Potentially Effective Educational Strategies for Dyslexic Students - Case Study Example

Potentially effective educational strategies for Dyslexic (Write your first middle initial(s), and type the of yourinstitution here) Abstract Following is a longitudinal case study of Sam, a seven-year-old dyslexic child born to middle class white American parents. Dyslexia, a genetic disorder of learning disability has been under research since a long time whereby Psychologists have derived many effective teaching techniques to enhance the reading abilities of dyslexic children to match those of the normal students. In this quasi experiment, the experimenter was directly the special needs teacher of the participant, helping him in and out-of-school activities and also a participant observer in the classroom, noting down all of Sam’s behavior and performance in various tasks conducted in the school. Dyslexia is found to cause extreme depression to the affected individual as he understands his inabilities and deficiency in sharp contrast to the other consummate all-rounders around him. It can greatly reduce a person’s confidence as one’s extreme efforts may even seem futile when normal competitors toil not even as much and achieve better results. This study shows that with the right learning techniques and an added amount of struggle, along with individual attention of a patient helper, dyslexic children can overcome this problem to a great extent in their formative years. Potentially Effective Educational Strategies in Overcoming the Challenges Faced by Young Dyslexic Students in Learning Almost every other school teacher finds at least one incidence of dyslexia in their life-long teaching experience. Teachers often witness cases of extraordinary students suffer from acute stress in class, extreme low self-esteem and a general distrust of the world. It is quite likely they are suffering from a learning disability disorder called Dyslexia. Affected individuals, particularly those unaware of their disorder, are prone to extreme depression and suicidal tendencies which proves them to be a persistent challenge for not only the parents but also the teachers as they require more attention than the other typically developing children. Dyslexia is now declared by Psychologists to be a common learning disability that is characteristic of severe reading impairment without any physiological or psychological problems. No proven cause has been found for dyslexia except that it is surely innate. Dyslexia is a high-incidence disorder among people from all cultures, ethnic groups and socio-economic backgrounds. A tough challenge for school teachers, childhood dyslexia is found in children as a continuous difficulty in writing and reading, both lexically (confusing word meaning) or grammatically (confusing writing rules and word order), of printed words which hinders their reading capabilities. Dyslexia is a genetic neurological problem which affects both men and women equally regardless of their intelligence and is symptomized by frequent aggression, early hearing problems, embarrassment, irritability, headaches, difficulty sleeping, fingernail biting, loss of appetite, bed wetting etc. School is particularly a special challenge for dyslexic children, where so much of their day is focused on dealing with text. Their confusion with vowel sounds, letter reversals (such as b for d, or p for q) or the inability to write symbols in the correct sequence (such as tar for rat) affect their comprehension of the content taught at school in great contrast to their typically developing classmates. Various attempts to strategize effective educational practices for these special children have brought about fruitful results when put into application at different schools. Following is a case study of a dyslexic child assigned to a single teacher, who with sufficient attention and appreciation of the teacher, along with his added amount of struggle was able to achieve second place in a class of normal students. Sam, when diagnosed with dyslexia in 2005, was provided with a special need teacher on the request of the parents to help him in his school lessons. Like all dyslexic patients, Sam also suffered from a “sinking feeling” when attempting to finish visual and textual tasks in the classroom. Method Participants Sam, a seven-year-old 2nd grader, an only child to middle class white American parents, was chosen as the subject for this longitudinal case study which ranged over the course of 2 years. Design This was a quasi experiment where the special teacher, the experimenter of this case study, used varying effective teaching techniques designed for dyslexic students to test the hypothesis as to whether a dyslexic child can be taught to achieve as well as a normal student academically. The independent variable being the diagnosed disorder in the participant, the dependent measure was going to be any marked improvement in Sam’s academic performance and the marks on his class tests. Procedure The experimenter used a ‘multi-sensory’ method which aimed to teach spellings to Sam by urging him to utter the letters out loud, and was designed to create visual and tactile memories in his brain by writing the letters in a word on a carpet, making them with plasticine or writing them in big joined writing on a big sheet. Auditory, visual and tactile memories were created to enhance his learning capabilities. Joining the letters together - in joined handwriting – was to help his brain remember the order of the letters in a word. Experimenter also tried out various practical exercises from the first Module of the Dyslexia Certificate course. He listened to Sam read independently and also made him read the Dolch list out loud and spell all the words in it. Another coping strategy used was to ask Sam to mind-read the characters in his school textbooks. As children can be very honest about their feelings and fears of story characters, even though they may be reluctant when asked about their own, this was a good reflection of Sam’s own fears and anger during the study. Sam was not only helped singularly in all his classes but also given extra time by the experimenter after school whereby he recorded Sam’s improvement over time. Results It was found that when Sam was told to read by himself, he tended to constantly miss out words, jump lines or guess words totally out of context. In the Dolch List, Sam read most of the words correctly after some practice with the experimenter but when it came to spelling them, he spelt the words exactly how they sounded. Sam also persistently expressed his dislike for reading to the experimenter, especially when asked to do it out loud to the rest of his classmates and always insisted at sitting at the back of the class. Immediate results showed a noticeable improvement in Sam’s test scores. His scruffy handwriting had begun to get neater as he received individual attention. Though the p’s persisted to be written as q’s for sometime, he was always aware of his mistakes immediately after he made them. The ‘multi-sensory’ method proved to be quite effective in helping Sam remember his spellings. A year later into the study, Sam was able to score full marks on all his spellings tests. Though the difficulty in copying from the board continued longer than a year as Sam stated he constantly lost his place when looking up and admitted he never finished writing and was constantly told to hurry up before the teacher wiped the board clean. The mind-reading exercises with the experimenter helped Sam identify with the hero in the stories. As the story characters overcame their problems in the stories, Sam also expressed his happiness and relief to the experimenter upon finishing his work on time and other little victories. At the end of his 2nd grade, the little triumphant Sam surprised his parents and class teacher by coming second place in the entire class. Discussion Despite this crucial learning obstacle in reading printed words, dyslexic children are found to be more innovative and lateral thinkers, indulging in imaginative drawings in schools and activities such as swimming, skate-boarding which require physical co-ordination that many non-dyslexic children find hard. This study illustrates how dyslexic children can be manipulatively taught to excel at academics just like any other typically developing child with a bit of added help. Every dyslexic child experiences problems and frustration at school, often including bullying. Vigilant teachers should be prudent enough to report to the parents about their children’s activities, just like in Sam’s case, so a diagnosis of this disorder can be made and if confirmed, special help be given to them. References Bradford, J. (2003). What causes dyslexia?. Dyslexia online Magazine. Retrieved from http://www.dyslexia-parent.com/mag24 Suzanne, B. (2001). Case studies. Dyslexia teacher – Case studies. Retrieved from http://www.dyslexia-teacher.com/t4 Suydam, V. (2008, June 26). What is Dyslexia?. An overview of traits and specific types. Retrieved from http://disabilities.suite101.com/article.cfm/what_is_dyslexia Read More