Learning Difficulty

DLS

(Difficulty Learning Syndrome)

In this discussion I deliberately omit explanations about neurological sites implicated in various forms of dyslexia (like the Round Left cerebral hemisphere and Sopranominale area Werniche) as outside our competence, and this matter is already been addressed by other researchers such Boder E. Jarrico and S. (1982 N. Geschwind (1979), Griffin JR. And Walton H.N. (1981), etc..

Until now have been classified three types of dyslexia: Dysfonesia (total or partial inability to combine the sounds of words with their corresponding graph), Diseidesia (total or partial inability to transcribe when the whole word phonetic sound makes it different from how you writes) and Dysfoneidesia (a combination form of the two previous). According to neurological models discussed so far, based on 1) The existence of proven neuro-anatomical sites specific for the functions eidetic and phonetic, 2) EEG studies, it appears that dyslexia depends only on brain developmental abnormalities of areas specifically concerned.

In recent years there have been extensive genetic studies to determine whether dyslexia can be transmitted genetically. The answer seems correct (conditional obligatory) for the type of dyslexia diseidetico that seems to follow a autosomal dominant transmission. And for the type disfonetico? so far was not made any certain position. This shows, in Anyway, that dyslexia can come in many forms and that be considered dyslexic only one who does not learn in a correct (with standard teaching methods) while possessing a normal capacity and organic intellectual.

It will not be considered dyslexic person who does not learn to reduced intellectual capacity, organic problems associated with syndromes, etc.. Our study NOTis dedicated to problems as dyslexic dysregulated neuro-anatomy, the latter can receive Most helpful if treated multidisciplinarmente and not by a single professional.

In our opinion, refute the hypothesis that the learning difficulties is called ONLY dyslexia, but as a result of DLS a set of problems related to learning, and which is generated ONLY from developmental brain abnormalities, as subjects with learning problems and phonetic eidetic (similar to characteristics to those of a brain abnormality) were recovered in a very satisfactory manner without the intervention of specific neurological therapies. Moreover, in our view, dyslexia diseidetica occurred more in those countries where the language Written differ (sometimes greatly) from that spoken. In fact, the English-speaking peoples most affected by this problem. even this argues in favor of a behavioral-functional theory and beyond anatomical structure. Our presentation, therefore, will deal problems of DLS (Learning Difficulty Syndrome) and not only of dyslexia, given the enormity of the problem linked to learning.

In addition to these three types of dyslexia There are many events that cause a DLS and schematically we give the main:

Dyslexia: is a specific learning disorder that affects 3% of the Italian childhood population. It affects children with normal intelligence who, while not presenting emotional problems, psychological and sensory difficulties to show understand the meaning of what is written. The first signs appear already in first grade: the student confuses the letters you resemble even if turned upside down or mirror as eg. the b with d or with p and q. Often these children read so incomplete words, so as to make the incomprehensible or different meaning. It is believed that the basis of this slowing down in the acquisition of writing there is a difficulty in breaking the word into sounds that compose and then, when the kids have to translate from the language written, are confusing. Moreover, these individuals also have difficulty Storing readings in addition to their understanding. It is important to act immediately as the school failure related to this deficit can become painful and frustrating on both both psychologically and socially.

Dysgraphia: is the difficulty to realize the gesture graph. This may be due to various causes such as a defect of perception of movement of the arm, hand and pencil, by visual impairment and mobility difficulties or visual-motor-related graphical programming of the act. The children have problems in dosing pressure to draw a mark on the paper and the writing is very light or pulled down. Have difficulty controlling the size and the size of the letters, to guide the writing on the paper: the handwriting is skewed or shifted too far up or down. these subjects have also great difficulty in re-read what they themselves have written. in dysgraphia is the disortography which represents the difficulty to translate into graphic symbolism the sequence of sounds in which the language is composed oral hearing although perfectly. At dysorthography are associated with common defects of verbal language (dysphasia) or reading (dyslexia) that when they are not caused by poor eyesight, hearing or intelligence, depend on abnormalities of the nervous system in which form of verbal expression.

Dysphasia: Deficits tend to improve with time, especially if reported early. This is the difficulty of articulating the verbal language and the therapist must work on the articulation of sounds, the expansion of the sentence and on the relationship between content and form. In this way, teaches to use the different language to express meaning. If diagnosed in delay, producing depletion cognitive impairment with permanent language.

Dyiscalculia: is the inability to perform calculations algebraic, even simple. Pupils have discalculici normal intelligence and have no problems in doing arithmetic reasoning. However these children is difficult recognize and write numbers (and often write them mirror), to indent operations, understand it must first be added to the right-hand column and that the carry is added to the left. It is thought that Whether a difficulty to mentally represent the various steps of operations in a two dimensional space (the sheet) that is often associated with a problem of coordination. Thus, for example, these children are often distracted, can be awkward to jump obstacles, do not fit in bicycle tie knots and do not know (they also have difficulty tie his shoes).

Hyperlexia: if a child learns to read perfectly between 2 and 5 years, can be a normal child who has mastered in advance a learning tool. But if this is the only activity that does well, then you could be in the presence of a first sign of hyperlexia. In this case the child is very good in reading and writing, while having great difficulty in understanding what reads or writes. There is in practice a mastery of the instrument without no control of its meaning. It is difficult for hyperlexia is an isolated disorder, but is often accompanied by other forms of DSL, or worse a few mental retardation or to an autistic syndrome. Often it depends on a force made the baby for you to learn topic which has not yet been prepared, in which How did you come to capture only the mechanical aspect of the task he was asked and not the real reason behind the read- is to read things written.

Dyspraxia: it is a developmental disorder that prevents the child to perform complex manual tasks. Is not a motor problem in the strict sense, but a difficulty in planning and control the sequence of movements. The signal of this deficit is General clumsiness: your kids are doing some hard action with poor results compared to their peers. It 'a disprattico children 3-4 years old who can not learn to dress himself or it difficult to climb over obstacles, a 6 year old who does not know yet tie his shoes or he can not draw and cut out. This disorder is often associated to dyscalculia. The therapist is the movement with the help or through the verbalization of games, so as to help with a channel other than the motor, motion programming. if start time, an emotional and educational practice avoids impacts psychological frustrating (the lower being of their peers). In this way you retrieve the basic skills but difficulties remain in more complex tasks. This means that although not become a super sport as an adult will have no problem.

Inattention: is the lack of development capacity maintain concentration. A disturbance in attention, that some scholars impute to an alteration of brain chemistry, it usually reveals at school age. In practice, the children have difficulty to remain attentive to both long and focus on achieving specific, struggling to remain seated to follow the instructions. the easy distractibility becomes a problem when it interferes with other functions such as speech, movement, thought and development cognitive. It is unclear whether this issue should be regarded as a specific disorder or whether it is a symptom of other abnormalities. In this situation, so as in some other, abnormal visual function may play a role in the birth and development of this problem related to learning. A defect of attention weights little development of the child if this problem is isolated, even more serious is the situation when it is associated with other abnormalities. E 'for This often you decide to see a specialist only when, in addition to attention deficits, language disorders, or motory.

S.C.S. Theory about DLS

The foregoing has highlighted the existence of three types of dyslexia and six series of specific problems related to learning. Whenever we are faced a person with learning difficulties (DLS), it will be important determine the type of the appropriate training to use.

The simplest definition of DLS is probably the following: a subject is defined suffering from DLS when despite possessing normal organic-intellectual quality, have poor learning ability and behavior in relation to his age.

The simplicity of our definition allows to focus on a very important aspect: DLS IS NOT an organic disease, but an impaired learning over time which has worsened the behavior of the individual.

This suggests that a subject suffering from DLS have normal intellectual abilities, but is not able to use them properly, has normal visual acuity, but does not know "where" to look; have normal ability to use hands and feet, but can not coordinate, etc.

From these simple statements comes the question: where is located the DLS?

The answer is also immediate, on the light of the above, certainly in the cerebral cortex. Our brain is perfectly able to use all afferent pulses to be able to develop appropriate action. We will call Core Exchange that area of the brain that performs the actions on the afferent impulses and routes them to the sites responsible to give the necessary response.

When we read a page of a book, our eyes slide on the rows from left to right. Using area seventeen, our brain decodes the images that our eyes have focused, word after word and it is found the meaning in our inner vocabulary by means of the internal core exchange. Each word has a meaning that can vary when inserted in a sentence. The area of meaning shall to integrate all the words read in isolation, in a sentence that has a meaning.

At this point the exchange core places in memory what is absolutely necessary, the concept of the read sentence. With the succession of phrases found on our page, the core exchange shall recover from memory the sentence or the sentences previously read (or rather the concentrated of their meaning) and integrates them with what is passing at that time. At this point storing again in Memory a concentrated meaning of all sentences that time to time we read. At the end of the page, it will have stored in our memory, the concept of the entire page and not every single word or punctuation mark. The latter, in fact, represents a small legend that is requested to fully understand what there is written, but is not stored along with the meaning of the page.

Even the eyes have an important role, as well as to see. The need to ensure that on the fovea of the two eyes slides each symbol of what is written, that the reading speed is adequate to the understanding, that the jump of the line always start from the left (right only for the Arab peoples) jumping a single line and starting from the first word on the left. In addition to this the image must arrive on both foveas clearest and constant over time and also the image of the two eyes must result to a single merged image.

This can work if the mechanisms of control of each gives the correct information (afferent signals) to the exchange core.

The same problem occurs when the transcribed words are heard. This time the eyes are not directly involved in reading (but only in writing), yet the area of meaning receive words without sense or with a different meaning. This will prevent a correct transcription of what has been dictated.

When we are in presence of a subject sufferiung from DLS, some of these mechanisms operate incorrectly and more mechanisms are involved, worst will be reading/writing performance and therefore the level of DLS. Take for example the pursuit and saccadic mechanism that have to move the eyes to shift on foveas each character read. If these systems do not work well, can be popped whole words (saccade excessive), may be inverted position of words or numbers (excessive saccade that brings the eyes of a next word and adjustment saccade that brings the eyes back to the previous word, and so on), can be read twice or part of numbers or words (insufficient saccade or tracking), can be skipped entire lines, etc.

In this way, the exchange core will receive pieces of a sentence or other means (for the reversal of words or numbers). In each case will be sent a sentence almost incomprehensible or convoluted with meaning.

At this point the exchange core will choose three ways:

1. rejecting the sentence because it is incomprehensible to start re-reading the sentence. This operation can be repeated several times until the understanding of the text, often partial, giving origin to a READER DELAYED.

2. try to obtain identify however, at all costs a meaning of the sentence read taking experience on previous readings. This will result on low performances as the understanding of the entire page will be certainly different from true meaning of the text (this is typical of the disphonetic dyslexia).

3. abandon reading because it was considered difficult and tedious. Result: the student leave the school.

The reader delayed will be able to mix with the phase two to try to speed up the reading. In the latter we have an almost total incomprehension of what is read and huge slow execution with a considerable expenditure of energy.

During writing you can meet similar problems: do not write straight, write incomplete words (mostly missing the final letters or central), writing letters or mirror-reversed of the same letters when flipped, write the numbers excanging figures, writing characters with different sizes, etc.

DLS, however, is not limited to reading or writing.

To get to reconstruct correctly all the mechanisms that communicate with the afferent exchanger core, you must consider all the behaviors of the individual are different from a standard canon of behavior.

The vision coordinates many visual-motor behaviors and then the vision must begin to understand all mechanisms that are controlled or changed by the visual system (except for the pure disfonetic dyslexia).

The understanding of right and left (laterality), up and down, great and small, front and back, long and short, etc.., they are interactions of something that was visually been interpreted at least once previously.

It follows that the most important period for an individual's life is from birth to 2nd-3rd year of life.

During this phase, the individual has enormous ability to learn and to shape their own brain system (in this period the child must not perform any other obligation if not to that of learning).

It will be important to follow the child during this phase and consult an optometrist and a Paediatrician at the same time (sometimes even a psychologist) to create a synergy that works in favor of the child so that develop the necessary skills to live the necessary experience for visual-motor growth of the body and the brain.

At this point we realized that people who have not completed their afferent system-core exchange-efference are disadvantaged in relation to their peers.

Because no one has taken steps to intervene first (parents, family doctor, pediatrician), the Optometrist is able to help people suffering from DLS by implementing the SCS Method that collects a group of information and exercises that are specially designed, to perform more in the consulting room and less at home.

The purpose of the S.C.S. method is to build properly the interactions between vision and experience, behavior and learning, where these are lacking.

To understand the important role of the Optometrist in the diagnosis and treatment of DLS, is appropriate to review the main visual problems, visual-motor, and fusional, common in subjects with DLS. Dunlop in 1974 noted the absence of ocular dominance in dyslexics children and through the occlusion has obtained its stabilization in 70% of the cases dealt with by excluding the sensory input in the occluded eye, has prompted the forced choice of the contralateral eye. In this study lacks the description of the methodology used: how the eye was occluded? The subjects were all emmetropic? Which was the method to detect the dominant eye? How long did the occlusive period? For how many hours per day ?

An answer can be given by our experience has shown us to try a treatment in occlusive subjects without sensory dominance (not eye director, but eye dominant) by inserting the occlusion of the contralateral Body hand-foot dominance, and the contralateral coordination of the hand only if discordant with the foot. Eg. if the child has the dominance on the right hand and the right foot, was occluded the left eye, and if the dominance is on the left hand and right foot, the right eye was occluded.

The occlusion was used only for activities during some exercises for a period of 20-30 minutes a day. The method to detect the dominant eye is the following: The subject looks diplopia in two identical designs slightly blurry (prism 3 ^ -5 ^ base up in front of one eye and prism 3 ^ -5 ^ base down in front of the other with mild blurring produced by two lenses +0.50 / +0.75. The target is a line of letters or symbols / drawings horizontal 5-6/10). The sharper one determines the dominant eye. In the event both are blurred the same, the brighter deternimes the dominant eye. If further parity has found, take off the prisms and use anaglyph filter, the more persistent colour of the line determines the dominant eye.

Other studies (Abram and Zuber) have shown the speed of saccades in normal subjects (250 m / sec.) and in dyslexic subjects (50 m / sec.). Still Ashon and Hainess (1982) have examined the binocular coordination of dyslexic children during reading finding that they converge more and diverge less of their peers without learning difficulties. From our results and those of many other researchers there are no particular refractive or anisometropic defects that cause the DLS. Consequently, the Optometrist must not limited to a possible compensation of the refractive error, but must assess the quality of eye movement, postural situation, binocular vision and try to quantify the depth of the DLS. For diagnosis and treatment of DLS, please refer to a professionals Optometrist who will evaluate and treat this visual-behavioural problem in the most appropriate manner.