louise ward, director canadian dyslexia centre 290 picton ave., ottawa, on k1z 8p8 613-722-2699...
TRANSCRIPT
Louise Ward, Director
Canadian Dyslexia Centre
290 Picton ave., Ottawa, ON K1Z 8P8
613-722-2699
Dyslexia-Friendly Workplace
‘’Equality of opportunity is an equal opportunity to prove unequal talents’’. Viscount Samuel
What is Dyslexia?
Dyslexia results from a different brain
organization, which may cause a problem with
reading, writing, spelling and/or speaking,
despite average or superior intelligence,
traditional reading instruction and socio-cultural
opportunity. It is genetically inherited and its
cause is biological.
Dyslexic versus Control
Control Example
Left Anterior
Dyslexic Example
Left Anterior
Causes of Dyslexia
Dyslexia is genetically
inherited, and its cause
is biological.
Causes of Dyslexia
The brain of a
persons with
dyslexia works
five times harder
than other
peoples’ brains.
Causes of Dyslexia
Dyslexia can cause “letters and words appear to move around, jump over each other, blur and reverse themselves”.
Talents of Dyslexics
Often, a person with dyslexia will also have special abilities and talents associated with superior visual-spatial skills.
These abilities, contrasted with deficits in basic skills, make dyslexia confusing for employers.
"Dyslexics are overrepresented in the top ranks of
people who are unusually insightful, who bring a new
perspective, who think out of the box,"
Sally Shaywitz, Yale
C:\WINDOWS\Desktop\FORTUNE - Overcoming Dyslexia.htm
Talents
Albert Einstein•Great intuition;•Adapt easily to changes; •Sees patterns quickly; •Thinks and perceive in 3-D; •A lively imagination; •Creative; •Sees the big picture instantly; •Usually very ambitious and persistent; •Superior reasoning;•Does not follow the crowd.
Famous People Bill Gates
“Often you have to rely on intuition”
Famous People William Butler Yeats
Willie was sent to lessons in spelling and grammar, but he never learned to spell. To the end of his life he produced highly idiosyncratic versions of words.-
Biographer A. Norman Jeffares
Famous People Albert Einstein
He told me that his teachers reported that . . . he was mentally slow, unsociable, and adrift forever in his foolish dreams.-
Hans Albert Einstein, on his father,
Famous People Agatha Christie
I, myself, was always recognized . . . as the "slow one" in the family. It was quite true, and I knew it and accepted it. Writing and spelling were always terribly difficult for me. My letters were without originality. I was an extraordinarily bad speller and have remained so until this day.-
Famous People Thomas Edison
My teachers say I'm addled . . . my father thought I was stupid, and I almost decided I must be a dunce.
Reading
Slow rate of reading
Blurring and distortion of words
Th is co ourse wil lst riv etoeq pst ud ent swi the bas ic crit ical t hin kingan d es sa ywri thig sk il ls.
Misreading of words which are visually similar:
Misreading multisyllabic words: philosophical, inheritance,
interference
Omitting connecting words: at, is where, who, over, under ect
Reading difficulties:
was-saw, speak-break
Lack of paragraph concept
Inadequate or missing punctuation
Mixing up sounds in multisyllabic words
Reversal of letters and/or numbers
4 5
p b q d
Small print below 12 point font
Poor quality photocopies
On white paper
“While most persons with dyslexia are articulate, some may have speech difficulties”
Expressing ideas clearly when speaking
Not finishing sentences
Finding the right word when speaking
In his mind’s eye he could see the white sheets of paper on
which he had written his sermon. Then suddenly the thing
happened--the terrible thing he had feared. The words
disappeared! In panic he searched his mind only to find it blank
- the rest of the sermon - the works he had tried so hard to
memorize - was gone, gone!
speaking clearly during interviews or oral examinations
speaking on a specific subject within a time limit or interview
- Speaking:
Understanding negative sentences
Which one was not there?
What aspect cannot be inherited?
Spelling
Misspelling visually similar words that are not picked up by a spellchecker:
- importance-impotence, brown-drown- cursing-cruising, erotic-exotic
Numerous erasure and/or cross-outs which make
written work very messy
Mixed up and/or omits letters or words
Spelling
‘It's a…. poor mind that can only think of one way to spell a word. ‘- Andrew Jackson
May take up to 2000 times or more to remember how to spell a word, compared to the maximum of 14 times needed by a non-dyslexic. Many famous writers never mastered spelling.
Writes the same words differently in the same
passage
- familiar, femilliar, fammilliar, femmeliar
Listening
In a noisy room
Screening out important information
Sensitivity to some sounds, such as: speaker’s phone, hand clapping in a theatre etc
Math
Memorizing multiplication tables
Reversing numbers
Losing place in long division
Reading difficulties may cause problems understanding written problems
Organization Skills
Forgetting appointments
Forgetting work at home or office
Miscalculating time needed for tasks
Getting lost in an unfamiliar building
(sometimes in a familiar building as well)
Getting mixed up between left-right, west-east, up-down
Inability to organize desk
“If a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, just what does an empty desk mean?”
Source Unknown
Note-taking
Inability to read own writing
Taking notes while listening
Writing fast enough to copy from board
Writing
Expressing ideas clearly in writing
Difficulty planning and organizing essays
Immature writing
Poor sentence structure
Common physical problems often seen in dyslexic persons and affecting work environment:
Migraine headache caused by fluorescent lighting, noise or
weather
Extreme stress during testing situations
Feeling of being overwhelmed when a large amount of writing
is required
Motion sickness affecting the ability to use elevators,
escalators, driving, etc.
Sensitivity to perfumes, strong deodorant or chemicals
• Orton-Gillingham based methodology
• Phoneme awareness cat = /k/ /a/ /t/
• Sound-symbol relationship
Language Training
If someone spends 3 months in
language training and then you find out
he/she was dyslexic, then shame on you
‘’I am entirely certain that twenty years from now we will look back at education as it is practiced in most schools today and wonder that we could have tolerated anything so primitive. ‘’
John W. Gardner
HELP! HELP!
Dyslexia-Friendly Testing
Extended time Careful with demand speech Know the difference between mispronunciations and
dyslexic mistakes Avoid negative sentences Allow spelling mistakes Allow ‘’fishing’’ for words
Dyslexia-Friendly Workplace
Full-spectrum lighting Chromogens lens/colored overlays Coloured paper Noise-masking Mind-mapping Wordsmith An understanding ‘’Boss’’
‘’To sin by silence when they should protest makes cowards of men’’.
Abraham Lincoln