Understanding the Co-morbidity Between Dyslexia and Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

Dyslexia and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are 2 of the most prevalent complex neurodevelopmental disorders of childhood, each affecting approximately 5% of the population in the United States.

These disorders are also each co-morbid with speech sound disorder and language impairment.

Understanding the nature of the comorbidity among these disorders could lead to advances in developmental theory, a deeper understanding of the genetic and brain mechanisms that cause disability, a more refined diagnostic classification scheme, and new treatments and interventions for children with these disorders.

As part of this special issue of Topics in Language Disorders, this review focuses on the comorbidity between dyslexia and ADHD.

It provides a review of the known etiological mechanisms that underlie each disorder. It describes the reconceptualization of these disorders using a multiple deficit model and provides a synopsis of recent studies that illustrate a cohesive approach to investigating the causes of comorbidity.

Future directions are discussed in the context of expanding these approaches to the co-morbidity among all 4 disorders.  

Read the full paper here

Helping Struggling Readers Decode Unknown Words

Three common curriculum gaps that can intensify children’s reading problems are failing to teach them phonological awareness, automatic word recognition, and an alternative to single letter phonics.
Teach Phonological Awareness.

This is the ability to identify and manipulate sounds within spoken words. For example, say the word bat without the /b/ sound. Unfortunately, may struggling readers struggle with phonological awareness. To develop proficiency, they need instruction.

• Good phonics instruction should develop phonological awareness. The key to learning to decode words is the [alphabetic] principle that letters can represent sounds 
• The key to the development of the alphabetic principle, word recognition, and invented spelling is phonological awareness. 
• Phoneme awareness [part of phonological awareness] is the awareness of sounds in spoken words. As words are spoken, most sounds cannot be said by themselves.
• For example, the spoken word /cat/ has one continuous sound and is not pronounced “kuh-a-tuh.” 
• Children ordinarily concentrate on the meaning and do not think of the sounds in the word but, since letters represent sounds, a child must learn to think of words as having both meaning and sound in order to understand the alphabetic principle. (Stahl, Duffy-Hester, & Stahl, 1998, p. 340, references omitted)

Teach Automatic Word Recognition. Struggling readers who accurately identify words—slowly and laboriously—will likely tire of reading, resist reading, and become overwhelmed by the volume of all they must read.

Three keys to helping these children become fluent readers are to teach them how to quickly and accurately recognize words, to give them lots of daily practice in doing so, and to engage them in lots reading they find easy and enjoyable. This will help them to quickly identify words.

• Good phonics instruction leads to automatic word recognition. In order to read books, children need to be able to read words quickly and automatically. If a child stumbles over or has to decode slowly too many words, comprehension will suffer. 
• Although we want children to have a strategy for decoding words they do not know, we also want children to recognize many words automatically and be able to read them in context. (Stahl, Duffy-Hester, & Stahl, 1998, p. 343, references omitted)

Teach Word Families. Many phonics programs emphasize the sounds of individual letters and emphasize sounding out most words one or two letters at a time.

This helps many struggling readers to quickly and accurately identify unknown words. But many does not mean all.

Here’s a way that can help struggling readers who struggle with the sounds of individual letters, especially vowel sounds.

It uses word families, such ake: bake, brake, cake, make, quake, rake, sake, snake, take. Word families are also called phonograms or rimes.

• Recent scholarly inquiry into how children learn to decode words suggests that knowledge of certain sound and letter patterns in words may help readers figure out unfamiliar words.
• This is often called the analogy approach to word recognition, and a considerable amount of research supports its use as an instrument for word-recognition instruction.
• Predominant among such letter patterns are onsets and rhymes. An onset is formed by the individual consonant or consonant combination (such as pl, ph, st, sch, str, or th) that precedes the first vowel in a word or syllable. 
• Rhymes are another name for letter combinations that we have for years called “phonograms” or “word families,” the part of a syllable that contains the vowel and all subsequent consonants. For example, in the word bat, the b is the onset and the at is the rime; in slick, the sl is the onset and the ick is the rime.
• Fry (1998) has pointed out that just 38 common rime patterns can be used by readers to decode 654 one-syllable words. Moreover, these same rhymes can also be helpful for partial decoding of a much larger number of longer, more difficult, multisyllabic words. (Rasinski, 1999)

If your child struggles to identify unknown words when reading, ask yourself:

• Has the school assessed his phonological awareness skills? If they’re poor, are his teachers teaching him how to identify and manipulate sounds he hears in words?
• Are his teachers teaching him to recognize words quickly and accurately, or just accurately?
• If he struggles when using individual letters to sound out (decode) unknown words, can his teachers teach him to use word families (rhymes, phonograms)?

References
Rasinski, T. (1999). Making and Writing Words Using Letter Patterns. Retrieved 9/22/2011, from http://www.readingonline.org/articles/rasinski/MWW_LP.html.
Stahl, S.A., Duffy-Hester, A.M., & Stahl, K.A.D. (1998). Everything you wanted to know about phonics (but were afraid to ask). Reading Research Quarterly, 33, 338-355.

Top Four English Phonetic (Phonemic) Charts

Phonetic transcription included in quality dictionaries is very helpful for people with reading difficulties, but what if you do not know the phonetic alphabet?

Shown below are four free interactive tools to use as a quick reference. The list is based on several evaluation points, including free use, interactivity, outlay and offline content.

The aim was to show phonemic charts as a reference only, and not to discuss lessons about IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet).

1. Macmillan Phonetic Chart

This tool is provided by Macmillan Publishers and has been selected as one of the best phonetic charts online. The outlay is very simple and straightforward. After clicking on a symbol, the phoneme is articulated, followed by a full word in which the phoneme occurs.

The Macmillan Phonetic Chart is available as offline content, as a simple program that comes in two flavours. The first version displays the phonemes in a small window. The second, uses a full screen, which is ideal for presentation (realia) in a class.

Phonetic Chart by Macmillan

2. Phonemic Chart by British Council

The second option on our list is the Phonemic Chart by British Council. This simple software uses a clear outlay with nicely grouped and uncluttered vowels, consonants and diphthongs.

After clicking on a phonetic symbol, the sound of the phoneme is played. The written word used or word read after the phoneme (like in Macmilan’s Chart) are more natural than an isolated symbol.

This tool is well rated because of its simplicity and the fact that downloadable versions are available both for MS Windows and Mackintosh.

Chart by British Council

3. Sounds of English by BBC learn English

The third place is reserved for BBC English. The most basic of all in the list, this tool is can only be opened in a browser window and it is not available offline as a separate application.

The chart itself is simple with clearly articulated phonemes. There is good quality content available in the Pronunciation tips.

BBC is a very good provider, with great lessons on English pronunciation. Each of the sounds is explained in a separate lesson, accompanied by video content.

Chart by BBC Learn English

4. The Phonetic Chart by EFL Productions

Here the phonemes are presented within the words, and isolated phonemes cannot be heard. It is a good companion or supplement to previously mentioned charts, because it is possible to hear the phoneme in the context.

However, the content is only available online. You need to buy the full product if you wish to use it on your offline.

It would be good to mention that the software offers a simple pronunciation quiz and phonetic diagram (both available online). The downsides arethe somewhat strange voice recordings and the not-so-friendly design, which is uncomfortable to the eye.

Phonemes by EFL Productions

"Source: Languagebits.com"

Dyslexia: Hearing helps and Listening aids

Following on from our previous blog on 'Print Awareness' we would like to look at Listening and Hearing in the developing child.

Listen!
Before we, or our children can speak and read properly we first have to be able to listen and understand what we are hearing.

Professional Speech Therapists will always insist that a full spectrum of hearing test are carried out on a child, before they take them on as a 'patient' or client.

This makes perfect sense, because in the early stages of speech we mimic and repeat what we hear and if we do not hear sounds clearly or there is a loss of some tones and frequencies then we will not be able to respond correctly. It may sound OK to the speaker but not to the listener.

Phonemic Awareness
It is essential that your child's hearing is in good working order, so that they can;

• hear and begin to recognise sounds in words (Phonemics)
• begin to match letters and letter sequences to sounds (Phonics)

Nursery Rhymes
There is a very good reason why nursery rhymes were written, repeated and have stood the test of time. It's because they have a very important purpose in helping a child develop a sense of language, in a simple, fun and therefore, acceptable way.

Children need to be able to detect and repeat simple rhymes in words and sentences, to allow them to develop good language skills. Nursery rhymes are essential in encouraging the child's development of phonemic awareness and as a consequence they also develop good phonic skills.

Sing along
So, make it easy for your children to sing along with nursery rhymes and simple rhyming songs. Sing with them and set aside a time in the day to share this activity with your child. It doesn't have to be a formal arrangement, it can simply be in the car on the way to the supermarket, in the shopping mall , when your both 'busy' in the garden or cleaning house.

Music and sounds
Make sure you have musical toys in your child's extensive and colourful collection of toys. Encourage your child to make the noise the toy makes e.g. a bell (Ding!), a car horn (Beep, beep!), a train (Woo, woo or Chuff, chuff), etc. Are they good at it?

This way you will be able to discover how talented your child is in the sound and music department but you may also be able to detect what frequencies they can and cannot hear.



Ear Infections
Be careful with ear infections in small children, they can lead to difficulties in hearing later on in development and therefore in speech and language development. Do not tolerate ear infections and be insistant with you doctor that your child needs speedy and appropriate treatment.


Don't over react but also don't allow yourself to be fobbed off or dismissed by a taciturn or off-hand remark that 'It'll go away itself!' or 'It's normal for kids. Just leave it!' No, get it treated. Otherwise your child's hearing and future development may be affected.

Summary
Hearing is essential in the development of speech and reading skills. Encourage your child to listen carefully and to sing and make appropriate sounds in response to your prompting.

Don't panic! If you have any concerns about your child's hearing or speaking skills, consult a qualified consultant for their opinion and they will be able to provide re-assurance, pertinent comment and specialist observations.