Michelle T. Jayme
Principal I
Before the pandemic came, school concerns are mainly on the pupils’ learning outcomes primarily because the number of school non-readers is one the gauges of school performance, zero non- reader would mean that school is better with those who have non-readers.
Every school is required to have reading teacher which is equivalent to one teaching load. This served as one of the interventions made to lessen if not to eliminate the number of non-readers. School reading intervention are also being implemented to focus on non-readers. Designs of reading intervention are based on school needs and situation. Actions researches on reading difficulties are highly encouraged to find recommendations and conclusion towards the improvement of reading skills of the learners. In addition to these, teachers were also advised to practice home visitations to connect with the parents, create reading intervention materials and give focus to the needs of non-reader pupils. After exhausting teachers’ efforts, most schools still end up with non-readers.
It is common knowledge that reading difficulties of non-readers may root from one of these factors or in combination; malnutrition, absenteeism, school factors such as class size, presence of reading materials and number of hours allotted for reading, teacher factors such the suitability of teaching reading strategies utilized and home/ environment factors such as parental guidance.
More on these, educators must know the types of reading difficulties of children to address their needs and can use as basis of correct intervention plan. Reading difficulties can appear in many different types. The following are types reading difficulties or dyslexia according https://remedialteachingsupport.co.za/learning-difficulties/reading/types-of-reading-difficulties/
1. Dysphonesia: (Auditory) Children in this category have difficulty in reading (decoding) words and spelling (encoding) words. It is also known as Auditory Dyslexia, Phonological Dyslexia, or Dysphonetic dyslexia. Learners with difficulty often are able to memorize sight words but cannot sound out new ones or figure out what they are. Often in the earlier grades, their reading difficulty is not always picked up because many of the words can be learnt by sight. Their spelling is however generally very weak. Errors in spelling show a lack of phonetic knowledge while errors in reading include substitutions based on small clues and are also semantic.
2. Dyseidesia: (Visual) (Also known as Surface Dyslexia or Visual Dyslexia). Children with this type of RD have difficulty in recognizing sight words and spend a great deal of time decoding word by word as they read. This affects their reading speed significantly. Children with the dyseidetic type of dyslexia are able to sound out individual letters phonetically but have trouble identifying patterns of letters in groups. Their spelling tends to be phonetic even when incorrect (laf for laugh). Children in this group have deficits in vision and memory of letters and word shapes, making it difficult for them to develop a sight vocabulary. However, they have the ability to acquire adequate phonetic skills.
3. Dysnemkinesia: (Motor) Reversal problems in writing and printing. This literally means “poor memory of motor movements and this type involves number and letter reversals. It involves the frontal lobe, left hemisphere for right handed and right hemisphere for left handed. These children are identified quite easily as they tend to reverse b/d p/q and words such as no (on) and saw (was)
4. Dysphoneidesia: A combination of Dysphoneisa and Dyseidesia; this is also called Mixed Dyslexia. This is a combination of phonological and visual Dyslexia. These students have severe deficits in reading as well as visual motor integration and working memory.
5. Dysnemkineidesia: A combination of motor difficulties (writing) and sight word recogntion.
6. Dysnemkinphonesia: A combination of phonetic and motor dyslexia
7. Dysnemkinphoneidesia: A combination of phonetic awareness, motor difficulties and sight word recognition.
Not unless these reading difficulties were identified both teachers and pupils will find it hard to find solutions to pupils reading difficulties. Upon identifying reading difficulties teachers may now craft or adopt reading intervention for them.
A sudden shift of focus came in as pandemic came. Parents must be involved and knowledgeable on this reading difficulties specially if their children have these problems in reading.