachers.<\/p>\n For the second grader, it can mean being diagnosed as \u201cdevelopmentally delayed.\u201d For the bright and creative seventh grader, it can mean spending countless frustrating hours doing homework and still failing. For the adult professional, it can mean making a \u201ccareer\u201d out of hiding the inability to read and write on the job. The Visual Spatial Thinking Style<\/span> Many times, when \u201cright-brained\u201d children try to learn with the traditional \u201cleft-brain modes,\u201d they are labeled as \u201cattention deficit\u201d because they mentally \u201cleave\u201d the classroom and create highly entertaining \u201cmovies\u201d in their heads that are far more fulfilling and less disorienting than the symbolic ABCs and 123s. \u00a0Many times these individuals suffer from episodes that have come to be labeled simply \u201cdisorientation.\u201d It is the uncontrolled loss of focus triggered by confusion, and it almost always occurs when working with symbols or when listening.<\/p>\n When the person experiences confusion about symbols (such as numbers and letters) his or her brain tries to understand. However, these individuals will usually go to their most comfortable thinking style, which is \u201cseeing\u201d in dimension. This can cause them to perceive the letter or word from different angles, recording different images of the word or letter in their mind. This makes it very hard to retrieve the symbols and often results in number and letter reversals or words \u201cmoving\u201d on the page.<\/p>\n Small pieces of the language such as punctuation marks and small non-conceptual sight words such as the, of , and if may also be difficult for the visual-spatial thinker to pay attention to because it is hard to attach a concept or mental image to them.\u00a0Disorientation may occur when the individual is overwhelmed with too much information, particularly with language. \u00a0When disoriented, the person often loses track of what\u2019s going on around him as well as losing track of time.<\/p>\n We don\u2019t ever want to take away a person\u2019s thinking style. It is a wonderful creative style that was and is shared by important individuals in our society such as Albert Einstein, Leonardo da Vinci, Walt Disney, Thomas Edison, Bruce Jenner, Greg Louganis and many more.<\/p>\n Our goal is to help students develop other learning styles in addition to their own so they don\u2019t have to suffer from confusion with language. \u201cDyslexic\u201d symptoms, triggered by confusion about flat, linear symbols and small pieces of the language do not have to become a way of life.<\/p>\n There is help!<\/span> *Note: There are many other centers. Lindamood Bell and Banyan Tree are some of them in our area. Yet, once you enter our office, you will FEEL the difference. Our clinicians are all college graduates with degrees in psychology. They aren’t part time people working a “job” while they look for something else. They are all full-time clinicians dedicated to all of our clients. Working full-time allows us to go deeper in training and expertise in your child. We promise that there will never be “only two eyes” on your child. The level of collaboration and team work in studying your child along their growth accelerates their progress. That is our commitment to you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" So What Is Dyslexia Anyway? \u00a0– Two \u201cClassic\u201d Symptoms Explored We often wonder: Is my child dyslexic? or, Am I? and, What is Dyslexia exactly? However, in our experience, and in that of most people working in the field, not everyone who has difficulty with language or reading has \u201cdyslexia.\u201d When you hear the word
\nPhonemic awareness is a person\u2019s ability to think about the number, order, and identity of individual sounds within words. It is the underlying thinking process that allows a person to make sense out of phonics, the sound system of our language.<\/p>\n
\nIn order to be an automatic, comfortable reader, all three of these processes need to be working efficiently together. If they are not, reading can be a frustrating struggle.
\nCurrent research and our clinical experience strongly indicate that weaknesses in the auditory part of the basic reading process, or inability to easily understand and use the phonetic code of the language, is a key factor in reading and spelling disorders.<\/p>\n
\nIndividuals with a phonemic awareness deficit find it terribly difficult to use phonics for reading and spelling. It has been said that these people simply cannot ever learn phonics. However, ongoing research in the field of auditory processing has shown us that this is not true. These individuals can be trained to develop their phonemic awareness and become effective readers.People with phonemic awareness deficit may experience the following:<\/p>\n\n
\nThe second \u201cclassic dyslexic symptom\u201d is a strong visual spatial thinking style. People who have an auditory conceptualization deficit may or may not have the visual spatial thinking style.
\nGenerally, these people tend to be bright, creative, \u201cright-brained\u201d thinkers, who think in concepts and pictures. They have the unique ability to see \u201cin dimension,\u201d or mentally \u201csee\u201d objects from all sideswithout actually moving their eyes or the objects . This talent lends itself to drawing, building, putting things together, and recalling concrete or visual information.<\/p>\n
\nAt the Therapeutic Literacy Center we help clients to develop control over their thinking processes to make sense out of reading, spelling, written language and math.\u00a0\u00a0Through carefully researched and consistently effective methods, both of these most common and classic dyslexic symptoms can be overcome so that children and adults with average or above intellectual ability can become efficient learners. \u00a0Dyslexia and other learning disabilities are not diseases. They are simply differences in thinking or processing information that can be changed permanently . For some learners, the traditional methods of reading have not been successful. These individuals must be taught in a different way.<\/p>\n
Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[85,72],"tags":[63,64,66,70,90],"yoast_head":"\n