Dealing With The Reading Gap
...the United States have been diagnosed with a learning disability; 80% of the diagnoses are dyslexia – related. Yet, some research indicates that up to 20% of the general population may have some degree of dyslexia (Morris, B. 2002). Early identification and remediation for at risk children may minimize future reading difficulties. Evidence indicates that through early intervention of at risk students, the greater chance of successful correction of phonological processing abilities becomes highly achievable in most children.
Understanding dyslexia
Dyslexia is a specific language based disorder that is neurological in origin, and is directly related to difficulties in word-level reading abilities; which are caused by deficiencies within the phonological processing area of the brain, causing a discrepancy between oral language and the acquisition of decoding skills needed for fluent reading. Dyslexics find it difficult to distinguish sight words, and/or individual sounds or phonemes within written text. Dyslexia is marked by a variety of difficulties with the different structures of language, often including, and in addition to problems with reading, difficulties in developing proficient skills in writing and spelling (Torgeson, Foorman, & Wagner, 2008).
Dyslexia is highly inheritable. Dyslexics will have a significant family history of reading difficulties; typically a first or second generation relative is dyslexic, or had early reading difficulties (Torgeson, Foorman, & Wagner, 2008). Research has isolated a number of genes believed to set the stage for dyslexia to develop. “Evidence that dyslexia is inherent, and not the result of inept teaching or a lack of exposure, comes from two studies showing that dyslexia is substantially heritable (Olson & Gayan, 2001), and from brain imagery studies showing differences in the way brains of dyslexics...
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