Key Question - Can Knowledge Of Working Memory Inform Treatments Of Dyslexia?

Question 1

What is Dyslexia?

Answer 1

• difficulty with reading and speech including manipulating sound
• problems with short term memory, phonological awareness, language skills, distractions by background noises, poor spelling, following instructions
• unrelated to intelligence
• can come from specific brain damage or genetics

Question 2

What are the issues for society?

Answer 2

• affects 10% of the population
• discouraging and frustrating for individuals as they are labelled as stupid
• awkwardness, discomfort in social situations
• harder to communicate with others
• people affected may give up extra curricular activities or free time for additional education
• hard to attain good grades so harder to get jobs so anger and poor self image may occur

Question 3

Central Executive

Answer 3

CE problems comes from day to day experiences like getting distracted

Question 4

Swanson and Sachse-Lee (2001) (CE)

Answer 4

• tested children with reading disabilities
• those with the lowest CE function were also poor on tasks including memory and sentence listening tests
• intervention? = support people with dyslexia could assist overall information processing

Question 5

Phonological loop (PL)

Answer 5

A short PL span explains why children with dyslexia muddle up similar letter sounds

Question 6

Goswami (2003) (PL)

Answer 6

• English speaking children learn to slowly die to inconsistent letter sounds but German dyslexics with consistent spellings learn more quickly
• intervention? = Dyslexic children need specific teaching phonics

Question 7

Visuo-spatial sketch pad

Answer 7

children with dyslexia perform worse than those with typical reading ability in tasks that require use of the visuospatial sketchpad

Question 8

Smith-Spark and Fisk (2007) (VSS)

Answer 8

• tested the VSS span of dyslexic adults using a computerised block test
• dyslexics had a significantly shorter VSS span than control group
• intervention? = aid the visuo-spatial sketch pad with visual maps for complex ideas for dyslexic children

Question 9

Sebastian and Hernandez-Gill (2012) (PL)

Answer 9

• dyslexics had a reduced digit span therefore shorter PL span
• intervention?= dyslexics need specific teaching in phonics and phonetics