PS379 Lecture Notes - Lecture 20: Phonological Awareness, Phonemic Awareness, Dyslexia
Week 7
Monday Oct 31st
Dyslexia
- Not a visual problem; a language based problem
- Difficulties in single word decoding (problems w reading words), due to
insufficient phonological processing abilities
- Difficulties unexpected in relation to age & other cognitive & academic abilities
(much poorer readers than other children of their age/intelligence) – usually of
average intelligence
- Not a generalized developmental disability or sensory impairment
- Difficulty with forms of language + writing & spelling
- Other Factors Related to Dyslexia
o Some children manage to compensate for reading problems – can read @
reasonable level within average range, but still major spelling problems
o Problems with spelling → problems with writing (not with ideas, but with
getting their ideas on paper)
Phonology
- Rules for sounds of words in a language
- BANK (N at front of mouth, K at back of mouth, but mouth/tongue are lazy so
instead of saying BAN-K says BANK)
Oral vs. Written Language
- Learning to speak vs. learning to talk – different
- Learning to speak is natural
- Most kids learn to speak without any special intervention (unless they are locked
in a room, no one speaks to them, etc.)
- Natural tendency to listen to and prefer language from birth
- Learning to read is not natural – writing is not universal across languages (not all
languages have a written form, some have only recently developed a written form
(creed) – languages without a written form is not worse or more primitive, does
not have a worse syntax/morphology, etc.)
- Relatively large % of children with reading difficulties (highest incidence
disability)
- Only approx. 25% of children can learn to read without instruction
- Script is arbitrary
- (Pit vs. spit vs. slip – puff of air for pit, between a b and p for spit – somehow
decided these are all the same sound – kids need to somehow figure this out)
- Feature Theory – 70s – 7+/2 – BAT already more than this – clearly cannot
deal with one feature at a time
- Frank Smith – Kind of sample the script – don’t deal with all the features –
don’t look at all the words, just look at some of them and figure out the rest
Skilled Readers
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Not a visual problem; a language based problem. Difficulties in single word decoding (problems w reading words), due to insufficient phonological processing abilities. Difficulties unexpected in relation to age & other cognitive & academic abilities (much poorer readers than other children of their age/intelligence) usually of average intelligence. Not a generalized developmental disability or sensory impairment. Difficulty with forms of language + writing & spelling. Rules for sounds of words in a language. Bank (n at front of mouth, k at back of mouth, but mouth/tongue are lazy so instead of saying ban-k says bank) Learning to speak vs. learning to talk different. Most kids learn to speak without any special intervention (unless they are locked in a room, no one speaks to them, etc. ) Natural tendency to listen to and prefer language from birth. Relatively large % of children with reading difficulties (highest incidence disability) 25% of children can learn to read without instruction.
