More Information On Dyslexia
One thing that is not always mentioned when looking for information on dyslexia is naming speed.
Now, naming speed in reading is a somewhat complex, but homogeneous phenomenon among dyslexics.
Cognitive processes that affect reading speed include attention, perception, motor and linguistic processes that need to interact rapidly.
Problems in any one of these areas can lead to the slowing of recognising and pronouncing written texts despite the location of, or the number of problems.
For example, if someone is slow to recognise individual letters, then those letters that frequently appear together in words do not get recognised as easily.
For example, "th" is a common prefix to a word.
This would then impact on orthographic pattern knowledge that is an essential component that leads to automaticity in skilled reading.
The more time that is spent in recognising words will affect the level of comprehension of a target text.
While this may suggest a retrieval problem, rather than an issue with vocabulary, it is important to remember that this is just an example problem.
The difficulty could be in any one of the processes mentioned in the above paragraph that contributed to the skill of reading.
Why this information on dyslexia is important, is because a lot of time is spent on remediation programs that focus more on errors.
But if reading speed is to be taken into account, then remediation programs must focus as much on improving the speed of recognising words to improve comprehension.
Also, while a great deal of problems are phonological in nature (e.
g.
a problem with decoding written words to produce the correct pronunciation), it is not always the issue.
There is little point in remediation focusing purely on phonological tasks when that clearly is not the, or the only problem.
Unfortunately, to properly assess an individual for their specific difficulty requires quite a lot of testing on a range of tasks.
This of course takes time and costs money, which is why professional assessments can be expensive.
So, when looking for more information on dyslexia, be sure to bear the above in mind.
Reading speed is a strong indicator of a problem that can still be picked up even in adulthood.
Not all dyslexics have the same problem, and any remediation program should bear this in mind when designing tasks to aid someone with this lifelong condition.
Now, naming speed in reading is a somewhat complex, but homogeneous phenomenon among dyslexics.
Cognitive processes that affect reading speed include attention, perception, motor and linguistic processes that need to interact rapidly.
Problems in any one of these areas can lead to the slowing of recognising and pronouncing written texts despite the location of, or the number of problems.
For example, if someone is slow to recognise individual letters, then those letters that frequently appear together in words do not get recognised as easily.
For example, "th" is a common prefix to a word.
This would then impact on orthographic pattern knowledge that is an essential component that leads to automaticity in skilled reading.
The more time that is spent in recognising words will affect the level of comprehension of a target text.
While this may suggest a retrieval problem, rather than an issue with vocabulary, it is important to remember that this is just an example problem.
The difficulty could be in any one of the processes mentioned in the above paragraph that contributed to the skill of reading.
Why this information on dyslexia is important, is because a lot of time is spent on remediation programs that focus more on errors.
But if reading speed is to be taken into account, then remediation programs must focus as much on improving the speed of recognising words to improve comprehension.
Also, while a great deal of problems are phonological in nature (e.
g.
a problem with decoding written words to produce the correct pronunciation), it is not always the issue.
There is little point in remediation focusing purely on phonological tasks when that clearly is not the, or the only problem.
Unfortunately, to properly assess an individual for their specific difficulty requires quite a lot of testing on a range of tasks.
This of course takes time and costs money, which is why professional assessments can be expensive.
So, when looking for more information on dyslexia, be sure to bear the above in mind.
Reading speed is a strong indicator of a problem that can still be picked up even in adulthood.
Not all dyslexics have the same problem, and any remediation program should bear this in mind when designing tasks to aid someone with this lifelong condition.
