Developmental dyslexia was the words that described students that were incapable to learn to read, in spite of their normal intelligence. In 1896, Pringle-Morgan (Snowling, 2000) speculated that developmental dyslexia is due to congenital word blindness. Dyslexia further advances in 1968 World Federation of Neurology as Critchley’s (1970) new description on the said learning disorder as, “difficulty in learning to read despite of conventional instruction, adequate intelligence and socio-cultural opportunity. It is dependent upon fundamental cognitive disabilities which are frequently of constitutional origin.” (Snowling, 2000, p.15)
On the other hand, Hoien and Lundaberg (1991) considered dyslexia as a language function disturbance which appeared in reading and writing process. Hoien and Lundabert (1991) also added that this language disturbance genetic in nature that can be considered as hereditary.
Countless researches connected dyslexia with semantics, syntactics, and morphology. Gillon (2004) quoted Vogel (1974) findings on dyslexia and syntax that, “…poor reader’s performance was significantly below that of good readers on seven of the nine measures of syntactic ability…syntactic impairment in spoken language and dyslexia are closely related” (p. 71).
In the ‘Handbook of orthography and literacy’, Kovacs-Vass and Kovacs-Feher (2003) research on morphological judgment of a dyslexic showed that dyslexic readers have deficit in understanding homonyms, which Malatesha and Aaron ( 2006) considered as semantic deficiency.
As education system and research advances, every book will continuously offer plethora of explanations in regards to definition of dyslexia. To sum it up, in its simplest definition, dyslexia is difficulty in word decoding and spelling. Anyone may suffer from dyslexia regardless of his intellectual capacity and economic status, which was already proven in the history.
Further research suggested a profound definition and categorization of a dyslexic which includes phonological dyslexia (dysphonetic, dysphonesia or auditory dyslexia), visual dyslexia, mixed dyslexia (dysphoneidetic dyslexia), dysnomia (semantic dyslexia), double deficit, severed and mild dyslexia (dyslexic symptoms).
A learning disability like dyslexia should not hinder someone to strive for success whether it is academically or professionally in nature. It is a given fact that each individual has his own weakness—it just happen that dyslexic’s flaws is in reading and writing. But this does not mean that they will not be having a good future at all. History proves that a dyslexic can be somebody someday. Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Alba Edison and Albert Einstein are some of the great scientists who have been considered suffering from dyslexia. These personalities are the clear evidence that a dyslexic has a potential to succeed, which can possibly be accomplished by focusing on the strengths while scrutinising the weaknesses.
Everyone should understand that although they do have learning difficulties they are not disabled. The very word dyslexia has a negative connotation that is why there are some suggestions that instead of using dyslexic, it is better to use differently abled. A person suffering from dyslexia visualised and learned things differently compared to a regular learner. Allomath is another term use for dyslexic, which technically means learning in different way (Miles and Gilroy
Allomath learned in different way therefore they have a very unique brain structure, which makes him superior in a such area compared to a normal learner. But for the reason of encountering early struggles with reading and spelling, majority of dyslexics undervalue their own capabilities and suffer from luck of self-esteem. Motivating a dyslexic to focus on his strength will help him see himself in a different light.
Computer revolution alleviate the dyslexic’s difficulties with reading, phonological skills, spelling and writing—particularly handwriting. Information Communication Technology allows an allomath to learn on his own pace and learning style without worrying about poor handwriting, messy presentation and wrong spelling. ICT can release that limitation imposed by poor literacy skills which hampers a dyslexic child. The use of the computer to solve problems, to present material in way that is visually acceptable and valued by society gives them greater freedom than pen and ink alone. ‘Game-based programmes on screen stimulate young children in ways that print does not offering them opportunities for consolidating their learning through repetition and trial and error’ (Hartas, 2006, p. 106)
In-class technique like Early Intervention in Reading Program (EIR) (Swarbrick and Marshall, ) is the most suitable for dyslexic because he feels that his still part of the group—being aware that his part of a regular class will not jeopardise his self-esteem. Traditional pull-out remedial reading programs is a segregation process can cause a great damage on dyslexic’s personality. In EIR, Swarbick and Marshall () added that:
Regular primary level teachers work for an extra twenty five minutes each day with a small group of the lowest-ability readers in their classroom. The students also practice reading for an additional five or ten minutes working individually or in pairs with the teacher, a teacher’s aide, or volunteer. (p.78)
Although some cases shows improvement on child’s reading and writing ability, the result is not dramatic compared to other intensive interventions. Yet, this program is realistic to all academic institutions because it is inexpensive, making it easy to implement.
Then again, using EIR in dealing with dyslexic boils down to the issue over phonics versus whole language teaching. Successful reading requires that students have variety of skills. Marshall (2004) on her book ‘The Everything Parent’s Guide to Children with Dyslexia: All You Need to Need to Ensure Your Child’s Success’, stresses that: “Students taught only phonics tend to have better decoding skills, but weaker comprehension skills…with whole language tend to have stronger comprehension skills but weaker decoding skills” (p.71)
Teachers and parents should be offering a dyslexic learner a balance of everything an instruction that covers not just phonics and whole language but all parts of reading.
