The problem that affects one out of every ten kids in the United States of America is dyslexia. Although to some people, this disorder may be very noticeable, it can really sneak up on you.
Most of the time, kids with dyslexia aren’t recognized until they are about eight or nine. The most important thing to remember is that it takes time to solve, and sometimes cannot be cured at all. Dyslexia develops during the first six months of gestation. Neurons are churned out in the brain’s ventricular zone and attached to fibers. The neurons then travel to the cerebral cortex, which contains the language centers.
Here they hit a barrier, stop, and take their place in layers above previously deposited neurons (which is normal). In the brains of dyslexics, however, there are breaches in the barrier, and the neurons enter them, leaving clumps of nerve cells called ectopias. These ectopias appear to interface with the brain’s ability to receive and transmit certain messages. Researchers are now finding that dyslexia can run in families. If you or your relatives have dyslexia, there is a chance that your child could have it too. Unlike what most people think, dyslexia is not the fault of the parent for negligence in teaching reading and writing. Dyslexia is not anyone’s fault; it simply occurs when the barrier in the language center of your brain cracks.
In some experiments done by the University of Montreal, they compared good adult readers to dyslexic adult readers. In most cases, the adult dyslexics were at about the high school level. When the adult dyslexics were compared to third graders in matching sounds with letters, they scored below the eight and nine-year-olds who were tested. It’s not just a visual problem; they can see the letters fine. It’s more of a comparing problem.
Dyslexics usually cannot spell simple words by just hearing them spoken. Some of the most confusing words for them are cat” and “dog.” Although the symptoms can be fine-tuned over time, they never go away completely. As previously stated, dyslexia is not a disease and cannot be cured with a pill or medicine. The only known cure is through long and slow multisensory sessions that go through each letter, sound, and syllable.
Until other parts of the brain help the person recognize the letters in another helpful way, having dyslexia does not mean your child will be unsuccessful. Examples of successful people who have lived with dyslexia include Whoopi Goldberg, famous for her roles in the movie industry; Albert Einstein, famous for the theory of relativity; and Winston Churchill, former Prime Minister of England. As you can see, these people were very successful and influential in their lives.
In conclusion, I have found that children are a real threat to this disorder, especially in the United States of America. Although we may not have the highest illiteracy rate in the world, children still need all the language and speech classes that they can fit into their schedule. Children usually find the ability to read very boring and unimportant. What we need to teach them is how important skilled readers are to the world around them and that they cannot do many things without being able to read.
They also need to learn that they should treasure the fact that they can read because the children of the world with dyslexia are much worse off than they are. Dyslexia is a very serious problem and needs to be researched further.
