08. Key Question Flashcards
What is dyslexia?
-Dyslexia is a specific learning difficulty that causes problems with reading, writing and spelling. It is not the same for everyone.
-Common misconception: dyslexia is not related to general intelligence; and is not the result of visual difficulties.
How many people in the UK are affected by dyslexia?
-1 in 10 people.
-More than 6.3 million people in the UK are dyslexic.
-1/6 of adults still only having a read skill of an 11 year old.
What is the background knowledge on dyslexia?
-The cause is unknown, but it tends to run in families so could be genetic.
-Signs and symptoms of dyslexia include slow reading/writing, poor spelling, confusing letters, struggling with planning and organisational difficulties.
-To assess if someone is dyslexic an in-depth assessment from an educational psychologist testing memory, literacy abilities, logical reasoning, organisation, is carried out.
-It is not a disease that needs treating, it’s a lifelong problem.
-Educational support to help with phonics, reading and writing, and using technology, are some of the potential interventions for pupils with dyslexia.
What difficulties do people with dyslexia experience?
-Slow reading/writing, poor spelling and confusing letters.
-Difficulty remembering facts or dates and encoding this information into LTM.
-Difficulties dealing with the sounds of words/breaking up words into individual sounds.
-Struggle to process the letters that make up a word and they also don’t hold them in mind to make sense of the sentence.
-Struggle with planning and organisation. It is hard to carry out more than one task at a time.
How can these difficulties be explained through our knowledge of memory?
-Difficulty remembering facts or dates and encoding this information into LTM: issues within processing and storage.
-Struggle with planning and organisation. It is hard to carry out more than one task at a time: more limited capacity than usual (leading to overloading the memory store), potential issue with central executive.
-Slow reading/writing, poor spelling and confusing letters: impairment in the phonological loop. Difficulties dealing with the words/breaking words into individual sounds.
-Struggle to process the letters that make up a word and they can’t also hold them in mind to make sense of the sentence: difficulties with processing and storage in phonological loop.
What is it important for psychologists to investigate dyslexia? Why is it relevant to society?
-To prevent students from falling behind academically and increase their educational achievement.
-To enable individuals with dyslexia to be able to read and write in their daily lives.
-To enable schools and parents to support those with dyslexia in their education.
What are some strategies used in the classroom to help children with dyslexia?
-Clearly stating lesson aims.
-Simplifying instructions and using checklists.
-Highlighting or colour coding information.
-Using audio and visual materials and not just one mode of delivery.
-Avoid asking children with dyslexia to read out loud.
-Avoid lengthy periods of the teacher talking and use alternative delivery methods to prevent phonological loop overload and allow for slower processing speeds.
What are some strategies using technology to help children with dyslexia? (N-Back Computerised Training App)
-The N Back task is a continuous performance task that is commonly used as an assessment in cognitive neuroscience to measure working memory function.
-In level 1 of the N Back the subject is given a stimulus (eg mental arithmetic sum). The player is asked to perform the calculation, hold the answer in their memory, work out a second calculation and then recall the answer to the first calculation.
-As the game progresses, it becomes more difficult as ‘N’ increases.
-This challenges the active part of working memory. Once you go past, N=1, you can no longer use a simple representation of the recent items in your mind, and instead you must update a memory ‘buffer’ to compare new input against what you remember. This requires maintenance and manipulation of information in the working memory.
How did Holmes say students use their working memory in the classroom?
-Enables us to store information in our minds for short periods of time.
-Used for reading comprehension, mental arithmetic and planning a series of thoughts or actions (organisation), maintaining focused behaviour.
What did Holmes say are the major signs of working memory difficulty in pupils?
Poor academic progress, difficulty following multi-step instructions, failing to complete classroom activities that require large amounts of information to be held in mind, problems keeping their place when writing, high levels of inattentive and distractible behaviour.
What implications did Holmes say this can have on the pupils education?
Poor educational attainment, frequent lost learning opportunities, slow rates of educational progress, inattentive behaviour.
Why did Holmes say children with working memory impairments fail in the classroom?
Because the working memory loads of each activity exceed their capacity so they forget what they’re doing, become inattentive, lose learning opportunities and so do not make educational progress.
How did Holmes say working memory function can be improved?
- Adapting the child’s environment (classroom).
- Attempting to target and train working memory function directly.
Briefly describe the two types of intervention that Holmes proposed.
- The classroom based approach focuses on increasing teacher awareness of the warning signs of working memory failures and encouraging them to adapt their approach to teaching to reduce memory loads in classroom. This can be achieved through breaking tasks and instructions down into smaller steps, re-presenting information, using memory aids and fostering an environment in which children feel able to ask if they have forgotten what they are doing.
- An alternative approach to intervention is to try to improve working memory function directly through practice on working memory tasks. Various computerised training paradigms are available, all of which require individuals to train intensively for a continued period on tasks that adapt to match their current capacity limit.
Describe your key question (6 marks).
-My key question is, how can knowledge of memory be used to help those with dyslexia?
-Dyslexia is a specific learning difficulty that causes problems with reading, writing and spelling, however it does
not affect a person’s intelligence. It affects 1 in 10 people in the UK, the causes of dyslexia are unknown, but it could be genetic as it tends to run in families. It is not a disease that needs treating, but symptoms are
experienced for life and include slow reading and writing, poor spelling and problems with planning/organisation.
However, educational support can be provided, and technology used (such as apps e.g. n-back) to help with
improving speed of reading and writing, understanding of phonics and processing ability.
-These processing problems mean that learning and memory could be affected as they would find it hard to carry out more than one task at a time, meaning they have difficulty with the temporary memory stores involved in
working memory which makes learning challenging. Specifically phonological loop deficits have been identified as dyslexic pupils have problems breaking words up into sounds.
-Therefore, it is important to the individual as extra support can help to improve academic progress and eventually quality of life for people with dyslexia such as reading and writing in their daily lives and gaining academic qualifications. In addition, it is important to society as well as helping to educate schools and parents
will enable them to support people with dyslexia in their education to ensure successful academic outcomes for all pupils, improving their economic prospects.
