You may have heard that many children write words in a mirror way. Or they read the words backwards, sometimes replacing sounds with similar ones. Is it normal for a child? Yes, but sometimes such signs can become a bell for anxiety. What is dyslexia and what are its symptoms?
Short description
Dyslexia is a disorder of reading skills due to poor formation or disintegration of some mental functions responsible for reading and writing processes. Disorder is expressed in constantly recurring shortcomings when reading and writing.
If considered from the point of view of psycholinguistics, dyslexia is a violation in the connections of the visual, speech and speech receptor analyzer. The matter is that the reading involves all the analyzers, it forces step-by-step to include visual perception, combining letters with sounds, merging these sounds into syllables, and then, into words, merging words into sentences, and them into a story.
Forms of dyslexia
There are several classifications of the forms of the disease, however, the most common is described below. It includes such types as:
- phonemic;
- is semantic;
- is an agrammatical;
- optical;
- is a mock;
- tactile;
Phonemic
The mechanism is based on the general underdevelopment of the functions of the phonemic system. The dyslexic in this case, when pronouncing, mixes up sounds that differ in their sense-distinguishing feature( b-n, c-sh, etc.).There can be a rearrangement of letters and some parts of words in words when reading and writing.
Semantic
Often referred to as "mechanical reading" due to the fact that the understanding of read words, sentences and whole texts is violated. At the same time, reading does not suffer. With semantic dyslexia, words are perceived only partially, because of what their connection with other words in the text is lost.
Аграмматическая
The form is characterized by changes in case endings, the number of nouns, various kinds of coordination, and also in verbal endings. It is most common in children with systemic speech underdevelopment.
Optical
With optical dyslexia, it is difficult for a child to learn and distinguish letters of similar spelling. The letters can differ slightly( C-O, P-B) or consist of similar parts, but with different locations on the paper( G-T, P-N).
Mysterious
This form is characterized by difficulty in understanding the letters. A child can not associate sound with a specific graphic image of it.
Tactile
May be only for blind children. It is expressed in problems with understanding letters on the Braille table.
Causes of dyslexia
Recent studies of the disease have shown a strong influence of hereditary predisposition. Foreign doctors tend to the fact that dyslexia can be associated with latent left-handedness.
The main cause of dyslexia is the cerebral dysfunction , which can be caused by exposure to certain biological factors, for example:
In the perinatal period, dyslexia can cause brain damage , which can result in:
- maternal anemia;
- heart disease of the mother and fetus;
- asphyxiation;
- protracted labor;
- fetoplacental insufficiency;
- premature placental abruption;
- embryology and anomaly of the development of the umbilical cord;
Toxic CNS lesions , which could give:
- alcohol and drug intoxication;
- hemolytic disease of the fetus;
- of jaundice in a newborn;
infectious lesions of may lead to dysfunction due to: diseases that have been transferred during pregnancy( measles, rubella, influenza, etc.);
To damage the brain mechanically by it is possible with:
- of fruit-removing manipulations;
- protracted labor;
- intracranial hemorrhage.
Even if the child did not have any of the above, after birth, there are factors, leading to a delay in the maturation of the cerebral cortex , which leads to dyslexia. These factors include:
- CCTV;
- neuroinfection;
- infections like rubella, measles, chicken pox, polio and the like;
- severe chronic diseases;
Dyslexia can accompany :
- alalia;
- dysarthria;
- aphasia;
- cerebral palsy;
- DET;
- mental retardation.
This is due to the pathology of the brain zones.
There are also social adverse factors , for example:
- speech communication deficiency;
- pedagogical neglect;
- bilingualism.
Symptoms of
It may seem that dyslexics due to problems with pronunciation and writing can mark a development gap. In fact, this is not so. With all their shortcomings, they very often are talented, sometimes even brilliant people. Albert Einstein, Leonardo da Vinci, Marilyn Monroe, Walt Disney, Vladimir Mayakovsky - all of them were dyslexic, but this did not stop them from becoming worthy of famous people.
The study of dyslexia showed that the dyslexics:
- have a wide horizon;
- are curious about the phenomena of the surrounding world;
- have an excellent imagination;
- have developed intuition;
- can evaluate and consider the things we are familiar with from other parties.
Dyslexia may manifest itself in different ways, depending on the patient's age. For convenience of perception, the symptomatology below is divided into several subgroups.
Early signs of
These symptoms are classified in a separate category, because their presence can talk about the neglected process of the disease. Having noticed more than 5-7 such signs, it is necessary to address for consultation to the doctor.
This category includes:
- changing the order of letters when composing words;
- unwillingness to read aloud and write essays;
- changing the order of letters, words or numbers during writing and reading;
- difficulties with learning the alphabet, multiplication table;
- confusion in the simplest orientation( right-left, etc.);
- inattention;
- bad memory;
- difficulties with the implementation of simple instructions;
- clumsy grip handle;
- difficulties in learning the spelling and principles of reading.
At preschool age
- Late onset of speech development.
- Difficulties in pronunciation and learning words.
- Poor memory, especially for words( confused or long can not remember the correct word)
- Problems in communicating with peers
- Problems in mastering the simplest reading and writing skills
- Confusion in the arrangement of words and letters in words, in retelling or in a story
Junior school
- Problems with word decoding.
- Substitution of one word for another, often similar in sound and meaning( box-box).
- Transposition and inversion when reading.
- Spread of words and letters( e-e, etc.).
- Confusion in arithmetic signs( instead of + -).
- Difficulties in memorizing the facts.
- Violated coordination of movements.
- Impulsivity and Awkwardness.
- Slow mastering of new skills.
- High School Reading level is lower than that of classmates.
- Persistent unwillingness to read aloud and write.
- Bad memory, which affects planning.
- Difficulties in communicating and finding a common language with peers.
- Poor perception of body language and facial expressions.
- Poorly readable handwriting.
- Difficulties with pronunciation and spelling of words.
High School
- Slow reading with lots of errors.
- Insufficient writing skill.
- Problems in retelling, presenting and generalizing the material.
- Wrong pronunciation of words.
- Poor perception of information.
- Bad memory.
- Slow speed of operation.
- Difficulties in adapting to any changes.
Adults
- Difficulty in perceiving sound and written information.
- Bad memory, carelessness and absent-mindedness.
- Hard pronunciation.
- Confusion in the sequence of numbers and words, inability to reproduce them in the correct order.
- Lack of writing skills or their lack of development( dysgraphy).
- Problems with planning and organizing your time.
- Weak organizational skills.
Diagnosis
Diagnostic study begins with a visit to the pediatrician who, after examining all the signs, should direct the child to the speech therapist.
The speech therapist begins the examination by collecting a detailed medical history, including aspects such as:
- as the mother's pregnancy was taking place;
- are there any genetic predispositions to such diseases;
- are there any congenital diseases in the child;
- as the development of the child took place in the first years of life.
After collecting an anamnesis, the speech therapist finds out:
- the formation of speech, writing and reading skills in the child;
- features the formation of these skills;
- state of the articulatory apparatus;
- motor condition;
- student's progress in the Russian language and literature.
After data collection, the physician can conduct several tests, including:
- reading out loud;
- text copying;
- a letter by ear.
Dyslexia test
Recently, foreign scientists have created a special test for dyslexia, suitable for children from 3 years. Passage takes about 10 minutes, and he himself is designed to identify problems in young children who have not even begun pre-school education.
The mechanism of the test is based on the fact that children, when constructing words, are particularly attentive to the pronunciation of sounds. If the child has problems with pronunciation, then there can be problems with reading and writing. So, incidentally, children can diagnose and dysgraphy.
For the diagnosis of dyslexia, classical tests that take 1.5-2 hours can also be performed. They are conducted by a doctor-speech therapist.
Treatment and correction of dyslexia
The traditional method of treating dyslexia is logopedic corrective work. This method involves working on the correction of all pathologies of speech and non-speech processes.
The method of speech therapy correction depends on the specific form of the disease:
- Optical dyslexia requires work on visual-spatial representation, visual synthesis and analysis.
- Tactile assumes work on the analysis and understanding of schemes and the development of spatial representation.
- When mnestic, it is necessary to develop auditory and memory memory.
- With a phonemic form, it is required to correct the sound production, to form representations about the phonetic composition of words.
- Semantic requires the development of syllabic synthesis and vocabulary, to work on the child's mastering of grammatical language norms.
- With agromatic form, work should be carried out on the formation of grammatical systems.
In adult dyslexics, correction methods involve more extensive occupations. However, according to the mechanisms, they do not differ from classes with children.
Watch a video that addresses the causes and correction of dyslexia: