Jacob Elrick C.

Publico
EDUC 132i-A

Case Study: Inclusivity in Academic Spaces for Dyslexic Students

Any student with autism would not only know the difficulty of socializing with their peers
but would also understand the great hurdle their disorder causes to learning. From fundamental
to complex concepts, autism slows down the deciperhing of information and gives rise to
insecurity. In an article by the National Institute of Mental Health, the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention (CDC) noted that one in every 44 (2.3%) 8-year-old children suffer from
a disorder within the Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in 11 communities across the United
States in 2018. ASD is 4.2 times more prevalent to boys (3.7%) than girls (0.9%). With autism
being inherent or genetic, preventing it becomes virtually impossible. Hence, it necessitates the
conception of inclusive and empowering spaces to accommodate students with autism. The
prevalence of autism has gained attraction not only to researchers in the medical field but also
to pop culture as portrayed in the 2007 Bollywood drama film Like Stars on Earth. The film tells
the story of Ishaan, an 8-year-old boy who was mistaken to be lazy by his teachers and
classmates while in reality he suffers from dyslexia. He is soon enrolled to a boarding school but
his anxiety and depression soon overwhelms him until he attempts suicide. Although the film
romanticizes the everyday struggle of dyslexic individuals, there is still a ring of truth to it, and
sends a chilling reminder of how elusive these disorders are and how it could be misunderstood.
Despite this, youth proteges have soon risen into the pinnacle of society as geniuses of their
generation while suffering from dyslexia—such as the likes of Albert Einstein, Stephen Hawking,
Leonardo da Vinci, and Pablo Picasso.

It’s never easy for dyslexic children.

Individuals suffering from dyslexia tend to have trouble with reading simple texts and
words. Using Ishaan, for example, reading becomes a grueling ordeal to him. Letters seem to
jump around that it would require great concentration with little to no avail. An article by
Nemours Children’s Health explained that a person with dyslexia tends to utilize the incorrect
parts of the brain to process information. The article points to the main problem being the
trouble in recognizing phonemes, hence, it becomes difficult to reconcile letters with its
corresponding sound. A Clinical Psychologist, Bart Boets, compared the dyslexic brain to data
stored in a computer, whereas while the data is intact, the connection to access the data is
degraded—either too slow or distorted—which later affects the reading and writing abilities of
the dyslexic person. Having said this, dyslexia is a language processing disorder.

Recognizing dyslexia.

An article by the Mayo Clinic writes that symptoms of dyslexia can already be identified
before a child reaches school age. These include late talking, learning new words slowly,
difficulty with forming words correctly such as unintentionally reversing sounds in words or
confusing with proper sound appropriation to words, trouble with remembering or naming letters,
numbers and colors, and problems with learning nursery rhymes or playing rhyming games.
When a dyslexic individual has reached school age, similar symptoms may become more
apparent, such as reading below the expected level of their age, difficulty with processing and
understanding what he or she hears, problems with finding the right word to frame answers to
questions, difficulty with sequencing things as well as seeing similarities and differences in
letters and words, inability to sound out unfamiliar words and spell words, spend significant
amount of time in completing reading or writing tasks, and avoid activities involving reading.

Although there is an abundance of ways to identify dyslexia, it still runs the risk of
misdiagnosis because of the unreliability of its single detector feature, the IQ-achievement
discrepancy or RTI (Response to Intervention).

Suggesting ways to Learn.

Although dyslexic children experience difficulty in learning arithmetic and syntax, they
are known to better absorb visual information. Some studies suggest that dyslexic individuals
tend to have heightened sound and hearing perception. Having said this, a multi-sensorial
approach would work best for them in an academic setting. By introducing other senses into
teaching, students are able to learn more efficiently and effectively. A good practice would be to
bring students into the outdoors and use alternative materials to conduct learning sessions.
Additionally, it is equally important that students must be informed of the relevance of the lesson
to their lives and how it would be taught. It has to be systemic and sequential and done so
without rushing the student. Educators must focus on positive reinforcement whenever a
student accomplishes a task or has exhibited an exemplary performance in their academic
work. Lastly, it must be emotionally sound, whereas it focuses on the positive and on each
success a child makes using his or her prior skillset. Through this, it fosters positive mental
attitude and increases the self-esteem of students to see his or herself accomplishing tasks
despite the difficulty. As a whole, academics coin this method as the Orton-Gillingham
approach, which can be summed up by the following teaching qualities: multisensory, direct,
systematic and sequential, positive and reinforcing, and emotionally sound.

Contextualizing this approach to pre-elementary students, teachers must avoid

punishing students for failed or forgotten tasks, but instead (with emphasis) respond with
positive reinforcement. Use positive action when teaching by creating bookmarks or take-home
slips for students to review in a systematic and orderly fashion, and to assist students in
breaking down assignments and tasks to avoid overwhelming them. Consistent and progressive
practice are important to teaching dyslexic students. This can be done through allowing audio
recordings and other visual materials to scaffold them in approaching tasks. As earlier
mentioned, a multi sensorial approach fosters a more effective session. As a result, it
necessitates creativity from educators. If possible, integrate fun and engaging activities in
learning sessions using board games, puzzles, workbooks and other exciting tasks. Although
these are significant steps in bridging learning to dyslexic students, in light of Bronfenbrenner’s
Ecological Systems Theory, teachers must acknowledge development is affected by the
social circles surrounding a student. Hence, teachers should collaborate with parents, as the
students’ direct circle or microsystem, in their children’s school journey. It is almost certain that
learning becomes different at home, especially when parents are not well-equipped in
approaching their children. By introducing tips and advice observed at school, parents might be
able to manage their children properly and create a more conducive learning environment.

Establishing inclusive spaces in schools.

Looking back in my grade school days, I remember how negative enforcement is often
the first choice of action to student misbehavior and low grades: students are called out in the
middle of class, the guidance counselor becomes the symbol of discipline, and so forth.
Because of this, students experience public embarrassment whenever their performance fails to
meet the teacher’s expectations. It unnecessarily emphasizes grades as more important than
learning, and fails to equip students with the necessary skills to help them get by in life. It also
comes to my attention how this structure is exclusive in nature as it only favors students inclined
towards theory and concepts, with little to no regard to students who flourish in the artistic side
of learning. Its results-based structure impedes the growth of both students with or without
special needs since important skills and disciplines are appreciated the most and learned in
application. On top of that, because of weak mechanisms meant to identify autism in schools,
mentally challenged students undiagnosed of autism undergo great anxiety as they face their
studies. Academic institutions thus become spaces of fear and constraint from student creativity.
Additionally, collaboration is overshadowed by competition between students, as a result,
increases immense insecurity to students who are not performing as well as their peers, only
widening the gap between students suffering from a certain form of autism and those who are
not.

Schools should prioritize creating an inclusive environment for their students. By doing
this, conventional perceptions shared in schools should be addressed, or at best changed, such
as the perpetuation of a competitive culture. To create an equitable academic institution,
collaboration should be at the forefront of any school virtue. The segregation of students based
on academic merit must be abolished and talent must be fairly distributed across different
classrooms. If possible, lesson plans should be designed to exercise application more than just
theory. This enables a temporary fix for students with undiagnosed mental challenges until more
reliable methods are discovered and implemented at the institutional level.
References

National Institute of Mental Health. (n.a.). “Autism Spectrum Disorder”. National Institute of
Mental Health. Retrieved from
https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/statistics/autism-spectrum-disorder-asd#:~:text=Across
%20the%20CDC%20surveillance%20sites,all%20racial%20and%20ethnic%20groups.
Accessed 22 May 2022.

Zettler-Greeley, C. (May 2022). “Understanding Dyslexia''. Nemours Teens Health. Retrieved

from
https://kidshealth.org/en/teens/dyslexia.html#:~:text=You%20probably%20will%20read%
20slowly,remembering%20what%20you've%20read. Accessed 22 May 2022.

Cicerchia, M. (n.a.). “Famous people with dyslexia”. Touch-type Read & Spell. Retrieved from
https://www.readandspell.com/famous-people-with-dyslexia#:~:text=Albert%20Einstein%
2C%20Stephen%20Hawking%2C%20Leonardo,history%20and%20they%20were%20dy
slexic. Accessed 22 May 2022.

Lewis, T. (6 December 2013). Live Science. Retrieved from

https://www.livescience.com/41731-root-causes-of-dyslexia-unraveled.html. Accessed
22 May 2022.

Positive Action. (9 February 2021). “How to Teach Students With Dyslexia? 14 Evidence-Based
Tips”. Retrieved from
https://www.positiveaction.net/blog/how-to-teach-students-with-dyslexia. Accessed 22
May 2022.