Social scientists have frequently observed that frustration produces anger. This can be clearly seen in many dyslexics. However, it is also common for the dyslexic to vent his anger on his parents. Often, the child sits on his anger during school to the point of being extremely passive. However, once he is in the safe environment of home, these very powerful feelings erupt and are often directed toward the mother.
However, this becomes very frustrating and confusing to the parent who is desperately trying to help their child. As youngsters reach adolescence, society expects them to become independent. The adolescent dyslexic uses his anger to break away from those people on which he feels so dependent. Because of these factors, it may be difficult for parents to help their teenage dyslexic. Instead, peer tutoring or a concerned young adult may be better able to intervene and help the child.
According to Erik Erikson, during the first years of school, every child must resolve the conflicts between a positive self-image and feelings of inferiority. If children succeed in school, they will develop positive feelings about themselves and believe that they can succeed in life.
If children meet failure and frustration, they learn that they are inferior to others, and that their effort makes very little difference. Instead of feeling powerful and productive, they learn that their environment controls them. They feel powerless and incompetent.
Researchers have learned that when typical learners succeed, they credit their own efforts for their success. He may remember that the other child called him a name, and he then took the toy and hit the other child.
This presents two major difficulties for the dyslexic child. First, it takes him longer to learn from his mistakes. Second, if an adult witnessed the events, and asks the dyslexic child what happened, the child seems to be lying. Unfortunately, most interactions between children involve not three events, but 15 to With his sequencing and memory problems, the dyslexic may relate a different sequence of events each time he tells the tale.
Teachers, parents, and psychologists conclude that he is either psychotic or a pathological liar. The inconsistencies of dyslexia produce serious challenges in a child's life. There is a tremendous variability in the student's individual abilities. Although everyone has strengths and weaknesses, the dyslexic's are greatly exaggerated. Furthermore, the dyslexic's strengths and weaknesses may be closely related.
I once worked with a young adult who received a perfect score on the Graduate Record Exam in mathematics. He could do anything with numbers except remember them. The graduate students he tutored in advanced statistics or calculus had great difficulty believing that he could not remember their telephone numbers.
These great variations produce a "roller coaster" effect for dyslexics. At times, they can accomplish tasks far beyond the abilities of their peers. At the next moment, they can be confronted with a task that they cannot accomplish. Many dyslexics call this "walking into black holes. This will help them predict both success and failure. Dyslexics also perform erratically within tasks.
That is, their errors are inconsistent. For example, I once asked a dyslexic adult to write a hundred word essay on television violence. As one might expect he misspelled the word "television" five times. However, he misspelled it a different way each time. This type of variation makes remediation more difficult. Finally, dyslexics' performance varies from day to day.
On some days, reading may come fairly easily. However, another day, they may be barely able to write their own name. This inconsistency is extremely confusing not only to the dyslexic, but also to others in his environment. Few other handicapping conditions are intermittent in nature.
A child in a wheelchair remains there; in fact, if on some days the child can walk, most professionals would consider it a hysterical condition. However, for the dyslexic, performance fluctuates.
This makes it extremely difficult for the individual to learn to compensate, because he or she cannot predict the intensity of the symptoms on a given day. Anxiety is the most frequent emotional symptom reported by dyslexic adults. Dyslexics become fearful because of their constant frustration and confusion in school.
These feelings are exacerbated by the inconsistencies of dyslexia. Because they may anticipate failure, entering new situations can becomes extremely anxiety provoking. Anxiety causes human beings to avoid whatever frightens them. The dyslexic is no exception. However, many teachers and parents misinterpret this avoidance behavior as laziness. In fact, the dyslexic's hesitancy to participate in school activities such as homework is related more to anxiety and confusion than to apathy.
Many of the emotional problems caused by dyslexia occur out of frustration with school or social situations. Social scientists have frequently observed that frustration produces anger.
This can be clearly seen in many dyslexics. The obvious target of the dyslexic's anger would be schools and teachers. However, it is also common for the dyslexic to vent his anger on his parents.
A good indication of the severity and persistence of dyslexic difficulties can be gained by examining how the individual responds or has responded to well founded intervention. For all its strengths, this definition clearly has its weaknesses. It focuses almost entirely on the early stages of learning to read and spell and comes down very firmly in support of phonological difficulties as an explanation and a phonics-based approach to reading as the most likely way to prevent problems of a dyslexic nature.
The most significant problem with this and most other definitions of dyslexia, however, is that it loses sight of the fact that dyslexics are people having difficulty in coping with the culturally imposed assumptions that a literacy is important, and b everyone should find it relatively easy to learn to read.
As was implied above, most current research into dyslexia tends to focus upon where it exists within the human brain or what form of intervention is most likely to prevent or overcome its effects. Essentially, such approaches are reifying the concept, giving the impression that dyslexia is a thing that can be identified or a condition that can be diagnosed and then dealt with. If we consider dyslexia from a more humanistic perspective, however, we find ourselves asking a totally different set of questions of the following nature:.
The comparatively limited research that has been devoted to such questions has tended to produce somewhat equivocal results. A closer investigation of this data, alongside more intensive interviews with young people who had been diagnosed as dyslexic, showed that their feelings of being understood played a vitally important role in coming to terms with early literacy difficulties Burden, However, this was only the first stage in a long term process that would be necessary for the development of their ontological security.
Interviews with several hundred dyslexic primary and secondary school pupils about their early experiences at school have revealed the following common developmental pattern: an overwhelming sense of confusion is likely to arise if, by the age of seven, the skills of reading and spelling have not become established.
Although dyslexic difficulties occur across the ability range, the confusion is likely to be greater if the child is articulate or adept in other educational areas. This confusion will often give rise to further emotional reactions, either in the form of withdrawal and anxiety about school work or in acting out behaviour, such as playing the clown. If these are dismissed unreasonably as laziness, inherent lack of ability or as the result of emotional problems, negative barriers to success are already being constructed.
If the difficulties show little sign of being overcome, then a full diagnosis, preferable by a qualified educational psychologist, is likely to be needed.
A key issue here is how this assessment is carried out and how the results are conveyed to the child with dyslexic difficulties. It is not unknown for a diagnosis of dyslexia to be used as a crutch or excuse for future failure. In this respect, the disabilities legislation can serve, paradoxically, as an obstacle to success.
Dyslexics need to be assured that their difficulties are not an indicator of general lack of ability, but, at the same time, they need to be helped to take on board that they may have to work twice as hard as their peers to achieve similar results. To be afforded laptops and extra time in examinations will not necessarily help in themselves to bring that message home. Notable amongst these are feelings of self-efficacy, internal locus of control and the reasons that are attributed to success and failure.
Thus, by the time a child faced with difficulties of a dyslexic nature reaches adolescence, he or she will have established a core set of self-constructs which will be related to the sense they have made of their successes and failures in learning their attributions , their confidence in their ability to be successful at tasks at which they have previously failed their self-efficacy , their sense of being in control of their present and future actions internal locus of control , and the amount of effort they are prepared to put in to overcome their difficulties.
As the young person moves through adolescence into adulthood, the emotional consequences of not being able to overcome their dyslexic difficulties will become even more acute. Even those who manage, as a result of good teaching and personal effort, to gain access to higher education will continue to need emotional support. In fact, it is this latter group who stand to benefit less from a continued input of remedial and study skills techniques, and more from access to a sympathetic and knowledgeable counsellor.
Leaving school with minimal qualifications, they may well drift from job to job until they stumble upon one where a high degree of literacy is not an essential requirement. However, while all of these may be helpful and, in some cases, even essential, they are unlikely to be enough in themselves.
What they will need in addition, and sometimes they will need little more than this, is an empathic listener with counselling training to help them find their own ways of overcoming the challenges with which they are faced. If these challenges have become overwhelming, then therapy may be the preferred option. What is vital is that all persons with learning difficulties, of whatever age, are helped to build a sense of self-mastery. Bradley, L. The signs of depression in children can be different than those in adults.
Interestingly, sibling rivalry is common in homes where one or more children are dyslexic. The kids without dyslexia can feel jealous of all of the attention, time and money being spent on the dyslexic child.
This kind of negative attention, of course, is unwanted by the child with dyslexia and can cause more stress. If the parent was dyslexic, watching their child go through the same struggles that caused them so much pain may stir up bad memories in them. If a child is consistently performing below expectations and no matter how hard they try, they are still falling short, it is easy to understand that they may lose interest in learning. Without regular success, kids with dyslexia can develop a low tolerance to difficulty, causing them to give up quickly when a project is perceived as being too hard.
Homeschooling can alleviate MANY of these issues but they are still there and it is important to be aware of them. Most families will experience some but not all of these struggles. I read this post almost in tears, I learned today that my son who is eight years old may have dyslexia and is suffering the same problems I had as a child. As a child I was diagnosed with dyslexia, and from fourth grade on was put into special-education classes with children that have down syndrome and other major disabilities.
From fourth grade to the day I dropped out of school in 10th grade I suffered discrimination, depression and was made fun of to the point that other kids that were my friends and in normal classes were made fun of and got in fights just because they were friends with me. I thought that thinking of suicide was a normal adolescent thinking. And today after getting my college degree still suffer working job to job not able to hold a career at 38 years old. I am so sorry to hear of your struggles.
I just cannot fathom how teachers and schools can allow that sort of thing. So sad. The good news is that you found out early that your son has dyslexia and you can help him. If you need any resources or to talk privately, email me at mariannesunderland at yahoo dot com. Our dyslexia journey has been very interesting, especially in uncovering the emotional difficulties it caused. All four of our children are dyslexic, and so is my husband.
We have always homeschooled our kids yet they still have school anxiety. I have a lot of guilt for how I treated our first two, to be honest. I realized when they were in 3rd and 1st grades that stubbornness was NOT the issue and changed how I approached school completely.
As I learned more about dyslexia and shared with my husband the issues that can arise because of a light went on. His parents were often disappointed in him because test scores did not line up with what they believed he was capable of. I am so thankful that we home school and that God put certain books in my path.
I would say that the emotional issues have been as difficult to deal with as the actual learning difference my children face. That is a good point Kara. Our older kids definitely suffered from my lack of knowledge. It is so important for kids and parents to understand dyslexia so that they can understand better what to expect as well as to understand that they are smart but learn differently.
Still, the difficulties that our kids face as homeschoolers are far less than what they would experience in school.
0コメント