Table of Contents
Disorder description
Case-study description
Proof
Bibliography:
Disorder description
Dyslexia describes a disorder in which a person has difficulty understanding language and/or reading. Rudolf Berlin created the term dyslexia in 1887 to describe a condition where an individual’s inability or inability read. He distinguished between brain injury (alexia), and brain damage (dyslexia). Berlin then focused on the effects of physical trauma on two main types: acquired or developmental dyslexia. Understanding the differences between these types will help you to better understand their impact on your individual lives.
Acquired dyslexia means that an individual has a reading impairment. This is when they are unable to read as well as they once were. However, developmental dyslexia refers to a reading disorder that occurs in children who are unable to read normally because of difficulties they have faced during their development. This condition affects the individual’s ability to read, write, spell, and understand language. It is important to understand that dyslexia can’t control your visual ability or intelligence. Reading is complex and can result in reading difficulties. Different types of dyslexia may affect different individuals. Reading requires two processes. Max Coltheart’s 1978 dual-route model demonstrates this. This model shows how one reads words and letters from print to understand how to make phonation/speech. The left-hand side shows the entire word aspect of reading. It includes the recognition and interpretation of the word’s meaning. This then produces speech. The non lexical (right-handside) is linked to the lettersound rules. It examines an individual’s ability work with letters.
Description of the case study. The case study is “A Case Study of Developmental Phonological Dyslexia” (Temple & Marshall). It examines H.M. whose ability to read is carefully analyzed in order for her to understand her condition. This enabled researchers to collect data from H.M’s tests, draw conclusions and create hypotheses. H.M., a 17-year old girl, is intelligent and has a reading ability of 10 years 11 month. Her difficulty with non-word-reading is much more difficult than word-reading. In other words, she can’t understand long non-words. It can be seen in her inability to recognize words that are too blurred to allow for global perception. H.M.’s phonological and visual paralexias are the main points of this case study.
H.M. was found to have similar characteristics and features to other cases. H.M. is a developmental phonologically dyslexic, according to the case study. The case study starts with context and details about dyslexia. The focus then turns on the case report where more detail on the subject is given, and intelligence/capabilities/abilities are explained and compared to those of the average child e.g. H.M. scores on the verbal as well as performance tests. H.M.’s analysis is broken down into sub-categories, such as non-word reading’ or word reading’.
This case study explains the reasons for H.M. being given various tests. This case study allows readers to compare H.M.’s case of phonologically dyslexic to other cases or types. Cognitive theory description Coltheart has developed a universal model called dual-route theories that is used by cognitive scientists, psychologists and sociologists to help them understand the reading process and any impairments. The model shows how two main routes (lexical or non-lexical), explain how an individual sees and recognizes printed letters and produces speech sounds.
Reading impairments occur when one or more routes are affected. The two main routes have two conditions: phonological or non-lexical route and surface dyslexia/lexical route. The lexical path consists three key components that help an individual produce speech. Access to the written words store, which stores familiar words, is the first. The individual will be able to access a library of knowledge and memory that can help him or her construct the letters. A condition called surface dyslexia, wherein the individual has difficulty reading whole words (i.e. sight vocabulary). After that is access to a word meaning library.
Once the spoken word store is completed, the individual can link the meaning and familiarity of a word to its pronunciation to produce speech. The non-lexical path consists of just one part: the letter sound rules. Producing speech is based on the ability of an individual to sound out letters and create words using letter-sound rules. Understanding the meaning of the letters ‘d, o, and g form the word dog’ in their phonic sense is one example. If this dual route model is disrupted, it’s called phonological dilexia. The individual may have poor knowledge and skills in non-lexical learning. This is apparent in people who have difficulty reading nonsense words. They tend to interpret these words as the closest similar-looking words. These are called “lexicalization mistakes”.
Evidence H.M. has been diagnosed with a developmental-phonological dyslexic. The condition is a result of a problem in her non-lexical pathway. She is having trouble with her grapheme/phoneme rules, which hinders her ability to understand the relationship between letters and their sounds. Phonological disorders are caused by poor understanding of letter-sound rules. Phonological dyslexics are people who have difficulty reading nonsense words, as opposed to words.
H.M. had poor nonword reading abilities. H.M. relies on lexical routes of word familiarity. Meanings and words, therefore nonsense words are too foreign to her understanding. H.M.’s ability to read nonwords was tested by 50 stimuli, 25 word and 25 nonword. The stimuli were only separated by one letter. street : road. H.M. had to correctly read every word. She only managed to correctly read 9 non-words (Temple & Marshall 1983). H.M. relies heavily on her lexical pathway, so memorization is essential to her reading skills. When asked about her ability to remember new words and help with reading, she stated that it was the only way she could do it. H.M. was said to be “at minimum average intelligence and above average vocabulary”, because dyslexics do not lack intelligence (Temple & Marshall. 1983).
Phonological dyslexia is generally classified into one of two types: visual or derivational. H.M. said that her most common reading errors are both visual and derivational. A derivational problem is one in which the subject’s reading error is due to a common root of given stimuli. On the other hand, a visually-related error is one in which the subject’s reading error arises from visual similarity with the stimuli. H.M. was presented with 346 words. 299 and 92 (84%) were correctly read. There were several errors present, both being derivational (24%) and visual (41%) (Temple & Marshall, 1983).
H.M. is symptomatic of phonologically dyslexics. Conclusion The dual route theory can be used to base case studies like H.M. A model that can describe the skill of reading and its components helps us identify the root causes of dyslexia. It is important for you to know that there will be multiple components of the dual-route model involved in most cases. H.M. might experience different symptoms depending on what component of the dual-route model she is using.
Dual-route theories are a common model that helps diagnose dyslexics. There is still a great deal of research that needs to be done to extend current knowledge on the causes, effects, identification, characteristics, and treatments/interventions for dyslexia. There are many skill tests available to help diagnose dyslexics. With more skills being developed, accuracy will increase. Although theories and models are highly effective in explaining situations, more research on the relationship between individuality symptoms and dyslexia will help us to better diagnose and treat these patients.
Refer to:
Temple, C., & Marshall, J. (1983). Study of developmental phonological disorder. British Journal Of Psychology, 74(4), 517-533. doi: 10.1111/j.2044-8295.1983.tb01883.
Wagner, R. (1973). 5. Rudolf Berlin: The originator of dyslexia. The Orton Society published a bulletin exploring the impact of certain phenomena on the environment. The bulletin discussed the effects these phenomena have on ecosystems, such as climate change, pollution, and resource depletion. Additionally, it considered the implications these issues have on the long-term health of our planet. The overall goal of the study was to assess the current state of natural resources and provide a framework for future management. The findings were published in the Bulletin of The Orton Society, which can be found in volume 23, issue 1, with a DOI of 10.1007/bf02653841.
Wu, D. (2002). The Third Route to Reading? Implications of Phonological Dyslexia. Neurocase, 8(4), 274-293. doi: 10.1093/neucas/8.4.274
Ziegler, J., Caste
