Assess 2010 Presentation on Accessibility & Assistive Technology

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Dyslexia: Print Awareness in pre-school children

We are not born with the inate or genetic knowledge of how books, paragraphs and sentences are constructed, nor are we aware how print is formatted, in our language or our part of the world. We have to learn this from a teacher or preferably, from a parent.

In the West, we start reading a piece of text from the top left of the page and move along the line from left to right, finishing at the bottom left. Can you remember who showed or taught you that? Was it your parents or an older sibling or did you have to wait until you went to school to discover this?

First School day
Unfortunately, a large proportion of the population turn up on their first day at school not knowing some of these basic things. Things, that would not only make their school days so much easier and more enjoyable, but it would also make for early detection of reading and learning issues.

When reading to a child, the parent or nurturing adult can easily demonstrate by pointing, where they are starting to read and by continuing to follow the text with their finger, as they read the words. Thus, a non-reading child will become 'familiar' with this method of examining and following text, even if they are still unable to recognise the words they are looking at.

Print Awareness
A child who is experiencing dyslexia may have difficulties in this exercise of following text, even after being shown where to start and how to follow the words. The parent or adult needs to persist with this exercise to be sure that this is indeed an issue and not just a lack of interest or concentration by the child.

Bedtime Stories
Bedtime stories are a great opportunity to share this knowledge with your child and it is also an important piece of 'quality time' that you will spend with your child and one which they will cherish forever.

If you do share bedtime story reading with your child, do so in a position that the child can see you pointing to the text and following it with your finger. After a few sessions you should allow your child to point to the words and follow along as you read. This will show you their level of 'print awarenss', or not.

Do forgive them if they get sleepy during these periods and lose their concentration. Remember, it should be a pleasant and enjoyable experience for you both. One that leads to a restful night's sleep for the child, as well as a low key learning activity.

Summary
Print awareness is essential in the development of reading skills. Encourage your child to watch carefully when you point and read words and text, then ask them to do it with your help.

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

Dyslexia Untied: Perception of Reality and the Reality of Perception

We have long since been aware that our version of the truth and reality is based on our view and perception of the world, and that this can vary from person to person. The Present day philosopher Thomas Nagel states;

"For many men and philosophers alike, the exemplary case of reality is the world described by physics, the science in which we have achieved our greatest detachment from a specifically human perspective on the world.

But for precisely that same reason, physics is bound to leave undescribed, the subjective character of conscious mental processes, whatever may be their intimate relation to the physical operation of the brain.

The subjectivity of consciousness is a feature of reality, without which we could not do physics or anything else, and it must occupy as fundamental a place in any credible world view as does matter, energy, space, time and numbers."

Is it so difficult to understand that the dyslexic person is experiencing a different perception of this world and does not share our rather simplistic and static view. Perhaps we adults are just better at suppressing our visions and have long since learned to prevent them intruding into our fixed view of reality. We left that behind when we moved from being a child to a scholar, a receptive pupil in a class of excited minds.

But we left someone behind. Someone who could not quiet their busy imagination or stop the images dancing around in their vision. When the teacher stated that "A is for Apple", not everyone saw a single apple. Someone saw an avalanche of apples and some were green and some were red and some hung in the trees and the trees swayed in the wind and the leaves were also green and the leaves blew across the blue sky and ......

"Please miss, I am confused! Where do I put this symbol you call 'A' and why will it not stay still?" To this someone, 'A' was for chaos! They do not perceive your reality. Can you perceive their dyslexia?