Dyslexia and Learning
Dyslexia and Learning
Dyslexia and learning disability are very common in childhood. The dyslexic child, a child who cannot read well, is much more likely to develop a learning disability. According to the DSM – V, specific learning disorder, occurs between 5% and 15% of children in school age. One of the common causes of school failure is a low reading comprehension associated with learning problems.
Learning disorder
Learning disabilities affect all cognitive capabilities that allow the child to follow a standardized education. Many of these children with a learning disorder have trouble reading words, and often do not understand what they read (low reading comprehension). Often with poorly written skills, that leads them to have lower grades than their peers, although perfectly know the lesson. They can also present problems of calculation and mathematical reasoning.
Dyslexia and Processing Speed
Dyslexia is a learning disability. The dyslexic child does not read well. It usually has a slow, inaccurate reading, and then loses the meaning of the text. In the classic Denckla´s article (Denckla & Rudel, 1976), the authors show that performance in tests requiring rapid naming of a pictured objects, colors, letters and numbers, children with dyslexia are slower. This slowness in automating verbal responses to visual stimuli is typical of dyslexia. It allows us to differentiate it from other learning disabilities.
Children with dyslexia often have a poor decoding. A majority of dyslexic children do not like to read, and involves them a great effort. It is very important for these children find texts that motivate them to read.
A child with dyslexia should read every day. A typical mistake is to stop reading on holidays. Studies suggest that reading during the holidays, is key in the child’s education. Another problem is the computer. In all countries where children have entered the information age, reading comprehension levels have dropped. Our advice would be less computer and more reading.
Denckla , M. B., & Rudel , R. G. (1976 ) . Rapid ” automatized ” naming ( RAN ) : Dyslexia Differentiated from other learning disabilities . Neuropsychologia , 14 (4) , 471-479 . doi : 10.1016 / 0028-3932 (76) 90075-0