About | Pqbd

In the beginning….

After kindergarten, two years of first grade, and a rocky second grade I learned that my oldest son – like his father – was dyslexic.  Ok.  I was ready for this.   I rolled up my sleeves, bought some flash cards, and prepared to “fix” my quiet son of what I misunderstood as simply reading backwards (or was it in mirror images?).  However, when I began researching, talking to specialists, and meeting for coffee with other parents, what I learned was my own epiphany.   His struggle with decoding letters indicated a unique difference in learning… and what an amazing mind it is!  Calmed by this knowledge, I have come to understand that my son’s dyslexic brain will take him exactly where he wants to go. Even more, I now know how to parent and guide him on his path.

In the winter of 2012  I sat in my living room with two other women and began structuring a parent support and awareness group.  Armed with new knowledge and determination, we decided to start the Virginia chapter of Decoding Dyslexia.  By early 2013 DDVA had a website, a facebook page, and members across the state ready for action!  We began lobbying in the Va General Assembly with teams of both republicans and democrats to introduce bills that would change the face of education in our state.  After many conversations, letters, events, and meetings we have successfully passed laws requiring all licensed Virginia teachers to watch the VDOE Dyslexia Awareness Module, the hiring of dyslexia advisors,  higher ed to include dyslexia training, and for parent notification when a student is not hitting certain benchmarks.   
With the foundation of these new bills I can see what education could look like for my grandkids, so there is no stopping now! 

The New Community School in Richmond VA empowers dyslexic students by embracing their style of learning with an innovative educational approach that focuses on strengths. Looking for information? Email [email protected]

Freshman Orientation August 2022

Starting Conversations

Interview with GibbyBooth.

com

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“This was a great interview. I appreciate your sharing it! My favorite part is hearing about the work you’re doing to legislate change in higher ed! Well, that and I liked your personal story.”

Decoding Dyslexia Virginia 

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Decoding Dyslexia Virginia is a grassroots movement focused on linking families to resources, support, and educational interventions for dyslexia. We aim to raise dyslexia awareness, empower families to support their children and inform policy-makers on best practices to identify, remediate and support students with dyslexia in Virginia

Bonnie Lee K.  – Teacher, dyslexia advocate, conversation starter

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“Today, I had an early meeting (I’m a teacher of third grade students…31 of them ). My necklace started a conversation between my Reading support teacher and myself. In fact, she wanted to learn more of what I’m learning about dyslexia …”

Dyslexia friendly style guide – British Dyslexia Association

Creating a dyslexia friendly workplace

This Style Guide provides principles that can help ensure that written material considers the difficulties experienced by some dyslexic people and allows for the use of text to speech to facilitate ease of reading. Adopting these principles for dyslexic readers has the advantage of making all written communication easier on the eye for everyone.

When making changes consider all the ways that you use written communications, such as emails, presentations, web pages and printed materials.

Consider these principles in combination with other accessibility guidance such as the Web Accessibility Content Guidelines (WCAG).

Readable fonts

• Use sans serif fonts, such as Arial and Comic Sans, as letters can appear less crowded. Alternatives include Verdana, Tahoma, Century Gothic, Trebuchet, Calibri, Open Sans.
• Font size should be 12-14 point or equivalent (e.g. 1-1.2em / 16-19 px). Some dyslexic readers may request a larger font.
• Larger inter-letter / character spacing (sometimes called tracking) improves readability, ideally around 35% of the average letter width. If letter spacing is excessive it can reduce readability.
• Inter-word spacing should be at least 3. 5 times the inter-letter spacing.
• Some dyslexic people fine that larger line spacing improves readability. It should be proportional to inter-word spacing; 1.5/150% is preferable.
• Avoid underlining and italics as this can make the text appear to run together and cause crowding. Use bold for emphasis.
• Avoid using all capital letters and uppercase letters for continuous text. Lower case letters are easier to read.

Headings and structure

Use headings and styles to create consistent structure to help people navigate through your content. In Word, you’ll find these tools in the ‘Home’ tab:

• For headings, use a font size that is at least 20% larger than the normal text. If further emphasis is required, then use bold.
• Use formatting tools for text alignment, justification, indents, lists, line and paragraph spacing to support assistive technology users. In Word, you’ll find these tools in the ‘Layout’ tab:
• Add extra space around headings and between paragraphs.
• Ensure hyperlinks look different from headings and normal text.

Colour

• Use single colour backgrounds. Avoid background patterns or pictures and distracting surrounds.
• Use sufficient contrast levels between background and text.
• Use dark coloured text on a light (not white) background.
• Avoid green and red/pink, as these colours are difficult for those who have colour vision deficiencies (colour blindness).
• Consider alternatives to white backgrounds for paper, computer and visual aids such as whiteboards. White can appear too dazzling. Use cream or a soft pastel colour. Some dyslexic people will have their own colour preference.
• When printing, use matt paper rather than gloss. Paper should be thick enough to prevent the other side showing through.

Layout

• Left align text, without justification. This makes it easier to find the start and finish of each line and ensures even spacing between words.
• Avoid multiple columns (as used in newspapers).
• Write short simple sentences: 60 to 70 characters is optimal.
• Use white space to remove clutter near text and group related content.
• Break up the text with regular section headings in long documents and include a table of contents.

Writing Style

• Use active rather than passive voice.
• Be concise; avoid using long, dense paragraphs.
• Write in simple clear language using every day words.
• Use images to support text. Flow charts are ideal for explaining procedures. Pictograms and graphics can help to locate and support information in the text.
• Consider using bullet points and numbering rather than continuous prose.
• Give instructions clearly.
• Avoid double negatives.
• Avoid abbreviations where possible; always provide the expanded form when first used.
• Provide a glossary of abbreviations and jargon.

The Dyslexia Style Guide 2023 is available as:

• Dyslexia Style Guide 2023 (PDF)

Dyslexia: symptoms, causes, treatment of the disease

Speech therapist

Bratanova

Olga Aleksandrovna

Experience 31 years

Speech therapist

Make an appointment

Dyslexia is a disorder related to reading skills. Due to problems with certain mental functions that should be involved in the formation of such skills, a child may experience a variety of difficulties when working with a text. Most often, it is difficult to recognize individual characters, signs – as a result, the meaning of words, phrases or sentences is not captured or distorted.

The problem manifests itself from childhood and, with proper correction, can be leveled to a level that allows you to live comfortably and study effectively. But if you do not pay attention to it at an early age, it remains in adulthood, causing a lot of inconvenience. At the same time, it is important to understand that dyslexia does not determine the development of the child by itself – he can effectively perceive information through other channels, for example, to understand well by ear.

Why dyslexia occurs – the causes of the disease

The main causes of dyslexia are neurobiological in nature. This is important for understanding, because often, out of ignorance, parents and teachers attribute the difficulties with reading to the “laziness” or “inattention” of the child, only starting the situation. But with such a deviation, certain areas of the brain are less active, and also have a reduced density.

Additional causes of dyslexia (provoking factors) are:

• disorders that affect the balance between the two hemispheres of the brain;
• serious, severe infections affecting the brain – the most common example is meningitis;
• traumatic brain injury;
• complications during childbirth and pregnancy: from infections to fetal asphyxia. During pregnancy, the mother’s bad habits also worsen the situation: smoking, drinking alcohol, as well as drugs.

Social factors also have a serious influence on this deviation. Moreover, they can be absolutely opposite in their orientation. So, the symptoms of dyslexia can manifest themselves from too much study load, and from neglect – a complete disregard for the development of the child. With isolation, lack of communication, not a very good environment, the situation only worsens.

However, we recall that dyslexia is not necessarily a disease of children from dysfunctional families. Due to purely biological reasons, it can manifest itself in children who live in excellent conditions and receive enough attention from adults.

Types of dyslexia

Before describing the specific symptoms of the disease, let’s talk about the types of dyslexia. There are currently six of them.

• Phonemic (acoustic). According to the classification, dyslexia is the most common problem that often occurs in elementary school students. With such a problem, the guys rearrange the syllables, distort the structure of the word – for example, instead of “cat”, they read “current”.
• Agrammatical. Assumes errors in the compilation of constructions, for example, a person may incorrectly use endings, cases, tenses (“white table”, “I’m hungry”).
• Semantic. Every word that a person reads, he understands, but separately from the entire text. And he cannot assemble words into sentences or into other, even more complex constructions – therefore it is impossible to catch the meaning of what was read. For this reason, dyslexia in adults and children does not allow you to get enough information from books.
• Mnestic. This is a problem at the level of individual letters and sounds that do not allow you to learn or understand the whole word.
• Optical. Here deviations occur at the visual level. For example, a dyslexic sees a word backwards (mirror) or cannot keep his eyes on the line that he is reading – his eyes constantly slide over the page, not allowing him to adhere to the desired reading sequence.
• Tactile. Specific dyslexia is characteristic of people who cannot see and use Braille to read. With this deviation, the letters, determined by touch, are either perceived incorrectly (they are confused with similar ones), or “escape” – a person cannot stay on the desired line.

With these types of dyslexia, the symptoms of the disease will be extremely diverse and ambiguous.

Symptoms by age

To detect dyslexia, it is necessary to know the full range of signs characteristic of this disease. And here there are difficulties, because there are a lot of manifestations – moreover, many of them differ in age. Let’s start with the general points, and then talk about what to look for at different ages of the child.

Common symptoms of dyslexia:

• problems with concentration, attention and memory;
• difficulties with orientation in space – for example, when a child confuses right and left, up and down;
• difficulties with simple and more complex tasks: from fulfilling an elementary request to learning the alphabet, multiplication tables;
• changes in the sequence of letters, syllables, numbers when writing, reading information;
• inability to handle pens, pencils, etc. well. If a child needs to write something, he clumsily uses a writing tool;
• unwillingness to read aloud, write, etc. Actions that are very difficult or in which many mistakes are later found cause psychological discomfort in children.

Even some of these signs are a reason to go to the doctor and start dealing with the situation. At the same time, it is very important for parents not to scold the child, not to put pressure on him, forcing him to do what he cannot do. A softer and more balanced approach is needed here.

They take into account not only the forms of dyslexia, but also how the problem manifests itself in dynamics, at different times.

At preschool age, the disease manifests itself as problems in speech, difficulties in learning, pronunciation of different words. The child is often confused, does not remember even a short set of phrases. It is difficult for him to master the basic skills of reading, writing, he confuses words and letters. All this can easily affect the quality of communication with classmates and peers – it gets worse.

At primary school age, problems manifest themselves not only at the level of words and syllables. It is already difficult for a child to memorize facts, he gets confused in arithmetic signs. The state is reflected in the development of new information. Problems of a different nature also continue: behavior becomes awkward, impulsive, coordination of movements is disturbed.

In middle school age, the diagnosis of dyslexia shows poor reading quality, poor memory. The child also reads poorly, pronounces words. Difficulties cause rebellion, so the student refuses to read and write, he has difficulty with gestures, facial expressions, and problems in communicating with peers increase.

At senior school age, there are problems with writing, reading, memorizing, and reproducing information. A slow speed of work is formed, which makes it seem that the teenager is “lazy”. Moreover, the problem extends further – often dyslexics find it difficult to adapt to any changes in life.

Symptoms of dyslexia in adults suggest problems with writing and reading, while distraction and inattention are added. An adult with such a disease often does not know how to plan his time – the quality of life is reduced.

Diagnosis

To diagnose dyslexia, a child is tested with various exercises. The specialist checks the features of long-term and short-term memory, the ability to analyze, the level of concentration, attention, logic, intelligence, etc. An important part of the work is a psychological examination – the symptoms of dyslexia are very diverse and require a personal approach.

Treatment, correction of dyslexia in Moscow

Defectologists, psychoneurologists can make a diagnosis of “dyslexia”. A speech therapist can also refer for an additional examination, to whom parents often turn if they notice problems with speech or reading in a child.

Experts say that no two dyslexics are the same – therefore, the treatment of dyslexia is individual. Often, difficulties remain with a person for life – and then it is important to understand how to improve its quality, how to help a child cope with the main life tasks. In other situations, a fairly high-quality correction is possible. For these purposes, a special speech therapy program is selected. It is based on the type of dyslexia, the age of the person, as well as his personal characteristics.

Medical treatment of dyslexia remains at the moment in question.

Preventive measures

As soon as a child has problems with reading, writing, memorizing and other important functions, you should immediately contact a speech therapist, as well as provide him with a comfortable environment for learning, start using the exercises recommended by the speech therapist.

Educational games, emphasis on visual information in childhood, comprehensive (but not exhausting) attention from adults – all this will be a good prevention of the disease.

Common questions and answers

Is it possible to cure dyslexia completely?

It all depends on the specific situation. Sometimes it is possible to correct the problem to such an extent that it does not affect later life. But it is important to start work on time.

Who treats dyslexia?

We have already partially answered this question about dyslexia, what it is and how to treat it. After the diagnosis and exclusion of other pathologies, the main treatment is carried out by a speech therapist according to a special program.

Is dyslexia always an intellectual problem?

In no case. A child with dyslexia, with the right approach, can not only get a good profession, but also become very successful in it. Suffice it to say that famous people such as Steve Jobs, John Lennon or billionaire Richard Branson were dyslexic.

Dyslexia is by no means a sentence, but a problem that requires careful attention from adults. If they make an effort and devote time to her, the child will have a chance for a good education and a great future.

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Types of dyslexia – semantic, phonemic, optical, agrammatical, mnestic and tactile dyslexia

Any type of dyslexia requires a timely correction plan, which is developed by highly specialized specialists.

Phonemic dyslexia (aka acoustic dyslexia) is a violation in which a person rearranges syllables in words or distorts the very structure of a word while reading a text.

Semantic dyslexia is a disorder in which it is difficult for a person to understand the meaning of a read sentence/paragraph/text.

Agrammatical dyslexia is a disorder in which a person constructs phrases and sentences grammatically incorrectly.

Mnestic dyslexia is a disorder in which a person cannot relate a sound to a letter.

Optical dyslexia is a disorder in which a person can read mirror printed text, “jump” when reading from one line to another.

Tactile dyslexia is a disorder in which blind people confuse letters while reading Braille.

Diagnosing and identifying a specific form of dyslexia is only the beginning of the journey. Narrow-profile specialists, including neuropsychologists, defectologists, speech therapists, can develop the necessary correction plan. In the case of dyslexia, the sooner a feature is diagnosed and a correction plan is decided on, the better for the person and the lesser the consequences.

Features of diagnosing dyslexia and related learning difficulties in the CIS and in world practice

with learning difficulties (dysgraphia, dyscaluclia, ADHD, etc.). While in the post-Soviet space it is customary to diagnose these concepts separately.

In both cases, specialists working in this field use such a common classification of difficulties as dyslexia, dysgraphia, dysorphography, dyscalculia, but there is a significant difference in the approach to overcoming learning difficulties, that is, in the development and implementation of systematic assistance programs in overcoming such difficulties . World practice is guided by the view of these diagnosed features as a set of problems , and in the post-Soviet space it is customary to diagnose each of these features separately and, accordingly, work with these features separately, and not in a complex.