The 7 Causes of Reading & Spelling Difficulty

Introduction

Our focus is entirely on what is actually stopping each child progress with their reading and spelling. And over the past ten years of testing and researching, we have found that there are seven main causes of reading difficulty, which are listed below. With the spelling we have found just one problem; the children are sight reading the words, rather than decoding them.

We do not worry about whether someone has dyslexia or not, the solution to a problem is the same. The key to making progress easy for someone is to understand exactly why it has been difficult:

1 - Optilexia

 

Optilexia
or Auditory Deficit in Visual Learners
due to whole word sight reading

 

Introduction

This is the big one. Most visual learners find learning to read very hard and around 80% of children "diagnosed" as dyslexic are in fact visual learners who have not grasped phonics.

The reason is that they start by learning the alphabet visually. They then learn some simple words visually.

They then look at an "early reader book" and look at the picture (more visual cues) and try to read the text visually, guessing the words that they don't know. Any phonics they do at school will make little sense to them and will be ignored as irrelevant.

You can actually see this on an MRI scan as they read. The auditory cortex is not engaged at all:

We call this Optilexia, because the child is reading through pure sight recognition of whole words rather than auditory decoding. You can see how the auditory and linguistic cortex is being bypassed.

This situation can seem to be OK until the text gets too complex for this approach. At that stage you will see more and more wild guessing. Eventually the child's confidence will collapse, usually between the ages of 6 and 9.

The Symptoms of Optilexia

The key symptoms are:

• Lots of guessing or errors, particularly with the short words
• Getting a word right on one page and not the next time
• Very poor spelling in free writing
• Sometimes you see good results in spelling tests
• Great difficulty with new, unfamiliar words and placenames

The Solution

The solution to this is to give the child the tools to engage with the phonic structure of each word and then force the engagement of the auditory cortex:

Once the auditory and linguistic cortex is brought into the process, so much drops automatically into place. You have proper comprehension (through Wernicke's Area), superfast decoding (due to the Letterbox Cortex) and the foundation of spelling.

Easyread has been developed as a solution for exactly this situation, so I will give examples from Easyread as to how it can be solved for the child.

First, we take the visual strength of the child and use it to help guide the child towards proper phonic decoding of the text using our TrainerText system. This allows the child to access the phonemes within each word and then blend it successfully, without needing outside help.

Second, we create games that can be easily won if the words are decoded in this way, but are impossible if the child tries to use the familiar strategies of sight-memorising and guessing.

An example of that is our Mushroom Picker game. We read out a word. A series of words then appear on the screen and the child has to decide whether each one is the correct word (and therefore a mushroom) or a similar but different word (and thus a toadstool).

So, in some ways we are making the task easier, because the word has been read out. But in other ways it is far harder because the different words that appear are all very similar visually. So the child has to use the TrainerText to decode each one and confirm it is the same or different.

As they practise the new approach day by day, it slowly becomes more natural to them. Like any skill, it takes regular practice to see the change and seems harder when you first change technique. But eventually the new approach leads to far higher confidence and speed.

Because the child is now engaged with the internal structure of the text, we usually see a marked improvement in spelling, although this will lag behind the reading proficiency.

Make the Switch Early

The longer that a set of neurone connections are used in the brain, the harder it is to switch them to something new. We are radically rewiring the reading process for the child, switching the linkage from:

Eyes - Visual Cortex - Prefrontal Cortex - Language Cortex

to almost the reverse:

Eyes - Visual Cortex - Auditory Cortex - Language Cortex - Prefrontal Cortex

The longer a child spends using the former process, the harder it is to change. We find that the 6-9 age group are normally fine. Beyond that one has to be more and more rigorous about preventing them from using their old strategy.

 

 

 

 

Use Easyread for Reading Help and Spelling Help

 

Easyread is a reading system designed for visual learners. It uses a short daily lesson online to teach a child to read over 2-6 months. It has proved highly effective with the most common form of dyslexia (auditory deficit syndrome). It is based on synthetic phonics.

We can also give advice on other foms of dyslexia such as Irlen Syndrome and Dyspraxia.

Getting children to read is our passion. Don't hesitate to call us with any question. But before you do, take the time to have a look around the site. There is a lot of information on literacy, dyslexia, the causes of dyslexia and ways to help with each type of dyslexia.

You can also check our blog to hear the latest literacy news.

Copyright Morgan Learning Solutions Ltd 2013

2 - Eyetracking Difficulty

 

Eye-tracking Difficulties

Introduction

As you read text on a page, your eyes focus on a word or group of words and then jump to the right to view the next word or group of words. Each jump is called a saccade.

This saccade movement is probably the most complex and delicate muscle movement that the body does and we find around 25% of the children on Easyread have some level of difficulty with it.

If your child can read single words well but really struggles with lines of text, it is a good indication of some eye-tracking difficulty.

The Cerebellum

At the back of the brain is a region of cortex called the Cerebellum. It is about the size of two small tangerines, but has half the neurons in the entire brain.

It is a very critical part of the brain because it acts like a filter and moderator of sensory inputs and motor neuron outputs. All our senses are pouring information into the brain all the time and the cerebellum helps decide what gets priority treatment and what doesn't.

We have the obvious five senses, but a sixth sense is that of our own body. The very fastest neurones in the body are feeding back information on the position and tension within each muscle.

The brain works on what is effectively fuzzy logic. It compiles thousands of sensory nerve inputs to decide on what actual sense you are conscious of. And in the same way, it is sending thousands of nerve signals to muscles in order to get just the adjustment that you want.

In the latter process there is motor neuron cortex in the top middle of your cerebral cortex that indicates the muscles to be activated, but the cerebellum moderates that in a way that is not understood, to get the precise control we are hopefully familiar with.

For the movement of the six extra-occular eye muscles, there is an area called the flocculus in the cerebellum that achieves this.

If you ask someone to look for something around a room, you will see that their eyes do not scan smoothly, but jump from spot to spot. The flocculus is helping to control that process. If it is not working well, then scanning text is hard.

The Symptoms of Eye-Tracking Difficulties

The key symptoms are:

• Skipping words
• Skipping lines
• Finding large text easier to read
• Not reading word endings
• Finding flash cards easier to read than sentences

The Solution To Eye-Tracking Difficulties

Most of us don't need to perform like top flight sportsmen, but we do need a cerebellum functioning reasonably well. And that is easy to achieve by exercising it.

So, if your child displays the symptoms of this problem there are three things to do.

First, check that your child is getting the right vitamins, minerals and oils. I do not take supplements as a general habit, but we regularly give our children Omega 3 and Omega 6 oils. You can see an almost instant impact if there is a deficiency there.

Second, get a good osteopath to check your child for any imbalances and tensions in the body.

Finally, get your child to do a simple exercise to work the cerebellum:

• Sit on a chair, keep your head still put your arm out in front of you holding a pencil vertically. Then move your hand 18" left to right and back again in front of you while following the pencil steadily with just your eyes.

We have found that the key is to do the exercise for just 20 seconds in each session, but 5-10 times a day. If you are not working the neurons regularly it will be very hard to see any improvement, but it will be life-changing if this is a problem for your child and you manage to do this exercise regularly for a week or two.

 

 

 

 

 

Use Easyread for Reading Help and Spelling Help

 

Easyread is a reading system designed for visual learners. It uses a short daily lesson online to teach a child to read over 2-6 months. It has proved highly effective with the most common form of dyslexia (auditory deficit syndrome). It is based on synthetic phonics.

We can also give advice on other foms of dyslexia such as Irlen Syndrome and Dyspraxia.

Getting children to read is our passion. Don't hesitate to call us with any question. But before you do, take the time to have a look around the site. There is a lot of information on literacy, dyslexia, the causes of dyslexia and ways to help with each type of dyslexia.

You can also check our blog to hear the latest literacy news.

3 - Contrast Sensitivity  

Contrast Sensitivity

Introduction

To read well your eyes must be working optimally. That is why I am peering at the screen through my new glasses now!

So the first step (which should be routine anyhow with any child) is to get a complete checkup with a good optician.

But beyond this, there is a syndrome that some opticians may not check for, where the eye is sensitive to the contrast of a pure black on a white background. It is a bit like blue on red for the rest of us. Here is an example of that:

For me that is very hard to read. Some people find the same effect with black text on a white background.

If your child complains of "the text moving around", that will be the reason.

The eye actually begins processing the visual image that is projected onto the retina while it is still in the eye. In fact the eye is effectively a part of your brain that has extruded itself out of the skull (freaky eh?!).

One of the most important elements of processing that happens in the eye is to look for shapes and the edges of shapes. There are around 100 million rods and cones in each retina and only 1 million neurons in each optic nerve. So the eye is aggregating the individual rods and cones and it is in the aggregating process that the eye is very sensitive to changes in intensity.

If it is too sensitive to a black/white contrast, you will get this effect, known as contrast sensitivity.

Symptoms of Contrast Sensitivity

Some of the key symptoms are:

• Sensitivity to strong sunlight and flourescent strip lights
• Complaining about the text moving
• Complaining about distortions of the page
• Finding larger text easier (this can be related to eye-tracking too)
• Eyes watering while staring at computer screens
• Getting headaches while trying to read or do mathematics

The Solution To Contrast Sensitivity

If you feel that your child may be suffering from this issue it is essential to get a test done by a qualified specialist. If you would like us to help you find a behavioural optometrist in your area, please contact us.

 

 

Use Easyread for Reading Help and Spelling Help

Easyread is a reading system designed for visual learners. It uses a short daily lesson online to teach a child to read over 2-6 months. It has proved highly effective with the most common form of dyslexia (auditory deficit syndrome). It is based on synthetic phonics.

We can also give advice on other foms of dyslexia such as Irlen Syndrome and Dyspraxia.

Getting children to read is our passion. Don't hesitate to call us with any question. But before you do, take the time to have a look around the site. There is a lot of information on literacy, dyslexia, the causes of dyslexia and ways to help with each type of dyslexia.

You can also check our blog to hear the latest literacy news.

4- Poor Memory

 

Low Short-Term Memory Capacity

Introduction

One element of learning to read is that you have to hold various complex bits of information in your short-term memory. There are the phonemes in a word, then when you have blended those you need to keep the word in memory while you look for the meaning of that word, you then hold that while you do the whole thing again and then you hold a series of words in memory as you form a sentence.

So, all this stuff is shooting around in your temporary storage areas of the brain. If your capacity for short-term memory is overloaded, then you will lose part of what you are trying to remember and the reading process will fail.

The normal range of capacity for short-term memory is 7 plus or minus two. So 7 items is average and 5 is low. For instance, you can give me 6 random digits and I will almost always be able to remember them. If you give me 7 then I will be overloaded and usually only manage to give you back the first 3 or 4 of them. So I have a slightly below average short-term memory.

Symptoms of Low Short-Term Memory Capacity

The key symptoms are:

• Difficulty remembering lists of things over a period of seconds
• Difficulty blending longer words
• Difficulty organising things
• Difficulty following the meaning of a sentence
• Slow, stilted reading

The Solution To Low Short-Term Memory Capacity

The brain is very malleable. The more you use any part of it, the stronger it will become.

So, first of all, reading practice will actually improve your ability to be able to read.

Second, as your reading improves, elements of the process begin to become automatic. That means they are not putting a load on your short term memory.

It is a bit like driving a car. When you are learning, everything has to be thought about and you are very busy. But a year later you can drive along chatting to your passenger.

Reading is the same. The more practise that you get the easier it becomes and the more spare capacity you have for processing the meaning of the text.

The technical terms for the two types of memory are declarative and procedural. You have conscious access to your declarative memory, whereas all your automatic processes happen in your procedural memory.

So, as a child practices reading, it starts off in declarative memory but slowly moves into procedural memory.

Therefore, the aim is to get the child reading slowly and steadily. Over the months the speed of reading and level of comprehension will improve as declarative memory resources are freed up.

I have to say that of all the causes of reading difficulty, this is the slowest and most grinding of solutions. It is hard work, but the result is still achievable.

During the 6 month Easyread course a child will read over 25,000 words. That is massively aided by the TrainterText that we use. The routine of reading that much, day by day builds experience and will do a lot to move the process from the declarative memory to the procedural memory.

However, it will almost certainly be an ongoing task and continued regular practice will be essential.

 

Easyread is a reading system designed for visual learners. It uses a short daily lesson online to teach a child to read over 2-6 months. It has proved highly effective with the most common form of dyslexia (auditory deficit syndrome). It is based on synthetic phonics.

We can also give advice on other foms of dyslexia such as Irlen Syndrome and Dyspraxia.

Getting children to read is our passion. Don't hesitate to call us with any question. But before you do, take the time to have a look around the site. There is a lot of information on literacy, dyslexia, the causes of dyslexia and ways to help with each type of dyslexia.

5 - Fluency Block

 

Reading Fluency Blocks

Introduction

Some children develop a good ability to decode words, but are always stuck laboriously decoding them without it becoming fluent.

The reason for this seems to be that they are building a mapping of letter patterns to sounds with the letter patterns stored in their general visual memory, not the specialist "letterbox" cortex normally used by most readers.

Have you ever raed txet that smeoone has scarbmled? Amzgainly you rmeian able to raed it quite flnuetly.

The reason is that we are using the letterbox cortex that is able to do an instant anagram on the letters of the word. And the letterbox is able to do that so fast that it feels as if you are recognising the words by sight.

Symptoms of Fluency Block

The key symptoms are:

• The child can decode words, but never becomes fluent
• More practice just leads to faster and faster decoding

Solutions to Fluency Block

We use two processes to help fix this situation. First, we always get the children rereading each phrase or sentence until it is fluent. Second, we use an anagram game to get them looking for familiar patterns in apparent randomness.

 

 

 

 

Use Easyread for Reading Help and Spelling Help

 

Easyread is a reading system designed for visual learners. It uses a short daily lesson online to teach a child to read over 2-6 months. It has proved highly effective with the most common form of dyslexia (auditory deficit syndrome). It is based on synthetic phonics.

We can also give advice on other foms of dyslexia such as Irlen Syndrome and Dyspraxia.

Getting children to read is our passion. Don't hesitate to call us with any question. But before you do, take the time to have a look around the site. There is a lot of information on literacy, dyslexia, the causes of dyslexia and ways to help with each type of dyslexia.

You can also check our blog to hear the latest literacy news.

 

6 - Attention Deficit

 

Attention Deficit and ADHD

Introduction

I can remember working with one child early in the development of Easyread, who was studying the materials with his hands on the table while bouncing the rest of his body in the air.

He maintained that for the entire 40 minute sessions we would do. And the teacher had never seen him work on anything for more than 5-10 minutes. He regularly had to be sent to run around the school building.

Whenever I went into a classroom I was almost always assigned a character like him. I used to love it because they were great kids. But they were virtually unable to control this boundless excess of energy.

It is not surprising that any form of Attention Deficit makes learning to read very hard, because it is a skill that takes prolonged practice and application to master. Interestingly, Attention Deficit has generally not been a problem for children using Easyread, in my experience. Once you understand the main causes of Attention Deficit, that makes sense.

The Cause Of Attention Deficit

I always misunderstood Attention Deficit. I always thought that it was due to excess energy in the brain making it run around a bit like a puppy and that the drugs being used were mild sedatives.

The reality is that the medication for Attention Deficit and ADHD is a stimulant, very similar to cocaine.

The cause of the problem is strong neuron activity in the cerebral cortex, without sufficient control coming from the frontal lobe.

Your frontal lobe acts as a conductor of brain focus and without control coming from a single point, you get a mildly chaotic situation. Once the medication is applied, the stimulant helps the frontal cortex to take control and so the level of activity around the rest of the brain settles.

Most parents with children stuggling with attention difficulties will say "Oh yes! He can hold his focus on something well when he wants to!"

There are plenty of theories on how to help a child with attention difficulties, but we target simple ways to get them reading. And the key to that is to make them interested in the task and keep sessions short.

Symptoms of Attention Deficit

The key symptoms are:

• Easily distracted
• Lots of fidgeting
• Likes to be in motion
• Can focus when interested or excited about something

Solution to Attention Deficit

So it is now clearer why Attention Deficit is not a problem with the children doing Easyread. There are a number of reasons for it:

• Easyread is very engaging and acts as a mild stimulant
• The lessons are very short
• The children can feel their progress

 

 

 

 

Use Easyread for Reading Help and Spelling Help

 

Easyread is a reading system designed for visual learners. It uses a short daily lesson online to teach a child to read over 2-6 months. It has proved highly effective with the most common form of dyslexia (auditory deficit syndrome). It is based on synthetic phonics.

We can also give advice on other foms of dyslexia such as Irlen Syndrome and Dyspraxia.

Getting children to read is our passion. Don't hesitate to call us with any question. But before you do, take the time to have a look around the site. There is a lot of information on literacy, dyslexia, the causes of dyslexia and ways to help with each type of dyslexia.

You can also check our blog to hear the latest literacy news.

7-Stress Spirals

Stress Spirals

Introduction

Stress is talked about so much nowadays, that it can be hard to focus on what it really is.

The body is designed to react to fear and excitement in very clear ways that help us survive in dangerous situations. Historically, fear and excitement were normally linked to danger in the form of other tribes or large carnivores.

At those moments, survival depended on how you reacted. You really had three options; fight, flight or immobility (so that you went unnoticed). Our stress reaction is designed to achieve one of the three.

In all three cases, the brain shuts down the higher thinking areas of the frontal cortex and moves control to the more basic ones of the brain stem (the "lizard" brain). So you will see raised emotion and a much reduced ability to think clearly.

The only exception to this is people who have been trained to deal with stress and remain capable of thinking clearly. Being yelled at on the parade square by a sergeant-major is an example of basic training in dealing with stress and a lot of military training is largely an extension of that.

Nowadays we can have lots of other causes of stress that activate the same reactions. In these modern situations of stress, the body's natural reaction is often not so helpful.

Stress and Reading

Reading is very much a higher brain function. So it is no surprise that stress is generally a negative factor when learning to read.

However, as anyone knows who has helped someone struggling to read, stress levels tend to rise very quickly, sometimes for everyone involved!

So it is very easy to get into a negative spiral of failure... leading to stress... leading to cerebral shutdown... leading to more failure and eventually crisis. In fact, the conventional experience of learning to read for many children is an inevitable series of public failures as the learner stumbles over words that cannot be read.

Symptoms of Stress Spirals

The key symptoms are:

• Can do OK sometimes, but confidence tends to collapse
• Frustration leads to anger, running away or sullen silence

The Solution to Stress Spirals

I would rate psychology management as 50% of the content of Easyread. If a child is not happy and excited doing Easyread, particularly over the first weeks, then our task is far harder than it needs to be.

There are various ways to achieve that and avoid these stress spirals.

First is to make the process genuine fun. We use silly and sometimes slightly rude imagery that gets children laughing.

Second is to make it seem OK to find the whole thing hard. We talk to the children quite a lot about that.

Third is to create a path that seems achievable. There are many elements to this, but in Easyread our Trainertext is probably the most important. It gives the learner the capability to work through difficult words without needing help. So that moment of failure has been turned into a moment of triumph.

In that way, we aim to reverse the spiral of failure into a spiral of success and growing confidence.

 

 

 

 

 

Easyread is a reading system designed for visual learners. It uses a short daily lesson online to teach a child to read over 2-6 months. It has proved highly effective with the most common form of dyslexia (auditory deficit syndrome). It is based on synthetic phonics.

We can also give advice on other foms of dyslexia such as Irlen Syndrome and Dyspraxia.

Getting children to read is our passion. Don't hesitate to call us with any question. But before you do, take the time to have a look around the site. There is a lot of information on literacy, dyslexia, the causes of dyslexia and ways to help with each type of dyslexia.

You can also check our blog to hear the latest literacy news.

Of course you may find that a person is struggling with a

mix of these different factors. It is important to be open to the different patterns they lead to, so that the right help is delivered.

Can people with dyslexia learn to read well? Most certainly most of the time. Are they still dyslexic? That depends on your definition of dyslexia.

Instant Reading Difficulty Diagnostic Tool

Would you like an instant online assessment of the cause of your child's reading difficulty?

Just click the link below and we will start to explore what is probably causing the problem:

Instant Online Assessment

Symptoms/Problems/Solutions

Here is a chart of the main symptoms you will see, what the root of the problem is and one potential solution:

Symptom	Problem	Solution
"Recognises" some words and guesses others, using the context and first letter	Optilexia due to visual processing of the text (Optilexia), without engagement of the auditory cortex	Easyread is specially designed to deal with this.
Can read single words OK, but tends to struggle with a sentence or paragraph	Eye-tracking problems	Exercises built into Easyread.
Complains of the text "moving around" on the page	Contrast Sensitivity	Coloured films or tinted glasses, obtained from a trained optician.
Is able to decode words, but only very slowly and struggles with long words and remembering the meaning in the sentence	Poor short term memory	Steady daily practice, delivered by Easyread potentially, to move the reading process from declarative to procedural memory.
Can read words and sentences quite fluently but does not understand what he or she has just read	Optilexia	Activation of the auditory processing paths through the brain cortex, developed by a daily Easyread lesson
Enthusiastic but finds it hard to sit still and concentrate on reading	Attention deficit	Heightened engagement through game activities and entertainment, delivered by Easyread
Can read OK sometimes, but tends to get into a stress spiral of failure-stress-failure.	Stress Spirals	Improved psychology developed through the support and encouragement delivered through a daily Easyread lesson.
Can decode but never progresses to fluent reading	Fluency Block	Activation of the "letterbox" to improve decoding fluency.

A Truly Massive Problem

Globally around 20% of English-speaking children reach the age of 11 unable to read confidently. Depending on who you talk to, the amount of dyslexia in the population varies from 5-15%.

Even after ten years of familiarity with that figure, I still find it amazing; one in five children unable to read the blackboard after 5 years at school. If it is the first time you have seen it, you will probably be struggling to believe it. However, as you walk down the street of an average town in England, America, Canada, Australia or New Zealand, every seventh person you pass will be unable to read properly. Imagine doing 10 years at school unable to read the board.

It is a massive problem and there is a lot of confusion as to what the reasons are. For instance, it is difficult to find two definitions of dyslexia that are the same.

Some non-readers are "diagnosed" as dyslexic while others are not. Frankly I still cannot tell you why, even though I am an expert in this field. So don't be surprised if you are confused too. The definition of dyslexia is not something that is agreed on. Generally the people who have to pay for the support of dyslexics have a tighter definition than the people who are supporting and lobbying on behalf of dyslexics.

What is Going On

I first got into literacy through my work in The Shannon Trust (www.shannontrust.org.uk). We developed a system to get literate prison inmates helping their non-reading peers to learn. 67% of prisoners could not read at that time. But we found that they could learn to read in just a few months with the right guidance.

So, there was no underlying reason why most of them had not learnt in the first place. Many of them cracked it in just 4-5 months even though they had thought themselves dyslexic. That is as fast as you or I did. In fact it is a lot faster than I did!

As a result of this revelation, I have spent the last few years investigating the nature of reading difficulties, why people are labelled dyslexic and what the real causes of difficulty are. That is the basis to finding solutions.

There are so many myths and misunderstandings surrounding Dyslexia, that it becomes difficult to see the wood for the trees. Being dyslexic is also often viewed as an "untreatable" condition. Some people even say that it is even "unprofessional" to suggest that dyslexia is something that can be treated or helped. Our experience is that most dyslexics can become excellent readers, even if they are still viewed as dyslexic.

The Truth About Dyslexia

The word dyslexia means " to have more difficulty learning to read and dealing with text than would be expected for a given cognitive ability ". So it is a specific difficulty with reading and words relative to the person's general intelligence.

Anything more complex than that can be very dangerous (in my view...!), because it often begins to link dyslexia to one or more of the personality traits often seen in children who happen to also have difficulty with reading. That is a distraction from the actual underlying reasons for the difficulty.

For instance, high creativity is often cited as part of dyslexia. The reality is that many dyslexics are dyslexic because they are very strong visual learners. Visual learners are often very artistic and creative. However, being creative has nothing directly to do with reading difficulty.

The truth is this:

There is no single dyslexia cause or condition. There are several possible reasons why a child might struggle with reading. It is, after all, a very complex brain process.

When you understand in detail why an individual child is struggling to read it is usually easy to work out how to overcome the difficulty. It then does not really matter whether they have dyslexia or not.

 

 

Dyslexia can be deeply frustrating, but... if you understand the causes of difficulty, for a particular individual, then good progress is usually quite easy to achieve