It a romantic line from an English novel but poor Arjun didn’t understand where the animals came from!
Dyslexia often involves misunderstanding words, mostly by replacing them with a similar word. Most of these words have phonetic undertones – reading ‘read’ as ‘red’ for example. This would, of course, change the meaning of the entire sentence and hinder understanding. People with dyslexia must consciously reverse their brain’s work to make whole sense of the matter.
This is a very tiring process, due to which they lag behind their peers. Some other problems in reading are when the letters of the words switch places – like ‘No’ becomes ‘On’ and ‘Dog’ becomes ‘God’. This is a form of directional dyslexia.
Sometimes, it may even be that the last letters of the words are simply skipped – ‘walking’ becomes ‘walk’, ‘talking’ becomes ‘talk’. The words may blend, which makes the text lose its meaning. ‘The crow croaked a song’ may become ‘The rowcroak eda song’ which is very difficult to understand! The space between the letters also disappears and the entire sentence appears like a single word!
Dyslexic Children tend to perceive things visually – on reading a text, they are simultaneously creating a story in their head. This way words and letters get easily mixed up.
There are also certain blank words – abstract words that can’t conjure up an image, words like ‘at’ and ‘unless’ and ‘is’. Such words bring the entire picturization to a stop, such that the dyslexic feels lost in a maze of words.
Students with dyslexia also have problems with memorizing words, and remembering what they have read, as they spent a long time in just understanding it. However, if the same information is read aloud to them, they tend to remember it more easily. Despite mastering the basics of arithmetic, students with dyslexia struggle with word problems, and applying mathematical concepts to real life situations.
There are ways for sentences to be framed such that Dyslexic Children can read them a bit more easily – by avoiding phonetics and abstract words and adding more visual elements – as well as providing special accommodations for students with dyslexia, by offering them learning support by special educators, suitable learning aids, computer software, recorded reading assignments and having special arrangements for exams. And though this is easier said, than done; implementing these measures will ensure a more fulfilling and happy school life for students with dyslexia!
