family history: mine

2007 dec 14
i would just like to document here some of the email exchanges we have in my family. bet (who wrote me below) is my elder brother, the 3rd in the family. benny is a much older brother, the 2nd. joan and nathan are my niece and nephew from our eldest brother. the topic is mikey, my 3rd son, now 7 years old.
previously, i have texted my wife carol that i noticed that her father (my father-in-law) has some pronunciation difficulty especially when trying to speak fast. i started to entertain this thought after reading dr. shaywitz of yale university (2006) that dyslexia normally runs in families. moreover, she said that the latest research states that otitis media does not significantly affect dyslexia. let me just get the exact quotes so that i can be more definite (i left the book at home today).
junrayx

----- Original Message ----
From: "Domingo, Jr. Rayco"
To: rayco@yahoogroups. com
Sent: Wednesday, October 31, 2007 3:01:55 PM
Subject: Re: [rayco] mikey's diagnosis

hi, benny,
thanks for the concern. it's carol's theory that his learning problem stems from his hearing problem. definitely, his slight (mild) hearing difficulty affects learning as in listening to the teacher. that's why we have requested his teachers to allow him to sit in front. his hearing problem is under control after 2 myringotomies
(one at UST & one at PCMC) & now, under monitoring by dr. sumpaico as well. the main
problem is i think recurrent otitis media. he is very susceptible to colds and is allergic to cockroaches and slightly to dust according to dr. sumpaico's tests.

however, we also noticed that mikey seems to be the least interested among his siblings in writing (& reading, if he's not interested acc to carol). when i went home last 2006, i could not entice him to start writing letters. he easily gets tired or bored or i don't know why.... i had asked carol to bring him to drs.
reyes (neuro pedia) & dr. ledesma (neuropsychologist) of PCMC before but their waiting lists are so long one has to wait for months & since carol works for dr. ho, carol asked her help. i reiterated this after interviewing candidates here who have histories of dyslexia in childhood & with slight remnants of signs till now. they
easily make simple spelling mistakes (british engineer) & clearly preferred math over
language.

i read in an ADHD book that dyslexia cannot be made definite as a diagnosis till the child reaches grade 2 coz some signs and symptoms can possibly still be overcome after that grade, like inverting "b" and "d" & other spelling mistakes. if ever mikey has dyslexia it is really not very obvious. at most, it would be mild in severity. his IQ is normal & math is good. the only area of concern is written communication & reading. meanwhile, i have ordered books on this learning disorder & plan to do my own research while consulting experts.

jun


2007 dec 14
I am late. Is this symptomic of something? hehehe Just joking. But seriously, I think I am dyslexic. Remember mama sent me to the caton while jun and nin were well into the multiplication table? hehehe. I still get spellings mixed up and interchange letters or even numbers. On that note, Joan remarked that Nathan still interchanged b and d when he was already in high school. I have to recheck that in view of the scientific research being done about dyslexia among us. I am not downgrading the importance of early intervention and the worry of parents especially. Just want to say that dyslexics can have happy lives ... like me! hehehe So goes my contribution to the scientific exchanges. hehhe

bet

2007 dec 16
thanks for this important sharing, bet!
this is one of the advantages of modern technology, like the email.
i actually don't recall being more advanced in reading. anyway, dr. shaywitz of yale
univ (2006, the book i'm reading now) says that dyslexia normally runs in families and that it is one of the factors to look for when diagnosing. if a family member is dyslexic, the diagnosis is more probable. earlier i also texted carol that i noticed that her father has some pronunciation difficulty esp when speaking fast.
the case of nathan is very interesting and significant. normally, according to dr. shaywitz, by grade 3, students start to "read to learn". from kinder to grade 2, students "learn to read". thanks for the encouragement about living happy lives. again, dr. shaywitz (he he he!) says that after grade 3, the brain is less plastic. thus, the earlier the intervention, the greater the success. the good news is that there are now scientifically-based intervention programs being implemented in the US
that we can model after. there are also "reading specialists" who are experts in this area. joy is taking her master's degree (temporarily stalled) in education major in reading. the main point of dr. shaywitz about early intervention, aside from neurological reasons is saving the self-esteem of the child. he can and should be saved from being shamed in class by teachers esp when asked to read in front of the class. at the same time, his self-esteem goes down everytime he compares himself with his siblings, classmates and peers.
maybe, we can examine whether we can do something about this for st. jude, i mean, early diagnosis at the kinder level. or, examine how far st. jude is willing to
address this issue and make the necessary accommodations.
but the point you raise is very important. in fact, dr. shaywitz said that the role of the parent is to reinforcewhat is taught in school and the parent-child interaction while tutoring at home shoud be SHORT and ENJOYABLE.
moreover, i believe that the wider context of a normally supportive, encouraging, warm and happy family environment gives the person the needed strength and
resiliency to face life's challenges, whatever they may be. this is especially true of mikey coz he also has signs and symptoms of separation anxiety.
having said that, let me thank you from the bottom of my heart for really being a surrogate father to my kids in my absence. the latest was the bday of raphael and mikey. this is something that money cannot buy or repay. that makes it all the more a blessing. god bless you a hundredfold, bro!
jun

phonological awareness: definition and types

Re: Phonological Awareness
Fr: http://www.riverpub.com/products/wjIIIAchievement/details.html (underscore mine)

Phonological awareness is one of the best predictors of early reading acquisition—better than IQ, vocabulary, or listening comprehension; as such, it is an important predictor of educational achievement. Deficits in this area are a major cause of severe reading problems.

Phonological awareness is the ability to focus on the sound structure of language apart from its meaning. To learn to read and spell, we must attend to the relationship between the sounds (phonemes) and the letters (graphemes) of language. This knowledge of phoneme-grapheme, or sound-symbol, relationships is a key to decoding and encoding written language.

There are several types of phonological awareness, including
-- word awareness,
-- syllable awareness,
-- rhyme awareness, and
-- phonemic awareness.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The WJ III NU contains five tests that measure different aspects of phonological awareness. In fact, the WJ III NU Tests of Cognitive Abilities is the only major intelligence test that measures auditory processing and phonemic awareness. The cognitive battery contains Sound Blending, which requires a subject to synthesize speech sounds to form a word, and Incomplete Words, which requires a subject to analyze a word with missing phonemes and identify the complete word.

In the WJ III NU Tests of Achievement, three tests measure aspects of phonological awareness. Examiners can use Word Attack and Spelling of Sounds to assess a subject's phoneme/grapheme knowledge and determine if the subject can apply both phonological and orthographical knowledge to identify and spell words. And if further analysis is needed, examiners can use Sound Awareness to measure a subject's ability to rhyme words and manipulate phonemes.

clues: shaywitz (2006)

Re: Dyslexia, Diagnosis; Clues
Fr: Sally Shaywitz, MD* (2006). Overcoming dyslexia: A new and complete science-based program for reading problems at any level. NY: Vintage Books, pp. 29-30, 122-127, 132.

[*Dr. Shaywitz is Professor of Pediatrics at the Yale University School of Medicine, codirector of the Yale Center for the Study of Learning and Attention, and member of the National Reading Panel and the Institute of Medicine of the Academy of Sciences.]

• Definition

Dyslexia is “a reading difficulty in a child or adult who otherwise has good intelligence, strong motivation, and adequate learning” (p. 132).

It is defined by the International Dyslexia Association (2002) as “a specific learning disability that is neurobiological in origin. It is characterized by 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.” (p. 132)

• Prevalence Rate

“The Connecticut study [longitudinal, begun in 1983 by Yale University] indicates that reading disability affects approximately one child in five.” (p. 30) It is “estimated to comprise at least 80 percent of all learning disabilities….” (p. 29)

• Clues to Dyslexia

A. Early Childhood (pp. 122-123)

“The earliest clues involve most spoken language. The very first clue to a language (and reading) problem may be delayed language. Once the child begins to speak, look for the following problems:

The Preschool Years

-- Trouble learning common nursery rhymes such as “Jack and Jill” and “Humpty Dumpty”
-- A lack of appreciation of rhymes
-- Mispronounced words; persistent baby talk
-- Difficulty in learning (and remembering) names of letters
-- Failure to know the letters in his own name

Kindergarten and Grade I

¬-- Failure to understand that words come apart; for example, that batboy can be pulled apart into bat and boy, and later on, that the word bat can be broken down still further and sounded out as “b” “aaa” “t”
-- Inability to learn to associate letters with sounds, such as being unable to connect the letter b with the “b” sound
-- Reading errors that show no connection to the sounds of the letters; for example, the word big is read as goat
-- The inability to read common one-syllable words or to sound out even the simplest of words, such as mat, cat, hop, nap
-- Complaints about how hard reading is, or running and hiding when it is time to read
-- A history of reading problems in parents or siblings

In addition to the problems of speaking and reading, you should be looking for these indications of strengths in higher-level thinking processes: [122/123]

-- Curiosity
-- A great imagination
-- The ability to figure things out
-- Eager embrace of new ideas
-- Getting the gist of things
-- A good understanding of new concepts
-- Surprising maturity
--- A large vocabulary for the age group
-- Enjoyment in solving puzzles
-- Talent at building models
-- Excellent comprehension of stories read or told to him

B. From Grade II On (pp. 123-125)

Problems in Speaking

-- Mispronunciation of long, unfamiliar, or complicated words; the fracturing of words – leaving out parts of words or confusing the order of the parts of words; for example, aluminum becomes amulium
-- Speech that is not fluent – pausing or hesitating often when speaking, lots of um’s during speech, no glibness [fluency]
-- The use of imprecise language, such as vague references to stuff or things instead of the proper name of an object
-- Not being able to find the exact word, such as confusing words that sound alike: saying tornado instead of volcano, substituting lotion for ocean, or humanity for humidity
-- The need for time to summon an oral response or the inability to come up with a verbal response quickly when questioned
-- Difficulty in remembering isolated pieces of verbal information (rote memory) – trouble remembering dates, names, telephone numbers, random lists

Problems in Reading

-- Very slow progress in acquiring reading skills
-- The lack of strategy to read new words
-- Trouble reading unknown (new, unfamiliar) words that must be sounded out; making wild stabs or guesses at reading a word; failure to systematically sound out words
-- The inability to read small “function” words such as that, an, in [123/124]
-- Stumbling on reading multisyllable words, or the failure to come close to sounding out the full word
-- Omitting parts of words when reading; the failure to decode parts within a words, as if someone had chewed a hole in the middle of the word, such as conible for convertible
-- A terrific fear of reading out lout; the avoidance of oral reading
-- Oral reading filled with substitution, omissions, and mispronunciations
-- Oral reading that is choppy and labored, not smooth or fluent
-- Oral reading that lacks inflection and sounds like the reading of a foreign language
-- A reliance on context to discern the meaning of what is read
-- A better ability to understand words in context than to read isolated single words
-- Disproportionately poor performance on multiple choice tests
-- The inability to finish tests on time
-- The substitution of words with the same meaning for words in the test he can’t pronounce, such as car for automobile
-- Disastrous spelling, with words not resembling true spelling; some spellings may be missed by spell check
-- Trouble reading mathematics word problems
-- Reading that is very slow and tiring
-- Homework that never seems to end, or with parents often recruited as readers
-- Messy handwriting despite what may be an excellent facility at word processing – nimble [= quick in movement] fingers
-- Extreme difficulty learning a foreign language
-- A lack of enjoyment of reading, and the avoidance of reading books or eve a sentence
-- The avoidance of reading for pleasure, which seems too exhausting
-- Reading whose accuracy improves over time, though it continues to lack fluency and is laborious
-- Lowered self-esteem, with pain that is not always visible to others
-- A history of reading, spelling, and foreign language problems in family members

In addition to signs of a phonologic weakness, there are signs of strengths in higher-level thinking processes: [124/125]

-- Excellent thinking skills: conceptualization, reasoning, imagination, abstraction
-- Learning that is accomplished best through meaning rather than rote memorization
-- Ability to get the “big picture”
-- A high level of understanding of what is read to him
-- The ability to read and to understand at a high level of overlearned (that is, highly practiced) words in a special area of interest; for example, if his hobby is restoring cares, he may be able to read auto mechanics magazines
-- Improvement as an area of interest becomes more specialized and focused, when he develops a miniature vocabulary that he can read
-- A surprisingly sophisticated listening vocabulary
-- Excellence in areas not dependent on reading, such as math, computers, and visual arts, or excellence in more conceptual (versus factoid-driven) subjects such as philosophy, biology, social studies, neuroscience, and creative writing

C. Young Adults and Adults (pp. 125-126)

Problems in Speaking

-- Persistence of earlier oral language difficulties
-- The mispronunciation of the names of people and places, and tripping over parts of words
-- Difficulty remembering names of people and places and the confusion of names that sound alike
-- A struggle to retrieve words: “It was on the tip of my tongue”
-- Lack of glibness, especially if put on the spot
-- Spoken vocabulary that is smaller than listening vocabulary, and hesitation to say aloud words that might be mispronounced

Problems in Reading

-- A childhood history of reading and spelling difficulties
-- Word reading becomes more accurate over time but continues to require great effort
-- Lack of fluency [125/126]
-- Embarrassment caused by oral reading: the avoidance of Bible study groups, reading at Passover seders, or delivering a written speech
-- Trouble reading and pronouncing uncommon, strange, or unique words such as people’s names, street or location names, food dishes on a menu (often resorting to asking the waiter about the special of the day or resorting to saying, “I’ll have what he’s having,” to avoid the embarrassment of not being able to read the menu)
-- Persistent reading problems
-- The substitution of made-up words during reading for words that cannot be pronounced – for example, metropolitan becomes mitan – and a failure to recognize the word metropolitan when it is seen again or heard in a lecture the next day
-- Extreme fatigue from reading
-- Slow reading of most materials: books, manuals, subtitles in foreign films
-- Penalized by multiple-choice tests
-- Unusually long hours spent reading school or work-related materials
-- Frequent sacrifice of social life for studying
-- A preference for books with figures, charts, or graphics
-- A preference for books with fewer words per page or with lots of white showing on a page
-- Disinclination to read for pleasure
-- Spelling that remains disastrous and a preference for less complicated words in writing that are easier to spell
-- Particularly poor performance on rote clerical tasks

D. Sings of Strength in Higher-Level Thinking Processes (pp. 126-127)

-- The maintenance of strengths noted in the school-age period
-- A high learning capability
-- A noticeable improvement when given additional time on multiple-choice examinations
-- Noticeable excellence when focused on a highly specialized area such a medicine, law, public policy, finance, architecture, or basic science
-- Excellence in writing if content and not spelling is important
-- A noticeable articulateness in the expression of ideas and feelings [126/127]
-- Exceptional empathy and warmth, and feeling for others
-- Success in areas not dependent on rote memory
-- A talent for high-level conceptualization and the ability to come up with original insights
-- Big-picture thinking
-- Inclination to think out of the box
-- A noticeable resilience and ability to adapt

diagnostic criteria: DSM-IV-TR (2000)

fr: american psychiatric association (2000). diagnostic criteria from DSM-IV-TR, p. 54.

315.2 disorder of written expression

a. writing skills, as measured by individually administered standardized test (or functional assessments of writing skills), are substantially below those expected given the person's chronological age, measured intelligence, and age-appropriate education.

b. the disturbance in criterion a significantly interferes with academic achievement or activities of daily living that require the composition of written texts (e.g., writing grammatically correct sentences and organized paragraphs).

c. if a sensory deficit is present, the difficulties in writing skills are in excess of those usually associated with it.

coding note: if a general medical (e.g., neurological) condition or sensory deficit is present, code the condition on axis iii.