Dyslexia Essay

Words: 2532
Pages: 11

Growing, developing and learning are the facts of life for all children. Each day children are faced with many new concepts and various challenges. Can you imagine how it feels for a child to face not only new challenges life has, but to face these challenges while living with a learning disability? These challenges are met not just when they begin school either. Students suffer from learning disabilities from the moment they begin learning, not when they start school. Learning disabilities are real and they affect millions of people. "One such disability that affects over approximately 15 percent of the total American population is dyslexia" ( Nosek 5). We will discuss the following issues and areas surrounding dyslexia: 
"They may get confused by individual letters and numbers, whole words and especially by sequential information. What is mainly know is that while reading, the person showas repetition, transpositions, additions, omissions, substitutions, and reversal in letters and words" (Wilkins URL). When reading in a small group in the first grade, they rely on other readers to say the words first, then they copy. As they get older they can read well orally, but then cannot recall what was read. "To an individual with dyslexia, a sentence might look like this: I w a n t y o u t o s e e h o I t I s f o r s o m o n e t o r e a d t h e p a g e . Perceptual distortions can include only a slight movement of words, so reading the page is possible although irritating and tiring" (Irlen 100). Words can jump, swirl around, switch and jump of the page almost instantly. Having to read like this all the time, most likely would turn a person off from wanting to read at all. There are special programs that are aimed to enhance reading. One specific program is called the Orton-Gillingham method. "The Orton-Gillingham method is sometimes called the VAKT technique. This acronym stands for Visual, Auditory, Kinesthetic, and Tactual experience" (Savage 67). This method is an inventive way to help these students read. It is a multi-sensory approach that involves movement and touch; it is a slow, step-by-step