New Help of Dyslexia
By WARREN R. YOUNG
One child in every ten has it, to some
degree, often with tragic impact on his schooling and life. It probably kept inventor Thomas Edison,
General George S. Patton and President Woodrow Wilson crom coping with ordinary
schoolwork when they were young. It
made Hans Christian Anderson an atrocious speller all his life, even though he
became a magnificent storyteller. It
most likely accounted for the nickname “Mr. Dullard,” give a schoolboy named
Albert Einstein.
The
specific problem these people have in common is called dyslexia (from Greek
roots ‘dys’, “difficulty,” and ‘lexia’, “pertaining to words”). Although it is unrelated to basic
intellectual capacity, the disorder causes a mysterious difficulty in handling
words and symbols. Some subtle
peculiarity in the brain’s organizational pattern blocks out an otherwise
bright child’s ability to learn how to read, to write legible, to spell pr.
Perhaps, to use numbers. Letters in
words perversely transpose themselves, ger reversed or even topsy-turvy—“dog”
becomes “god”; “b” changes identity with “d,” and may even masquerade as “p” or
“q”; a sign saying “OIL” flip-flops into “710.” Many dyslexics also have difficulty orienting themselves in the
three dimensions of space, which results, sometimes, in boldly awkwardness.
Ever
since dyslexia was identified late in 19th century by German and
British ophthalmologists, it has been studied and debated. Because it is unaccompanied by outward scars
or detectable neurological damage, and because its bizarre symptoms vary from
victim to victim, some professionals insist that the problem doesn’t really
exists as a separate entity. Educators
in particular have shown a preference for herding this problem along with
others under the broad, vaguely defined umbrella of “learning
disabilities.” Yet frustrated classroom
teachers, agonized parents and humiliated victims know that something—something
unique devastating—is there.
The
late Nelson A. Rockefeller was one of lthe most eminent dyslexics. “I often see letters and numbers backwards,
“he once said, ‘or even think them backwards.”
A few lines from his boyhood diary, written when he was 11, include such
revealing notations as “lunc,” “picknick Lunch,” “Uncle Harold,” “engen repar
schop,” “parak”(for park), and three tries at recording the disease his sister
Abby had come down with –“mealess,” “measless” and “misless.” Rockfeller never mastered spelling. Yet he graduated cum laude from Dartmouth
College, and earned a Phi Beta Kapp key.
There
was no secret cure behind Rockefeller’s success in overcoming his
handicap. The key was simply learning
to cope. Coping to him meant
concentrating very hard when something had to be read; he let aides fix up his
spelling and he rehearsed speeches carefully before delivering them.
Other
dyslexics also achieved celebrity status by adapting to the realties of their
difficulty. Woodrow Wilson did not
learn the alphabet until he was nine, didn’t read until he was 11, and was
considered by relatives to be dull and backward. At Princeton University, his grades were only fair, but his
brilliant oratorical style began to blossom at the same time, paving the way
for his two distinguished presidencies—of Princeton and of the United States.
General
Patton had even harder sledding. At 12
he still could not read. It took him
five years to get through West Point, and at that he made it only by
laboriously memorizing his textbooks word for word.
Not
all dyslexics are so fortunate, or so tenacious. Taunted by classmates, treated as lazy, stupid or mentally
disturbed by teachers and parents, humiliated by schoolwork other children do
so easily; many of them not only fail miserably in class but also become filled
with frustration, rage and pain. It is
liter sting to note that the telltale signs of the problem can be detected in
the diary of Lee Harvey Oswald.
Trying
to pin down the precise cause of dyslexia involves a number of basic
riddles. How, really, do our minds
work? How do we learn to read and write? How can intelligent child—or even an adult
creative genius—look straight at a word and interpret some of the letters
backward, upside down or transposed?
Why does the problem appear to turn up three times as often among boys
as among girls? There are a dozen
theories to explain dyslexia, but final verdict is not yet in.
Ever
since the turn of the century, one guess has been that defective vision must be
to blame. This idea was based in part
on the fact that poor readers employ inefficient eye movements. But experts now regard faulty eye movements
as the result, not the eye that learns to read. So the question remains: what goes wrong in the brain?
Some
early experts thought brain damage was responsible, since it was known that
some victims of head injuries lost their reading and writing skills. But autopsies and brainwave studies tend to
rule out injury as a common cause of dyslexia.
If
detectable brain damage is not the cause, shat about more subtle insults to the
prenatal of infant brain? Some studies
seem to show that lead in the air, physical trauma or oxygen deprivation during
birth can sometimes affect language-learning capability. However, careful tracings of family trees
suggest that the problem may more often be a matter of heredity.
A
sizable body of opinion clings to the “late-bloomer” theory, which holds that
for no particular reason some children simply do not mature the
reading-readiness stage as early as others.
The
theory that still probably comes closest to explaining dyslexia was developed
many years ago by Dr. Samuel Torrey Orton, then director of the lowa State
Psychopathic Hospital. While screening
mental-health problems, Orton became interested in children who not only
repeatedly reversed letters of words, but also had a talent for
“mirror-writing.” Some of them could
actually write better from right to leave, with letters oriented backward and
in reverse order, so that a mirror held alongside would show the words as they
are normally written.
Orton
knew that mirror writing came more naturally than regular writing for many
left-handers or partial left-handers.
Leonardo da Vinci, who was ambidextrous, often sket5ched with his right
hand, while setting down notes mirror-fashion with his left hand. Orton, an expert neurologist, reasoned that
while each half of the brain controls various natural activities, only one side
becomes dominant in the use of language.
If, in learning the artificial skill of recognizing symbols and
translating them into words, both hemispheres persisted in taking part, they
might somehow compete and interfere with each other, leading to reversed or
jumbled perception. Orton concluded
that it was not being left-handed that caused the problem, since many dyslexics
are right-handed; rather, it was confused or mixed dominance of the brain’s
hemispheres.
But
recent examination of the brain a dyslexic revealed an abnormality in the left
hemisphere, which is now believed to have predominant control over the language
function. This examination is part of a
long-term, systematic study, now underway, of the anatomical differences
between the dyslexic’s brain and that of the non0dyslexic. Dr. Albert M. Calaburda and Dr. Thomas L
Kemper, who are conducting this study, hope to determine the causes of dyslexia
so that proper therapy can be prescribed.
Fortunately,
even the victim of severe, classic dyslexia can now learn, with the proper
help, how to read at a decent speed and to write legibly. But parents should be wary. Still-unproven methods, as well as
thoroughly discredited techniques, are also being offered, including everything
from bouncing on trampolines and avoidance of food additives to psychotherapy
and elaborate eye exercises.
The
experts’ consensus is that the best solution is educational: careful, systematic,
on-to-one tutoring on a regular basis to teach the dyslexic child the
principles of phonics—the letter sounds that make up words. What the dyslexic child needs is to be shown
how to decode the sounds for which single letters and combinations of letters
stand, and how to fit them together into words. Since every dyslexic child’s problems are different, individual
tutoring techniques must also vary.
Often, modern phonics specialists reinforce the child’s familiarity with
the shape of a letter or the sound of a word fragment by putting to work more
than one of his senses. They might have
a child look at a letter, say it aloud, trace its shape in the air and on the
blackboard, and feel a 3-D cutout of the letter. Once the skill of decoding (and the reverse process, encoding) is
mastered, a child can read and write any word.
The
encouraging prognosis for properly tutored dyslexics was firmly documented in
study by language consultant Margaret Byrd Rawson. She carefully followed a group of 20 boys with moderate to severe
dyslexia, all of whom had been given structured, multi, and sensory language
training, to see exactly what happened after they grew up. All but one went to college; 18 earned
degrees, then went on to obtain a total 32 postgraduate professors, on a school
principal, three teachers, two research scientists, three owners of businesses,
three junior business executives, one an actor, one a skilled laborer and one a
factory foreman.
Not
all properly tutored dyslexics no longer need fail simply because of language
problem.
Does Your Child have Dyslexia?
Your child
may need specialized help in overcoming the handicap of dyslexia if he or she
shows some of these signs: Reading difficulty; persistent spelling errors
(especially misspelling the same familiar word different ways; reversed or
upside-down letters, or reversed sequence of letters within words; uncertain
preference for right-or left- handedness after age five or six; badly cramped,
scrawled of illegible handwriting; confusion about left and right, up and down,
tomorrow and yesterday; delayed mastery of spoken language, trouble finding the
“right” word when talking; inadequate in written composition; personal
disorganization 9losing or leaving possessions, inability to stick to simple schedules,
repeatedly forgetting).
Few
dyslexics show all these symptoms; and children who are not dyslexic may show
some. But a pattern of these
signs—especially a reading or spelling problem—means you would be wise to get a
professional opinion. Talk with your
child’s teacher, school psychologist, learning-disabilities specialists or
pediatrician as soon as possible, and request a full battery of diagnostic
tests. If your child is definitely
dyslexic, he or she will probably heed careful, long-range one-to-one tutoring
on a regular basis. But avoid signing
up for remedial help—particularly any non-tutoring scheme—without first getting
trustworthy expert advice.
For
further information on dyslexia, write:
The Orton
Society, inc.,
8415
Bellona Lane, Towson, Md. 21204;
Or
The
Association for Children With Learning Disabilities,
4156
Library Rd., Pittsburgh, Pa. 15234,
Please
enclose a stamped self-addressed envelope and a check for $1.00 to cover
handling and mailing costs.
