In modern society, reading is one of the essential skills of individuals. Reading is a key way for children to learn knowledge, and it is also an important way for children to develop their thinking and cultivate their temperament. In the framework of UNESCO’s 21st-century student learning areas, reading and communication are at the center of the seven learning areas. Therefore, parents expect their children to learn to read as soon as possible.
However, many children around the world cannot read normally. Some parents feel that their children cannot concentrate and feel they have “ADHD,” not realizing that their learning disabilities may be another condition.
Dyslexia or ADHD?
Under normal educational conditions, most children can learn to read normally. However, while reading is so important to a child’s development, some children have difficulty reading. According to research statistics, in English, Chinese, Japanese, and other writing systems, about 5%-10% of children with average intelligence and equal educational opportunities, but their reading performance are still far behind their peers. This group of children is called dyslexia.
As early as 1896, clinicians in Europe and the United States discovered the existence of dyslexic children. Limited by the level of science and technology at the time, the most knowledgeable people also knew very little about “dyslexia”. Children with dyslexia were seen as stupid, lazy, inattentive or hyperactive. With time changing, science has uncovered the mystery of “dyslexia”, and our understanding of dyslexia has become clearer.
First, children with dyslexia do not have intellectual problems, and some children with dyslexia are even very smart. Suppose these kids with dyslexia can receive special education, they can overcome the problem of literacy, realize their full potential, and even become creative talents in various fields. Therefore, we sometimes refer to dyslexic children as “smart dumb kids”.
Second, dyslexia is a developmental disorder, and people diagnosed with dyslexia suffer from it. They have difficulties with word recognition, word comprehension, and dictation throughout primary and secondary school and even adulthood. So don’t expect your dyslexia problem to heal naturally. Early detection and early intervention are very important to overcome dyslexia.
Again, dyslexia and ADHD are two different problems, and the two abnormalities can exist separately or simultaneously. Although the prevalence of dyslexia comorbid with ADHD is as high as 20%-40%, dyslexia and dyslexia caused by ADHD are two different abnormal phenomena. It is essential to distinguish between the two problems because the interventions are also different.
Finally, dyslexia runs in families. Studies have shown that if one has dyslexia in identical twins, the other has a 68% chance of having dyslexia; if one of the parents or one of the immediate siblings has dyslexia, then this person has about a 50% chance of having dyslexia. This can serve as one of the signals for early identification of dyslexic children.
So, how should parents or teachers identify children with dyslexia? Below is a list of typical behaviors of children with dyslexia. If 6 or more of the following 10 items are met and persist for more than half a year, the child may have dyslexia, and it is necessary to find a professional institution to diagnose the child.
1. The language performance is significantly lower than the average level of the same class;
2. Read slowly and laboriously, and do not understand the content after reading;
3. It is easy to skip words and lines when reading;
4. Do not like to read aloud, fall out or easily read wrong words when reading aloud;
5. The writing speed is slow, and it is easy to write typos;
6. Often cannot remember the date or name;
7. Poor sense of balance, clumsy movement of small muscles;
8. Avoid tasks that require a lot of reading, and avoid reading novels or other written materials;
9. Low self-esteem and lack of confidence in oneself;
10. Learning foreign languages is particularly difficult.
How to help a smart “stupid kid”?
Dyslexia is a developmental disorder. Early identification and early intervention can improve the success rate of intervention, prevent dyslexia from continuing into the upper grades, and prevent children from developing emotional and behavioral problems and low self-confidence associated with low academic performance achievement. Studies have shown that to achieve the same effect, the intervention in the upper grades requires several times more teaching time than the intervention in the lower grades (2 hours in the fourth grade / 0.5 hours in kindergarten).
1. Find a reading method that is more suitable for your child.
If the child has dyslexia and cannot read paper books, parents can help their children learn according to their actual situation, such as listening, moving, touching, seeing, etc. The most common is listening to reading.
Parents can also guide their children to make annotations and notes while reading. It is best to use pens of different colors to let the children mark out sentences that they think are beautiful or meaningful. On the one hand, it will increase the children’s interest in reading. Reading is not so boring, and it can exercise children’s attention. In taking notes, children can also exercise their thinking ability.
2. Help children to do word recognition training.
There are two schemes, one is the story memory method, which is to put the vocabulary to be learned in interesting short stories to enhance children’s memory.
For more complex words, you can use the splitting-the-word method to help them learn.
If you want to teach your kid “tricycle”, split “tri” and “cycle”. “Tri” means three, so tricycle is bike with three wheels.
Of course, the most important thing is the patience and love of parents so that children can gradually get rid of dyslexia. Parents should accompany their children to read more and timely help when they encounter difficulties. But what if parents don’t have a lot of time to read with their children?
Get your kids an exceptional “tutor”! Introducing NEWYES Scan Reader Pen 3 PRO.
It’s a translator pen but also a reading pen!
To better help people with dyslexia and people with reading needs, Scan Reader Pen 3 Pro is upgraded with a text-to-speech function. It can read out the scanned content in real-time. This function can help children recognize words and help the elderly read the paper.
And the pen is equipped with a professional dictionary. It contains a dictionary function which would be a time-saving and professional tool for language learners or self-taught kids. Just scan new words or sentences to check their meaning, then play the audio and repeat the speaking for practice. In this way, you don’t need to manually flip through the dictionary, which dramatically improves efficiency and saves time. In addition to Oxford English Dictionary, it also includes the FLTRP dictionary, and NMT(neural machine translation).
A perfect assistant can make a child’s learning journey more effective. Of course, the healthy growth of children is inseparable from the support and love of their parents!.
