Dyslexia: causes and symptoms of reading difficulties

This learning disorder with reading difficulties appears during childhood.

For many people reading is a hobby, a pleasurable hobby that induces us to relax and imagine stories and worlds different from our own or to reflect on different areas of life. It is also a way of learning and acquiring knowledge, capturing and giving meaning to the written symbols that we perceive through vision, the graphemes.

But reading fluently is not something that is easily achieved.. A long process of learning and automation is necessary for reading to become a way of acquiring information. And not in all cases this process is normative.

In some people reading is a tremendously complicated process, making frequent mistakes that make it difficult to understand what is written. Many of these cases of people with reading difficulties suffer from a reading learning disorder that in turn can affect academic and work performance: dyslexia. a learning to read disorder that in turn can affect academic and work performance: dyslexia..

Dyslexia: A Learning Disorder

People with dyslexia or learning disabilities with reading difficulties have a learning pattern with severe difficulties in word recognition at the written level. In addition, these individuals often show poor spelling and orthography skills, and often have some difficulties in spelling and spelling.They often also have some difficulties in mathematical reasoning (dyscalculia).

The main problem of subjects with dyslexia is in the accuracy with which they face the fact of reading, causing poor accuracy in reading words. This lack of accuracy leads to frequent errorsThe most common are the presence of omissions of letters and sounds, repetitions and hesitations during reading, translations of the position of letters within a word, insertion of new sounds, substitutions in sounds or words or use of more frequent derivatives of the word.

In addition, dyslexia rarely appears alone; it produces many other learning problems related especially to reading comprehension. The fact that very low reading speed makes it difficult to reading speed makes it difficult to comprehend the material read.

Because it is a problem that occurs early in development, the effects of dyslexia can lead to poor adjustment in the academic and work environment. It can also cause serious self-esteem problems that can extend throughout life. Failure to read correctly often causes people with dyslexia to actively avoid reading, especially if reading becomes aversive because of the insistence that they read correctly.

Diagnosis

Dyslexia is a chronic neurodevelopmental disorder and is the most common learning disorder.. Although errors in reading are normal at certain ages, to be diagnosed with this disorder it is necessary that reading skills are well below what is expected in an individual of the same maturity level and level of intelligence. It has neurological causes of genetic basis and needs to be treated in order to improve the performance and adaptive capacity of the sufferer.

Dual pathway theory

The existence of this disorder and the fact that the ability to read is an important part of our daily lives have been explored and investigated from different theories. One of the most widely accepted is Morton's model, with its dual pathway theory of reading information processing..

The first pathway to which the author refers is the direct or lexical pathway. the direct or lexical pathway through which a global reading is performed, recognizing the words as a whole.The first pathway to which the author refers is the direct or lexical pathway through which a global reading is performed, recognizing the words as a whole without needing to visualize the complete word. In this pathway, visual stimulation is basically used to obtain information.

The second pathway proposed by this theory, the phonological pathway, would work indirectly, as it requires relating the visual stimulus to the visual stimulus. by needing to relate the visual stimulus to the sounds it represents and then these sounds to their meaning. This second process requires converting the information from grapheme to phoneme, so the process is somewhat longer. It is mainly used when we do not know the word to be read, being new to us and having no previous reference to it.

In dyslexia one or both pathways do not seem to work correctly, causing the typical errors of this disorder.causing the typical errors of this disorder. To better understand what happens during this disorder, we first look at the typical developmental process of reading ability.

The typical development of reading ability

As we have said, the ability to read is acquired over a long learning process, and in turn affects the rest of the development as reading is fundamental to follow the typical formative process of formal education.

In a first phase called logographic, the child will use the basic form of the word to recognize elements that are familiar to him/herwithout taking into account (and even without knowing) the sounds represented by each letter.

Subsequently, Around the age of five, children begin to be aware that letters represent specific sounds and that they mean something. and that they mean something, with the ability to mentally convert sounds into visual symbols and letters into sounds. This phase is known as alphabetic, and children begin to syllabify and separate phonemes.

Finally, around the age of seven or eight at around seven or eight years of age, the orthographic phase would be reachedAt this stage, the individual would be able to analyze words based on their syntax at a level that with time and practice will eventually be equal to that of an adult.

However, people suffering from dyslexia have for some reason problems in some part of this process, not being able to fully recognize the shape of the word, transform it into sound or both.

Types of dyslexia

Dyslexia is a relatively common learning disorder, but the type of errors made can vary greatly depending on the type of reading pathway that is impaired. We can find several types of dyslexia and different ways to classify them but since the dual reading pathway model is one of the most widely accepted, the most commonly used typologies are the following.

1. Phonological dyslexia

In this type of dyslexia people present damage in the phonological pathway, being able to access reading only through the visual pathway. Thus, the reader is unable to correctly associate the written word with its pronounced equivalent, reading only from the visual form of the word.

This is why in this type of dyslexia, many errors are often This is why many mistakes are often made when reading pseudowords. (invented words), since they tend to associate words of which they know the form with other words. It is also common for them to make word declensions and they frequently fail in words with function (e.g. prepositions).

2. Superficial dyslexia

In superficial dyslexia, the reading problem is essentially in the reading of irregular words. The damaged reading pathway would be the lexical one, having to focus on the sounds and phonemes of the word in order to be able to read.

In this case, those who suffer from this type of dyslexia have problems reading words in a global wayThey have difficulties in associating letter and sound. It is common for them to make mistakes in words that sound alike, and a high level of slowness in reading and hesitation is common, making several attempts to find the correct word.

3. Profound dyslexia

Deep dyslexia can be understood by considering that both the phonological and part of the lexical pathway do not work properly. The person reads through the visual, but since this pathway is also damaged, the problems are much greater, and he/she may suffer from semantic errors along with others typical of the other two types of dyslexia..

Treatment and educational recommendations

Dyslexia is a problem that affects a large number of people, and detecting and managing it correctly can be fundamental in order to facilitate the individual's normative development and adjustment in society.

After diagnosis, which is done using standardized and popular assessment procedures and batteries standardized and popular assessment procedures and batteries such as the TALE or the PROLEC In schools and counseling and psycho-pedagogical care teams, treatment should be initiated as soon as possible to avoid complications and facilitate development.

The treatment to be carried out will depend on the patient's abilities, the strategy to be applied must be adapted according to the possibilities of each case.. At first, the most problematic areas will have to be identified, in order to work on them little by little and, as the patient improves, introduce more complicated elements.

Training in literacy and motivation

A fundamental part of the treatment is training in reading and writing, increasing the level of phonological awareness of the subject gradually The subject's phonological awareness is gradually increased and the time spent reading aloud is gradually increased (preferably from texts that are attractive and adapted for individuals with dyslexia).

It is also very useful to use multisensory It is also useful to use multisensory methods that allow relating the information coming from the different senses, strengthening the link between vision and hearing.strengthening the ability to link vision and hearing.

It is essential that the treatment contains elements that contribute to motivate the child (or adult, if not diagnosed before) and to increase their confidence, being essential the collaboration of family and teachers so that reading does not become a torture. It is recommended to read to them at home so that they see reading as something pleasant and positive. Criticizing their performance should be avoided as much as possible.It is frequent that due to this they end up becoming insecure and avoid reading.

Bibliographical references:

• American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders. Fifth edition. DSM-V. Masson, Barcelona.

• Frith, U. (1999). Paradoxes in the definition of dyslexia. Dyslexia, 5, 192-214.

• Roca, E.; Carmona, J.; Boix, C.; Colomé, R.; López, A.; Sanguinetti, A.; Caro, M.; Sans, A. (Coord.). (2010). Learning in childhood and adolescence: keys to avoid school failure. Esplugues de Llobregat: Hospital Sant Joan de Deu.