Learning Disability Article Paper

What is Dyslexia? In the article “What is Dyslexia? What Causes Dyslexia?” by Medical News Today, it states “According to the University of Michigan Health System, dyslexia is the most common learning disability” Medical News Today (2013, 2). In this article it also says that “The National Health Service, UK, estimates that 4-8% of all schoolchildren in England have some degree of Dyslexia” Medical News Today (2013, 2). Moreover the article also states “It is estimated that boys are one-and-a-half to three times more likely to develop Dyslexia then girls” Medical News Today (2013, 2). From the article “What is Dyslexia? What Causes Dyslexia?” by Medical News Today, I will go over what dyslexia is, what the symptoms are, the possible causes of the disability, diagnosing the disability and what the available options and current treatments are. Dyslexia is a neurologically based, often inherited disorder, which meddles with the learning and processing of language.

Dyslexia is a distinct learning disability because it is a defect in the brains in take and organization of graphic symbols. Dyslexia is not connected to the intelligence of a person. There are many brilliant and successful people that have Dyslexia. People having problems in spelling and word recognition mostly characterize dyslexia. In the article it states, “The problem in dyslexia is a linguistic one, not a visual one. Dyslexia in no way stems from any lack of intelligence” Medical News Today (2013, 2). The effects of Dyslexia differ from one person to another. Among people with Dyslexia the one single shared trait is that there reading levels are significantly lower then they’re expected reading level for their age group. Some of the more common symptoms are: difficulties in learning to read, milestones are reached later than the majority of the other kids there age, slow speech and difficulty pronouncing words, slow at learning sets of data, poor coordination, confusing their left from their right, they will reverse numbers or letters not knowing they are doing so, slower then their piers in spelling, difficulties in processing certain sounds in words, and they can have illogical ways of sequencing their ideas.

Children with Dyslexia also have a higher rate of having ADHD (attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder) than other children. In the article it also states a link between Dyslexia and Autoimmune conditions, “People with Dyslexia are more likely to develop immunological problems, such as hay fever, asthma, eczema and other allergies” Medical News Today (2013, 3). Researchers and doctors are unsure on what the cause is for a person to become Dyslexic. Dyslexia seems to run in families, which leads some to believe the disability is hereditary. In the article it states there was a study that implied genetic defect as a possible cause for Dyslexia. The article states “a team at the Yale School of Medicine found that defects in gene, known as DCDC2, were associated with problems in reading performance. They also reported that this defective gene appears to interact with KIAA0319, a second Dyslexia gene” Medical News Today (2013, 4).

In the Dyslexic population there are a few minority groups of people who acquired the disability after their birth. Brain injuries, stroke or some other traumas are the most usual causes for someone to acquire Dyslexia after they are born. Depending on the age and what problems the person is experiencing determines which of the various tests for Dyslexia will be carried out. Phonological processing, how well they express themselves, their receptive language abilities and their ability to make sound-symbol associations, is usually where an examiner will focus their testing when testing a child. When doing a diagnostic test it should cover these areas, background information, intelligence, oral language skills, word recognition, decoding, phonological processing, automaticity/fluency skills, reading comprehension, vocabulary knowledge, family history and early development. In the article it says “there is no “cure” for Dyslexia.

There are however, a range of specialists and well targeted interventions that can help children and adults improve their reading and writing skills” Medical News Today (2013, 5). Consisting of one-on-one teaching or small-group classes, most of the children who have Dyslexia will only miss a few hours of their normal classes every week so that they can get specialist teaching and support. They will focus on improving: learning to recognize phonemes, and understanding that these phonemes are represented by groups of letters, reading out aloud, vocabulary building and reading comprehension. In conclusion Dyslexia is not a visual but a language disability.

There is no for sure known cause for Dyslexia but studies are leaning toward it being a disability caused by a gene defect and in some cases brain injury or trauma after they are born. A professional evaluation and diagnosis can lead people with Dyslexia to have a better understanding of their disability and will help them to get more effective treatment. Dyslexia is not a disease nor does it stem from any lack of intelligence, this is very important for family members and people with Dyslexia to understand. Dyslexia is a disability and with the right diagnosis and treatment they can learn to cope and live with dyslexia, in fact some people with severe Dyslexia are know to be extremely intelligent or some would even say they are brilliant.

References
“What is Dyslexia? What Causes Dyslexia?” Retrieved July 5, 2014 from http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/186787.php.