Thursday, August 2, 2007

Jenny's Musings August 2, 2007

Today we learned about the dyslexic brain. It was absolutely fascinating! It was another LOOOOOONNNNNNGGGGG day but well worth it. Along with learning about the dyslexic brain, we also spend time reviewing the rest of the test results of the child tested on site, talked about how to tutor after testing, went over the Barton System and LIPS program (see information below), and learned how much money we would need to spend to get started! At the end of the day, I have mixed feelings. My whole body aches with exhaustion. I am a little overwhelmed trying to store all of the information given in 8 hours, but also each day I am filled with so much hope, enthusiasm, and excitement knowing that I can make a difference and that people with dyslexia can overcome their struggles.

The Lindamood Phoneme Sequencing (LiPS) program was developed by Patricia Lindamood, a speech and language pathologist and co-founder of Lindamood-Bell Learning Processes.

The LiPS program develops phonemic awareness by teaching students to utilize oral-motor movements to attach to sounds that phonemes make within words. Students are also required to manipulate sounds within words. This program is considered a multisensory reading program.

People with dyslexia have a symmetrical brain.

The Right Hemisphere is 10% bigger than the average brain. We think that that attests to their confusion as well as their giftedness.

Researchers discovered some odd things by studying dead brains in a jar both normal and dyslexic.

Dyslexic brains had clumps and clumps of nerve endings on the outside of the layer 1 of the brain. Normal brains have nerves that grow and migrate out from the center and stop at the edge of layer 2.

The Brain
Layer 1 is the outside layer.
Layer 2 is right under.
Layers 3, 4, 5, and 6 are located layering toward the center of the brain.

The clumps are called ectopias and are on the left outside of the brain where they do not belong. They are only on the left side. There are about 30-200 ectopias around the sylvian fissure (valleys).

Right below those ectopias is the language processing area of the brain. This includes expressive and receptive language.

Connected to the sylvian fissure are Broca’s area and Wernicke’s area

Sylvian fissure (n.) the deepest and most prominent of the cortical fissures : separates the frontal lobes and temporal lobes in both hemispheres

Broca's area is the section of the human brain that is involved in language processing, speech production and comprehension. It is located in the opercular and triangular sections of the inferior frontal gyrus of the frontal lobe of the cortex. Broca's and Wernicke's areas are found unilaterally in the brain. Broca's area is named after the 19th century physician Paul Broca.

It comprises Brodmann area 44,[1] and some authorities also include Brodmann area 45[2][3][4]); Broca's Area is connected to Wernicke's area by a neural pathway called the arcuate fasciculus. The corresponding area in macaque monkeys is responsible for high-level control over orofacial actions.[5]

Wernicke's area is a part of the human brain that forms part of the cortex, on the left posterior section of the superior temporal gyrus, encircling the auditory cortex, on the Sylvian fissure (part of the brain where the temporal lobe and parietal lobe meet). It can also be described as the posterior part of Brodmann area 22 and is usually located in the left hemisphere, as that is where the specialized language skill areas can be found for the majority of people.

Wernicke's area is named after Karl Wernicke, a German neurologist and psychiatrist who, in 1874, discovered that damage to this area could cause a type of aphasia that is now called Wernicke's aphasia or receptive aphasia.

This condition results in an impairment of language comprehension and in speech that has a natural-sounding rhythm and a relatively normal syntax, but otherwise has no recognisable meaning (a condition sometimes called fluent or jargon aphasia).

Wernicke's work initiated the study of this brain area and its role in language. It is particularly known to be involved in the understanding and comprehension of spoken language.

It is connected to Broca's area by a neural pathway called the arcuate fasciculus. It also has connections to the primary auditory cortex, evidence for its role in the comprehension of the spoken word.

If the nerve endings on the outside are so different, what about on the inside? Nerve pathways on the inside are not quite as organized or structured as a normal brain. They weren’t even the same from one dyslexic brain to the other

FMRI
Functional Magnetic Residence Imaging
Allows researcher to go inside the alive brain and use software to see what parts of your brain are functioning.

Brains do function differently when reading. There is difference in brain function when reading between men and women in a normal brain.

Male good reader
Males, no matter the age, read using the same part of the brain. There are 3 parts of the brain involved in reading. Male brains take information back to the left occipital lobe. They process visual information in the back of brain (process what your eyes take in). Then that information goes to two other front parts of the brain, one after the other.

Female good reader
They take information back to both occipital lobes, then sends the information to the other two parts at the same time.

Acquired Dyslexia
Losing the ability to read due to a stroke.
Older women who have a stroke hardly ever lose the ability to read because they take the info back to two parts.

Dyslexic Readers
Never take information back to the occipital lobe
Take information to the forward part of the brain
People with dyslexia have a unique pattern

See the book by Shaywitz Overcoming Dyslexia- really neat pictures of the dyslexic brain

International Dyslexia Association
www.interdys.org

After being given the right tutoring, when given another brain scan, you could not or hardly tell the difference between a normal and dyslexic brain. You can fix a dyslexic brain.

3 Genes Responsible for Dyslexia
Dyslexia could be considered a triple deficit.
We have 23 chromosomes.
If there are weaknesses in the genes in the chromosomes, the chromosomes will be challenged(At this point in the day I can't think of another word, "at risk, damaged"?)

Chromosome 6
Phonemic Awareness
It makes you very sensitive to small sounds in our language.
It is considered the genetic marker of dyslexia.

Chromosome 15
Controls rapid naming

Chromosome 1
Visual memory for words

Inheritability Patterns – VERY IMPORTANT
Dyslexia is a highly inheritable condition.
The biggest factor is if dyslexia is in the family tree. There are 50/50 odds of having it for every child born into that family tree.
Researchers say that dyslexia does not skip generations.
If you discover dyslexia in a child, you should check the parents. The severity of it can be different. If both parents have it, then the odds are 100%.
Researchers say that if you are in a family with dyslexia but don’t have it yourself, you will not pass it on to your child through your genes.

Ear Infections
What is the connection between ear infections and dyslexia?

Fact: We now know the location of the gene that controls phonemic awareness. The gene right next door is one of the major players in your immune system.

Researchers are working on the following: As speculation, the gene for phonemic awareness is slightly miscoded. The miscoding may not stop at the end of one gene but slop over into another gene. If so, that could explain the ear infections. The thought is that people with dyslexia have a higher chance for immune systems problems than those without. (ie. Multiple Sclerosis, Fibromyalgia)

We can’t cure dyslexia but we can greatly improve their reading, spelling, and writing skills.

Trustworthy Research

1. Independent
Who paid for the research? The research is not trustworthy if the person with interest for the research paid anything at all for the research. It has to be independent or it is not trustworthy.

2. Scientific
There has to be some comparison groups.
Control group vs. current research based best practiced vs. new program
Needs to be large enough that it can represent the general population.

3. Replicated
Must be replicated several times. Other researchers got the same results.

4. Published
In Peer-Reviewed Journal
Barton system has all of the above but this one.
Very few people have this because it takes a very long time to gain.

Orton-Gillingham Systems (tutoring materials/resources)

  • Slingerland
  • Alphabetic Phonics
  • Project Read
  • Wilson
  • Language! (not quite as good as it used to be)
  • Barton Reading & Spelling System

Barton Levels

  • Phonemic Awareness
  • Consonants, Short Vowels, Digraphs
  • Closed & Unit Syllables
  • Syllable Division & Vowel Teams
  • Prefixes & Suffixes
  • Six Reasons for Silent-E
  • Vowel-R Syllables
  • Advanced Vowel Teams
  • Influence of Foreign Languages (could be held until high school)
  • Latin Roots & Greek Words (could be held until high school)

What won’t work for the dyslexic

  • Hooked on Phonics
  • Reading Recovery
  • Read Naturally
  • Accelerated Reader
  • Vision Therapy or colored overlays
  • Brain Gym or other exercises
  • Sylvan, Score or Kuman Centers
  • Fast Forward
  • Ron Davis – Gift of Dyslexia
  • Special diets or medicine

1 comment:

BJ Aberle said...

wow that was really really long.