Nov 11, 2010 Tasha Kelley

Dyslexia – Kristine Lewis at flickr.comWhen dyslexic people are in high school, dyslexia becomes hard to conceal . this article examines high school students with dyslexia.

Reading and writing are often considered as skills that are easily attainable once one starts school. they are stepping stones towards the thorough understanding of life and living – the bases for the classification of being literate and, in some way, being thoroughly “civilized.” as such, it seems apparent that these two skills are of ultimate importance not only in one’s academic development, but in one’s ability to cope, face, and handle personal development.

Dyslexics

In some of the recent academic studies, it was shown that twenty percent of Americans have tendencies to be diagnosed as dyslexics. as a result, dyslexia has become an utmost concern for many in the academe. as author Mike Juggins states in his article, "Dyslexics Drowning in the Mainstream," “Dyslexia is a word that suffocates and disguises the truth of a rather complex matter. It focuses on a small weakness of a whole mind set, rather than incorporating areas of intellectual difference.”

Someone with dyslexia is said to have problems in spelling, reading and writing. Dyslexics find it difficult to recognize the sound and features of letters and words. as a result, the simple task of memorizing and understanding what seems to be a short selection for many evolves into a very difficult challenge when assigned to dyslexics.

For some, they see dyslexia as the ability to observe and analyze something from various points of view. this ability makes a dyslexic neglect the skill to focus. every observation gets jumbled with the others resulting in a complete confusion of the reading and lack of comprehension.

Signs and Symptoms

In the early years, the usual signs and symptoms of a dyslexic includes the lack of the ability to quickly grasp the alphabet, their own address, and sometimes, even the number system. Dyslexics present themselves with sequencing difficulties in which they often rearrange the sequence of letters in words, sequence of numbers and the sequence of the alphabet. (Vatlin, 1978-1979)

They also tend to be easily confused about left-right directions, along with numbers and letters who look alike such as b and d or b and p. Even tying their shoe laces tend to be an extreme challenge. as they grow up, the problems seem to worsen. they tend to read very slowly and take an awful lot of time before they can comprehend whatever they are reading, no matter how simple it seems. in writing, dyslexics often don’t write in lines. they also ignore the use of punctuations, along with rules of capitalization.

Often, the problems of being a dyslexic go unnoticed in children. The simple signs and symptoms of not immediately being able to memorize and recognize the alphabet is often equated to the child’s tendency to ignore his/her studies. as a result, most dyslexic young people continue to be unaware of their problems in their literacy skills. this is due to the fact that some of them are capable of coping up with the preliminary difficulties that they experience. however, as they get older, their problems worsen. this is usually the case when dyslexic children reach their teenage years and enter secondary schools.

Dyslexia in High School

When dyslexic people are in high school, dyslexia becomes hard to conceal as the students are required to read more books and understand more complex and specialized words and sentences. in high school, students are also asked to compose essays and other papers frequently. thus, their inability to organize thoughts and comprehend easily can no longer be masked by their outstanding visual memories and high intellect.

High school students now have to do more reading and understanding, not to mention writing, organizing, and spelling mostly under time pressure. as a result, they get more and more confused and the problems appear nakedly. thus, the once intelligent and promising primary school students transform into high school failures and drop-outs.

Causes of Dyslexia

Unfortunately, scientific inquiries and long-term observations on literacy skills of dyslexics fail to point out the main cause of the condition. The causes have been often linked to a number of unfavorable conditions involving mental capacities and functions. Some of these are problems in memory storage capacity, processing, and retrieval.

Many also point out that difficulties and sequencing and hand and eye and ear coordination also heightens the risks for dyslexia. nevertheless, it has been determined that dyslexia can run in your genes or one can also acquire it through particular circumstances such as through serious ear and eye infections that can hinder proper visualization of letters and appropriate sound recognition of letter or word pronunciations.

Severity

It is important to note that dyslexic problems vary in terms of severity. Some have mild dyslexic problems and students can easily with it using visual memory to the point that they seem to have no literacy problems at all. Many have problems with being slow at comprehension, but with enough time and patience, they can understand the reading material. others, however, have more severe problems that can easily be sensed through their inability to comprehend anything from whatever they are reading, no matter how slowly and how frequently they read a literature selection.

The dyslexic person should immediately seek treatment before he or she reaches secondary education. By doing so, he or she will be able to cope with the demands of attaining of education, while at the same time, be able to escape the risks of frustration from this condition.

Juggins, Mike. Dyslexics Drowning in the Mainstream. The Dyslexia Online Journal, February, 2001. (Retrieved on 11/11/2010).

Valtin, R. “Dyslexia: Deficit in reading or deficit in research?” Reading Research Quarterly, no. 2, 1978-1979.

• Dyslexia – Kristine Lewis at flickr.com