Click here to view next page of this article
This disorder of phonologic processing and decoding of words is the most common developmental language disorder. It is estimated that as many as 30% of the American urban population has reading problems. Dyslexea frequently is familial, occurring more often in sons (35% to 40% risk of occurrence) than in daughters (17% to 18% risk). The underlying deficit is impaired recognition and processing of phonemes-- the most discrete elements of sound in language. Those who have dyslexea do not appreciate that speech is composed of sounds that join together to form segments, syllables, morphemes, and words. The processing of language in the course of reading or writing is constantly compromised by the struggle to decode or encode words. Preschool children who have dyslexea manifest delays in acquisition of speech, poor articulation, difficulty with learning the names of letters and colors, and persistent missequencing.
Dyslexia can be diagnosed confidently by the end of the second grade. Children will be slow and halting in their oral reading and have difficulty in reading comprehension. They have poor word retrieval and frequently use more fillers ("um," "like," "you know").
Abnormal development of the left hemisphere (planum temporale) has been postulated.
Attempted therapies for dyslexia include educational remediation, medications, and psychosocial interventions. It appears that the most effective therapy is remedial education
Various types of cognitive-perceptual skills training (for example, sensory integration training, perceptual-motor training, occupational therapy, auditory memory training, vestibular stimulation, hemispheric stimulation, optometric training) have been used.
Medical approaches to treating dyslexia include stimulant medications, antianxiety medications, motion sickness medication, vitamins, and special diets. The most promising.
Psychosocial approaches to dyslexia include supportive psychotherapy, parent guidance and training, social skills training, relaxation training, and behavioral modification approaches.