Dyslexia Literature Review

The purpose of current literature review is to provide overall information on dyslexia referring to specific sources. The information is selected based on relevance and appropriate reasoning. Researchers and teachers interpret the concept of dyslexia. The research on dyslexia reveals that there is a variety of approaches to defining dyslexia nowadays. There is a group of scholars who view dyslexia as a disorder or a specific learning disability which causes difficulties in reading comprehension. The International Dyslexia Association (2002) defines dyslexia as a specific learning disability that is neurological in origin. It is characterized by difficulties with accurate and / or fluent word recognition and by poor spelling and decoding abilities.

They had unusual early or late developmental stages in talking, crawling, walking, tying shoes. Likewise, they are mostly talented in art, drama, music, sports, designing or engineering. Dyslexics get lost easily or lose track of time, have difficulties in telling the time. Among dyslexics it is common to have excellent long-term memory for experiences, locations and faces, but poor memory for sequences facts and information that has not been experienced. They think primarily with images and feeling, and not with sounds or words (Davis,

L. Hodge “A Dyslexic Child in the Classroom” published in 2002. According to Hodge (2002) all the children want to know what is going to be taught in the lesson, so teachers are advised to end the lesson with the resume of what has been taught. In this way information is more likely to go from short time memory to long time memory. Teacher is also advised to break tasks down into small easily remembered pieces. It is advised to seat the child fairly near the class so that teacher is available for help, or the dyslexic pupil can be supported by a well-motivated and sympathetic classmate.

A lot of dyslexics have really poor handwriting. Reasons for poor handwriting can be poor motor control, tension, badly formed letters, speed. A cursive style handwriting is the most useful to children with dyslexic problems. Teachers should encourage students to study their handwriting and be self critical. They should analyze common faults in writing by writing down several common faults on the board. Teacher can give students a small reference chart to serve as a constant reminder for the cursive scrip in upper and lower case. Teachers are supposed to remember that improvement in handwriting skills can bring self –confidence (Hodge,