Research

Introduction

According to the International Dyslexia Association, dyslexia is a specific learning disability which is neurobiological in nature (Berninger et al., 2008). Dyslexia is generally characterized by difficulties with accurate and fluent word recognition. It is also characterized by poor decoding, and writing abilities among students. The students also have extra difficulty in learning or even writing sight words which do not follow the standardized spelling rules. It is also worth noting that the students with disabilities including dyslexia find it difficult to express their thoughts by writing on paper and have trouble in acquiring adequate use of grammar as noted by Lyon, Shaywitz, and Shaywitz (2003). It is worth noting that the difficult brought about by dyslexia of acquisition of the writing literacy skill makes the students suffer anguish, and trauma because they feel mentally abused by their peers within the school environment, because of their learning difficulty. They are also discriminated against leading to stigma.

Dyslexia as general educators note makes students to be unable to write or copy written texts. It also makes students’ grip of writing materials be unusual, and their handwriting is seen to vary or illegible. Dyslexia also makes students confuse letters, numbers, words, sequences, or have difficulties in verbal explanations. Many general educators say student affected by dyslexia find themselves omitting, substituting, transposing, and even reversing letters, or words. The students with the dyslexic disability also have problems with segmenting words into individual sounds and blending sounds to form words in what is known as phonetic difficulties. Moreover, they have difficulties in remembering spelling words over time, and applying the spelling rules consequently the problems seen in their writing skills. Other teachers note that the students often mix up and confuse the sequence of letters and symbols. This is more so noted in letters like "b" and "d"; and words like “quite” and "quiet" which greatly hampers their improvement of writing.

Characteristic of dyslexia among students is also the demonstration of unusual behaviors such as being disorderly in classrooms. This makes them also make a lot of trouble or remain silent most of the time. Teachers have noted that the students who have dyslexia disability complain of feeling or seeing non-existent movement copying texts or writing. as the teachers say, their struggle in spelling words phonetically and inconsistently when told to spell words in the classroom is what challenges their writing or what they transfer to paper (Vandermosten et al., 2017). The students often find themselves daydreaming in the classroom. They also experience difficulties in sustaining attention hence the inability to write words correctly, and accurately as dictated by their teachers. This proves that that dyslexia significantly affects writing of the students.

Undeniably, these behaviors have made the general education teachers to conclude that dyslexia really affects the writing capability of students. To support this, the teachers say that many times students have difficulties in following both the oral and written instructions consequently the inability to write well or even correctly (Lyon, Shaywitz, & Shaywitz, 2003).

Moreover, the general education teachers say that dyslexia makes students to experience difficulties in decoding words. This is the resultant effect of difficulties in writing multisyllabic words. It is also a result of often omitting entire syllables as well as making single sound errors thus making decoding of words difficulty for them. According to the teachers, students affected by dyslexia lack awareness of word structure consequently the inability to decode words. They have therefore advanced that the students frequently misread common sight words, and this is what makes them experience difficulties in decoding words to be written. The difficulties the students experience in decoding words could be explained by their inability or difficulties in recognizing underlying words (Critchley, 1964). Further, the teachers say that the students with dyslexic disability have language problems that significantly affects their vocabulary knowledge and grammar thus difficulties in comprehension of texts or even transferring what they know in writing. These difficulties in decoding words also occur as a result of problems in writing, spelling as well as organizing ideas.

It is also notable that dyslexia makes the students have deficits in the phonological component of language, and speech sounds (Temple, & Marshall, 1983). This has been noted to have secondary consequences like having reading problems that consequently impede the growth of vocabulary and grammar which consequently impact the writing of the students.

Therefore, in my proposed study, I seek to gain additional evidence that dyslexia significantly impacts the writing skills of students making them experience phonological deficit, struggle with phonetics, and decoding words hence difficulties in writing. This will provide better insights and solidify the observation by general education teachers that dyslexia significantly affects writing. This will enable general education teachers to accommodate students who may be adversely affected by dyslexia. It will also enable the general education teachers to help the students cope with their studies more so in the areas of writing as they move to higher levels of education. Moreover, by furthering the research on what general education teacher describe how dyslexia affects writing, the general education teachers will know better how to work with the students affected by dyslexia disability to improve their writing as they avert learning consequences resulting from wrongly written texts or illegible writing.

References

Berninger, V. W., Nielsen, K. H., Abbott, R. D., Wijsman, E., & Raskind, W. (2008). Writing problems in developmental dyslexia: Under-recognized and under-treated. Journal of school psychology, 46(1), 1-21.

Critchley, M. (1964). Developmental dyslexia. William Heinemann Medical Books.

Lyon, G. R., Shaywitz, S. E., & Shaywitz, B. A. (2003). A definition of dyslexia. Annals of dyslexia, 53(1), 1-14.

Temple, C. M., & Marshall, J. C. (1983). A case study of developmental phonological dyslexia. British Journal of Psychology, 74(4), 517-533.

Vandermosten, M., Correia, J., Wouters, J., Ghesquière, P., & Bonte, M. (2017). Phonetic representations in young children with dyslexia. San Francisco, CA.