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When `d' becomes `b'

Friends may turn into fiends and words are demons. But they can be won over with the right techniques

NOT AN INFIRMITY Dyslexia when identified and addressed can be successfully managed

Neena, a charming seven-year-old, writes `swimming' instead of `shall'. `Oil' might even get inverted into `710'. `Was' is read as `saw'. Noted filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt wants to say `lizard' but says `hen' instead. This "word blindness" is called dyslexia. Dyslexia literally means "difficulty with lexicon" or difficulty with words.

According to a 2002 survey by Educare Charitable Trust, seven to 12 per cent of school going children in India suffer from dyslexia. People are diagnosed as dyslexic when they have a problem with reading and writing, which cannot be explained through lack of aptitude or effort.

Their intellectual and sensory facilities are at par with a normal person. Ten per cent of dyslexics have an IQ below 90 and 10 per cent have an IQ above 110, which is similar to a `normal' society.

Bhatt realised, rather recently, he might have dyslexia, but says it is not an aberration. He reads slowly and prefers to dictate than write. He continues, "One aspect of mine is not `that' developed. I lived life first and then I read." He has to connect the written word to experiences to comprehend them. "You can be very educated but don't need to be literate." Rakhi Anand, a clinical psychologist with VIMHANS, New Delhi, explains there is a problem with "neurological connections". Developmental dyslexia affects people from birth and is considered to be genetic. The more rare acquired dyslexia can be caused by injury to the brain.

They are bright

In a society where the education system, and thereby merit, is determined by the lexicon, the difficulty to read and write is considered not an obstacle but a failing. Gautum, now studying in Class 11, says he was often told, "Arrey, you don't have any brains." Bhatt, a college dropout who struggled through school, says, "My mother felt she had given birth to a moron."

But Sunita Sodhi, Director of Educare, asserts, "Dyslexia can be overcome with adequate help." Rajeev Bhatt, Director, Action Dyslexia, says, "With correct teaching methods and motivation, people with dyslexia can succeed in the mainstream." According to Neeru Nigam, Coordinator and Special educator at Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, "It is a disability but with proper instruction, dyslexics become confident."

Those suffering from dyslexia are not slow learners. R. Bhatt of Action Dyslexia explains that it is a misconception that dyslexics are slow learners.

"They have problems only in reading, writing, spelling and sometimes calculations, but not in thinking." Dr. Sodhi asserts, "Programmes for slow learners and dyslexics should be different. Dyslexics are bright. They don't have trouble with social skills or peer group interactions. Whereas slow learners have a problem with social awareness." However, even at special schools, dyslexic students continue to be clubbed with slow learners.

Help at hand

Programmes for dyslexic students, explains Dr. Sodhi, are based on the Orton-Gillingham method. Phonology, the way sounds function within a given language, is taught to dyslexics. This helps them differentiate between the sounds of p and b, t and d, which they often confuse.

At Action Dyslexia, students are taught through charts, tapes and practice, in small and intimate classes. Rashmi Bhatt, a teacher at Action Dyslexia, says her students are more skill oriented. They perform very well at computers. While senior students work through trigonometry, the younger ones practise their reading.

Veena Gupta, a special educator at Educare proudly shows off the handiwork of her students. `Syllable Monster charts' line the walls.

She displays notebooks of students filled with jumbled words, pictures, flow charts and flash cards. Students are systematically taken through `sight words', common words, which they might spell wrong, like `you', `made', jump'. After `sight words', they are taught the `demon words'. These words have obtuse spellings like `half', `built', `wrote'.

A multi-sensory technique is believed to be the most effective. This allows students to use their intellectual and mechanical skills to compensate for weaknesses in associating sounds with symbols.

Dyslexia has come to be included in the Disability Act, under a Delhi High Court order. The Central Board of Secondary Education provides dyslexics with a scribe, an extra hour of writing time for each paper and certain language exemptions. Arvind, having studied at Action Dyslexia, completed school successfully and now is pursuing BBA.

His father says, "The scribe was the most important thing and is the best alternative." Professor S. K. Vij, Dean of Student Welfare, Delhi University, says about dyslexic students, "They have to undergo a medical exam. They are given special weightage depending on the severity of their disability."

Dyslexia is not an infirmity. It is a disability that when identified and addressed can be managed.

Mahesh Bhatt says, with a rasping cough but deep laugh, "I might struggle with the letter. But I write in images."

And very successfully at that!

(Names of students have been changed to protect their identity.)

* * *

Normal IQ but weak academic performance

* Problems with accuracy and speed of reading

* Strange spelling mistakes like mirror images and scrambling of sequences

* Untidy or illegible handwriting

* Inability to find the appropriate word when speaking

* Low self-esteem

* Attention problems

* Deficient short-term memory

NANDINI NAIR

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