Dyslexia and Its Emotional Effects

Reading difficulty is a disorder that arises from a biological predisposition; However, the contribution of emotional and environmental factors is also being investigated. In recent studies on its relationship with emotional factors, it has been determined that children who are thought to have reading difficulties in the preschool period draw a happy and harmonious profile, but when they reach the stage of starting to read, they begin to experience emotional problems and their reading difficulties increase. It has been observed that as the process of learning to read becomes more difficult and complex, anger increases and this anger is directed towards classmates. As a result of these studies, in addition to the biological factors of reading difficulties, their relationships with emotional and environmental factors have begun to be examined.

Why does dyslexia cause anger and the onset of emotional problems?

The cause of anger usually begins with the child's disappointment in his own skills. The child cannot perform a skill that he thinks he can do like his peers, and therefore begins to see himself below the level of others. Because in front of his family and teacher, there is a bright child who is eager to do many things, but cannot read and write. The child starts to constantly hear the following sentences: "He is a very smart, bright student, he can do very well when he wants and concentrates his attention, but it would be better if he focused on reading a little more."

Have you ever thought about how difficult it is for a child with dyslexia to hear these things all the time?

Not being able to fulfill other people's expectations, not being able to achieve his own goals, and the avalanche of anger he directs towards himself and his environment behind these failures. a growing anger like... and coping with the most common view of recent times, "the worst thing is to make mistakes"...

We must not forget that children with learning disabilities will make many simple mistakes carelessly and be criticized. They will not want to.

When all these reasons are taken into consideration, it is like a miracle that a child with reading difficulties does not have problems in social relations. Here are other factors that can lead to frequent social skills problems:

• Children with learning disabilities may not be at the level expected for their age, physically and socially.

• The social skill problems they experience may make them unsuitable in some social areas. It may lead to inappropriate behavior

• Children with learning difficulties may have problems reading the facial expressions and emotions of others. They may not be able to understand how close they should be to the other person or what is being conveyed through body language.

• Since children with learning disabilities cannot have language skills at the level expected for their age, sometimes they may not be able to use the right words when describing an event in their social relationships. He may not be able to find it or he may explain it in a confused order and in a way that is difficult to understand. This situation may put them at a disadvantage and cause the other person to get bored and distracted easily.

 

What and how does a dyslexic child feel?

Anxiety

Anxiety is the most expressed emotion. The feeling that I cannot do it and that I will fail again and again often causes the child to worry. The confusion that comes with anxiety and the thought that "I will fail this time too" cause the child to enter a vicious circle, where he becomes worried about what he can do and performs well below the level he can achieve. Due to intense anxiety, the child begins to avoid or run away from the given task. With this behavior, he continues to portray a "lazy" profile in the eyes of his family or teacher.

Anger

After a while, anger begins to lead to resentment and more permanent results occur. The target of anger is mostly the school and the teacher. However, this anger is usually directed towards the parents and is intended to be taken out on them. Especially mothers witness and are exposed to these outbursts of anger very frequently. Because generally, when children get very angry at school, they prefer to remain passive, sit in a corner and sulk. However, the home environment is a very conducive and safe environment for venting anger, and the only way to deal with this strong emotion is to reveal it and direct it, especially towards the mother. This behavior It sometimes leads to disappointment in parents. He despairs, thinking that while he wants to help, he is pushing his child further away from him; However, it is not possible to say this when looking at the general picture.

 

Depression

Depression is not a very common condition, but attention should be paid to its symptoms and behavioral changes of the child. Because children with learning disabilities experience the feeling of worthlessness and low self-confidence very intensely, and these experiences more easily create the necessary infrastructure for depression. Unlike depressed adults, children may not have a lethargic appearance and may not express their sadness very often. While this makes it difficult to detect depression, behavioral disorders intended to mask depression may also occur. To overcome these feelings, they may try to appear more active and happy. However, it is possible to make a more definitive judgment by looking at the following three characteristics.

The tendency to think and feel negative things about oneself, the feeling of worthlessness

Regarding the world a negative perspective and a negative attitude towards even the good memories - which will negatively affect their ability to enjoy a fun activity -

Thinking negatively about the future

 

How can you help as a teacher or parent?

• Be encouraging and supportive 

• Try to uncover an area where he/she can be successful

• Listen to your child's feelings and try to determine his/her emotional needs

• Express his/her feelings Teach him how to express his feelings, as he will have difficulty expressing his feelings. /li>

• When you encounter unexpected behavior or a report card below the desired level, stay away from your “lazy” “useless” labels

• Realistic for themselves, reach out Help them set functional and functional goals

 

Although learning disability is a disorder caused by biological factors, its psychological effects on children can be easily observed. Let's not overlook the psychological effects of coping with learning disabilities and support them on this difficult path.

 

RECOMMENDATIONS FOR PARENTS ABOUT DYSLEXIA

How to deal with dyslexia Families are often the first step. The child's greatest helpers are mothers and fathers. Because it is the mothers and fathers who feel the child's needs, the areas in which they are successful, the things they like and dislike most deeply. However, once the needs are identified, they may be confused about what to do, and families may not feel competent about how to help. While I offer you some useful tips that you can apply in this article, I hope you can also get information about the activities you can do.

For children who are at the beginning of the fight against dyslexia, playing alphabet games, creating fun activities related to syllables, encouraging them, and making them feel that you are always with them to improve their reading skills are the first steps that can be taken. Our biggest key will be to repeat the activities done at school or in private education. You are expected to have a very active and important role during these trainings. Because the external education your child receives will not be sufficient for the development of some skills and will need to be repeated very often.

You may be confused about what you need to do at the beginning of the process in order to take an active role. Therefore, you will need expert support and guidance. So, what could be some suggestions and guidance on this subject?

• Read a book to your child

  • Make time to read a book to your child every day. . Let him or her see the words you read by pointing to them. Try to draw attention to the words he encounters while reading in his daily life.

 

• Highlight the sounds in words

  • Play sound games. Try to memorize songs together that rhyme and have a lot of repeated choruses. Play games of making words from the last sound of the word or hearing a specific letter in the word. Relieve stress and help your child understand the sounds better by saying the letters out loud and in funny ways.

• Work on spelling.

  • Hover over new words. Get your child's attention by separating the words into syllables and letters. For this, use colored pencils, cardboard and words written in large font. Encourage him to practice the words he has learned slowly and carefully, without skipping letters or writing them wrong, and reward his success.

• Share the pleasure of reading with your child

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• Choose together the books that both you and your child will enjoy reading, and then make comments about these books. Increase your child's excitement for the book by telling each other about the parts you find interesting in the book. He left some sections open to discussion and said, “I think Alice should have told the Hatter that the letter had arrived there. What do you think about this issue? Keep the interest in the book alive by asking questions such as.

Don't be a homework guard

• Excellent homework is given. Avoid spoiling your relationships by waiting for your child to do his homework or fighting with him when he doesn't do his homework. By creating a healthy and safe environment, you can help your child do homework more easily and also protect your relationships.

While dyslexia tires your children enough and drags them from place to place, the key to helping and supporting them is to make them feel safe and believe that they can succeed. Don't forget to make jokes and have fun as you walk this path with them.

 

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