Today I continued my research on dyslexia for our presentation. I found learning about dyslexia to be both interesting and informative. While researching I discovered the diverse nature of dyslexia. Not all sufferers experience the same difficulties, different sufferers experience different degrees of difficulty and different sufferers experience difficulties at varying times depending on the situation and environment. I found it interesting that even the exact cause of dyslexia isn’t concrete. This got me thinking to our interview with Don and Don’s belief that dyslexia is simply a label. I don’t think the term dyslexia does any justice to individual sufferers and the uniqueness of their condition. I think by categorizing all dyslexic sufferers into the one dyslexic category this is creating the notion that all dyslexics suffer the same symptoms.
Dyslexia sufferers’ brains process information in different ways resulting in dyslexia sufferers experiencing difficulties reading and writing. While I was aware of dyslexia’s association with reading and writing I was not aware of other possible associated weaknesses, including co- ordination, memory and motor skills. I hope that through our presentation I can help my peers to understand the diversity and nature of dyslexia and hopefully they will remember this information and take it into consideration if, and more than likely when, they teach students with dyslexia.
In my research, I read about the importance of creating meaning while reading, the same idea explored in Mondays tut. Until Monday I had never thought of reading finding and creating meaning. In relation to this courses question, this tutorial made the importance of literacy to all KLA teachers even more obvious. Reading is no doubt an important aspect of literacy that is required in all subjects. The importance of being able to read for meaning is obvious, if students aren’t reading and finding meaning they are not learning what the teacher wants them to learn. Unfortunately, some dyslexia sufferers are not capable of creating and finding meaning while reading. I think it is teacher’s responsibility to try and find an effective way to create meaning for all of their students, including those who are dyslexic, perhaps through visuals or conversations.
I really enjoyed the tutorials exercises and found they really helped me to understand the way that I read and write. I think being competent in English, it is difficult to even begin to comprehend how difficult reading and writing can be for others. I think these activities helped me to understand how difficult reading and writing is for some individuals.