Dyslexia, which is defined as a language-based learning disability, can now be targeted and aided for individuals who are suffering from the deficiency. However, the understanding of dyslexia has still not been fully met. Upon the discovery of dyslexia in the late 1800s, furthering advancements have been coordinated by countries throughout the world to further progress the lives of individuals with this disability. These advancements, which can now be seen as governmental acts inside federal legislation, have promoted and boosted the educational forums of dyslexic individuals within the schooling sectors globally.
Today, the scope of dyslexia has transformed into a defined and initiative based understanding that correlates and coordinates almost all needed aspects for the individual. This transformation on the scope of dyslexia is highly regarded by past initiatory sanctions personified by multiple people throughout history that realized and acted on the need of more focused help. With this, the continuing efforts towards understanding and tackling this disability are still needed to ensure that all individuals who may be suffering from it can confidently gain access to better control of their conceptual growth.
Dyslexia, a language-based learning disability, is formulated by a breakdown in the application and attainment of alphabetic knowledge (phonology or orthography) resulting in labored reading development, poor spelling, and delayed automaticity (Division of Special Education, 2003). By current definition: “Dyslexia is a specific learning disability that is neurobiological in origin. It is characterized by the difficulties with accurate and/or fluent word recognition and by poor spelling and decoding abilities. These difficulties typically result from a deficit in the phonological component of language that is often unexpected in relation to other cognitive abilities and the provision of effective classroom instruction. Secondary consequences may include problems in reading comprehension and reduced reading experience that can impede growth of vocabulary and background knowledge” (International Dyslexia Association, 2013). This breakdown and lack of comprehendible knowledge attained by the individual relates the symptomatic deficiencies that are correlated with dyslexia in individuals. This disability, which in the last twenty years has doubled in believed cases, continues to be a recursive and formidable disadvantage for many people globally.
In the United States, it is believed that up to ten percent of the general population could suffer from a form of dyslexia, with a large portion of the people not even recognizing that they have it (Dyslexia International, 2014). The continuing efforts to understand and mitigate the needs of these individuals is still being done today, with many federal and state legislative actions impacting individuals with dyslexia. These resulting impacts should have formidable influence in future agendas, helping set forth a directed supplement for all individuals who suffer from this disability (Morin, 2014). However, the origin of dyslexia did not set forth many agenda and practiced understandings. It was not until the 1920s that implemented policies started breaking ground to help individuals with this deficiency.
The history associated with dyslexia has been remolded and reshaped many times throughout history. The term dyslexia, coined by Rudolf Berlin over 130 years ago, originated with the scientific findings of German neurologist Dr. Adolph Kussmaul (Kirby, 2018). The discovery of this disability helped bring societal awareness to the possibility of neurological deficits in an assorted population around the globe. This knowledge gain from Kussmaul, which in 1878 was not even considered a major scientific advancement, has helped modernize and transform the prevalence of dyslexia. The bulk of knowledge about dyslexia however did not arise until the conclusion of World War I when the United States presented information regarding this deficiency at the American Neurological Association in Washington, D.C. in 1925 (Kirby, 2018).
Samuel Orton, the presenter of this information, attributed much of his new founded knowledge off of Kussmaul’s findings in 1878. Kussmaul’s contribution of this simplistic information helped create centralized focus to the base roots of dyslexia in individuals, helping fortify the beliefs that dyslexia was more than just a struggle at reading text. Orton, with the assistance of past research, concluded that the root cause of an individual’s reading disability stemmed from their lack of cerebral dominance. While the conclusions made by Orton were later disproved for being incorrect, his motive of focus to understand dyslexia and originate its location has helped promote boosted fundamental research that have helped open up a field of opportunities to conduct and condone further research methods to create a more structured grasp of this disability.
To this day, Orton’s idea of utilizing phonics instruction to aid individuals with the disability is still widely used (Kirby, 2018). To partner with that, many of the viable workings recognized in the late 19th – early 20th century have influenced and rationalized this deficiency to create a more circular and completed perception for the person suffering with dyslexia. Due to this, individuals who are currently suffering from dyslexia will have greater opportunities presented before them to become successful in all aspects of their lives, not becoming limited by a deficiency that they happened to be born with.
In the United States, it is estimated that 5-10%, with numbers that could even reach the 17% range, of the overall population has a form of dyslexia (The Regents of the University of Michigan, 2019). Taking the United States population to be around 330 million people, that would deduce that anywhere between 16.5 million to 56.1 million people could possibly be suffering from dyslexia in the United States. Those staggering numbers, which are rough estimates based off population demographics presented through major areas in America, need to be met with an intuitive and processed agenda to help focus and target more people suffering from this disability. With this, the dyslexic members of the disabled community throughout the United States are believed to make up 70-80% of the entire disabled population.
Shockingly, due to stereotypes over disabilities, only about 5% of the entire population knows that they are dyslexic (The Regents of the University of Michigan, 2019). To put numbers on that range, that would mean that anywhere from around 16 million to 50 million people do not know they have dyslexia and are now currently living out their lives struggling to comprehend their hardships with language-based learning. This quantity of people, which has grown exponentially over the last twenty years, has helped bring formidable alliance driven legislation to help target and supplement dyslexia based education throughout our schooling systems (The Regents of the University of Michigan, 2019). These changes must continue to be enriched as time carries forward, ensuring that students with this disability are being included effectively and efficiently into the schooling system.
The United States has set forth many varying agendas, targeting and focusing on different variations of dyslexia education, offering cohesive and specific looks at the individuals needs and targeting them to better enhance the individual themselves. Likewise, state legislation has continued the federal legislative initiatives presented by promoting specified and individual workings for the people affected. In Arkansas, a legislative boost was implemented to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) focused specifically on individuals with dyslexia. This law, ACT 1268 of 2015, has helped create and instill various educational supports for these people, helping promote a wider and sturdier basis of educational fronts. Specifically, this legislation defines dyslexia, lists required actions of the state, school districts, and education cooperatives, along with describing required screening and interventions needed to be met to ensure the individual is getting all the proper care to ensure their education runs seamlessly (Arkansas Department of Education, 2017). This continuation and amendment to the original state legislative insertion, Act 1294 of the 2013, finally finished revisions and remakes in a closing session in 2017 (Arkansas Department of Education, 2017).
In that four years of legislative workings, it can be assumed that many new researching capabilities and understandings were formulated from the initial implementation of this ratification. Due to state governments having the ability to ratify and create continuations to federal laws to better serve the citizens of the state, this state boosted legislative act enhanced governmental awareness about dyslexia in Arkansas. Due to this, a more specified indication of dyslexic needs being met has been enlisted into public schools throughout the state; enhancing the student’s opportunities for better educational support and inclusion processes. This varied perspective will hopefully remain a pertinent and involved topic within the government. Every day offers new opportunities to implement and articulate new measures to enhance the benefits of people with any disability (Morin, 2014).
As an educator with dyslexia, these newly implemented policies that are recognized within our federal and state governments brings me hope for the educational upbringing of all the students in our state today. When I found out I had dyslexia in college, it was a complete shock to me. To be very complacent, I actually got very emotional when I found out. It was almost like a major implication to my educational upbringing and understanding had been taken from me and stripped down into nothing. I sit and wonder still if I had been properly evaluated at a younger age, would I have done anything different with my career? Would I have been able to accomplish more for myself than what I felt limited to back then? This process of learning and adjusting, which every individual will attack differently, has been a major adjustment for me in my educational, work, and future goals I have laid out for myself. Due to this all, I strive every day to get better in one way with my deficiency. Looking back at it now too, especially after researching and diving into this information, I have learned to be thankful for what I have been given.
Due to this situation, I learned from a very young age that I was going to have to adjust my comprehensive skills to become evident to my needs. To do this, I started recording my lessons in middle school so that I could listen to the lessons given by my teachers that day, I utilized colored papers with no lines so that my reading and writing was not limited by constraints, and I pushed hard to excel in all my courses. Thankfully, I accomplished most if not all of my educational goals I set out for myself too. This drive to be successful, in my opinion, is one of the most important things we can translate into our student bodies. With the helpful backings of our educational fronts too, states taking initiative to better serve and drive their students into academic success is how we are going to break the chain of regressing motives when dealing with very common disabilities such as dyslexia in the educational forum.
References
- Arkansas Department of Education. (2017). Arkansas Department of Education: Dyslexia. Retrieved February 6, 2019, from http://www.arkansased.gov/divisions/learning-services/curriculum-and-instruction/dyslexia
- Division of Special Educaiton. (2003). Dyslexia – Area Special Education Cooperative. Retrieved February 6, 2019, from http://www.asec.net/Archives/SLD/dyslexia_12.pdf
- Dyslexia International. (2014, April 17). Dyslexia International. Retrieved February 6, 2019, from https://www.dyslexia-international.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/DI-Duke-Report-final-4-29-14.pdf
- International Dyslexia Association. (2013). Dyslexia in the Classroom: What Every Teacher Needs to Know. Retrieved February 6, 2019, from https://dyslexiaida.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/DITC-Handbook.pdf
- Kirby, P. (2018, March). A Brief History of Dyslexia. Retrieved February 6, 2019, from https://thepsychologist.bps.org.uk/volume-31/march-2018/brief-history-dyslexia
- Morin, A. (2014). Dyslexia Laws: What They Are and How They Work. Retrieved February 6, 2019, from https://www.understood.org/en/school-learning/your-childs-rights/basics-about-childs-rights/dyslexia-laws-what-they-are-and-how-they-work
- The Regents of the University of Michigan. (2019). What is Dyslexia? Retrieved February 6, 2019, from http://dyslexiahelp.umich.edu/dyslexics/learn-about-dyslexia/what-is-dyslexia
