Dyslexia in a Child

Dyslexia in a Child

Description of the Disorder

Dyslexia is a general word for a disorder, which encompass difficulty in getting how to recite or to interpret letters, concepts, or other symbols, but does not have any effect on the overall intelligence. It can also be defined as a learning condition that is characterized by problematic reading. Dyslexia befalls children who have a shared vision and intellect. The child usually is unable to identify sound speech and is not able to learn how these speech sounds relate to words and letters (Werth, 2019). Another psychological effect caused by the condition is the relationship with other people.

My friend’s child, who is nine years old and in elementary school, was diagnosed with significant dyslexia intensities. Kim, my friend’s kid, although not her real name, had difficulty in learning sounds and letters, according to her kindergarten teacher. When she moved to grade 1, my friend and the teacher hoped that she would thrive with the extra help. She never succeeded, so the parent and the teacher saw it would be better if she repeated the grade. Kim did well after repeating, but when she went to grade 2 and learned more complex things, she lacked the skills to write sentences, identify words with more sights and was unable to read short paragraphs. Her expertise in language development, progress in speaking and listening, sophisticated authoring, writing, and reading was not developing.

Nonetheless, her oral skills were perfect, and she was a powerful verbal learner that no one would ever think she has problems reading and writing. Kim’s teacher is always there, and now in grade 3, she has mastered some courage and is willing to try anything the teacher says. When the teacher performed a test known as the Language Experience Approach on Kim, she realized that she was near illiterate as Kim showed exceedingly marginal literacy. Unfortunately, she has realized that the rest of her class has can easily read than she can, which is making her not volunteer to read out loud in class.

However, most kids with dyslexia can perform in school through tutoring or a unique program of education. They are also required to be emotionally supported as it plays a crucial role in their development. Dyslexia has no cure, but if the assessment is done in the early stages of the development of the disease, the intervention can be done to produce the best outcome. In some cases, dyslexia can go undetected for several years and recognized in adulthood, but that does not mean it is late to seek help. The neurobiology of dyslexia shows that one of the most popular learning conditions, but its core causes and brain basis are not fully understood (Werth, 2019).

                                                           Symptoms and Causes

Signs and symptoms can be hard to detect before the child has joined the school, but one may have some early clues that indicate the problem. Once the child is old enough to go to school, the kid’s teacher might be the first person to identify the problem. The severity of the disease varies, but the question becomes apparent when the child starts to learn how to read. The disorder is, in most cases, run in families. Dyslexia is linked to specific genes that have effects on the brain on how it processes language and reading, and also as envir

onmental risk factors. These risk factors include low birth weight or premature birth, use of drugs, alcohol or infections on the brain during pregnancy, and personal differences in parts of the brain cells that facilitate reading.

Effects of the Disorder

Dyslexia can lead to trouble learning. Reading is an essential skill that is important in understanding most of the school subjects. A child with this disorder is, in most cases, disadvantaged and cannot be able to keep up with other regular students. The second complication is the social problem. If dyslexia is not treated, it can lead to aggression, low, self –esteem, behavior problems, anxiety, and withdrawal from parents, friends, and teachers. Thirdly, dyslexia can lead to difficulty in adulthood. Lack of being able to comprehend and read can prevent a kid from attaining his/her full potential as the kid grow up. This, in turn, have long-term social, economic, and educational consequences (Diamanti, Goulandris, Stuart, Campbell, & Protopapas, 2018).

In some cases, the other kids might provoke the kid with the disorder making them not relate with them and also due to lack of self-esteem. Therefore dyslexia leads to affected social skills. Physiological aspects of dyslexia to a person include anxiety, depression, and emotional problems. In children, the disorder can bring co-occurring attention issues in around 25 percent of children with the condition. Children feel demoralized, which makes them be at risk of dropping out of school. Research shows that about 40% of kids with dyslexia quit high school.

The Resulting Negative Effects on Daily Functioning

Children who have dyslexia are socially and physically immature when compared to their age mates. Immaturity leads to a reduced amount of peer acceptance and a poor self-image. The patient always keeps to herself, hardly have any friend and cannot even play with her classmates. Children with dyslexia have difficulties relating with her classmates, and even at home, she barely speaks unless when necessary. Some children may have problems with spoken language functionality. Also, as an adult, an affected person may have problems getting the right words, might stammer, or take long pauses before answering the questions asked. The daily functionality of a person may be affected due to anger as people with the condition develop range due to frustration. There are also family problems brought by sibling rivalry. The child without the disorder, in some cases, feels jealous of the dyslexic child. Kim’s sister, who is two years younger than her, always complains that the parents are giving Kim all the attention. On the other hand, Kim does not love this attention as she wants to be treated like others. The rivalry between the two sisters sometimes makes them fight or spend days without talking to each other (Diamanti et al., 2018).

Comparison between a Normal Brain Function and the Brain Function of a Person with Disorder

Characteristics of a healthy brain

In the brain of an average person, the cerebrum, the big, outside part of a brain, is in charge of thinking, reading, writing, speech, emotions, and planning in the movement of the muscles. When reading, the brain develops and changes fascinatingly. Functions involved in reading include the auditory process, visual, fluency, auditory, phonemic awareness, and comprehension. The left hemisphere of the brain is the one that is in charge of writing, speech, and understanding.

Characteristics of a brain of a person with dyslexia

The mind of a person with dyslexia has letdown in the left hemisphere final brain organism to function correctly in the course of reading. Most people with dyslexia have less white substance in the more profound fragments of the brain than an average person, which makes them lack increased reading skills. The fewer white matter might lower the efficiency and the ability of that part of the brain to communicate with other components in mind. A person with the disorder has asymmetry problems of the brain hemisphere, which impacts reading and spelling problems (Papanicolaou, Pugh, Simons, & Menci, 2004).

Differences between the functioning of the two brains

Generally, the thought of a person with dyslexia is distributed inactivation of metabolic than the mind of an average person differently. The brain of an individual with dyslexia disorder had different dissemination of metabolic stimulation than the brain of an ordinary person.  The lower frontals parts of a person with the disease usually have high activation than that of a healthy mind. Therefore, neural systems in front parts might compensate for the interference in the posterior regions.

Evaluation of the Relationship between Psychological and Psychological aspects of the disorder Psychological aspects of the condition are wide-ranging and go further than just the inability to read and write. Dyslexia can realty affect the way an individual feels about themselves. Kim is no longer brave and is not confident with herself to the point that she cannot read in front of her class. Kim feels that she is not at the same level as her classmates as she cannot learn things they can, and feels she cannot keep up with them. She feels different from the rest of the class. Dyslexia leads to low self-esteem, which makes people with the condition feel that they cannot complete the tasks in front of them.

Assessment of the Effects of Technological Innovation on the Treatment and Diagnosis of the Condition

Neuropsychological methods

One of the neuropsychological methods applied is a neuropsychological balance method of dyslexia.  In the model, dyslexia kids are given hemispheric alluding stimuli (HAS) and hemisphere specific stimuli (HSS). HSS includes an exhibition of words into the right or left visual field or using left or right tactical exercises. HAS requires the construction of phonetically and semantically difficult letters (Pestun, Roama-Alves & Ciasca, 2019). The children then undergo the same test for a few weeks, which in the end improves their reading and general learning process.

Neuroimaging

The neuroimaging techniques include functional and structural magnetic resonance imaging, electrophysiology, and tensor imaging using diffusion. They have contributed significantly to the knowhow on the neurobiology of dyslexia. The recent study which has been done has shown differences in the brain before formal instruction, which likely discourages reading and learning effectively. Studies have also illustrated between variations in the mind that maybe reveal the etiology of the condition and differences in the brain, which are a result of deviation in reading skills, and recognized distinctive neural networks that are related to psychological factors linked to dyslexia.

Neuropsychological assessment

The study has shown that one out of 5 children who are motivated and bright have dyslexia, and one adult out of 4 has literacy problems. Assessment is the beginning of recognizing students and people with dyslexia so that they can get the sufficient instructions they require to succeed. Key symptoms are reading and decoding issues. The problem caused by dyslexia are not visual, nor are they related to intelligence but rather are language-based. Assessment in clinical intervention is done using RTI, which means response to intervention. It includes individual testing by a team of professionals, a team of professional clinical for assessing specific learning disorders and experts with M.Ed., Ph.D., M.A in reading, school psychology, neuropsychology, and education. Area assessed phonic skills, decoding, phonological, phonological awareness, spelling, receptive vocabulary, language, and writing (Lowell, Felton, & Hook, 2014).

Coping mechanism and prevention strategies

Coping mechanism

Teachers are advised to undertake enough valuation of the language processing of a child so that they can determine why the child is struggling to read. According to imaging research, simple tests can be reliably understood as red flags, which is a sign that the kid is at risk of the condition. Teachers should examine intense, systematic, and explicit instruction in the sound construction of a language and ways in which sound relates to phonics is vital for students with dyslexia. Teachers should motivate as its role, and the fear of failing is crucial when taking of reading problems. Researchers show that another way a patient with dyslexia can cope is by using the principles of neuropsychology. The use of these principles provides students and teachers a test on the functioning of the brain.

Diagnosis and treatment

The following are a number of that we consider in the diagnosis. To start with, the medical history of the kid and the educational and developmental issues of the kid. The doctor will enquire whether these conditions run in the family and whether there is a family member with a learning disability. Homelife can also be used to diagnose a person. The doctor asks about who lives in your home and whether there is any problem at home. Questionnaires is another method where the teacher, family members, and the kid answers questions from the doctor. The kid may take a test so that the doctor can identify language and reading abilities. Other tests include psychological tests, brain, vision, and hearing tests, and other academic tests. There is no treatment to treat the brain abnormality of the cause of dyslexia, making it a lifetime problem. Conversely, early evaluation and detection are done to define specific needs, and when suitable treatment is administered, there can be an improved success.

Assessment of the Technology

Advancement in technological advancement has helped people, especially children with dyslexia, overcome some issues and also save time. A lot of technology has developed to make a student with this disorder to be able to lead a healthy life. They make reading easy such as state libraries, book share, and learning ally. The most known advanced technology on diagnosis and treatment of dyslexia are coping tools. They include a dictation software known as Dragon Naturally Speaking and an application that records lessons and takes pictures of notes known as Livescribe, smartpen, Fast Forward, and Cogmed. (Rauschenberger, Baeza–Yates, & Rello, 2019).

The Impact of Technology Advancement

Technology has enabled people with dyslexia to overcome their challenges and save time, such as poor handwriting and slow note-taking. It has helped them to show their abilities in techniques that were unimaginable before. Technology advancement of people with dyslexia has created an environment of motivation and action. Children like Kim are motivated to work as hard as healthy children. The improvement has enhanced self-esteem to children with dyslexia increasing the retention of the child and adult with dyslexia condition. It has enabled people with the state to develop social and oral skills.

Treatment for Kim and the condition in general

As said earlier, dyslexia has no cure, but the procedure is done to improve the situation. The use treats dyslexia of various educational techniques and approaches. Intervention should be done when the kid is still young to increase the chances of a positive impact on the treatment. Teachers involved teaching a dyslexia kid will also be able to develop programs that will facilitate easy learning of the child. Technologies used in treatment include techniques to improve hearing, touch, and vision and improve writing and reading skills. Tutoring lessons can be done by a specialist so that the child with dyslexia can learn to read. The progress with the tutor might be slow, and therefore, many lessons might be necessary.

Treatment for the condition

Early discovery of the state can help in its evaluation and possible treatment. The first technique is the education technique; in this method, the teacher who is responsible for the kid will evaluate and make use of the processes that involve vision, touch, and sense of hearing. This can be through taped audios and videos, finger tracing or shaped letters, and spoken words. The second method of treatment is an individual education plan; this method involves teachers setting up a structured program that sketches a particular child’s needs. This method is also known as a personal education plan (IEP). The third method is early treatment; children with dyslexia can get help in kindergarten, and they eventually catch up in grade schools and high schools. Those who get treatment after kindergarten may find it hard to catch up or may never catch with other students (Coltheart, & Byng, 2018). Research has found that atomoxetine treatment can be used to improve the condition of people with dyslexia. A study done revealed that the procedure could be used only to enhance a patient’s reading scores and comorbid and ADHD. Atomoxetine treatment improved reading scores in patients with dyslexia only and ADHD and comorbid dyslexia. Patients with dyslexia developed on critical constituents of reading, such as reading vocabulary and decoding (Shaywitz et al., 2017).

Preventive Measures of Dyslexia

One of the primary preventive measures for dyslexia is an early assessment of the kids by parents. In case there are signs and symptoms of the disorder, the parents should visit the doctor and get the necessary intervention measures to improve the condition. The use of drugs and substance by pregnant mothers can cause dyslexia. This interferes with their brain, having said that, if expectant mothers avoid use drugs, they will reduce the chances of the disorder occurring. Also, a pregnant mother should embark on healthy eating upon other measures to ensure they don’t give birth to underweight children, as that is another cause of dyslexia. Children at a younger age can be brain screened through special equipment to find out whether they are at risk of being victims of dyslexia. If any tests show signs of the same, treatment and necessary measures are taken to make sure that the disease doesn’t develop further (Werth, 2019).

                                                                     References                

Coltheart, M., & Byng, S. (2018). A Treatment for Surface Dyslexia 1. Cognitive approaches in neuropsychological rehabilitation (pp. 159-174). Routledge.

Werth, R. (2019). What causes dyslexia? Identifying the causes of dyslexia and effective compensatory therapy. Restorative Neurology and Neuroscience, (Preprint), 1-18.

Diamanti, V., Goulandris, N., Stuart, M., Campbell, R., & Protopapas, A. (2018). Tracking the effects of dyslexia in reading and spelling development: A longitudinal study of Greek readers. Dyslexia, 24(2), 170-189.nological awareness and letter-sound correspondence with at-risk preschool children. Zeitschrift fur Kinder-und Jugendpsychiatrie und Psychotherapie, 44(5), 377-393.

Papanicolaou, A. C., Pugh, K. R., Simons, P. G., & Menci, W. E. (2004). Functional brain imaging: An introduction to concepts and applications. The voice of evidence in reading research, 285-416.

Shaywitz, S., Shaywitz, B., Wietecha, L., Wigal, S., McBurnett, K., Williams, D., … & Hooper, S. R. (2017). Effect of atomoxetine treatment on reading and phonological skills in children with dyslexia or attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and comorbid dyslexia in a randomized, placebo-controlled trial. Journal of child and adolescent psychopharmacology, 27(1), 19-28.

Lowell, S. C., Felton, R. H., & Hook, P. E. (2014). Basic facts about assessment of dyslexia: Testing for teaching. International Dyslexia Association, Incorporated.

Pestun, M. S. V., Roama-Alves, R. J., & Ciasca, S. M. (2019). Neuropsychological and Educational Profile of Children with Dyscalculia and Dyslexia: A Comparative Study. Psico-USF, 24(4), 645-659.