This learning disability is quite widespread. This disorder is known as dyslexia, and it is believe to affect as many as 8 percent the elementary school children. Reading is one of the Big R’s, an ability that is important for success in our daily lives.
As an adult you pick-up a newspaper, magazine, or any print matter and learn through reading the material something new or maybe a deeper understanding of the topic. This process of reading has become second nature to you, but as a child you had to develop certain tasks.
In your early years of life you learned to focus your attention on the printed material and in most cases taught to read it from left to right.
As you advance you learned the alphabet, and the sound of the letters. From there you jumped to the sound of words. Of course there was “Miss English” you know the type. Marking up your (what you thought) great English paper with red pencil, and always correcting your English.
But this is a process of learning to read and understand sentences. From this to reading books some good, some not so good. Your mind began building ideas and images. New ideas are compared with old and the way you look at new experiences change your way one thinks. The concepts can be deep thoughts or everyday experiences are stored in your memory.
But children with dyslexia can have problems with any of these tasks. They can have a problem separating the sounds in spoken words. Or they might be unable to simple sound out words, or maybe have trouble rhyming words.
Another problem area the children (or any person with dyslexia) have is to form images. They sometimes are unable to compare what they know with new ideas or concepts. This can become a major problem as a student moves from simple word definition to learn whole idea comprehension. Although this learning disability seems to be overwhelming, scientists have made great strides. It is important not to think your child has a learning disability, but he or she must learn their skills in a different way.
There are many Federal, National, and State organizations and associations that are able to help children with learning disabilities. I suggest contacting these services to develop the best program for your child. You will find a list of this organizations on our website. Go to our web page: www.delvebookstore.com/learning_disabilies.htm for more information.
The author does not endorse any particular education plan or course of treatment for any child. He encourage parents to consult with educators and other professionals who know the child before determining whether the child has a learning disability and if so how it should be addressed.
