Contents
Dyslexia, what is it?
The World Health Organization (WHO) defines it as follows: dyslexia is a specific reading disorder. It is also a persistent disorder in the acquisition of written language, characterized by great difficulties in the acquisition and in the automation of the mechanisms necessary for the mastery of writing (reading, writing, spelling, etc.) . The child has a bad phonological representation of words. Sometimes he pronounces them badly, but above all, he is not aware of the sounds that form the words. Myis, well managed, dyslexia may improve with age. The WHO estimates that 8 to 10% of children are affected, and three times more boys than girls.
The problem is to spot it. Because all children, dyslexic or not, go through confusion of syllables (“car” becomes “cra”), additions (“town hall” for “town hall”) or inversion like “the spychologist” or “the pestacle. “! These “errors” become pathological when the confusions are massive and have been observed over time for at least two years, and they prevent the learning of reading.
Where does dyslexia come from?
Since its discovery in the XNUMXth century, researchers have multiplied the hypotheses. Currently, research is moving towards two main avenues:
A deficit in phonological awareness. That is to say, the dyslexic child finds it difficult to realize the. that language is made up of units and subunits (phonemes) that are put together to form syllables and words.
A genetic origin : six genes have been associated with dyslexia. And nearly 60% of children affected by this disorder have a family history of dyslexia.
How does dyslexia set in?
From the middle section, the child has difficulty remembering the rhymes because he inverts the stanzas.
In large sections, he does not like to deal with the ritual of placing the date, day and month on the class calendar; he is poorly located in time. He is not comfortable drawing.
His language is peppered with pronunciation errors: inversion, repetition of syllables, etc. He speaks “baby”, his vocabulary acquisitions are stagnant.
He can’t quite find the words evoking the objects: if he is asked to show an apple, no problem, but if we ask him, from a photo of an apple, what it is, he will search for his words. He also has trouble with charades, riddles (“I am a round and red fruit, and I grow on a tree, what am I?”)
In CP, and the following years, he will multiply the spelling errors “stupid” which cannot be explained by a bad learning of the rules (for example: he writes “the teries” for “dairy” because he segments bad words).
A book to help us:
“I help my dyslexic child – detect, understand and support the difficulties » by Marie Coulon, Eyrolles editions, 2019.
Rich in examples, advice and testimonials, this book offers practice track to help the child in working at home and is a valuable tool for dialogue with professionals. New edition is enriched by a workbook to be practiced daily to promote brain function.
What solutions to deal with dyslexia?
Whatever the mum and mistress’s suspicions, a language delay does not make a little dyslexic. Be careful not to explain anything and everything with this magic word! It was not until the end of CE1, when the child was officially eighteen months behind in learning to read, to make a definitive diagnosis. However, language tests can detect the disorder from kindergarten, and in case of doubt, the child will be referred to a speech therapist. THEThe doctor indeed prescribes a speech therapy assessment and often an orthoptic, ophthalmological and ENT assessment in order to check that the child hears well, sees correctly, has good motricity of the eye scan… A psychomotor assessment is also often necessary.
If his difficulties make him anxious, which is frequent, psychological support is also desirable. Finally, the important thing is that the child keeps self-confidence and continues to want to learn: dyslexics are very good at 3D vision, so it may be interesting to find him manual activities or to have him practice a sport.