Test For Dyslexia

Recognizing voices harder for people with dyslexia
by LAURAN NEERGAARD (Sept 2011)

Pick up the phone and hear, “Hey, what’s up?” Chances are, those few words are enough to recognize who’s speaking – perhaps unless you have dyslexia.

Pick up the phone and hear, “Hey, what’s up?” Chances are, those few words are enough to recognize who’s speaking – perhaps unless you have dyslexia.

In a surprise discovery, researchers found adults with that reading disorder also have a hard time recognizing voices.

The work isn’t just a curiosity. It fits with research to uncover the building blocks of literacy and how they can go wrong. The eventual goal: To spot at-risk youngsters even before they open “Go, Dog, Go!” in kindergarten – instead of diagnosing dyslexia in a struggling second-grader.

“Everybody is interested in understanding the root cause of dyslexia, so we can intervene early and do something about it,” says Massachusetts Institute of Technology cognitive neuroscientist John Gabrieli, senior author of the study published last week in the journal Science.

Dyslexia is thought to affect 8 percent to 15 percent of Americans, who can have great difficulty reading and writing. It’s not a problem with intelligence or vision. Instead, it’s language-based. The brain struggles with what’s called “phonological processing” – being able to distinguish and manipulate sounds, like “bah” and “pah,” that eventually have to be linked to written letters and words.

A graduate student in Gabrieli’s lab wondered if dyslexia would impair voice recognition as well. After all, subtle differences in pronunciation help distinguish people.

How to test that? Previous studies have shown it’s easier to recognize voices if they’re speaking your own language. So the researchers recruited English-speaking college students and young adults, half with dyslexia, half without. They watched animated characters – like a clown, a mechanic, a soccer player – speaking either English or Chinese, to get familiar with how they sounded.

Then came the test, to match a voice to its character. The volunteers correctly identified the Chinese speakers only about half the time, regardless of whether they had dyslexia. But when they heard English speakers, people with dyslexia still were right only half the time – while the non-dyslexics did far better, identifying 70 percent of the voices correctly.

That provides further evidence of dyslexia’s strong link to phonological impairment.

Perhaps more importantly, it’s a cleverly designed project that begs the question of whether voice recognition is a problem in young children, too, says Florida State University psychology professor Richard Wagner, who studies how to identify dyslexia early.

Gabrieli says he plans to test 5-year-olds.

Today, researchers know that children who are more phonologically aware when they enter kindergarten have a better shot at easy reading. One way to check that: See how they’re able to delete sounds from words – ask them to quickly say “cowboy” without the “boy.” Wagner says a child who answers such tasks correctly probably is developing fine. One who fails doesn’t necessarily have problems but merely could have misunderstood or not wanted to play along. He says more clear-cut methods are needed.

Differences in brain-processing show up even in infants, says Patricia Kuhl of the University of Washington, who studies how babies learn language.

A colleague in her lab tested how well babies could distinguish “ah” and “ee” sounds between ages 7 months and 11 months of age. Those who did best wound up with bigger vocabularies and better pre-reading skills, such as rhyming, by their fifth birthdays. That doesn’t mean they’ll go on to experience dyslexia, but it does show how very early development can play a role in reading-readiness.

But Kuhl says the voice-recognition study has broader implications for brain science. It shows that for split-second recognition, the brain’s social-oriented right side works together with the speech-perception region of the left brain. People with dyslexia apparently are missing out on some of that interaction.

That interaction, too, begins to appear early. At age 7 months, babies listening to recordings of their native language can recognize if there’s a change in speakers, but they miss that speaker change if they’re listening to a foreign language, she says. Scientists now have to figure out that neural wiring to learn how it goes awry.

This article was taken from the Seattle News.

Respect for the Fonz from the UK!

Elsewhere on this site you will see mention of famous celebrities who have been very open about their dyslexia in the hope that they may inspire and help others with this particular reading disorder.

One such celeb who was diagnosed with dyslexia as an adult is Henry Winkler (aka “The Fonz”). In Washington yesterday, he was presented with an honorary membership of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire at the Embassy by the Nigel Sheinwald the present British Ambassador.

Winkler was awarded the honorary membership because of his work in the Great Britain touring schools to talk about dyslexia and to help inspire children. He has also written books about a child, Hank Zipzer and his life living with dyslexia.

The Fonz said he was flattered and would continue to help children recognise they did not have a disability.

Keep up the good work Fonzie!!

Admin note: Although phonological problems certainly account for the significant portion of dyslexia problems, it is by no means the only issue and can not be used in isolation. Not all dyslexics have problems decoding written words into sound as you will see from other information on this site.  Some people have more problems in storing the whole written word (which is a more efficient way to read), and will decode words as their preferred way to read.

This is not to say the above research is flawed as I have not seen the original research so can’t comment. All I am saying, IMHO, that you should keep it in mind, but do not rely totally on this evidence.

Demand for adult literacy rises as funding threatened
10:56 PM PST on Wednesday, February 23, 2011

By DAYNA STRAEHLEY
The Press-Enterprise

John Zickefoose’s interest in education and literacy is personal.

After struggling with dyslexia and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder from elementary through high school, he finally turned for help to the library where he now works.

He was 35 years old and could no longer work in his home-repair business because he needed back surgery and a new career. His 7-year-old son read better than he could.

So 17 years ago he walked in the Corona Library and embarked on a journey of literacy.

Today, Zickefoose is on the board of an international literacy organization and the Corona-Norco Unified School District. He is outreach coordinator at the Corona Public Library.

“I owe my life to this library,” he said. “It totally transformed me as a human being.”

Such transformations could become more elusive as governments struggle to balance the budgets.

Demand for adult literacy services in the Inland area is higher than ever, but funding cuts threaten the programs run from public libraries.

ProLiteracy, an international literacy organization, estimates about 14 percent of the U.S. population is functionally illiterate. California has the lowest literacy rates in the United States, with 20 percent illiteracy, said Amy Schmitz, communications director for ProLiteracy in Syracuse, N.Y. The percentage may vary some between high- and low-income neighborhoods, but not as much as people think, Zickefoose said.

Gov. Jerry Brown’s proposed budget would eliminate the $4.5 million the state provides to adult literacy programs such as the one at Corona’s library.

Inland coordinators don’t know how they will keep their programs going without state money.

“For every $1 of state funds, $4 of private donations are leveraged,” said David Harvey, president and CEO of ProLiteracy. The international organization supports programs at the local level. It offers advocacy assistance as well as reading materials for adult learners.

“In this economy, we’ve been flooded with people who’ve lost their jobs and will not be able to get another job if they don’t improve their skills,” Harvey said.

The organization is seeing funding cuts across the nation. Literacy programs with strong advocates like Zickefoose are faring a little better, Harvey said.

SMALL BUDGET, BIG RESULTS

Zickefoose, who is on the ProLiteracy board of directors, works with a $30,000 budget, coordinating volunteer tutors one-on-one with adult learners. The program has about 45 volunteers and about 50 clients at a time.

“It’s not a huge amount of money for what it does for somebody’s life,” Zickefoose said.

People are so much more productive to society once they can read, he said. They get better jobs and pay more taxes. Once they overcome the deep shame of being unable to read and write, they can help others.

Zickefoose said he wouldn’t even help coach his son’s soccer team 17 years ago.

“I was afraid a little 5-year-old would bring me a piece of paper I couldn’t read,” Zickefoose said.

Once Zickefoose learned to read, he started volunteering, not just at church or AYSO. He co-founded United Neighbors Involving Today’s Youth, a nonprofit group that works to get young people involved in positive activities.

During family nights, he gets young children and their parents excited about reading and wanting to pick up books.

“I have had parents come to me over the years and say ‘You’re the reason my little ones love to read.’ ”

Zickefoose, 52, said most adult learners wrestle with the same learning disabilities with which he still struggles.

Lori Eastman, literacy coordinator for Hemet Public Library Adult Literacy Services, said Zickefoose’s beginning on the road to literacy is typical, although he has gone further than most. Adults are most often in their 30s or 40s, forced to make a career change and embarrassed because they can’t help their children, she said.

Four adult learners in Hemet echoed many of the same frustrations that brought them to seek help learning to read and write better, although they wouldn’t give their full names because they too are embarrassed about their disabilities. They said they wanted to help their children with their schoolwork and set a better example. They told of lifelong learning difficulties.

One woman who identified herself only as Hadeal said she came from Jerusalem three years ago. Since enrolling in Adult Literacy Services at the Hemet library, she now checks her children’s schoolwork on the computer and volunteers in her youngest daughter’s classroom.

“Before, I was scared to go talk to the teacher,” Hadeal said.

PLEAS TO STATE

Adult learners in Hemet have formed a reading circle and have written letters to state legislators asking for adult literacy funding to be preserved.

Eastman said the city of Hemet supplements the $30,000 that comes from the state. Supplies come from donations and fundraisers, she said.

Corona Library Director Julie Frederickson said she is hopeful that community donors and the city will keep the literacy program afloat if state funding is cut.

Harvey was less optimistic.

He said the state funds are seed money for all of the libraries’ and literacy programs’ fundraising efforts.

“The private sector is never going to be able to replace the publicly funded core,” Harvey said.

(taken from http://www.pe.com/localnews/stories/PE_News_Local_D_adult24.234e302.html)