1

Dyslexia: Past, Present, and Future Masoud Mahmoodi-Shahrebabaki Middle Tennessee State University

Abstract The current paper aims to provide a historical overview of the therapy and research. Currently, is an interdisciplinary endeavor encompassing a wide array of subjects including neurology, education, psychology, and linguistics. However, under the influence of the concurrent literary, educational and psychological trends in different eras, different fields have provided unique insights into the nature of difficulties. The paper concludes with a brief discussion of the current trends in the dyslexia research. Keywords: Dyslexia, overview, reading difficulty, historical review

Introduction

Today, Dyslexia refers to a neurobiological negatively affecting fluent word recognition, spelling and decoding during reading. However, the term dyslexia has seen a long history of interpretation and use. Before provision of a universally accepted definition of dyslexia in the Code of Practice by the Department of Education and Employment (DDE) in

1994, some would use dyslexia to refer to either developmental dyslexia or learning difficulty

(Snowling, 2001; Vellutino, 1979). Even though the DDE definition viewed dyslexia as a particular learning disorder, and disregarded the specific characteristics of dyslexia making it different from other forms or types of learning difficulties, (Seymour, 1986) the debate about the validity of this claim is still ongoing(Ellis, 2016; Tonnessen, 1997).

Before the start of 20th century, dyslexia was regarded medical irregularity, and the term word blindness was commonly used to describe difficulties in reading and writing. The first 2 person studying dyslexia from a purely educational view has been mentioned to be Sir Francis

Galton in 1869, who investigated how individual differences might affect different learning difficulties (Reeves, 2015). Generally, the concept of dyslexia has been viewed from different perspectives; seen as a purely medical problem on one end of the continuum and a purely educational on the other end. The following section provides an overview of the history of dyslexia therapy and research.

Initial Perspectives

The available historical evidence indicates that Johannes Schmidt, who was a German physician, reported a case of reading difficulty caused by a stroke in one of his patients in 1676

(Anderson & Meier-Hedder, 2001). He observed that his patient started to recover from the stroke very fast and after several months he did not show and health-related issues except for difficulties in reading and writing. Dr. Schmidt’s impression of his observation was that there was perhaps an unknown organ in the brain responsible for language skills and damage to it would result in disabilities in reading and writing.

A German neurologist named Adolph Kussmaul may be considered the first person whose work drew public attention about reading difficulties in 1887. Even though his primary interest revolved around adult reading difficulties, his work was noteworthy in that he called for the study of reading problems as a separate type of learning difficulty (Hallahan & Mock 2003).

He called reading difficulties word blindness, a term which spread fast among educators and medical practitioners. Use of the word blindness implies a medical deficiency in people with reading difficulties, and this term was used in medical journals as a type of neurological affliction (Critchley, 1975). In 1887, Rudolf Berlin used the term dyslexia for the first time in his 3 paper; however, this term was not widely accepted and adopted by researchers until the 1980s

(Berlin, 1887; Reeves, 2015).

Followed by the rise of interest in studying word blindness and publishing the findings in medical journals, a detailed report of a seminal study conducted by Dr. Dejerne was published in the Lancet Medical Journal published in 1891. His case study included monitoring the reading difficulties of a patient suffering from brain trauma, and he observed how the problems vary in different times and conditions (Dehaene, 2009). Dr. Dejerne found that, in addition to reading, his patient had difficulty in speaking and writing. He concluded that the linguistic problems of his patient are results of neurological impairment in the brain caused by the trauma (Henderson,

1984).

The hypothetically neurological (or medical) models of Kussmaul and Dejerne continued to be extensively adopted by researchers for about a century. Until the late19th century and early

20th century. During this time reading difficulties were considered results of neurological disorders even though there existed no research evidence supporting this view and there was not also consensus among researchers on sources and types of reading difficulties (Dehaene, 2009,

Henderon, 1984).

An American neurologist named Dr. Orton introduced the term strephosymbolia referring to the difficulty of reversing letters in reading. Subsequently, he used the phrase developmental alexia relating to the children with reading difficulties (Orton, 1969). In the 1930s the term

“dyslexia” started to be commonly used for reading disability. Words ‘days,' and ‘lexia’ are

Greek words meaning absence and language respectively. Then, dyslexia means the absence of language. 4

With the emergence and rapid growth of the new field of beginning in the 1930s, dyslexia became one of the leading research interests in this area. During that time, sources and mechanism of reading difficulties were beginning to be viewed and studied from an educational point of view (Lyon, 1995; Vellutino, 1979). However, appraisal of children with reading and writing irregularities continued to be performed via intelligence measurement tools developed by developmental psychologists until the 1970s.After that, evaluation and measurement of reading and writing difficulties started to be conducted and interpreted from an educational perspective in response to the educational needs of children in different grades (Mather & Wendling, 2011). The rise in assessment and knowledge of dyslexia resulting from this work lead to changes in instruction and teaching for children with reading difficulties.

Support and Teaching Programs

Anna Gillingham and Bessie Stillman (1936) wrote and compiled the first teaching materials for the educational needs of children with dyslexia. Additionally, they provided educators with specific new approaches to be used with children with reading disabilities. Their guidelines stressed the use of visual, kinesthetic and auditory tools in classrooms for delivering different types of input assisting children in reading and understanding a text. After the introduction of Gillingham and Bessie Stillman`s (1936) teaching materials and guidelines, no major program received widespread attention until the 1960s. During this period, dyslexia started to be viewed mostly from psychological and educational perspectives, and some teaching approaches were presented in various published outlets for helping children with dyslexia in their reading abilities. 5

In 1968 a new method of teaching children with reading difficulties was developed by

Doman and Delacato in the United States. Although other teaching methods for children with dyslexia existed and were used at that time, the Patterning Method of Doman-Delcato was theoretically driven from the notion that children with learning difficulties did not have the typical neurological developments most children have. The developers of this approach considered developmental phases evolutionary and failure to pass each of these developmental stages, they contended, would result in deficiencies in learning and communication (Flax, 1983).

The Patterning Method was widely criticized for lack of a valid theory, lack of research-based evidence, and lack of flexibility for different settings (Freeman, 1967; Silver, 1987). Despite the harsh criticisms, the Patterning Method played an influential role in the development of dyslexia therapy in that it introduced a systematic and organized program for children with learning difficulties based on physical movements. The authors` hypothesis stated that damage to the cerebellum could affect the learning and reading of children also were supported by later research evidence (Thatch, 1998).

A significant milestone in the history of dyslexia happened in 1963 in England by the establishment of Word Blind Centre for Dyslexic Children in London. The primary goal of the center was to provide evidence-based teaching methods to be delivered to children with dyslexia

(Naidoo, 1972). Four years later, a similar organization, named the Orton Dyslexia Society, was founded in the US with the aim of promotion of public and governmental attention to the importance of dyslexia. The ODS grew exponentially in the following years and after widespread international recognition changed its name to International Dyslexia Association in 1997, a title still used. 6

Current Perspectives

The latest research evidence shows that reading disability is not an “all or nothing” deficiency. Rather, reading disability of a reader should be considered on a continuum starting from “very low” to “very high” (Ellis, 2016). Nevertheless, It can be said that nearly all the individuals with a reading disability have similar symptoms most notably deficits in phonological processing (Ellis, 2016; Fletcher, 2009; Mahmoodi-Shahrebabaki, 2014). Also, the evidence obtained from qualitative studies revealed that reading disability is not a temporary deficiency, and its level of severity does not decrease by the passage of time (Grech, 2014) and children with and without signs of reading disorders typically maintain their spot along the continuum of reading skills. (Patterson, Marshall & Coltheart, 2017). The latest research evidence shows that the primary difficulty for children with dyslexia is their poor phonological processing. Deficiencies in semantics and syntax have not been found to be a primary cause of dyslexia. The current research seeks to investigate the potential effect of cognitive disorders on reading disorders. This notion can be the reason a high volume of current research is about the role of Attention Deficit and Hyper-Activity Disorder (ADHD) and memory (long and short) in developmental dyslexia (Fletcher, 2009).

Conclusion

Dyslexia used to be perceived as a pathological disorder within the realm of medical science.

The extensive use of the term dyslexia started in the twentieth century. During mid-twentieth century dyslexia begun to make headway into research and practice in educational sciences. It was during this time that various teaching approaches and theories were proposed for assisting children with dyslexia and, research theories started to view dyslexia as a linguistic deficiency and not as a visual deficiency. 7

Subsequently, the advent of several organizations in the 1980s raised the public awareness about the reading difficulties. It is yet noticeable that despite the general view of dyslexia as a learning difficulty, there is not a consensus about definitions and explanations of the concept of dyslexia. For instance, some people consider dyslexia a deficit while some see it as a different learning style (Casalis, 2004; Fletcher, 2009).

Currently, professionals and researchers in psychology, medical sciences, and educational sciences are working hand in hand with the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of dyslexia

(Blachman, 2013; Mahmoodi-Shahrebabaki, 2015). With the rapid advancement of technology, researchers can observe different parts of the brain today bringing new insights into the understanding of learning difficulties. Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) and the

Positron Emission Tomography (PET) are the most influential tools researchers can use today for the neurological studies on dyslexia. One persist problem is still undermining the efforts to prevent and tackle reading difficulties, and it is lack of “pure dyslexic” person (Ramus, 2001).

Based on the available empirical evidence, there is not a clear boundary between reading difficulties and other learning difficulties rooted in neurological and developmental impairments.

By returning to the dyslexia continuum introduced at the beginning of the manuscript, it may be said that the pendulum is somewhere in the middle of the continuum today and we are obtaining new information on dyslexia continuously from different research fields. This multiplicity will undoubtedly lead to divergent evidence from various disciplines and perspectives in future; however, it should not lead to the negligence of a crucial fact: helping individuals with dyslexia is most effective when it is provided and happened in educational settings. 8

References Berlin, R. (1887). Eine besondere art der wortblindheit (dyslexia). Berlin: Bergmann. Blachman, B. A. (Ed.). (2013). Foundations of reading acquisition and dyslexia: Implications for early intervention. London: Routledge. Casalis, S. (2004). The concept of dyslexia. In Handbook of children’s (pp. 257-273). Springer Netherlands. Critchley, M. (1975). Developmental dyslexia: Its history, nature, and prospects. In Proceedings of the world congress on dyslexia on reading, perception, and language (Vol. 12, p. 272). Dehaene, S. (2009). Reading in the brain: The new science of how we read. London: Penguin. Ellis, A. W. (2016). Reading, writing, and dyslexia: a cognitive analysis. London: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group. Flax, N. (1973). The eye and learning disabilities. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 6328-333. Fletcher, J. M. (2009). Dyslexia: The evolution of a scientific concept. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, 15, 501-508. Freeman, R. D. (1967). Controversy over patterning as a treatment for brain damage in children. JAMA, 202, 385-388. Henderson, V. W. (1984). Jules Dejerine and the third alexia. Archives of Neurology, 41(4), 430- 432. Hallahan, D. P., & Mock, D. R. (2003). A brief history of the field of learning disabilities. In H. L. Swanson, K. R. Harris, & S. Graham (Eds.), Handbook of learning disabilities (pp. 16–29). New York: Guilford Press Lyon, G. R. (1995). Toward a definition of dyslexia. Annals of Dyslexia, 45(1), 1-27. Mahmoodi-Shahrebabaki, M. (2014). E-learning in Iran as a developing country: challenges ahead and possible solutions. International Journal of Research in Education Methodology,6(2), 788-795. Mahmoodi-Shahrebabaki, M. (2014). An Investigation on the Effectiveness of Using Movie Clips in Teaching English Language Idioms. Enjoy Teaching Journal, 2(4), 26-35. Mahmoodi-Shahrebabaki, M. (2015). On the Understated and Avant-garde Language Teaching Methods and Theories. Int. J. Appl. Ling. Stud, 4(1), 17-23. Mahmoodi-Shahrebabaki, M., & Mahmoodi, Z. (2015). Attitude of Iranian Efl Learners and Teachers towards Using Movie Clips in Teaching Idioms. Modern Journal of Language Teaching Methods, 5(1), 202. 9

Mahmoodi-Shahrebabaki, M. (2015). EDUCATIONAL SYNCRETISM: CALL FOR A HYPER-MODERNIST EDUCATIONAL THEORY THROUGH PROACTIONARY APPROACH. Bulgarian Journal of Science and Education Policy, 9(1), 5. Mather, N., & Wendling, B. J. (2011). Essentials of dyslexia assessment and intervention (Vol. 89). New York: John Wiley & Sons. Naidoo, S. (1972). Specific Dyslexia. London: Pitman. Orton, S. T. (1966). Word-blindness in School Children and Other Papers on Strephosymbolia :( specific Language Disability-dyslexia) 1925-1946 (No. 2). Maryland: Orton Society. Ramus, F. (2001). Dyslexia: Talk of two theories. Nature, 412(6845), 393. Reeves, J. W. (2015). Thinking about thinking: Studies in the background of some psychological approaches. London: Routledge. Seymour, P. H. (1986). Cognitive analysis of dyslexia. London: Routledge Silver, L. B. (1987). A review of the current controversial approaches for treating learning disabilities. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 20,498-504 Snowling, M. J. (2001). From language to reading and dyslexia. Dyslexia, 7(1), 37-46. Thach, W. T. (1998). A role for the cerebellum in learning movement coordination. Neurobiology of learning and memory, 70(1), 177-188 Tønnessen, F. E. (1997). How Can We Best Define ‘Dyslexia’? Dyslexia, 3(2), 78-92. Vellutino, F. (1979). Dyslexia. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.