Dyslexia and dysgraphia are learning disabilities that affect reading, writing, and language processing. Dyslexia is characterized by difficulties with phonological processing, word recognition, spelling, and fluency. It is often inherited and affects areas of the brain involved in language processing. Dysgraphia causes problems with handwriting and written expression due to visual-motor challenges. Both disabilities can be identified through assessments of language skills, reading, writing, and cognitive abilities. Interventions include targeted instruction in phonics, reading fluency, spelling, handwriting, and use of accommodations such as extra time or keyboards.

1. Zenaida Almodovar, Irene Guzman, Maritza Sorensen & Kristin
Torraco
April 7, 2009
Group Presentation
Exceptional Learners

2. Dyslexia
Dyslexia is a neurologically-based, often
familial, disorder which interferes with the
acquisition and processing of language.
•Varying in degrees of severity, it is manifested
by difficulties in receptive and expressive
language, including phonological processing, in
reading, writing, spelling, handwriting, and
sometimes in arithmetic. In other words, the
problem is a linguistic one, not a visual one.
(Shaywitz, page 40)
•Students may also show difficulty with a
receptive language disability.
(2003) Sally Shaywitz, professor of pediatrics at
Yale University of School of Medicine.)
Revised definition from the International
Dyslexia Association.
Dysgraphia
It is a learning disability resulting from the
difficulty in expressing thoughts in writing and
graphing. It generally refers to extremely poor,
nearly illegible handwriting.
•Also known as a visual-motor integration
problem. It is a processing disorder.
•It is related to disorientation. Sometimes it is
simply because writing instructions were given
while the dyslexic was disoriented. (The Gift of
Dyslexia by Ronald D. Davis, Chapter 9. 45-51)
•The most common type of writing problem
occurs when dyslexic students have had so
much instruction on what their writing should
look like that they have multiple mental
pictures of words and letters superimposed over
one another.

3.  Dyslexia affects one out of every
five children—ten millions in
America alone.
 What is so exciting about the new
level of understanding dyslexia is
that it explains reading and reading
difficulties for all ages and all levels
of education. Scientists now
understands how children acquire
the ability to read and why some do
not by identifying the primary or
core cognitive weakness responsible
for dyslexia.
 New discoveries now make it
possible to (1) identify with a high
degree of precision those children
who are at the highest risk for
dyslexia-even before they develop
reading problems; (2) diagnose
dyslexia accurately in children,
young adults, and adults and (3)
manage the disorder with highly
effective and proven treatment
programs.
Gender Differences
 Studies had indicated that dyslexia
affected anywhere from four to six
times as many boys as girls.

4. Dyslexia
The Preschool Years
-Delayed Speech
-Trouble learning common nursery rhymes
-Mispronounced words
-Difficulty in learning and remembering
names of letters
-Difficulty learning the sounds that go with
letters.
•Kindergarten and first grade
-Inability to read common one syllable words
or to sound out even the simplest of words.
•Second grade and on:
-Speech that is not fluent
-Difficulty memorizing math facts and
calendar concepts.
-Difficulty organizing in space and time.
Spoken Language: They may have problems
with the mechanical and social uses of
language: syntax, semantics and phonology.
•Dyslexia is not the result of lack of motivation, sensory
impairment, inadequate instructional or environmental
opportunities, or other limiting conditions, but may
occur together with these conditions.
Dysgraphia
If a child has trouble in any of the
these fine motor skills/areas:
Tight, awkward pencil grip and body
position
•General illegibility
•Avoiding writing or drawing tasks
•Tiring quickly while writing
•Saying words out loud while writing
•Unfinished or omitted words in
sentences
•Difficulty organizing thoughts on
paper.
•Difficulty with syntax structure and
grammar.
•Excessive erasures
•Frequent need for verbal cues and
use of sub-vocalizing.
•Heavy reliance on vision to monitor
what the hand is doing during writing.
•Copying off of the board is slow,
painful and tedious. Child looks up
and visually “grabs” just one or two
letters at a time.

5. Dyslexia Symptoms
The Temporal Lobe is involved in auditory (sound)
sensation and is where the Primary Auditory Cortex and
on the left hemisphere, Wernicke's Area (language
recognition) are located. This lobe is also involved in
emotion, memory and speech. When processing
matching letters and sounds, the non-impaired readers
showed stronger brain activity in the superior temporal
cortex - a region of the brain associated with much of
our hearing abilities - than when they were processing
letters and sounds that did not match.
Dyslexic readers processed both matching and non-
matching pairs at the same, slower pace. Ms. Blau also
found that even when a dyslexic reader was exposed to
sound only, there was less activity in the superior
temporal cortex. Vera Blau, a PhD student in cognitive
neuroscience at Maastricht University. MRI (Magnetic
Resonance Imaging), fMRI and fMRS are being used to
document neurological dysfunction in some people. (p.
193)
Dysgraphia
•Language, visual, perceptual, and
motor centers of the brain are also
believed to play a role in
dysgraphia.
•Evidence suggests it may be
hereditary.

6. Dyslexia
The best replicated region is located
on chromosome 6p22.2. Four genes
in this region is SNP-level: KIAA0319,
TTRAP, MRS21, and DCDC2. (Olson
& Byrne, 2005)
It is caused by an impairment in the
brain’s ability to translate images
received from the eyes or ears into
understandable language.
Dyslexia is inherited. You are born
with it.
3 types of dyslexia:
Trauma dyslexia: occurs after some
form of brain trauma or injury.
Primary dyslexia: dysfunction of the
left side of the brain (cerebral cortex .
It is passed in family lines through
their genes. It is found more than in
boys than in girls.
Secondary /Developmental dyslexia
Dysgraphia
Studies indicate that what
usually appears to be a
perceptual problem (reversing
letters/numbers, writing
words backwards, writing
letter out of order, and very
sloppy handwriting) usually
seems to be directly related
to sequential/rational
information processing.

7. Dyslexia
•Parent Interview
•Comprehension tests: look at the whole person and
examine the root cause of any learning difficulties.
The assessment should also include observations,
input from teachers and parents, analysis of student
work and developmental and social histories.
•Various assessment by a psychologist or other
health professional in order to actually diagnose the
disorder.
•Examples of these follow up include: occupational
therapy, educational tutoring, parenting strategies,
social skills training. Etc. Chartered psychologists
operate either through schools and colleges or
privately in a consulting room (hospitals)
Effective battery of tests for the early recognition of
reading problems which includes of:
Phonology (awareness, memory, and access.
•Letters (names and sounds)
•Vocabulary (receptive and expressive)
•Print conventions
•Listening comprehension
•Reading (real words, nonsense words, and
comprehensions.
-Comprehension Test of Phonological Processing in
Reading (PRO-ED, Inc.)
Lindamood Auditory Conceptualization Test
Rosner Test of Auditory Analysis
Test of Phonological Awareness
Dysgraphia
Observations within all these areas are required
to make a reliable diagnostic statement.
Cluster
Feedback and anticipating
Rhythm and timing
Visual perception (which underlies reading,
mathematics and handwriting)
Visual tracking
Handwriting and letter formation
Handwriting speed (if applicable)
Sitting posture
Pencil grip and hand functions
Fine motor skills
Gross motor coordination
Visual memory
It can be used to determine if the learner's
writing skills are appropriate for child’s age.
They can also provide information on his writing
processing. Through observations, analyzing
student work, cognitive assessment and
occupational therapy evaluations, educators can
develop comprehensive, IEPs.
An Occupational Therapy Assessment is
usually recommended when a child is
experiencing these certain difficulties.
Typical programs focus on developing
fine motor skills such as pencil grip,

8. Dyslexia
All researchers agree that there exists “ a strong
relationship between early speech and language
impairments and reading disabilities and that
these impairments may precede and foretell a
subsequent reading” (Catts, Hu, Larrivee, &
Swank, 1994, p. 155). Research does show up a
specific difficulty that many poor readers share:
an inability to develop phonological awareness
(phoneme awareness).
Language difficulties can include auditory
discrimination difficulty, extremely limited
auditory memory, slow auditory processing, word
retrieval when speaking (dysnomia) mixing up
syllables when saying long words, low
vocabulary, poor grammar, difficulty reading,
terrible spelling, and extremely poor written
expression.
A dyslexic reader can develop an awareness of the
sound structure of a word by physically forming
the word with his lips, tongue, and vocal cords.
Dysgraphia
•Some students with dysgraphia
may also have difficulty with
language processing and the
connection between words and
ideas they represent.
Language therapy and occupational
therapy help the learner develop the
important connections between letters,
sounds, and words. Some students work
best with keyboarding or speech
recognition programs.

9. Dyslexia Dysgraphia
Interventions
Reading
•“Walk-to-
Intervention”
•Engaging games for
struggling reader.
Math
•Use manipulative.
•Encourages the joy
of mathematics
•Help students
develop one-to-one
correspondences.
•Teach mnemonic
strategies
•Role play the word
problem.
Accommodation
s
•Provisions of extra
time
•Request of extra
time on examination.
•Recording class
lectures.
•Listening to Audio-
books.
•Visual reference can
be used to support
students working on
math skills.
•Store pictures of
maps and text of
frequently –used
directions.
•Store reference for
self-help spaghetti.
•Store emergency
contact information.
Intervention
s
Phonemic
Awareness
Segmenting
Activities
Word Building
Single Word
Decoding
Pre-Reading
Silent and Oral
Reading
Pre-Spelling
Spelling
Sentence
Writing
Accommodations
•Using clay, they
become familiar:
shaping cutting and
rolling.
•Outline their thoughts.
•Allow students to use
graph paper for math.
•Talk aloud as they
write
•Have a computer
available to organize
information.
•Draw a picture of a
thought for each
paragraph.
•Develop cooperative
writing projects.
•Assignments and
compositions in logical
step-step sequence.
•Visual graphic
organizers.

10. A new method of determining level of disability.
 Level 1: The student is exposed to appropriate
instruction in reading and writing. If she/he continues
to experience difficulty, she/he goes to the next level
of intervention.
 Level 2: The student receives more Individualized
intervention. If she/he continues to have difficulty,
she progresses to the next level of intervention.
 Level 3. This level would typically begin placement in
a special education program with accommodations
and modifications.

11. Dyslexia
•October is Dyslexia Awareness
Month.
•People with dyslexia are often
gifted in math. Their three-
dimensional visualization skills
help them “see” math concepts
more quickly and clearly than
non-dyslexia people.
•Most people with dyslexia have
gifts in areas controlled by the
right hemisphere of the brain.
The right side controls: artistic,
athletic, mechanical, people, 3-D
visual spatial vivid imagination,
intuition, creative, global thinking
and curiosity skills.
Dysgraphia

12.  Illinois Branch of The International Dyslexia Association. (2007,
October 11-12). 21st
Annual Conference. “Rocketing from
Remediation to Reading: Reading is Rocket Science.”
 Shaywitz, Sally, Ph.D. (2003). Overcoming Dyslexia: A new and
complete science-based program for reading problems at any level.
New York, NY. Alfred A. Knopf. pp. 94. Notes: page 32. Matthew
Effect for IQ but Not for Reading Results from a longitudinal Study.
Reading Research Quarterly 30 (1995): 894-906
 Lyons, G. R., Shaywitz, S. & Shaywitz, B (2003). A Definition of
Dyslexia. Annals of Dyslexia, (53), 1-14.
 Bender. (2008). Differentiating Instruction fro Students With
Disabilities.
 Nielsen. (2009) Brief Reference of Student Disabilities.
 Landay, Debra, Z. (2008). Research Paper: Predicting Reading
Impairment. Concordia University, Education 6100.
 Hallahan, Daniel P., Kauffman James M., Pullen, Paige C. (2009).
Exceptional Learners: An introduction to Special Education. 11th
Edition. Chapter 6.