Title Understanding Dyslexia

Understanding Dyslexia

Introduction

The following paper discusses learning disorders, specifically, dyslexia, that are present within school age children between the ages of seven and twelve (Tabors Dictionary, www.tabers.com). During this age, most average children have the ability to read, write, spell, think, listen and do mathematical problems with minimal difficulties (Silver, 1993, p.109). On the other hand, children with learning disorders, specifically dyslexia, struggle to grasp these concepts because they have visual perception problems.

When a child lacks visual perception skills, the child is really lacking the ability to organize or position the way something is seen. Furthermore, the child may confuse shapes, order of letters, and may not be able to focus on a specific object for a long period of time. For example, a child experiencing these difficulties may confuse the shape of a triangle for a square or see the word 'bat' and read the letters backward which results in them actually seeing 'tab.' Finally, as many as fifteen to thirty percent of children within the United States undergo this problem and are said to have a reading disorder, caused by and known as dyslexia (Tabors Dictionary, www.tabers.com)

Many studies have been conducted to find out more about this disorder; however, they all seem to suggest that dyslexia runs throughout families and is passed on to many children genetically. Dr. Larry Cardon, a statistical geneticist, found evidence that 'a gene for dyslexia sits on chromosome number six, which is one of the twenty-three chromosomes,' (Cardon, 1994, p.271). Secondly, another expert finding was presented by Dr. Glen Rosen, a Harvard neuroscientist, as he explained that nerve cells within the left hemisphere of the brain tend to appear smaller than in the right hemisphere. Dr. Rosen believed this difference in size of nerve cells could possibly be enough to 'throw ...