Dyslexia Help Website - Success Starts Here?

Credit: Dyslexia Help

A step-by-step approach to dyslexia
As you are probably most aware, a large number of bright, intelligent, and talented men and women, through no fault of their own, experience difficulty learning to read and write.

This is known as dyslexia. Given its complexity, dyslexia can feel overwhelming and frustrating.

At this website, our goal is to give you a step-by-step approach to help you understand what dyslexia is (and what it is not), develop an action plan, begin to get help, and become your own best advocate.

We understand that it can be challenging. Therefore, we provide you with guidance, guidelines, and such tools as an extensive glossary to help you understand all of the terms, assistive software programs, and study 'tips' that focus on organization and time management.

There are also many success stories on this site that are very motivating and inspirational. Let's begin your journey. Success starts here!

Visit Dyslexia Help here

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Dyslexia: Helpful Support Resources

The following resources will help you learn more about dyslexia and find local help. 

You can also use NCLD’s Resource Locator to find programs in your local area.

Bookshare: Bookshare is an accessible online library for people with dyslexia and other disabilities. Over 160,000 titles are available, and membership is free for students.

DyslexiaHelp at the University of Michigan: DyslexiaHelp is designed to help you understand and learn about dyslexia and language disability. 

Visit their site for a wealth of information for individuals with dyslexia, parents, and professionals. 

If you’ve ever wondered about celebrities who have dyslexia, be sure to check out their “Dyslexia Success Stories” section.

Dyslexia on KidsHealth and Dyslexia on TeensHealth: Are you a parent or educator looking for age-appropriate materials on dyslexia? 

These articles offer the basics of dyslexia, tailored for the reading and developmental level of kids and teens.

Eye to Eye: Eye to Eye is a “mentoring movement for different thinkers,” providing mentoring programs to students identified with learning disabilities such as dyslexia and AD/HD. 

Visit their site to learn more about their program and find out how to get involved. 

International Dyslexia Association: The International Dyslexia Association (IDA) is a national non-profit dedicated to helping individuals with dyslexia, their families, and the communities that support them. 

Visit their site to connect with a local branch near you, find IDA-member providers in your area, and learn more about dyslexia.

Learning Ally: Learning Ally, formerly known as Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic, offers more than 75,000 digitally recorded audiobooks (including both textbooks and literary titles).

Parent Center Network-Parent Center Listing: If you are the parent of a K-12 student with dyslexia, you’ll want to take a look at this site and find your nearest Parent Training and Information Center (PTI). 

PTIs are funded by the federal government and offer parents assistance in navigating special education and their child’s rights under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).

The Big Picture: Rethinking Dyslexia (film): The website of the new film “The Big Picture: Rethinking Dyslexia” (scheduled for a television premiere in October 2012), offers video clips from the film, ways to take action to support people with dyslexia, and offers uplifting advice for students with dyslexia and their parents.

The Yale Center for Dyslexia and Creativity: Yale University’s Center for Dyslexia and Creativity seeks to illuminate the strengths of those with dyslexia, disseminate information, practical advice, and the latest innovations from scientific research, and transform the lives of children and adults with dyslexia. 

Visit their site to learn more about their cutting edge research and get concrete tips for parents, educators, and individuals with dyslexia.

College Degrees Challenge Students with Learning Difficulties

It may surprise you to learn that the U.S. ranks 14th among 37 developed nations when it comes to the percentage of young people holding college degrees. 

According to a study conducted by the Harvard Graduate School of Education in 2011, only 56% of students in the U.S. that begin four-year colleges are likely to graduate.

If college presents insurmountable obstacles for almost half of all college students, you can imagine what that means for students with learning disabilities who already face challenges.

The postsecondary success rate for students with LD is half that of the general population; it’s estimated that only 28% receive a diploma.

According to the Institute for Higher Education Policy, the low graduation rate is largely attributable to educational missteps that begin in elementary school and continue through high school.

From kindergarten through 12th grade, students with LD experience “inadequate academic preparation when compared to their peers without disabilities; lower academic expectations; inferior pedagogy and services; and lack of full access to the core curriculum.”

Furthermore, with high school guidance counselors, teachers, and even parents focused on college admission rather than how to succeed when they get there, students with LD remain largely uneducated about the dramatically different culture they’re about to enter.

Even parents who graduated college themselves remain ignorant of the obstacles kids with learning disabilities encounter at the college level.

Read more of this article here

Overcoming Dyslexia, Finding Passion - Piper Otterbein

Piper Otterbein is a senior at Cape Elizabeth High School. Piper was born in New York, but she has lived in Cape Elizabeth for the past eleven years. When Piper was in first grade, she was diagnosed with a learning disability.

While Piper struggled throughout elementary school, it was not until 7th grade that this disability was identified as dyslexia.

Piper and her family spent a great deal of time and resources trying to fix her dyslexia; during her middle school years, Piper spent countless hours after school in tutoring programs.

Although she was determined to be successful in school, work took a long time to complete, and she frequently found herself frustrated and exhausted.

When Piper entered high school, she had a revelation; rather than focusing all of her energy on the challenges in her life, she decided to alter her outlook and focus instead on her strengths.

While she remained a conscientious student, Piper threw herself into what she loved most: the arts, event organizing, and community involvement. Today, Piper has a strong presence in the CEHS community.

She juggles painting, ceramics, and drawing with her involvement in student council, SEED, the planning of the TEDx youth conference at CEHS, and her part-time jobs working in a furniture store and babysitting.

All of Piper's talent and hard work has paid off, she will be attending the Savannah College of Art and Design, where she will study interior design and accessory design.

Does Tracing shapes help writing skills?

The writers at the American Dyslexia Association (ADA) believe so.

According to ADA;

 "Tracing is a very good exercise for dyslexic and dyscalculic children. Tracing trains attention, fine motor skills and visual and spatial perception."

To encourage you to try this they offer you a number of shapes to try.

"Today’s freebie offers a mini-book with different abstract forms to trace and to draw. First, children have to trace the form, then they have to draw the form into the box."

You can download the mini-book here.

This is an example of one of the shapes from the mini-book that you will be tracing. 

Let us know what you think about this idea. Do you believe it's an aid to help with writing?

Dyslexia: The Davis Method - NéoSanté article

NéoSanté, a Belgian magazine devote to Global Health, includes a detailed article about the Davis program in a recent issue.

The article, written in French, is titled La Méthode Davis: Un espoir pour les dyslexiques (translation: The Davis Method: Hope for Dyslexia)

The article is written by Davis Facilitator Betty Rossitto. There are now more than 50 licensed European facilitators who provide French language services.

A Gift of Dyslexia workshop is scheduled in Paris from May 3-6.

More information;

• Contents of NéoSanté Issue #18 
• More Information 
• Apprende Autrement web site

BDA's Adult Dyslexia Report 2012

The British Dyslexia Association (BDA) has published a report examining progress on issues facing adults with dyslexia over the past four decades.

Produced to coincide with the fortieth anniversary of the charity’s foundation, the document identifies a range of issues that continue to affect dyslexics negatively.

Access to written information in formats appropriate for those with dyslexia is cited as a prime example of how organisations are still failing those with condition.

While the requirement to provide information in alternative formats was enshrined in law with the Equality Act of 2010, the charity says that not enough businesses take heed of this and provide information in a way that dyslexics can use.

The Report, produced following consultation with over 100 organisations and individuals working with dyslexics, also points to some of the strengths that those with the condition enjoy.

The report says that roughly 20 per cent of our successful entrepreneurs are thought to be dyslexic.

Margaret Malpas, Joint Chair of the BDA, has called for an extension of the collaboration it secured in the production of its Report.

“I think we have a real opportunity here to collaborate to tackle the problems identified and resolve some of them”, she said.

“This would result in less cost and pain for individuals but also significantly reduce to the costs to society which are estimated at £1billion a year to the UK economy."

The BDA’s Adult Dyslexia Report is available here: 

Essential iPhone Apps for the Disabled?

More than 16 million people in America have a mental illness or a cognitive function problem while 3 million people have difficulty with speech communication, thus hindering them from learning independently. 

However, learning can be facilitated, even for people with disabilities, through the help of mobile devices like the iPhone.

If you’re a parent of a disabled child or a teacher for disabled students, you can make learning more interesting for them with the help of these apps!

ArtikPix

One of the best learning methods for children is the use of pictures and graphics, one thing that modern technology such as the iPhone can now offer for free.

ArtikPix is one of those free applications geared towards empowering special education teachers and students by providing great ways to interact while learning.

In a nutshell, it’s a flashcard activity app that allows students to practice speech.

The app is also helpful for teachers because it allows them to collect and keep track of data through Google Spreadsheets.

In My Dreams

If you don’t have an iPhone 5, you can always opt for apps that are great for older iPhone versions.

In My Dreams is a great app that works on all iOS 2.2.1 devices and above (which makes it ideal for every iPhone).

It’s a matching and reading app that allows students to learn effective reading, writing and speaking through animation and repetition.

The app uses voice, sign language, pictures and words to help kids widen their vocabularies, master sentence structures and distinguish connections between words and visuals.

ADHD Angel

Aside from the usual speech and learning problems that many students encounter, a lot of children in America also have problems focusing in school due to behavioural disorders such as ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder).

For students who are having trouble controlling and monitoring their ADHD tendencies, the perfect app to try is ADHD Angel. ADHD Angel helps students understand their condition and monitor and manage their feelings.

Aside from medication reminders, the app also features information about ADHD which kids can use to explain their disability to their peers. It also has important emergency contact details, advice and reminders to help students cope with ADHD even at school.

TapToTalk

For students who can’t speak because of autism, cerebral palsy or other speech defects, the iPhone is a very helpful tool in communicating with others.

Apps likeTapToTalk serves as an easy and fun communication device. The app is filled with pictures that he or she can tap to voice their feelings and needs.

Aside from this app, the developers also created other apps to go with it such as TapToTalk Uploader which helps disabled kids expand their photo album by uploading their own pictures.

Learn Braille Alphabet

Whether or not a student is blind, it still is helpful to learn the Braille alphabet.

Students who have a blind friend or family member will find it easier to learn the Braille alphabet by using the Learn Braille app.

This app is enhanced for the iPhone 5 so that students can easily learn Braille with fun visuals and interactive games.

Not only will the kids learn a new language, they will also be able to help their blind classmate!

While there are many apps to support parents and teachers who have disabled students, developers have yet to come up with many applications to help disabled children.

But with the onset of new technologies, it won’t be too long until students with disabilities have the opportunity to learn at the same pace as other kids.

The Best Text to Speech (TTS) Software Programs and Online Tools - How-To Geek

The Best Text to Speech (TTS) Software Programs and Online Tools - How-To Geek

Phonics: Children who do not respond

What happens when a child cannot learn to read through phonics? 

Educational researchers call these children nonresponders or  treatment-resisters. They use these terms because direct and intensive teaching of phonetic skills is usually the first approach taken to help a young child who is falling behind but a surprisingly large number of children fail to progress to phonics-based interventions.  

Researchers have found that 25% to 50% of children with learning disabilities fall within this category. That is, one-fourth to one-half of kids with reading difficulties won't learn with the methods that are most likely to be offered at their schools. That is a higher percentage than the reported number of children with dyslexia.

New research confirms that the children who do not progress with traditional phonics-based tutoring are highly likely to be dyslexic. 

Unfortunately, schools often follow up the failed intervention with more of the same -- the teachers try harder, reasoning that the child must need to have more repetition and practice to learn but the research evidence also shows that the children who do not learn from phonics-based teaching at the outset do not improve over time; if anything, their performance tends to get slightly worse.   

Most dyslexic kids will struggle to learn to read that way, and those who struggle at the outset will continue to find traditional approaches to reading to be difficult or near-impossible. 

Learn more about the Davis Method:

• Is your child a nonresponder?  
• Research Update: Nonresponders & Dyslexia
• Davis Methods - A Brief Explanation 

Reading Disabilities: 50 Useful Apps For Students

Whether you’re the parent of a child with a reading disability or an educator that works with learning disabled students on a daily basis, you’re undoubtedly always looking for new tools to help these bright young kids meet their potential and work through their disability.

While there are numerous technologies out there that can help, perhaps one of the richest is the iPad, which offers dozens of applications designed to meet the needs of learning disabled kids and beginning readers alike.

Here, we highlight just a few of the amazing apps out there that can help students with a reading disability improve their skills not only in reading, writing, and spelling, but also get a boost in confidence and learn to see school as a fun, engaging activity, not a struggle.

Helpful Tools

These tools are useful for both educators and students with reading disabilities alike, aiding in everything from looking up a correct spelling to reading text out loud.

1. Speak It!: Speak It! is a great text-to-speech solution that can allow students with reading disabilities to get a little help with reading when they need it.
2. Talk to Me: Talk to Me is another text to speech application. It can be used to read words out loud as they are typed, which can help students to better correlate the letters and words with how they’re pronounced.
3. Dragon Dictation: Dragon Dictation works in reverse of the two apps we just listed. Instead of reading text out loud, the application writes down spoken text. For students who struggle with writing, it can be a great way for them to jot down ideas or get help learning.
4. Dyslexic Like Me: Explaining dyslexia to a child can be hard, but this application can make it a little easier. It’s an interactive children’s book that helps students to understand dyslexia and become empowered to overcome their learning disability.
5. Merriam-Webster Dictionary: If spelling is a problem, it’s always a good idea to have a really great dictionary on hand. This app from Merriam-Webster can provide that.
6. Ditionary.com: If Dictionary.com is your go-to place for definitions and spelling help, this app can be a great way to bring that functionality to your iPad or iPhone.
7. Prizmo: With Prizmo, users can scan in any kind of text document and have the program read it out loud, which can be a big help to those who struggle with reading.
8. Flashcards for iPad: This app makes it easy to study words, spelling, and other things that young and LD readers might need help with.
9. Soundnote: Using Soundnote, you can record drawings, notes, and audio all at once, balancing reading-based skills with those that are auditory and visual.

Fundamentals

These apps help teach the fundamentals of reading, writing, and spelling to any young learner, but can be especially helpful for those who are struggling.

10. Alphabet Zoo: Alphabet Zoo is a great tool for helping young readers to recognize letter sounds. Using text and pictures of animals, kids can build their reading skills while having fun.
11. Find the Letters HD: A favorite of special education teachers and psychologists, this app asks learners to find letters and numbers in a coloring grid. It helps build skills in spatial positioning, depth orientation, form discrimination, and concentration and attention.
12. First Words Sampler: Preschoolers with a reading disability can get a head start on improving their skills with this app that teaches them about letters and words using fun graphics and sounds.
13. Montessori Crosswords: Embrace the Montessori method by using this app to help youngsters improve their spelling and reading skills through engaging phonics-based exercises.
14. Read & Write :Students can practice reading and writing letters using this application. Users can trace letters, learn letter sounds, and get illustrations to go along with each part of the alphabet.
15. Sound Literacy: With a portion of the proceeds from this app going to the Dyslexia Association, there’s no reason not to sign on. Even better, the app is incredibly useful, employing the Orton-Gillingham method to help students recognize the spellings of English phonemes.
16. weesay ABC: Using pictures, words, and sounds, this application makes it easy for young students to practice and learn their ABCs.
17. abc PocketPhonics: This app is a great tool for teaching reading disabled students the fundamentals of letter sounds and shapes.
18. The Writing Machine: By correlating pictures and words, reading text, sounding out letters, this tool helps students develop early literacy abilities with greater ease.
19. WordSort: One of the top educational apps out there, this game helps kids to learn how to identify parts of speech, like nouns, adverbs, and verbs, as well as emphasizing grammar skills.
20. ABC Phonics Word Families: Using analogy phonics (or word families) this application teaches young learners to see and hear the patterns of commonality in a set of words. With flashcards, spelling words, scrambled words, and games, this app is a must-have for helping students.

Reading

These excellent iPad apps can be a big help to reading disabled students who need a little extra support when trying to read.

21. Blio: Blio offers all the same features of any basic e-reader, and also a few things that make it unique. Through synchronized highlighting and a serial presentation view, the app helps those with reading disabilities make sense of the text, something many other similar apps don’t offer.
22. Read 2 Me: For those who have difficulty reading, apps like Read 2 Me can be a godsend. The app comes complete with an entire library of texts, all of which can be read out loud.
23. Read2Go: If you use DAISY (Digital Accessible Information System) books in your classroom, Read2Go is one of the best and most accessible ways to read those books on iOS.
24. AppWriter: Designed with reading and writing disabilities in mind, this text editor for iPad integrates numerous accessibility features into standard text editing functionality.
25. Audiobooks: Sometimes students with reading disabilities might just want a break from reading books the old fashioned way. That’s why this amazing collection of free audiobooks can come in handy, offering access to classics like Romeo and Juliet and Treasure Island.
26. Bob’s Books: Bob’s Books uses phonics-based interactive games to help kids learn how to read. Activities will help young learners to sound out words, spell, and make connections between letters and sounds.
27. iStoryTime: There are numerous titles to choose from in the iStoryTime series, all of which allow kids to have the book read to them or to get help reading it themselves.
28. MeeGenius! Kids’ Books: MeeGenius is another series that’s perfect for practicing reading skills. Those with trouble reading can use illustrations and helpful word highlighting to get help, or just have the book read to them until they’re confident enough to do it on their own.
29. Reading Trainer: While this app is designed to help average readers boost their reading speed and ability, it can be useful to those who struggle as well, as many of the skills taught can help just about anyone become a more confident reader.
30. See Read Say: This application will help to ensure that young learners are familiar with all of the Dolch sight words (the most common words), using games, activities, and tons of practice.
31. Stories2Learn: Why use existing stories to help troubled readers when you can build your own? This application lets you develop your own text and audio stories, including messages, topics, and other things that can help keep kids interested.
32. eReading series: The eReading series from Brain Integration LLC, helps young readers at all levels of proficiency learn about topics like Greek Mythology and Gulliver’s Travels. Users can have the book read to them, or practice reading without the help, too.

Writing

For those with reading disabilities, sometimes writing can also be a trying task. Here are some apps that can help teach, assist, and make writing more fun.

33. iWrite Words: Named by The Washington Post as one of the best apps for special needs kids, this game-based program helps youngsters learn to write their letters through a fun and engaging setup that uses illustrations and animations to keep things interesting.
34. AlphaWriter: Using Montessori-based learning methods, this application helps kids to learn how to read, write, and spell phonetically. It also teaches lessons on consonants and vowels, letter sounds, writing stories, and much more.
35. Sentence Builder: Through this application, elementary school children will learn how to build grammatically correct sentences, with a special focus on using connector words.
36. Story Builder: After kids are done learning how to build sentences, they can move onto this app which combines those sentences into one coherent story, complete with illustrations.
37. Writing Prompts: Having trouble thinking of things for students to write about? This app removes that roadblock and offers up numerous ideas for short writing assignments.
38. Idea Sketch: This mind-mapping app can help learning disabled students make sense of their ideas and organize them in ways that they can easily translate into written work.
39. Storyrobe: Teachers and students can build and share their own unique stories through this application. Integration with YouTube and email makes it easy to share and revise, too.

Spelling

These applications can be excellent tools for improving spelling skills.

40. American Wordspeller: Looking up a word in a dictionary isn’t that simple if you have no idea how to spell it. This app removes that problem and employs a method that lets you much more easily pinpoint how to spell just about any word.
41. Word Magic: Created by the parents of a five-year-old, this app for young learners help kids learn words and how to spell them correctly. It uses lots of positive reinforcement, rewards, and fun pictures to keep things interesting to learners.
42. Typ-O: Poor spellers can rejoice over this great application that help you spell words correctly in any typing-related program on your iPhone or iPad.
43. A1 Spelling App: This application is a great way to help poor spellers begin to learn the correct spelling of common words, increasing difficulty as kids master words.
44. iSpell Word: iSpell Word is designed to help kids learn the spellings of simple English words. It uses games to teach, with each level of the game employing more difficult words so kids are always challenged.
45. Jumbline: If you’re looking to make reading, writing, and spelling into a game, this app can help. It’s full of word games that ask players to use speed, smarts, pattern recognition, and spelling skills to win.
46. Spelling Bee Challenge: Kids can have fun taking part in a mock spelling bee using this application that boosts both spelling and vocab skills.
47. Word Fall: In this educational game, words fall from the sky and players must collect letters to form basic words.
48. WordLadder: This highly challenging word game will get older readers thinking about how words are spelled and how they can be connected and changed to form new words.
49. ACT Spell: Developed especially for learners with disabilities and special needs, this tool helps develop motor control, word recognition, spelling, and reading skills.
50. Word Wizard: Lauded by The New York Times, this word-focused app lets kids hear the sounds of letters and words through a movable alphabet while also engaging them in spelling practice and games.

Inside the Hidden World of Dyslexia and ADHD - YouTube

Rarely do we get a look inside dyslexia at the inner city level. Every dyslexic should be in tune with what Headstrong Nation is doing in the arena of Dyslexia advocacy.

We are looking forward to future initiatives from this group!

Dyslexia: Merilee Grage Hearing the Voices of Dragon

This week we are looking at the story of Merilee Grage who struggled with undiagnosed dyslexia for years.

She is using Nuance's Dragon Naturally Speaking to help finish her Master’s degree in Special Education.

She is a believer in the use of assistive tech in the classroom, and has introduced Dragon to the students in her repsonibility, who face reading challenges.

She reports that the results have been “amazing.”

Grage dropped out of college in 1979 due to her undiagnosed dyslexia, but with Dragon NaturallySpeaking, the tables have turned: "I bought Dragon to help with my typing and I ended up using it for everything: emails, papers, my online courses, and anything else that requires a keyboard."

"It’s about creativity and having a flow of work that’s not interrupted by worrying about spelling and grammar. Dragon is a major part of that."

More recently, Merilee has seen the transformation Dragon has had on students of all ages, including a 3rd grader with dyslexia who, for the first time, was excited about reading and was thirsty for more.

“When we were done,” Grage recalls he said, "There has to be a third book." His motivation was amazing.

This was a student who didn’t want to go to the resource room because he read at a first grade level and couldn’t write complete sentences.

"Dragon and echo reading during profile creation forced him to work on word pronunciation, and his comprehension and fluency greatly increased."

To read more of Merilee’s story, go to Nuance's website here.

Sally Gardner: Dyslexia is not a disease

It always struck me as strange that as a child I should be saddled with a word that I could neither pronounce or spell.

I look back at my education with a sense of bewildered frustration, I had no idea why I should be shown a picture of a boat and when the picture was taken away I was, as if by magic, supposed to know what the picture spelt.

It didn't matter how many phonic nutcases shouted at me saying B-O-A-T. Even now I have no idea whether o goes before a or a goes before o. And does it matter?

In those days it was called word blindness. I wasn't diagnosed with dyslexia until I was 11. It was of no value in school that I was visually or emotionally intelligent. Still, in 2011, these qualities in a child are often overlooked in favour of academic intelligence.

I believe we waste too many children in this country by failing to see the gifts they have. Instead we see dyslexia as a problem.

The word associated with dyslexia in schools, that I absolutely hate, is special needs. Our special needs are that the non dyslexic world stop telling us how we should be learning or what magic cure they have for us.

It's not a disease. People need to see what it has to offer, and not look at it as a negative. It's a misconception that because you are dyslexic you don't like books. In fact, although I couldn't read them, I always thought words beautiful hieroglyphics that I longed to be able to translate.

The first book I ever read, at the ripe old age of 14, was Wuthering Heights. I think it was because everyone had given up on me that I finally broke the code.

Up to the age of 21, it seemed to me that everybody had a cinema in their heads and could see a book as you would see a film: playing out in their mind's eye.

I was studying theatre design at Central St Martins at the time, and working on The Tempest, when I first realised the director I was working with couldn't see a thing.

He was visually blind. I can't tell you how cross that made me. All those years I had been able to see in 3D in my head.

I had my own visual landscape and I realised that I was rich in an imagination that has turned out to be invaluable.

All those years of only being told I was stupid, thick. A moron, brain like a sieve. Still those negative voices haunt me.

Read the full article here: Sally Gardner: Dyslexia is not a disease - Telegraph

Neglect Dyslexia - Left or Right

Deficits in reading may stem from disruptions of simple sensory impairments to more complex problems involving thinking related to language.

There are several subtypes of dyslexias and they can be categorized as either central or peripheral dyslexias (of which there are two, attentional dyslexia and neglect dyslexia), which result from impairment to brain processes that are capable of converting letters on the page into visual word forms.

There are two types of peripheral dyslexias called attentional dyslexia, and neglect dyslexia.

Neglect dyslexia is usually due to brain damage, and causes an impairment of reading because the affected person misidentifies letters in certain spatial regions of either a word or a group of words.

The defect for neglect dyslexia subtype is associated with the right parietal lobe.

Neglect dyslexia can be further divided into left neglect dyslexia and right neglect dyslexia.

In the left neglect dyslexia subtype, the affected person experiences difficulty reading initial letters of the word, which may cause a letter(s) to be substituted, omitted or added.

In the right neglect dyslexia subtype causes a patient to have letter errors at the end of the word.

Read more about the different types of Dyslexia here: Healthline

Attentional Dyslexia

Deficits in reading may stem from disruptions of simple sensory impairments to more complex problems involving thinking related to language.

There are several subtypes of dyslexias and they can be categorized as either central or peripheral dyslexias (of which there are two, attentional dyslexia and neglect dyslexia), which result from impairment to brain processes that are capable of converting letters on the page into visual word forms.

The attentional dyslexia subtype is a rare disorder of attention control, typically correlated with damage to the left parietal lobe (located on the sides of the head).

The attentional dyslexia causes an impairment of reading words in sentences, since the defect causes many words to be visible at the same time.

Read more about the different types of Dyslexia here: Healthline

Organic basis for dyslexia - Max Planck Leipzig Research Study

Severe and persistent reading and spelling impairment linked with difficulties in processing speech sounds (developmental dyslexia) may be associated with under-action of an area of the brain.

Establishing an underlying organic basis for dyslexia has been a controversial area in recent years, but a team based at the Max Planck Institute Leipzig has used functional MRI scanning on dyslexic adults.

They found that there was a dysfunction in the auditory sensory thalamus, the medial geniculate body (MGB), while all other structures in the auditory pathway behaved comparably with those in control patients without dyslexia.

Furthermore, MGB activity correlated with dyslexia diagnostic scores, indicating that the task modulation of the MGB is critical for performance in dyslexics.

The authors of the research, published this week in the online Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the US, suggest that 'deficits in dyslexia are associated with a failure of the neural mechanism that dynamically tunes the MGB according to predictions from cortical areas to optimise speech processing.'

This research may go some way in establishing an underlying neural framework for the various presentations of some forms of dyslexia.

Read the Abstract and get access to the full paper here; PNAS online 

Authors: Begoña Díaz, Florian Hintz, Stefan J. Kiebel and Katharina von Kriegstein

Dyslexia: The First 100 most commonly used words chart

High frequency words are quite simply those words which occur most frequently in written material. For example, "and", "the", "as" and "it".

They are often words that have little meaning on their own, but they do contribute a great deal to the meaning of a sentence.

Some of the high frequency words can be sounded out using basic phonic rules, e.g. "it" is an easy word to read using phonics.

However, many of the high frequency words are not phonically regular and are therefore hard to read in the early stages.

These words are sometimes called tricky words, sight words or camera words.

In addition to being difficult to sound out, most of the high frequency words have a rather abstract meaning which is hard to explain to a child.

Below you can download our first 100 and second 100 most commonly used words chart for your classroom as a display or simply to put in front of your child when they are doing their homework to assist them with spelling.

Download First 100 High Frequency Words Chart - Bold Print.   

Download Second 100 High Frequency Words Chart - Bold Print.

Eddie Izzard - Scrabble and Dyslexia - YouTube