Author: Jia Ying

Title: Dyslexic, Not Stupid

Research topic: Life as a Dyslexic Designer/ Allow kids to understand Dyslexia

What is dyslexia?:

Dyslexia is a type of learning disability. A person with a learning disability has trouble processing words or numbers. Dyslexia is a learning disorder that affects your ability to read, spell, write, and speak. Kids who have it are often smart and hardworking, but they have trouble connecting the letters they see to the sounds those letters make.

There are often misconceptions about Dyslexia from those who do not suffer from it. These people believe that people with dyslexia simply need to try harder and its merely about letters being jumbled, this is a lack of understanding on their part. Due to these beliefs people with dyslexia are unfairly judged by those who don’t know anything about their disability.

Signs & Symptoms: 

Error in reading and spelling:

• Confuses letters that look alike e.g. b/d, p/q
• May reverse letter sequences e.g. “on” for “no”
• Mixes up words that start with the same letters e.g. “there”, “that”, “the”, etc.
• Omits or adds letters in words e.g. “lip” for “limp”
• Unable to identify the appropriate letter when given a sound and vice versa

Difficulties associated with reading:

• Reads below age/grade level
• Reads hesitantly and effortfully
• Difficulty recognising familiar / high-frequency words
• Misreads common words, such as “a” for “and”, “the” for “a”, “from” for “for”,
• Ignores punctuation, e.g. not pausing for commas etc.
• Difficulty remembering and/or understanding text passages
• Difficulty extracting important points from a passage
• Skips or re-reads a line of words in a passage
• Leaves out words or adds extra words

Difficulties associated with spelling and writing:

• Spells below age/grade level
• Numerous spelling errors in a piece of work and may spell the same word in several different ways.
• Poor standard of written work compared to oral ability
• Has trouble copying from the board in class
• Letters, syllables and words omitted, inserted or placed in the wrong order
• Lack of punctuation, or totally inappropriate use of punctuation
• Cannot write in a straight line

Short-term and/or verbal working memory:

• May learn and understand how to do something, but requires frequent reminders before they remember to do it.
• Difficulty remembering multiple-step instructions
• May have excellent long-term memory for movies, experiences, locations and faces, but poor memory for sequences as well as unfamiliar facts and information

Sequencing difficulties with:

• Sorting or ordering information
• Writing/reciting the alphabet / numbers
• Remembering/executing a list of instructions
• The months of the year and days of the week in order
• Giving a good verbal account of an event/events in their correct order

Speech:

• Difficulty expressing thoughts and may communicate more with gestures rather than words
• Difficulty finding the words he/she wants to use
• People who do not know the child well have difficulty understanding what he/she says
• Mispronounces long words, or transposes phrases and words when speaking
• Difficulty attaching names to things and people

General:

• Disorganised
• Easily frustrated or emotional about school, reading, writing, or mathematics
• Appears bright and articulate but performs unexpectedly poorer than expected in the academic areas
• Performs much better when tested orally, but not in written form
• Has difficulty sustaining attention
• Has a poor sense of direction and/or confusion between left and right
• Common signs of dyslexia by school level

How Dyslexic learn/ Strengths of Dyslexia? 

• Finding the odd one out – sensitive to things out of place
• Pattern recognition – ability to see how things connect to form complex systems, and to identify similarities among multiple things
• Picture Thinker – tend to think in pictures rather than words
• Sharper peripheral vision – have better peripheral vision than most, meaning they can quickly take in a whole scene
• Highly creative – Many of the super creative designers have dyslexia
• Think out of the box – having sudden leaps of insight that solve problems with an unorthodox approach

Target Audience: Children with dyslexia (5-8years old) and Parents

Keywords:

Dyslexia, Dyslexic, Insensitive to orthographic patterns, Late talker, Language disorder, Language difficulties, Language-based reading disability, Neurological disorder,  Picture Thinker, Phonological dyslexia, Surface dyslexia, Rapid naming deficit, Double deficit dyslexia

Aim and Objectives:

1. Understand dyslexia, encourage children to embrace dyslexia (Storytelling)

2. Learning tools to help Dyslexic work towards there strengths (Expressive Typography)

3. Society be kind to Dyslexic – every child likes to have positive reinforcement

Lack at the moment:

Theres a lot of materials on teaching methods to help kids with dyslexia, but no materials that explains Dyslexia to a child. Is important to let know what is dyslexia. Letting them know that dyslexia has nothing to do with their intelligence. (Often children who fail to read and spell don’t think of themselves as bright.)

Past works:

Sydlexia — Unbreaking broken type

Interactive learning tools in the form of origami posters. Once folded correctly they help forge the connection of the word to the object it represents in the dyslexic mind.​​​​​​​

Dyslexia — The Hidden Talent

A book that explains what is Dyslexia. Educate parents and teachers about the common mistake that made by a dyslexic.

The Dancing Letters

Book that is produced in India.  Helps dyslexia kids read better. Also to educate parents and teachers about the common mistake that made by a dyslexic.

References:

Dyslexia Association of Singapore. Retrieved 1 September 2020, from https://www.das.org.sg