Overcoming Dyslexia - How The Brain Works

Chapter 7 in Overcoming Dyslexia by Sally Shaywitz

I hate science tp sedaya upaya, saya cuba memahami topik ini. Ini hanyalah mengikut pemahaman saya

Proses yg digunakan MRI (magnetic resonance imaging). Semasa proses ini, kanak2 dyslexic itu disuruh memberi respons dgn menekan butang "yes"/ "no" yg ada di tgn mereka. Alat yg digunakan mengukur ketepatan & berapa cepat kanak2 itu memberikan jawapan.

Antara soalan yg diberikan -

'Do these words rhyme?'         *perkataan yg diberi adalah nonsensical but pronounceable

LETE               JEAT                              Kanak2 itu perlu menekan butang yes/no

MOBE             HAIB

Hasilnya, mereka mendapati :

1. Seperti diketahui, otak mempunyai left & right hemispheres. Fluent readers menggunakan bhg kiri, manakala dyslexic readers menggunakan laluan otak yg lain bila membaca.
   
   
2. Good readers mengaktifkan bhg belakang otak & sedikit bhg hadapan otak, ttpi bg dyslexic mereka tidak mengaktifkan bhg belakang otak. Ini yg mengakibatkan mereka menghadapi masalah dgn bunyi huruf.
   
   
3. Pd setiap masa, good readers menunjukkan corak yg konsisten - byk mengaktifkan bhg belakang otak & lama kelamaan bhg hadapan menjadi kurang aktif. Bg dyslexic, pengaktifan otak akan berubah mengikut usia. Bhg depan otak akan terus diaktifkan hingga menghasilkan "reading style of many dyslexics". Salah satu cara yg digunakan utk mengatasi kelemahan mereka, mereka "subvocalize" (say the words under your breath) bila membaca. Melalui cara ini, mereka menggunakan lips, tongue & vocal cords to develop an awareness of the sound structure of a word. Proses subvocalisation ini membolehkan dyslexic membaca walaupun dgn kadar yg lambat sedikit jika mereka menggunakan bhg belakang otak.
   
   
4. Mungkin terdapat 2 kumpulan poor readers :- dilahirkan dgn sedikit kekurangan di bhg belakang otak; & termasuk dlm kumpulan poor readers disebabkan oleh faktor2 luaran spt teknik mengajar membaca yg tidak sesuai di sekolah & atau disadvantaged language environment di rumah. Tanpa early intervention, kumpulan ini akan berterusan poor readers.
   
   
5. Walaupun right side brain can support accurate (but slow) reading, left side brain are essential for rapid, automatic reading. Kini telah dibuktikan with the right intervention, the brain can be rewired & that struggling children can become skilled readers.

Overcoming Dyslexia - The Power of Knowing

Currently, keep myself busy reading this book. Got it from Borders (RM60.90)

The 1st chapter focused on the stress on children living with dyslexia

* a student described dyslexia as "the beast", an unknown predator that silently stalks him, continually disrupting his life. The hidden nature of dyslexia - not knowing what to expect or when the difficulty will manifest itself - fills this student with apprehension " "its as if it is lying there, waiting for me to make a wrong move, & then all of a sudden its there taunting me"

* Dyslexia not only how a person reads but other important functions as well, including to spell words, to retrieve words, to articulate words, and to remember certain facts.

* She had memorised a few words that she could read by rote, but if shown a new word, she could barely begin to sound it out. Instead, she would call out words she knew, which generally had no relation to the word on page. Sometimes she knew the first letter, for example, when shown the word boy, she blurted out bat.

* She had difficulty pronouncing long names and trouble finding the right word to say. She had long pauses and many um's when she was speaking. Her inability to identify some of the sounds of the letters of the alphabet persisted.

* He mispronounced many words, leaving off the beginning (lephant for elephant) or the ends of words, or inverting the order within a word (emeny for enemy). He had trouble finding the exact word he wanted to say even though it seemed he could tell you all about it.

Assessment? No Thank You

F joined us @ Q-dees when he was 4 years old, this year, he’s 5. We have two 5 year old classes. In the 1^st class, ¾ drpd mereka adalah knk2 yg dah joined us @ d age of 4. Dari ¾ ni, half are emergent/ fluent readers.

Last year mmg dah noticed, dia mmg ketinggalan dlm pelajaran but at that time he was only 4. It was too early for a diagnosis. This year, masih ketinggalan at the beginning of the year & getting worse towards year end bila syllabus makin byk & susah. I’m not an expert in dyslexia, but after being in this line for 5 years, I know F has learning disorders. F will definitely struggle when he’s 6 yo. Syllabus lg susah & byk.

It was out of concern for F, saya beranikan diri suggest to his father that F dibawa utk diagnosis. F’s father single handedly taking care of 4 children while his Mom is working in Saudi Arabia. Saya tak tahu how his father would react, tp tawakal je. Kalau nak marah pun, saya pasrah (last 2 years, a mom was so upset when I suggested that she brought her child for a diagnosis).

As expected his father didn’t have a clue about dyslexia. I told him I would do my best to help his son provided he send his son for a diagnosis first. I cant help F without first knowing his problem. I arranged an appointment for F. His father brought him there.

As requested by me, the result was emailed to me.

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EDUCATIONAL ASSESSMENT FINDINGS

Date/Tarikh : 7/10/11

Name/Nama : Muhammad F**** Mohd G****                    Age/Umur : 5

Muhammad F**** was brought for an assessment by his parents because they were getting concerned regarding his weakness in class/studies (reading&writing)

Reading/Comprehension

Was given the alphabet board, arranged to match all the alphabet to the board. However he has confusion p-q, q-w, l-t, I-j , t-f, f-x r-c, j-h, y-f, v-z, w-m, x-s, s-t. he only managed to write only half of the alphabets reversal b-d, p-q

Unable to read because still do not recognize the alphabets.

Bacaan/Kefahaman

Tidak boleh membaca kerana belum boleh mengenal huruf bunyi fonik huruf dan tidak boleh menggabungkan sukukata untuk membolehkan F**** membaca

Sentence Constructions

Low vocabulary to help him with sentences. Unable to arrange the sequencing pictures but able to give simple explanation to describe the pictures.

Handwriting/Penulisan

Handwriting need a lot of exercise in order for him to form the correct letter form.

Spelling/Ejaan

Unable to spell because still do not recognized alphabets, phonics sounds and unable to blend phonics.

Remark/Cadangan

·         Shows small problems related to dyslexia such as reversal of words

·         No spacing when copying for the board.

·         Needs help to recognized alphabets, phonics sound and blending to help him to be able to read and comprehend.

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Dgn bayaran RM100, I expected a comprehensive report. No offence kpd pihak yg berkenaan, but any teacher yg dah observed a child in a classroom boleh buat report sebegini. Sgt2 mendukacitakan esp when I noticed they spelt F’s father’s name wrongly. I feel guilty to his father but at the same time berazam to help F dgn cara saya sendiri melalui pembacaan. Saya taknak attach label dyslexia pd F. 

Saya hanya berharap pihak berkenaan dpt meningkatkan lg tahap penilaian mereka. Dgn financial assistance yg mereka dpt dr pihak yg pemurah, why not send teachers for training supaya mutu penilaian dpt ditingkatkan.

I'll Be Writing Again...Very Soon

I have abandoned this blog for so long...

I am back again...

I am currently reading Children With Dyslexia...I hope to share the contents of the book with you soon

Dyslexia Awareness Seminar 2010

On 15th August 2010, I attended Dyslexia Awareness Seminar

The speaker

Qaisra Nazeer Dhillon

more stories about her here

Full house. Masa 4 jam mmg tak cukup utk dia menerangkan secara detail ttg dyslexia but her Q & A session beri peluang kpd ramai ibu bapa/ guru2 yg masih keliru mengenai disleksia. Saya, spt biasa would take peluang sebegini utk bertanya bbrp soalan. Maybe, the technical terms I used semasa bertanya eg sensory integration, dyscalculia, dysparaxia nampak mcm I ni well versed dlm isu2 special needs children. The truth is I still belajar & love to share apa yg I belajar dgn org lain. Tp ilmu saya masih kurang sgt2, byk lg yg perlu dipelajari.

So, after the seminar, bbrp org telah approach saya utk bertanyakan lebih lanjut ttg disleksia, apatah lg when they knew that saya salah seorang member Dyslexia Association of Malaysia (DAM). I had to be frank to them that I'm not an expert, ttpi mempunyai impian utk menjadi spt Qaisra.

Met many wonderful people. Duduk sebelah I, teachers from Genius Aulad. Rep from DAM pun ada. And my friend

...waheeda was there too with her hubby

I approached Qaisra after the session. She advised me to take online courses dr Dyslexia Action, UK. Recognised worldwide. Dah tengok website - GBP 1950 tak termasuk buku dll. Hmmmm....hanya mampu berdoa that I get more students next year so that i boleh take up this course.

Ada certificate at the end of the seminar

For the time being, saya masih lagi attend classes @ Linguistic Council every Wednesday night (Shahrul kena berbuka puasa sorang2 bila I ada kelas. I reach home only around 10.30pm, there goes my CSI)

Also, bila ada peluang, lepak kat bookstores baca buku about dyslexia. Latest book I read (yg ni I bought coz susah nak jumpa buku ni)

...buku2 sebegini mahal sungguh. This book RM97.90

I will share notes yg dapat masa seminar, also will try to summarise contents buku di atas.

New Website

Dyslexia Association of Malaysia's website

http://www.dyslexiamalaysia.org.my

Dyslexia Association of Malaysia - My 1st AGM

I attended Dyslexia Association of Malaysia on 30th May 2010 @ their premise. It was my first. I saw unfamiliar faces around but knowing me, I can warm up to sesiapa saje within minutes.

Makan bihun which they provided. I didnt eat anything prior to going there, so perut kosong. Had 2 servings.

Dr Aziz Abu Hassan, the VP recognised me. FB lah, apalagi. Senang org nak cam my face. Hmmm...maybe the jendol buat I stand out from the crowd. Dr Aziz did send me a message a few weeks ago, thanking me for referring one of my students to DAM.

Surprise! surprise..I met Farawahida, my coursemate; sama2 buat Diploma in Learning Disorders. Farah has a biz - reading classes for children. Both of us volunteered jadi committee member. We wanna get involved & help out with the Association's activities. I personally wanna learn from teachers, parents who deal with dyslexic children.

me waiting for the AGM to start

AGM proceeded smoothly except for a few disagreements.

the backbone of this Association

Then, lunch.

me membelakangkan kamera

Can wait to get involved in their activities.

I met Coralie Leong, she has found the "Fitzroy Program" which is now being used by DAM centres. Although I'm very familiar with Montessori phonics, I would love to attend her workshop on Teaching Children who Have Special Needs on 4/12/2010 to get more ideas. There's 1 workshop on 12/6/2010 but I cant make it.

I was happy to be there; meeting people who are very much involved in the life of dyslexic children.