Dyslexia
Karen Trejo
Intro to Special Education
American International College
12-15-2016
Dyslexia is considered a specific learning disability. According IDEA, a specific learning dbility is “ a disorder in one or more of the basic psychological processes involved in understanding or in using language, spoken or written…the disorder may manifest itself in and imperfect ability to listen, think, speak, read, write, spell, or do mathematical calculation (Turnbull, Wehmeyer, Shogren, 2008) .” Dyslexia is one of the most recognizable learning disabilities that ranges from mild to severe and involves difficulty learning to read. It is estimated that at least four to eight percent of the population have some of the symptoms of dyslexia…show more content… There is no high correlation between dyslexia and race, and socioeconomic static. The cause of dyslexia is the overuse of the right hemisphere when reading and writing. The left hemisphere of the brain is typically used for decoding but people with dyslexia use the right hemisphere when reading and writing, causing them to have difficulty ( Reading from Scratch).
There is also strong evidence that dyslexia is hereditary and can be linked to specific genetic genes. This means that students that have dyslexia have a high likelihood of having a parent, aunt/uncle that also has dyslexia ( Turnbull, Wehmeyer, Shogren,…show more content… As a young child develops physically and intellectually their feelings of competence and wellbeing will be shaped by the comparisons they make between themselves and others and by the ways in which they interpret others perception by themselves. In a society were literacy is a highly valued skill, individuals with dyslexia are more prone than ever to having a low self-esteem because they see themselves as less than a normal individual. Self- esteem can be described as self worth and self-confidence. Having self worth involves believing that you are worthy of happiness and success and having self- competence is referring to the belief that a person is able to cope with the challenges of life. Research has shown that children with learning disabilities are more likely to have low self-esteem, self worth, and self-competence. They are more likely to view themselves negatively than their normal achieving peers (Burden, 2008). The book Exceptional Lives states that “ parents and teachers report students with learning disabilities experience more symptoms associated with depression than students who do not have learning disabilities; three fourths of students with learning disabilities experience higher levels of
