Intervention plan Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Intervention plan - Research Paper Example This paper will provide a brief explanation of dyslexia and up to date brain-based research that supports explicit instructional suggestions in Intervention plan for John. What is Dyslexia? Dyslexia is an inborn disease that comes with sudden complexity in learning to interpret and pronounce words in relation to one's verbal aptitude, inspiration, and learning opportunities (Aylward et al., 2003). For John, the "unexpected difficulties" referred to his severe inability to decode unknown words, puzzling spelling errors, and slow reading rate. These were all apparent in the results from an informal reading and spelling inventory. These results indicated that he read at a first grade level. In contrast, he comprehended material read to him at a fifth grade level. This is common in students with dyslexia. They frequently are on grade-level in listening comprehension because grapho-phonological processing is not required. To explain this decoding weakness, researchers (Aaron, 2005; Shaywi tz, 2003; Shaywitz & Shaywitz, 2005) have converged on the phonological model. More specifically, for students with dyslexia, recognising the phonemes in a spoken word, understanding the relationship phonemes have with letters, and blending (reading) or segmenting (spelling) them are unusually difficult processes. For example, as a beginning fourth grader John struggled to read and spell words such as shed (sep), stack (stuk), and slug (sog). Common Misconceptions The convergence on the phonological model contradicts several commonly held myths about dyslexia. For example, the most common misconception is that all students with dyslexia reverse letters. Dyslexia is not a visual disorder; in fact, students with dyslexia are often gifted in the area of visual arts (Davis & Braun, 2007). As young children begin to experiment with letters and sounds, many of them reverse letters. Therefore, letter reversal is not a reliable indicator. Another common misconception is that dyslexia is lin ked to low intelligence. A student must have an unexpected difficulty in learning to read and spell. If a student has a low IQ, the difficulty is expected. Students like John have verbal IQs within the normal range. Therefore, these students have the cognitive ability to read and spell on grade level. There are two other common misconceptions about dyslexia. One is that it is curable. Although there are effective instructional techniques and programmes that make the symptoms less severe (discussed later), dyslexia is not curable. Even as an adult John will struggle with fluent reading because of the extended time required for him to recognise unknown words. Spelling will also continue to be difficult. The other myth is that dyslexia affects males more often than females. As Shaywitz (2004) explains, this has more to do with the over-identification of males in all special education areas. In her studies, she found that the percentage of boys and girls with dyslexia is about even (Sha ywitz, 2003). Reliable Indicators So, once a student enters school, what are reliable indicators? Dyslexia is developmental; therefore, the indicators change over time. Early on it is more difficult to recognise a student with dyslexia, but it becomes more obvious as they progress in school. Early On Even though it is important, prominent researchers (Muter, 2003; Shaywitz, 2003) agree that identifying children with