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DYSLEXIA
Dyslexia and Its Affect on a Child’s Proficiency in
Math and Reading in Elementary Schools
by
Isabel Cabrera
Project Three: Research Literature Synthesis
In partial fulfillment of
EDCI 6300.61 Foundations of Research in Education
The University of Texas at Brownsville, College of Education
Department of Teaching Learning and Innovation
Dr. A. J. Herrera
May 7, 2012
Dyslexia and Its Affect on a Child’s Proficiency in
Math and Reading in Elementary Schools
Dyslexia is a specific learning disability identified under Section 504 within Special Education. The problemis that students with dyslexia in the elementary grades have difficulty attaining the proficiency levels in math and reading as measured by the mandated Texas state (STAAR) examinations. The purpose is to find out if dyslexia affects a child’s proficiency in math and reading in an elementary setting due to having learning difficulties. The need to research dyslexiais to bring awareness to teachers and help these students become successful learners.
Wadlington (2000) defines dyslexia as a neurologically based learning disability that hampers language acquisition and processing. It is characterized by difficulty in learning to read, write, spell, and/or problems in mathematics. Furthermore, Stein (2004) specifically divided dyslexia into four domains of function: dyslexia (a language-based disorder of learning associated with difficulties in single-word decoding; these children have problems in reading and spelling such as phonemes); dyscalculia (a disorder of mathematics associated with a deficiency in visual-spatial skills or a difficulty with arithmetic fact retrieval or with the use of mathematical processes); dysgraphia (a problem with fine motor and visual-motor (eye-hand) coordination associated with messy handwriting, distorted shapes, and poorly structured drawings; and pragmatic language disorders (a distortion of the nonverbal aspects of language used in a social context). Symptoms can range from mild to severe dyslexia depending on how many domains of function the child suffers from. It is not a disease, but a learning disability that is linked to chromosomes that are found to be hereditary.
According to Zambo (2004) dyslexia affects 1 in 5 students and accounting for 80 percent of all learning-disabled children in special education today. Most students are not diagnosed with dyslexia untilthey are in the third grade (Feeg, 2003). Many struggling or poor readers are vulnerable to becoming academically, socially, and emotionally detached from school because they are evaluated ruthlessly using quantitative measures such as Texas (STAAR) state tests leaving them with emotional scars, feelings of inferiority, and low self confidence (Zambo, 2004). Studentswith dyslexia have a different way of learning. They require a multi-sensory learning approachvs. the direct teaching approach. The foundation of reading begins in elementary with phonological and phonemic awareness (Compton, 2004). With phonics being the foundation for reading, frustration is apparent at a very early stage.
Moreover, studentswith dyslexia feel the stress of passing the Texas state (STAAR) exams in order to continue to the next grade level. “The federal government now mandates a particular paradigm that everyone must follow if school districts are to receive federal funds” (Camp, 2007). Public schools are trying to be in compliance with the state, but must also meet the needs of the special populations such as dyslexia. As dyslexic students get older these academic differences become more visible to even their classmates, affecting their self-confidence because they struggle to meet the Texas state expectations on the Math and Reading (STAAR) examinations.
Literature Review on Quantitative Research
Experimental Studies
Brain Studies. One of the purposes of this article was to describe the current revival of interest in dyslexia. Scientists have conductedbrain scans in both dyslexic children and adults. Dr. Samuel Orton was the first scientist in the 20th century to propose the concept of dyslexia to describe children with severe reading difficulties but whom were of average intelligence andthat it resulted from a neurobiological disorder (Camp, 2007). His first hypothesis was that dyslexia resulted from a lack of hemispheric dominance in the brain because he observed the many reversals such as b for d and saw for was. He believed these mirror images could be the result of the brain receiving two messages at the same time from both hemispheres. Although,new studies have been conducted and with the use of new and advanced technology such as the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) used for examining the different parts of the brain, have made it possible for new findings and discoveries in brain research.
Genetic. For example, a quantitative study compared large samples of 119 U.S. families (total of 180 sibling pairs) from Colorado and found that the independent genome-wide scans identified a chromosome 18 quantitative-trait locus (QTL) that is linked to dyslexia(Fisher, et al., 2002). They were assessed through the use of standardized tests including phoneme awareness (PA), phonological decoding (PD), and orthographic coding (OC). The correlations of the trait in the data set were found to be moderate to high ranging from 0.41 to 0.84. The multi-point analysis also gave the researchers an increase or strong evidence to the chromosome 18 linked for a single-word reading with P values of 0.0004 that indicates animportant role as a QTL in reading disabilities. In fact, this research on the QTL trait confirmed that dyslexia is a heritable trait.
Neuropathology. According to Grigorenko (2001), Texas studies on the brain structure have been conducted. With the use of the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques, researchers have found differences in the brains of individuals with dyslexia when compared to those without dyslexia. Various research teams have compared the brain structures and have special interest in the planum temporale, a specific region of the brain. Postmortem brain studies have also been performed on four men whom all had dyslexia. They all showed unusual symmetry in the planum temporale, which is relevant to the language function (Grigorenko, 2001). At the microscopic level, scientists found that the brains in dyslexics had more misplaced and unusually organized nerve cells, which may be the result of a failure of neurons reaching their normal cortical targets during fetal development. Researchers also used the MRI to examine the cerebral asymmetries to take a closer look into the central language areas. The computerized tomographic MRI studies from the posterior asymmetry provided evidence that the size on the left side was greater than the right side of the brain in individuals with dyslexia (Grigorenko, 2001).
Language/Speech. In this Texas study, researchers investigated the relative degree and timing of the cortical activation associated with phonological decoding in poor readers (Simos et al., 2011). Brain activity was recorded while the subjects were assessed using a pseudoword reading task and a letter-sound naming task. The participants consisted of three groups: 50 children with reading disabilities (RD) without attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, 20 children that were non-reading impaired (NI), and 50 children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder(ADHD). Data was collected using a scientific instrument called a neuromagnetometer and profiles of the children were created using a norm algorithm. Children with RD showed decreased brain activity compared to typical readers. The left hemisphere region continues to play a crucial role as the brain mechanism that supports basic reading skills such as decoding and word recognition. An analysis of variance (ANOVA) was also used with tasks on the area, hemisphere, and time bin. Another set of analysis was used for the correlations between reading measures and peak latency-average current in ROIs (time bin).
Language. In another Texas research study by Donald L. Compton (2002) examined the relationship among phonological processing, orthographic processing and lexical development in children with reading disabilities. He hypothesized children with reading disabilities (RD) added word-specific entries to their lexicons without a corresponding expansion of sub-word orthographic-phonological connections. He was interested in the developmental pattern differences in the progress among children of all whom were at different reading levels and grade levels. A reading-level-match research design was used to compare the performance of the four groups of readers using experimental reading tasks. Participants were drawn from a single public school district in a predominantly lower to middle class, semirural area of the southern United States. A total of 64 children participated in the study, 16 in each of the four groups. Different groups represented children with and without reading disabilities. The participants’ were administered a series of examinations such as the Raven’s Standard Progressive Matrices, Test of Auditory Analysis Skills, Olson, Title Recognition Test, Word -Attack subtest (WJ-R), Exception-Word Identification and the WRAT-III. The research concluded that children with RD did lack a relationship between the two lexical acquisition systems as compared to children without RD.
Language/ Speech. The purpose of this Texas study (Odegard et al., 2008) was to compare children with dyslexia to non-impaired readers. Eighteen children aged 10-14 years, participated in this study; nine dyslexics were female, three dyslexics were male and six children were in the control group. A battery of tests was administered including measures of intelligence, oral language, phonological processing and academic achievement. These tests were to assess the following reading sub-skills: grapho-phonemic knowledge, decoding, word recognition, fluency, comprehension, and spelling. All participants with dyslexia received treatment or rehabilitation at a hospital based learning disabilities clinic using a specific curriculum that focused on specific reading skills. A cross sectional design was used to conduct an fMRI study to compare differences with children with dyslexia who responded well to treatment from those who did not respond to treatment. Treatment non-responders continued to have the inability to adequately decode real and pseudo-words. The left inferior parietal lobe in the non-responders showed a decrease in activation that links the orthographic and phonological skills. This present study needs a continuation onbrain research in order to providesome intervention for dyslexic children.
Auditory/ Listening. While in this Texas study (Moncrieff, et al., 2008), the functional magnetic resonance image (fMRI) was used in children with and without dyslexia to measure the hemodynamic response using quasi dichotic listening tasks. Dichotic listening is a behavioral technique to test for auditory lateralization following input of speech. This assessment of auditory processing disorders (APD) is widely used to find out deficits in children with listening, language, and/or learning difficulties. A unilateral deficit means that the child had normal performance in one ear but poorer performance in the other ear. This has been linked to the lesions of the corpus callosum and temporal lobe of the brain. All children had more brain activity in the left hemisphere during the binaural separation listening task. Dyslexics were found to have a higher incidence of a dichotic left ear deficit from the pre-scanning behavioral tests and had fewer hits and more misses than the control group. All experimental subjects were selected from an outpatient clinic at the Luke Waites Center in Texas. All children were given the Wechsler Individual Achievement Test (WIAT) to make sure all children had a normal IQ score above 85 in order to be selected for this study. The control subjects were also administered the WIAT test and were recruited from the local community. Researchers came up with a statistical analysis by using data with a variance (ANOVA). Correlations were found using the bivariate Pearson, resulting in a measurement of p < .05 and p >.01. The study concluded that dyslexic children performed more poorly than the control group in using both their left and right ears.
Auditory/ Listening. The brain anatomy continues to show the region of the brain specific to auditory perceptual processing in dyslexics including the planum temporale. This hinders the language based remediation methods that lead to language disorders (speaking, reading, and writing) that last throughout their adult lives. Moncrieff and Black (2007) conducted a dichotic listening deficit study. Eight of the dyslexic children who participated in this study were selected from anoutpatient clinic, theTexas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children in Dallas, Texas. They were administered the Dichotic Digits Test (DDT), the Competing Words (CW) subtest of the SCAN, Screening Test for Auditory Processing Disorders and the Dichotic Consonant Vowel Test (DCV). The statistical analysis included individual ear scores analyzed across three dichotic listening tests by multivariate analysis of variance (GLM MANOVA) with the control vs. dyslexic groups and with the factors of right vs. left ear. Overall, the auditory processes may help explain factors that are associated with the reading impairment in this population.
Literature Review on Qualitative Research
Non-experimental Studies
Interviews. Rapp & Ginsburg (2011) interviewed New York City families who had children with learning disabilities. They were surprised to get as many interviews as they did. In fact, the sample just “snowballed” meaning families would encourage other friends and families to speak out about their stories to be heard to the broader public. They wanted to share their stories with others to bring about awareness of children with special needs and how it not only affects them but the whole family. It can lead to emotional, physical, and financial stress as one parent may be required to care for a child full time or maybe a lifetime depending on the disability or the needs of the child. Children with learning disabilities including dyslexics requireadditional help with homework for several hours a day throughout their high school years. Ongoing parental support is a must in order for the child to succeed in school. This may also affect a families work schedule, familyand social times.
Not all families can identify with a child’s struggles or even want to accept their child’s label. The psychological term is “denial” meaning they do not want to deal or talk about it to anyone. They figure it they don’t acknowledge it will go away or it really isn’t there. This of course, hurts the child more because they will feel inadequate and will not get the support they need, more importantly the attention they need as a child who is struggling to get by in school and in life. Some parents reported they imagined their child would somehow be cured or that their son/daughter would eventually grow out of it. Since the 1990’s the Americans for Disabilities Act passed and it became more socially acceptable in the USA.
Solutions and Strategies
Programs.
The Texas Scottish Rite Hospital in Dallas, Texas has a training program to help children with dyslexia. They work with children who have a hard time remembering or recalling information. Some early signs of a child with dyslexia can be having difficulty learning the letters of the alphabet, writing the alphabet correctly, or remembering the printed letter or word. They may also reverse letters, cannot sequence the alphabet, and therefore have difficulties in learning to read. Writing is usually cramped or messy with the letters or words going up and down and not being able to stay on the line. Their spelling may have many errors and usually spell or sound out words phonetically. They are late in establishing their hand preference. Their speech is usually delayed. They struggle with directions such as left, right, on top, bottom, next to and with the concept of time. When they discuss the characteristics of dyslexia with the parents, they usually discover that they do have a family history of similar symptoms or problems with other members of their families or maybe even themselves. Dyslexia is three times more common in boys than girls (Waites, 2001). Another complication of dyslexia is that it can be accompanied with a attention deficit disorder (ADD) or short attention span that can lead to impulsive behaviors, increased talking, and/or hyperactivity also known as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Children with dyslexia find it hard to organize themselves at home and at school. This program is designed and focused on the language part of dyslexia and consists of viewing 350 one hour videos that help with phonemic awareness and phonological processing. The program is structured and uses multi-sensory. It consists of sequencing the alphabet, reading, spelling, cursive writing, listening, and has plenty of review activities. This reading program is facilitated by the teacher, as the student watches the instructor on the video while he/she does the kinesthetic activities and completes the workbook for reinforcement of the objective.
Discussion
After reviewing the literature and the data, brain research is still new and much is not known about our brain. The brain is a very complex organ and it is all interdependent or connected with each other. Similarities in the brain studies, is that most researchers relied on the MRI’s as their form of technology to study the brain. In addition, research studies have similar results that have pinpointed that the planum temporale, a region of the brain is responsible for the language processes such reading, writing, and spelling, which all three are interdependent (Karnes, 1996). Nevertheless, scientists are studying different parts of the brain such as the size, neurons, hemispheres, and the different regions of the brain. In contrast, each research conducted, had its own hypothesis and theories about dyslexia. Some hypothesized that this learning disability was a result of a listening deficit or not mastering the phonological processing skills needed in order to read. Dyslexia in children is a very complicated learningdisability because no two children are alike. All children learn differently and at different rates with different learning styles.