| Reading is a neurological process performed by | | | | are putting a lot of information into your |
| the brain. When a child finds learning to read hard, | | | | short-term declarative memory while reading. The |
| the reason almost always lies in the mechanics of | | | | main symptoms of this are slow decoding of |
| this neurological process. By understanding the | | | | words, great difficulty with long words and little |
| process, how it can go wrong and the symptoms | | | | ability to follow the meaning of the sentence. |
| of each potential problem, it is far easier to | | | | Cause No 4 - ADHD |
| understand the situation and fix it. This article is an | | | | To learn to read you need to sit still and work at |
| overview of the seven main causes of reading | | | | it for stretches of 10-15 minutes. It is a strenuous |
| difficulty and their symptoms. For more detail on | | | | mental activity and gives little reward in the early |
| any particular cause of difficulty, refer to my | | | | stages. All of this makes it hard for a child with |
| article on it. | | | | Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. The main |
| Cause No 1 - Auditory Deficit | | | | symptoms are a lack of focus, restless fidgeting |
| In a conventional reader the eyes focus on the | | | | and being easily distracted. |
| text, the visual cortex analyses the images, the | | | | Cause No 5 - Word Blindness |
| shapes of the letters are recognised, that | | | | There are two parts of the linguistic cortex; |
| information is passed to the auditory cortex | | | | Wernicke's area and Broca's area. Speech and |
| where the letter patterns are mapped to possible | | | | text is comprehended in Wernicke's area and |
| individual sounds in words, the sounds are blended | | | | generated in Broca's area. So, if the reader |
| into a word, the word is then passed to the | | | | bypasses Wernicke's area it is possible for the |
| linguistic cortex to be comprehended and the | | | | text to be read out aloud without it being |
| meaning of the word is passed to the prefrontal | | | | understood at all. |
| cortex to be stored and manipulated as part of a | | | | Cause No 6 - Stress Spirals |
| sentence. | | | | The brain reacts to stress by shutting down the |
| In 80% of struggling readers, the auditory cortex | | | | cerebral cortex and focusing on the more basic |
| is not engaged in this process. Instead the reader | | | | processes of the brain stem. This normally leads |
| views the text and recognises a whole word. | | | | to the survival reactions of fight, flight or |
| That information is then passed directly to the | | | | immobility. |
| prefrontal cortex. So the word "cow" is | | | | Reading involves almost every element of the |
| processed in much the same way as a picture of | | | | cerebral cortex and so stress has a big impact on |
| a cow. The main symptoms of the auditory | | | | the child's ability to process the text. The main |
| deficit are early success in reading, followed by | | | | symptoms are an ability to read that can dissolve |
| rising frustration as the child ends up on a reading | | | | as mistakes are made, frustration rises and a |
| plateau between the ages of 6 and 9. You will | | | | failure-stress-failure spiral develops. That will lead |
| then see a lot of wild guessing and a slow collapse | | | | to rising emotions potentially with aggression, |
| of confidence as the text gets more complex. | | | | defensiveness or a sullen lethargy. |
| Cause No 2 - Dyspraxia | | | | Cause No 7 - Irlen Syndrome |
| In order to navigate a line of text, your eyes do | | | | The eyes are very sensitive to changes of |
| a very delicate dance from word group to word | | | | intensity. That is how they pick up patterns. |
| group. Each jump is called a saccade. This is | | | | Some people have an over-sensitivity to black |
| controlled by the six extra-occular muscles around | | | | text on a white background, making the words |
| each eye. If the feedback and motor control | | | | very hard to focus on. The main symptom is the |
| circuits used for this process are weak, then the | | | | child complaining of the text "moving around" on |
| child will find dealing with lines of text very hard. | | | | the page. |
| The main symptom of this is an ability to read | | | | Summary |
| single words, but great difficulty with sentences. | | | | If a child is struggling to read, it is almost certainly |
| Cause No 3 - Short-Term Memory Capacity | | | | one or more of these 7 factors that is causing |
| Limitations | | | | the difficulty. They all have fairly simple solutions. |
| Your short-term memory will usually be able to | | | | So, if you can spot the underlying issue causing |
| hold between 5 and 9 items. If it is at the lower | | | | difficulty, getting good progress with the reading |
| end of that range, learning to read will be difficult | | | | becomes easy. |
| and laborious. The reason is that as a learner you | | | | |