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Moving Forward with Dyslexia: Latest Developments in Research and Practice

Barbara Pavey Athens April 2013

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What is Dyslexia?• A particular difficulty in the area of literacy • May be called a specific learning difficulty

(SpLD)• There are SpLD in other areas too

(numeracy, language, attention deficit disorder (ADD/ADHD) autistic spectrum disorders

• IN USA = learning disability• Debate about whether to use the term

‘dyslexia’

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• Many• Continuously developing• Include reading, writing, spelling,• Difficulty remains in spite of teaching • May include memory, organisation,

mathematics, spatial perception, language• Not necessarily linked to high intelligence• Emotional impact

Definitions

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Incidence

• Generally described as one child in ten, but some think it is higher – 4% significant

• Generally has been thought of as a difficulty of boys, but girls now thought under-identified

• Covers a range from severe to mild• Now thought of as continuously distributed –

i.e. in the range of regular reading acquisition, the end where there is greatest difficulty

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Someone who experiences Dyslexia

• May have good days and bad days for literacy activities

• May forget what has already been learned• Has difficulty making connections between sounds,

spellings, writing patterns • Finds it hard to perceive the consistency in these• Does not experience literacy skills becoming

automatic• May experience more fatigue than other learners• May frustrate and puzzle parents, teachers and

themselves for these reasons• Performs literacy tasks at level of a younger child

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Developmental dyslexia• ‘Acquired’ dyslexia (following brain injury)• ‘Developmental’ dyslexia - possibly born with this

learning characteristic, but may only be relevant when a child has to become literate

• Impact increases with stress and fatigue• Can be affected by environment at biological,

cognitive and performance (behavioural) levels• Neuroscience suggest reduced or different

neurological activation• Impact of practice and experience still to be explored

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Current view• Phonological (sounds) processing is the thing

that most children with dyslexia find difficult.• They have difficulty hearing (processing)

sounds and sound similarities and have difficulty interpreting sounds in terms of written letters (orthography)

• Dyslexia manifests itself in different ways where there are different orthographies and writing systems

Coloured overlays & lenses

• Still controversial• May hear of visual stress/ scotopic

sensitivity/Meares-Irlen Syndrome• Some people with dyslexia thought to

experience this & to benefit from tinted paper or lenses

• 33-46% of dyslexic people, approx. 14% of general population

• Not itself a feature of dyslexia

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Overlapping ‘Syndromes’ or Learning Characteristics

A child's needs may be more complex than is suggested by a single ‘label’

A number of children will show combinations of learning difficulties such as:

• dyslexia, • dyscalculia, • dyspraxia, • attention difficulties• Social communication difficulties (ASC or D)• emotional and behavioural difficulties (SEBD)

Coming soon: ICD-11 and DSM-V

• International Classification of Diseases, 11th revision ( Word Health Organisation)

• Due 2015; used in Europe• https://www.who.int/ - comments welcomed• Diagnostic and statistical manual of Mental

Disorders, 5th ed. (American Psychiatric Association)

• Due May 2013; used in USA & UK

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ICD-11

• Specific reading/spelling disorder• Not from other causes e.g. mental age, visual acuity,

inadequate schooling• May affect reading comprehension, word recognition,

oral reading, literacy tasks• Spelling difficulties may linger• Possible associated emotional and behavioural

disturbances during schooling• “Entire brain”

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DSM-V

Critique by Snowling (2012):• Dyslexia term used for first time• “Difficulties in accuracy or fluency of reading…not

consistent with the person’s chronological age, educational opportunities, or intellectual abilities”

• Fluency recognised as a characteristic • No spelling (disorder of ‘written expression’)• No comprehension (language impairment)• Separates reading and language impairment

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Recent developments in Dyslexia Research

• Information from brain scanning • Information from genetic research• Information from other orthographies• Information from longitudinal studies ( e.g.

Lyytinen et al.)• Centrality of phonological difficulty (not the

whole picture – research continues)

Genetic research and findings

• Can be inherited• Often there are other family members with dyslexia • They may have had dyslexia that was not identified• Evidence for a genetic link is increasing, but not

clear-cut • Currently 15 genes considered to be involved, some

studied more closely, esp. on chromosomes 6 & 15• e.g. KIAA0319, DYX1C1, DCDC2, ( Darki et al. 2012) • Probably mutations of dyslexia-susceptible genes

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Findings from neuroscience

• Many hypotheses• Information gained via EEG, fMRI, PET scans• Confirm activation in language centres, but activation

is reduced compared to controls • May show activation of other areas (compensation)• Current interest in density of grey & also white

matter in brain• Interest in neuronal migration – brain cell in wrong

place

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Orthography• English shown to be most complex of alphabetic

systems, with learning needed at word, syllable and phoneme level ( Ziegler & Goswami 2005)

• Other orthographies include phonological difficulty but without the same level of emphasis, e.g.

• Transparent orthography e.g. Finnish – speed of processing is a key difficulty

• Arabic – related to positioning of dots in the written language

• Chinese – related to positioning of strokes in the characters

• Greek – which of 2 possible spellings

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Jyvaskyla longitudinal study of dyslexia ( JLD)

• Finnish team lead by Lyytinen, prestigious international collaborators

• Screened 8000 families with 1 dyslexic parent + 1 dyslexic close relative, expecting baby 1993 - 96

• Comprehensive follow-up of 108 children + matched control group of 92

• Study from birth to 9th grade, final cohort 2012

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JLD key findings

• Confirms familial risk for dyslexia• Best predictors of decoding accuracy & speed:

phonological awareness; rapid automatized naming; letter knowledge

• In spelling, key factor = phonological awareness• In comprehension, key factor = vocabulary• Very early predictors of pre-literacy skills = brain’s

electrical responses to tones and speech sounds at birth

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JLD environmental links:

• Maternal supportive behaviour in play

• Maternal activating strategy

• Parent-child book sharing

• Teaching children letter-names at home

• Classroom membership (possibly)

• Reading interest (possibly)

• https://www.jyu.fi/B.E.Pavey 20

‘2nd generation’ hypotheses (post 2000) -integration

British Psych Society ( 1999, 2005) = 10 + hypotheses.

Further developments integrating some of these are:

1. Cerebellar ( Fawcett & Nicholson)

2. Asynchrony (Breznitz e.g. 2009)

3. Temporal Sampling Theory (Goswami e.g. 2013)

4. Neurogenetics + auditory processing (Giraud & Ramus 2013)

Value and importance of the phonological deficit hypothesis ( e.g. Hulme and Snowling 2009) always acknowledged

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Giraud and Ramus hypothesis linking genes, neuroscience, auditory perception, &

phonological difficulty

• Mutation of dyslexia-susceptible genes• Affects neuronal migration (at microscopic level)• Disrupts/impairs synchronous neural interactions• Auditory perception at specific frequencies is

disrupted • Has impact on phonological processing • But this may not be faulty- it may be availability that is

hampered• Research does not address visual elements

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Pedagogy

• Some dyslexic learners will need additional, individual help to gain literacy skills

• A systematic phonics approach• New learning connected to previous learning• Greater intensity of stimulus• Look for strengths and weaknesses – is the

visual channel or the aural one favoured? How does the learner take in information?

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Literacy activity and Dyslexia

• Phonological practice builds skills – now we have phonics emphasis

• Multisensory methods are very important• rhyming, clapping, chanting and singing

games, and hearing the ‘beat’ in syllables also very important

• Not all children with dyslexia show identified phonological difficulty (may be an effect of testing)

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Strategies for support in class

• Child/adult should be educated at his/her ability level not literacy level

• Always a multisensory approach• Instructions in small number of steps• Over-learning: revisit, revise, repeat

(with variation)• Use of alternative ways of recording• Use of ICT

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More strategies

• Use mnemonics – if they work• Use tinted backgrounds• Use larger fonts• Use concrete (real) apparatus for longer• Mind Maps®, diagrams, flow charts, pictures,

actions• Differentiation• Look for quality, not quantity

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Wondering whether a child may be experiencing dyslexia

• Be a good observer – how does a learner tackle their task?

• Be cautious – there may be other causes of difficulties, e.g. general delay, inexperience, fatigue

• Be receptive to parent's concerns• Use British Dyslexia Association checklist• Talk to someone more knowledgeable

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UK: Dyslexia-friendly initiative (BDA 1999) from the work of Neil Mackay

• Puts responsibility into schools, not with external specialist teacher

• Puts dyslexia-friendly principle in Local Authority and school action plans

• Puts dyslexia specialist in each school, cascades training to whole staff

• Follows pedagogy & ideas that help children with dyslexia

Dyslexia-friendly principles and practice

• Making ‘reasonable adjustments’ - anticipatory, advantageous

• Adapting the learning environment, inc. materials, methods, pedagogy, by

• Using multisensory approaches, alternative methods of recording, ways of showing knowledge ( eg mind map®)

• Fading out practices that people with dyslexia find hard, e.g. copying, memory tasks, writing quantity,

• Doing proactive , minimal marking• Giving ‘big picture’ & avoiding assumptions of linear logic• Doing things that people with dyslexia find helpful

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USA: 7 original principles of universal design (Mace 1998)

• Equitable use• Flexibility in use• Simple and intuitive• Perceptible information• Tolerance for error• Low physical effort

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Universal design in the context of education

Puts these in pedagogic terms, plus:• A community of learners –the instructional

environment promotes interaction and communication among the students and between students and faculty

• Instructional climate –instruction is designed to be welcoming and inclusive. High expectations are espoused for all students

•  (Shaw, Scott and McGuire, 2001)

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Universal Design and Dyslexia-friendly principles : congruency

• Close relationship between both sets of principles

• Both say that following the principles is good for inclusion and good for all learners

• Both allow for the possible need for specialist input beyond their inclusive principles

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Dyslexia-aware teachers need:

• Attitude -supportive, interested

• Understanding – of dyslexia, updated

• Technique – helpful to dyslexia

• Empathy – for lack of confidence, fatigue, stress, fear

• There is always more than one way to teach

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The end

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