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Call for attention to dyslexic children

People with dyslexia have often been misunderstood. There are now centers in China aimed at
creating public awareness and giving training courses to this group of people, Xu Lin finds out.
Wu Xiping, an office worker from Beijing, had been concerned about her 11-year-old son's bad
writing until two years ago when she accidentally found out the boy has dyslexia. It is a terminology
she has never heard before, neither have many other Chinese parents.
"I felt relieved the moment I found out. At least I know how to help him so that he could have fewer
difficulties in the future," she says.
Many people with dyslexia have difficulties reading, writing and spelling. With a neurological origin,
dyslexia is not correlated with IQ. There are famous and successful people with dyslexia, such as
Leonardo da Vinci and Tom Cruise.
According to the International Dyslexia Association in the United States, about 15 to 20 percent of
the population has some symptoms of dyslexia, including slow or inaccurate reading, or mixing up
similar words. Anatomical and brain imagery studies show differences in the way those with dyslexia
develop and function.
Since Wu's son started primary school, he was slow in his homework and his writing was huge and
illegible. The teacher thought he had a lackadaisical attitude and often punished him by asking him
to rewrite. As a result, he always slept late.
By chance, Wu saw a media report about dyslexia, and decided to send her son for a test. After the
result confirmed her son's problem, she told her son's teacher, who had no idea what dyslexia was.
(Taken from: China Daily, 8 March, 2013)

Dyslexia may be result of faulty brain

connections
WASHINGTON -- Dyslexia, one of the most common learning disorders, may be the result of
problems with brain connectivity, according to a study published in the US journal Science Thursday.
People with dyslexia, estimated to be more than 10 percent of the world's population, have difficulty
in reading, processing spoken language, and ultimately, learning.
Scientists have argued why dyslexics struggle with this process. Some suggested phonetic
representations are distorted in the dyslexic brain. Another theory is that phonetic representations
are intact in people with dyslexia, just hard to access by other brain regions involved in language
processing.
To investigate the two potential sources, Bart Boets and colleagues from the Catholic University of
Leuven in Belgium scanned the brains of 22 normal and 23 dyslexic adults.
They used functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging techniques to look at patterns of nerve activity in
the brain as these individuals responded to certain speech stimuli, noting how accurately sounds
were mapped to their related phonetic representations.
"Quite to our surprise, and probably to the surprise of the broader dyslexia field, we found that the
phonetic representations are perfectly intact in adults with dyslexia," Boets told reporters.
The researchers then performed a second analysis to explore whether connectivity in the brain
differed between the two groups. They assessed how easily 13 regions involved in language
processing could connect to phonetic representations, finding connectivity to be significantly
hampered between certain regions in the brains of dyslexics.
The worse the connection, the more poorly the individual performed on reading, spelling and other
tests, the researchers said.
According to the researchers, the research suggests that deficient access to phonetic
representations, not quality of these representations, is at the heart of dyslexia.
"Our findings indicate that the speech sound representations themselves are intact, but a
dysfunctional connection between frontal and temporal language areas impedes efficient access to
the representations," said Boets.
However, not everyone is convinced. Michael Merzenich, a neuroscientist at the University of
California, San Francisco, said that decades of "very extensive and compelling" evidence show that
people with dyslexia do, indeed, process phonetic representations with lower fidelity than normal.
"You can't just ignore this literature," Merzenich told Science.
(Taken from: China Daily, 6 December, 2013)

Special report: Dyspraxia a hidden disability in the UAE

ABU DHABI // Children who have the hidden handicap of dyspraxia may be unfairly
dismissed as disruptive or lazy, health professionals say.
The lifelong learning disability causes problems with movement and coordination,
meaning children often have difficulty writing or playing sports, planning,
organising, carrying out movements in the right order and articulating their
thoughts.
Adam Griffin, occupational therapist at Camali Clinic, Dubai Healthcare City,
estimates that at least one child in every classroom may have the condition, which
is also known as developmental coordination disorder (DCD), but many parents and
teachers are unaware.
They [the children] can seem demotivated, said Mr Griffin.
They may seem like they are disruptive because actually copying from the board
and paying attention can be a real difficulty with these kids.
Those with DCD are often equally as bright or more intellectual than the average
child, and the disorder is often overlooked, he said, because learning disabilities can
often wrongly be identified as underachievement.
Butter-fingers, difficulty in paying attention in class or having two left feet in
sport are red flags to the disability, he said.
A good way to imagine it is the old name for DCD the Clumsy Child Syndrome
which is outdated but telling, he said.
A lot of advocacy groups do still cling to it because they say it does explain it well.
These children are slightly more clumsy, slightly more uncoordinated.
A telltale thing sometimes is that they have bumps and bruises and scrapes quite a
lot more than other kids.

Nannette Wicker-Essick, occupational therapist and executive director/founder of

kidsFirst in Dubai, agrees that children with dyspraxia are misunderstood.
Teachers may feel the child is not meeting their potential in the classroom, said
Ms Wicker-Essick. Parents can become frustrated when they arent moving fast
enough or following instructions.
Children with dyspraxia can be labelled or misdiagnosed as slow learners, dyslexic,
having attention deficit disorder, and others, as their symptoms may look similar to
a person unaware of dyspraxia or motor learning difficulties.
They can also be labelled as not trying, when in fact they are trying very hard but
it may just take them a bit longer to process and complete the activity.
Because their IQ is normal it is very frustrating for them to feel this way.
Being slow to complete school work is just one aspect, she said. Those with
dyspraxia are typically disorganised. They may struggle with emotions and can get
easily upset or frustrated. Creative and imaginative play can be difficult. This can
impact on school performance and friendships, said Ms Wicker-Essick.
They are sensitive children who are keenly aware of their differences, who want to
fit in. They are able to be an active part of a team or group as long as they are
given a bit of extra time to practise lessons and activities.

Dr Madeleine Portwood, a specialist in educational psychology who works with

Ebdaah in Dubai, estimates the prevalence of dyspraxia in the population is
between 6 to 10 per cent. While children with the disability are typically thought of
as being uncoordinated, there are other issues such as sensory problems.

(Taken from: The National, 15 February, 2015)

Salvesens give 5m to learning difficulties centre

ONE of Scotlands richest families has gifted millions of pounds to fund a new
centre for children and young people with learning difficulties.
Alastair and Elizabeth Salvesen made the second biggest personal donation in
Edinburgh University history to pay for the Salvesen Mindroom Centre.
Backed by the charity Mindroom, its aim will be to understand and resolve learning
difficulties through research, diagnosis, assessment and treatment.
Staff at the virtual centre will work closely with NHS Lothian and the city councils
education, children and families department.
Mr Salvesen, chairman of Dawnfresh Seafoods, which was spun out from his greatgrandfathers Christian Salvesen shipping group, and his wife gave 5 million to the
university second only to JK Rowlings 10m donation in 2010 for an MS clinic in her
mothers name.
He said: Elizabeth and I are delighted to make this gift. We consider that the majority
of children who have learning difficulties suffer from dyslexia, dyspraxia and ADHD.
They can be reached and helped quickly through Mindroom, the NHS and education
departments throughout Scotland.
The University of Edinburgh will now coordinate this effort, which will involve its
existing neuroscientific research centres. By gathering meaningful statistics and
undertaking research, those with learning difficulties of all types should benefit greatly
in the long term.
At least five children in every school class in the UK have some form of learning
difficulty, the university said.
A wide range of conditions can impact on learning for children and young people
including dyslexia, dyspraxia, specific speech and language impairments,
developmental coordination disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)
and autism spectrum disorder.
Researchers and clinicians at the centre will also work with and draw on expertise from
existing university centres.

These include the Patrick Wild Centre for Research into Autism, Fragile X Syndrome and
Intellectual Disabilities, the Anne Rowling Clinic and the Euan MacDonald Centre for
Motor Neurone Disease Research.
Professor Anne OHare, director designate of the new centre and consultant
paediatrician, said: Through the Salvesens gift we will be able to deliver a better
approach to supporting children with the wide range of conditions that impact on their
learning.
Mindroom was established in 2000 by Sophie Dow, whose daughter Annie, 24, has
learning difficulties.
She said: We are absolutely delighted to be part of this exciting and ground-breaking
new centre.

(Taken from: The Scotsman, 16 February, 2015)