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DYSLEXIA.   Term Paper ID:30019 Click to get this paper

Essay Subject: Examines the learning disorder and language-impaired children.... More...

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Paper Abstract: Examines the learning disorder and language-impaired children. Describes dyslexia; its symptoms. Academic performance & learning problems of dyslexic children. Learning disorders causes by neurological abnormalities. Anatomical differerences in the brain of dyslexics. Effect on motor production skills. Possible role of genetics. Treatment of dyslexia; adaptive training exercises; special programs. Paper Introduction: Dyslexia is a learning disorder in which children have difficulty recognizing and interpreting words (Ford-Martin, 1999). They are unable to recognize and decode the sounds and syllables, i.e. the phonetic structure, of written words and language, and this lowers their accuracy in reading. Many children with dyslexia are gifted and very productive: there is no link at all between dyslexia and low intelligence (Turkington (1999). A study by Curtiss, Katz and Tallal (1992) showed that in terms of language acquisition, language-impaired children were markedly similar to language-matched normal children. The National Institute of health estimates that about 15 percent of the U. S. population is affected by learning disabilities, and most of these have problems with language and reading. The symptoms of dyslexia, like any learning disorder, are acade Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. Tallalrecently published an article looking at literacy among American schoolchildren, and correlated it with what has been learned from studies withdyslexics and adults with reading and language deficits (Tallal, 2 ). Results of the studyshowed that training children with speech stimuli in which brief, rapidlychanging components have been temporally prolonged and emphasized, coupledwith adaptive training exercises designed to sharpen temporal processingabilities, causes a dramatic improvement in receptive speech and languagein language-learning impaired children. Dyslexic children appear tohave trouble learning early reading skills, have problems learningindividual sounds in words, analyzing whole words in parts, and blendingsounds into words (Turkington, 1999). V., Tallal, P., Flax, J., & Benasich, A. The stress needs to beon using all the senses: hearing, touching, writing and speaking, and theprogram needs to be administered by a specialized instructor. (1997). Second, the brain function ofdyslexics differs from that of non-dyslexics when measured for electricalactivity and by high-speed scanning. Evidence is emerging of the involvement of chromosomes six and onewith dyslexia, though the genes for dyslexia have not yet been identified.Other researchers have implicated chromosomes 15 and two, but the exactrole of genetics in dyslexia has yet to be elucidated (Reading minds,2 1). The symptoms of dyslexia, like any learning disorder, are academicperformance that is markedly below the child's age and grade capabilities,and below the child's measured IQ, and in addition children with dyslexiamay confuse or transpose words or letters, and omit or add syllables towords, and their handwriting may be very poor. She proposesthat without a solid oral language exposure and comprehension, it isimpossible to develop good reading skills, and that what has been learnedfrom studies of dyslexia can be applied to other language and readingproblems. Tallal notes that the processing defect in dyslexia occurs acrossmultiple sensory systems and also affects rapid sequential motor productionskills regardless of whether the stimuli are verbal or not, suggesting thata pervasive deficit occurs across systems in transient informationprocessing (Miller, 1993). The science of literacy: From the laboratory to theclassroom. This study supports a genetic basis forlanguage impairment. PNAS, 97, 24 2-24 4. Other symptoms of dyslexia includehaving a problem identifying single words; understanding sound in words,sound order, or rhymes; spelling; transposing letters in words; readingcomprehension; delayed spoken language; confusion with directions orleft/right handedness; confusions with such opposites as up/down,early/late etc.; and trouble in mathematics (Turkington, 1999). Ectopias are clusters ofseveral hundred cells that have pushed themselves up from the lower layerof the cortex on the left-hand side of Broca's and Wernicke's areas (thelanguage areas) of the brain. J. Spitz, R. the phonetic structure,of written words and language, and this lowers their accuracy in reading.Many children with dyslexia are gifted and very productive: there is nolink at all between dyslexia and low intelligence (Turkington (1999). Astudy by Curtiss, Katz and Tallal (1992) showed that in terms of languageacquisition, language-impaired children were markedly similar to language-matched normal children. Manydropped out of school early, and so were denied a full education and itsbenefits in the working world. TheEconomist, 1. She strongly recommends the use of the computer games she andMichael Merzenich developed to help dyslexic children improve their readingskills, and suggests they may be useful to all children with readingproblems. A. Learning disorders. In another study in which Tallal was involved,magnetoencephalographic responses recorded from the auditory cortex evokedby brief and rapidly successive small stimuli differed between adults withpoor reading skills and those with good reading skills, providing furtherevidence that reading disabilities are correlated with the abnormal neuralrepresentation of brief and rapidly successive sensory inputs at the entrylevel of the cortical auditory/aural speech representational systems(Nagarajan, Mahncke, Salz, Tallal, Roberts and Merzenich, 1999). Biosci., 43, 8 - Reading minds: The causes of dyslexia. First, the duration ofthe speech signal was prolonged by 5 percent while preserving the spectralcontent and natural quality. If dyslexia isnot diagnosed and treated, children with the disorder may never achievefunctional literacy. Disruption of theneural response to rapid acoustic stimuli in dyslexia: Evidence fromfunctional MRI. In the past, dyslexia was often not recognized as a real problem, anddyslexic children were branded as lazy, and not given any special help withtheir school work. Paula Tallal and a colleague have found, using MRI studies on thebrains of language-impaired and reading -impaired 1 -year-olds, that thereare marked differences in both right and left hemispheres (Chase, 1992).Broca's area was found to be smaller, and verbal IQ declined in proportionto the reduction in size. A. Secondly, transitional elements of speechwere differentially enhanced by as much as 2 dB. Tallal suggests that dyslexic children can betaught language more effectively if sounds are slowed and phonics ispresented in a more systematic manner. This study showed that providingdyslexic children with access to acoustically modified signals which theycan process adequately, coupled with reducing their temporal processingdeficit through adaptive training, can significantly improve theirsubsequent processing of natural "on line" speech. A set of brain abnormalities has also been found in the visualpathways of dyslexics in which there are smaller than normal cells inlayers of the geniculate nucleus, which contains some of the nerve tractswhich transmit information from the eyes to the visual cortex at the backof the brain. Spitz, Tallal, Flax and Benasich (1997) have shown that childrenwith a family history of language impairments had lower receptive andexpressive language scores than control children, while their performanceon a number of tasks that did not rely on language abilities did not differas a function of family history. Chenausky, K. Since it is now thought that the problem startsin very early childhood, it may be time to start alerting pediatricians tothe symptoms they should be looking out for, so that the problem can beaddressed even before the child reaches school age. Functional magnetic resonance imaging was usedin another study to identify the brain basis of rapid acoustic processingin normal readers and dyslexic readers (Temple, Poldrack, Protopapas,Nagarajan, Salz, Tallal, Merzenich and Gabrieli, 2 ). Gale Ecycl. Treatment of dyslexia usually focuses mainly on improving the child'srecognition of the sounds of letters and language using phonics training(Ford-Martin, 1999). They are unable torecognize and decode the sounds and syllables, i.e. Nagarajan, S., Mahncke, H., Salz, T., Tallal, P., Roberts, T., &Merzenich, M. First, the brain anatomy of dyslexics differs insubtle ways from that of normal people. population is affected by learningdisabilities, and most of these have problems with language and reading. As their marks trailed those of their peers, theybecame frustrated, and many developed social and behavioral problems. Delay versus deviance inthe language acquisition of language-impaired children. Dyslexia, other language impairments maybe linked to bain timing failure. Third, dyslexia is usuallyaccompanied by behavioral differences other than reading problems. Wall St. Tallal, P. Unfortunately, the high-school drop-out rate for children withlearning disabilities is quite high (Ford-Martin, 1999). 1, 1 - Learning disorders such as dyslexia are thought to be caused byneurological abnormalities that trigger impairments in areas of the brainwhich control the visual and language processing, as well as attention andplanning (Ford-Martin, 1999). The National Institute of health estimates thatabout 15 percent of the U. It's all in the timing. (2 ). (1993). Inthe article, she proposes that dyslexia is a point on a continuum oflanguage skills, and that it is the very early (a few months of age)exposure and response to language that sets the tone for languagecomprehension, which, in turn, determines reading ability. They may confuse letters such as "d"and "b." Children with dyslexia may have trouble translating language intothought, and thought into language. MIT's Technol. (1999). Another areaof the brain that helps transmit visual information, the magnocellularpath, also has smaller cells (by 3 percent) in dyslexics, and has lowerelectroconductivity. E. According to Paula Tallal, a Rutgers University researcher, thenervous system of a dyslexic cannot keep pace with the rate at whichinformation is presented to it (Chase, 1992). (2 1, February). Speech, Lang. They often develop behavior problems because of theirfrustration with school work. Training dyslexics first to hear, then toread. Cortical auditory signal processing in poorreaders. While dyslexia continues into adulthood, ifit is recognized and treated, the person can receive a complete andmeaningful education and go on to success in the working world. Speech andhearing Res., 35, 373- Ford-Martin, P. 1, 174. In 1996, Tallal et al conducted two studies with children withlanguage-learning impairments who have been trained with the application oftemporally modified speech. Miller, J. Gale Encycl. Two dyslexic readers showedincreased activity in the left prefrontal cortex after taking a remediationprogram. If a childis suspected of having dyslexia, they should have complete evaluation,including hearing, vision and intelligence testing covering all areas oflearning. For example, the initialspeech sounds that distinguish the words "bat" and "cat" may take only 4 milliseconds, and may be misunderstood by dyslexic children, but using acomputerized speech synthesizer in which the sounds were lengthened to 8 milliseconds, the dyslexic children could understand the difference betweenthe two words perfectly. The microgyria are folds at the brainssurface containing only four layers of cells instead of the usual six.This throws the pattern of neural connections between the language centersand the rest of the brain into confusion. More recently, Tallal and a colleague, Michael Merzenich of theUniversity of California at San Francisco, have devised a novel computerprogram which slows down speech to a level which can be understood bydyslexic children (Chenausky, 1997). A. (1999). (1992, October). PNAS, 96, 6483-6488. Auditory information is relayed through a similarpathway and other studies have also found a parallel failure of visual andauditory systems elsewhere in the brains of dyslexics. Turkington, C. There are four key points which suggest dyslexia is a brain disorder(Reading minds, 2 1). Treatment needs to be individualized, because differentchildren with dyslexia may have different problems. Today, there is no reason for this to bethe case. References Chase, M. Tallal, P., Miller, S,. (1992). two taps on theskin delivered in rapid succession. Later strategies focus on comprehension, retentionand study skills. Dyslexic children can be treated with special programs if theirproblem is detected early. Modification of fluent speech wasachieved through a two-stage processing algorithm. With earlydiagnosis and effective remedial treatment, combined with strong supportfrom family and friends, dyslexia need not become a serious handicap. Dyslexia is a learning disorder in which children have difficultyrecognizing and interpreting words (Ford-Martin, 1999). They have incorporated the speechinto a computer game which is attractive to children, and in early trials,a four-week intensive training program allowed six of a group of seven fiveto ten year olds to improve their language-comprehension skills to nearnormal, normal, or even above normal levels. (1997). Dyslexic readersshowed no differential left frontal response. S. J., B12. et alLanguage comprehension in language-learning impaired children improved withacoustically modified speech. Science, 271, 81- Temple, E., Poldrack, R. Rev., 1 , 15-17. New research suggests there may bea subtle visual problem in dyslexics that affects the speed with whichaffected people can read (Turkington, 1999). One reason they are effective is that they are in a format thatis highly appealing to children. This is a significant finding because dyslexics have aninability to deal with linguistic information in visual form. Med., ed. L., & Bedi, G., Byma, G. The children also received training in makingdistinctions about fast and rapidly sequenced acoustic inputs in exercisesgiven in the form of computer games. Curtiss, S., Katz, W., & Tallal, P. (1999). D. J. A., Protopapas, A., Nagarajan, S., Salz, T.,Tallal, P., Merzenich, M., & Gabrieli, J. It is not just rapidly presented words thatcannot be distinguished by dyslexics, but any two signals presented inrapid succession, whether auditory, visual or tactile, e.g. Andfinally, there is mounting evidence of a genetic basis for dyslexia. Lookwho's talking: A prospective study of familial transmission of languageimpairment. Normal readersshowed left prefrontal activity in response to rapidly changing, relativeto slowly changing, nonlinguistic acoustic stimuli. And Hearing Res., 4 , 99 -1 1. The anatomical differences in the brains of dyslexics were first notedin 1979, when ectopias and microgyria were found in the language centers ofthe brains of dyslexics (Reading minds, 2 1). Such traits often run in families, whichsuggests they may have a genetic basis. Dyslexia. Med.,ed. PNAS, 97, 139 7-13912. A. If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again: Search for: or Click here to request an essay written just for you.