DYSLEXIA IN MALAYSIA

The concept of specific developmental dyslexia is very much in its infancy in

Malaysia, albeit it is fast gaining public attention. According to the Education Ministry
in 2009, about 314,000 school-going children in Malaysia have dyslexia. Right now,
the statistic was increase and there is an estimated 600,000 dyslexics in Malaysia
according to a recent article in the Sinar Harian, 2015. That means many more
dyslexics are not getting the help that they need or they have not been assessed by
schools.

Dyslexia is a Greek word that means ‘difficulty (dys) with the written words
(lexia)’. The World Federation of Neurology (1968) which asserts that dyslexia is a
disorder in children who, despite conventional classroom experience, fail to attain the
language skills of reading, writing, and spelling commensurate with their intellectual
abilities’. These difficulties typically result from a deficit in the phonological
component of language that is often unexpected in relation to other cognitive abilities
and the provision of effective classroom instruction. Individuals with dyslexia in a
multicultural context such as Malaysia usually exhibit more difficulties in reading,
writing and spelling since they are expected to master more than one language.

The causes for dyslexia are neurobiological and genetic. The exact cause of
dyslexia is not clear but brain imagery studies show that there are differences in the
way the brain of a dyslexic person develops and functions. Dyslexia often runs in
families. A strong predictor of reading disability is an assessment of phonological
skills of students at risk.

According to Newton, Thomson & Richards (1979), dyslexia is a failure to

master reading, writing or spelling skills at a child's intellectual level even though they
have been learning in a regular classroom. There are three types of dyslexia:
Dyslexia Visual, Auditory and Visual-Auditory. In some cases, it's possible to detect
symptoms of dyslexia in preschool. The children delayed speech development
compared with other children of the same age. This is because their fine motor skills
may develop more slowly than in other children. When come to primary school, they
might have the problems of reading, writing and spelling. In reading, children may
missing out words or skipping lines as they read. Their eyes can seem to jump over
words, missing them out, skip out whole lines, sometimes they just skip part of a
word. When they read, they will confuses words that sound alike, such as saying
“tornado” for “volcano,” substituting “lotion” for “ocean”. While in writing, many people
with dyslexia write wrong, rambling sentences with no punctuation. They putting
letters and figures the wrong way round, such as writing "6" instead of "9", or "b"
instead of "d". Moreover, they also have typical spelling mistakes in mixing up,
reversing or missing out the sequence of letters. For example: “hlep instead of help”,
“was instead of saw” and “wich instead of which”.

Dyslexia is a medical condition, not a disease. With proper help, dyslexics

can learn to read and write well. There are successful individuals with dyslexia in our
society such as Thomas Edison dan Tom Cruise. Although dyslexia is a problem of
learning, school and teacher can implement academic accommodations and
modifications to help students with dyslexia succeed. Being an excellent teacher
should have the knowledge of dyslexic and understand the developmental of
children. With the skills, the teacher can find out the most appropriate way to educate
dyslexic students in the teaching and learning process.

First of all, there are several major multisensory approaches in teaching

reading for children who are confused with letters, such as simultaneous
phonographs and spelling. Teachers can use of assistive technology in class.
Assistive technology products such as tablets, electronic readers, spellers, text to
speech programs, audio books, and more can be very useful tools. This can speed
up the process of children recognizing the letters and reading.

After that, teacher could place the dyslexics students close to the them.
Students with attention problems can be seated close to the teacher, whiteboard, or
work area and away from distracting sounds, materials, or objects. This can help
teacher develop strong relationships with students. An excellent teacher doesn't only
teach from the head. In the best classrooms, hearts are involved, as well. In order to
create successful learning environments, great teachers need to be able to build
caring relationships with their students. The best teachers are often the ones that
care the most deeply, not only about their jobs, but about every student they serve.
Great teachers also share a love of students, care about the students is what inspires
teachers to reach out, do better, communicate more, ask, learn, refine, and improve.

Other than that, teacher could provide additional practice activities to dyslexia
student. Some materials do not provide enough practice activities for students with
learning problems to acquire mastery on selected skills. Teachers then must
supplement the material with practice activities. Recommended practice exercises
include instructional games, peer teaching activities, self-correcting materials,
computer software programs, and additional worksheets. This is because a good
teacher will notices when even one student among many does not understand, and
makes an effort to communicate individually when necessary.

Dyslexic children usually have speech problems, so as our teachers can do

speech therapy with them. For example, teach them to read an easy storybook.
Teach and guide them the way to properly pronounce words one by one so they can
master and pronounce the word correctly. (Aspen Family Center, 2013).

Moreover, excellent teachers should have pure moral values in educating

dyslexic students. This is because teachers need to give moral support to dyslexic
students. Concerns from teachers are needed to detect the special skills or talent
that can be discovered. Teachers also need to take steps to not always scold them
but to give a loving approach. For example by giving them gifts, encouragement and
reward concepts are done to attract them to continue learning.

Above all, there must be an understanding from all who teach them, that they
may have many talents and skills. Their abilities must not be measured purely on the
basis of their difficulties in acquiring literacy skills. Dyslexic children, like all children,
thrive on challenges and success.

(1024 words)
 Repeat directions. Students who have difficulty following directions are
often helped by asking them to repeat the directions in their own words. The
student can repeat the directions to a peer when the teacher is unavailable. If
directions contain several steps, break down the directions into subsets.
Simplify directions by presenting only one portion at a time and by writing
each portion on the chalkboard as well 8 as stating it orally. When using
written directions, be sure that students are able to read and understand the
words as well as comprehend the meaning of sentence
Students having dyslexia need trained teachers as well as a supportive
school community that are willing to provide specialized teachers and a dyslexia
friendly environment. In general, educators need to know about research based
intervention and remediation approaches that have been proven successful in
remediating students having dyslexia or reading, writing and spelling difficulties.
Concerned parents, teachers and individuals need to make informed decisions. In
addition, remediating dyslexics is a specialized field in education that has not
received much attention from the Malaysian community in general.

Usually, students having dyslexia are looked down by their peers because of their
low academic achievement and inability to read aloud in class. Although there are
successful individuals with dyslexia in our society such as Lee Kuan Yew, Tom
Cruise, Richard Branson and Cher, many individuals with dyslexia do not make it to
college or acquire the necessary skills that help him/her to cope with adult life
challenges. In fact, some of them develop social problems.
TEACHER TRAINING
There is acute need for all Malaysian teachers to be made aware of specific learning
difficulties if help is to be made available for children with dyslexia in mainstream
schools. Teachers need training in the appropriate knowledge and skills to facilitate
identification and intervention. The Specialist Teacher Training College in Kuala
Lumpur has long-term and short-term courses to train teachers in Special
Educational Needs, inclusive of dyslexia. A few local universities are initiating
courses in dyslexia to increase awareness and train teachers in this specialized area.