The LV Prasad Eye Institute, Vijayawada, recently conducted a workshop on dyslexia! What is the connection between an eye hospital and reading disability – one may wonder. According to Paediatric ophthalmologist Dr. Niranjan Peher, at the LVPEI, many children with scholastic backwardness are brought to the hospital as parents believe their abysmal performance in academics is due to poor vision. But on testing it is not found to be so. Dr. Niranjan took the initiative to create awareness about a reading disability known as Dyslexia. It comes under the umbrella of Learning disabilities. He invited Dr. Vishal Indla, a Vijayawada-based psychiatrist and me to enlighten parents and teachers on this issue. Despite being Sunday, they came in large number.
Usually, when people hear the word dyslexia, they think only of reading, writing, spelling and math problems a child is having in school. Some associate it with word and letter reversals, some only with slow learners. Other symptoms of dyslexic condition include time and space confusion, disorganization and difficulty with comprehension.
Dyslexia is a reading disorder. Those who are identified with this condition, have tremendous difficulty in deciphering the word on the page. As a matter of fact, viewing a printed word on a page from the top or the side or scrambled into its component parts, makes the word more confusing than ever. They crawl along reading letter by letter, making many mistakes. Reading becomes a painful and unpleasant task for them. If what they are reading is important, they will have to read it over and over many times to make sure it’s correct. They do not read for pleasure as there is no pleasure in sustained concentration.
While learning to read the bewildered student will quickly reach his threshold of confusion. He no longer sees what is actually written on the page, but what he thinks is on the page. At this stage he pushes the book away, ‘that’s enough’. The problems children with dyslexia have in learning to read are the same as those all children experience, but of a large magnitude, requiring remedial instructions.
It is good for the self-esteem of such children to know their mind works exactly in the same way as the minds of great geniuses such as Einstein, Sir Winston Churchill, Edison and many others. It is important for them to know that having a problem with reading, writing, spelling or math does not mean they are dumb or stupid.
(The writer is a Remedial Educator)
rajfarida@gmail.com
