Markus is now in the fourth grade and would be happy if he could finally do magic and didn't have to write dictations all the time. Despite many tutoring sessions and repeated copying of the incorrect words in the dictation, his grade in German is not getting any better. He can write great essays. Unfortunately, these are also only graded with a weak "4" because of the spelling mistakes. It's a runaway.Markus is developed according to his age and has a normal intelligence. He belongs to the group of children with a so-called "circumscribed partial learning disability in reading and writing". This learning disability is also called "Dyslexia" or "Dyslexia".
Problem: Converting sounds into writing
For such children it is very difficult to learn spoken language. (phonemes) in written language (grapheme) Implementing. About 10% of all pupils have difficulties in learning to read and write quickly - with otherwise good performance in the other subjects.
The reasons for this can be different:
For example, if a child has a disorder in auditory processing early in his or her development (central auditory perceptual processing)If the child is not able to distinguish between similar sounds such as "g" and "k" or "o" and "u", he or she will write the wrong letter. In addition, the ability to remember the order of syllables or letters is often not well developed. (auditory memory disorder)so that words can be stored more badly and syllables are mixed up.
Is there a pronounced visual sensory processing disorderletters are often written laterally reversed or words are not recognized as a whole (grinding together syllables and letters as a word).
Genetics and brain research
A reading and spelling disorder is often heredit. The cause is a lack of interconnection of the neurons and brain areas responsible for this. Very often, children with attention deficit disorder also have this additional problem.
Course
Even in young children there are a number of Warning Signalswhich can indicate a later reading and spelling disability:
- The child has difficulty listening
- It shows little willingness to repeat words.
- The child can only absorb information when it is addressed directly
- The child has a poor memory for days of the week, colors and names
- The child can not remember even the shortest poems and rhymes.
For the affected children it is important that the partial performance problem is recognized as soon as possible, otherwise disinclination to go to school, weak self-confidence and finally also psychosomatic complaints are the result. When taking a closer look, parents usually already notice the End of the first grade notice that their child has a particularly hard time writing correctly and aloud. Reading is usually avoided. Children quickly memorize the text from the reading book and like to fake reading, because you are ashamed in front of the other children. With new multi-syllable words, stringing the syllables together is very bumpy. They are still so busy reading single words that they have trouble understanding a whole sentence and keeping the meaning. They never browse through a book with a lot of text.
Unfortunately, we also often see children who do not come to us with a spelling disorder until after primary school. In part, this is due to a pedagogical concept that is based on writing as one hears and, in addition, forbidding parents to correct incorrect words. If then only "practiced dictations" are written and graded in grades 3 and 4, the world is still fine, until all of a sudden in secondary school the problem becomes apparent.
If diligently practiced, any reading disorder that may precede the spelling disorder will usually improve first. Spelling disorders can also occur without a reading disorder and very rarely the reading disorder without a spelling disorder.
Diagnosis
We make the diagnosis by first testing the child cognitively (IQ Testing). After that we conduct a for the grade standardized spelling test oder/und Lesetestung durch. Erreichen Kinder mit mindestens durchschnittlicher Intelligenz einem Vergleich zu ihrer Schulform und Klassenstufe unterdurchschnittliches Ergebnis (Prozentrang < 15%), dann ist rein formal schon mal eine Lese- oder Rechtschreibstörung festgestellt. Jetzt kommt die Feinarbeit. Entscheidend für Fördermaßnahmen ist die Information, ob das Kind zusätzlich eine akustische oder visuelle Wahrnehmungsverarbeitungsstörung hat. Auch das lässt sich feststellen und ist wichtig für die jetzt folgende lerntherapeutische Arbeit.
Therapy
The therapy of reading and spelling disorders is the domain of the "Learning Therapy". But also speech therapists and occupational therapists, who have completed a special training, have sound knowledge to carry out a targeted support. As you will have realised by now, it is not sufficient to write dictations permanently and to find the same mistakes again and again, but to create an individual "support plan" for the child, in which the findings of the perception test are included. The mastery of spelling will not become an outstanding strength of your child, even with special support, but children learn to use auxiliary strategies in this therapy, which will make life easier for them in school.
Children with dyslexia are entitled to targeted school support. Ideally, this should take place twice a week in small groups of up to five children (at a similar level of performance!). How good the local offer is, depends decisively on the school and especially the federal state, because the legal conditions are different. Self-help groups, school authorities and the youth welfare office can provide the relevant information. The Youth Welfare Office is also a good contact point because, if necessary, the support measures in the case of dyslexia cannot be handled via the health insurance fund but according to the Child and Youth Welfare Act.
If you suspect that you have a reading or spelling disorder or dyscalculia, then you can contact us for a diagnosis. here log on.