Fourteen-year-old Jennifer asked this most interesting question. Now I
would like to put it to our collective.
The inner ear is the piece that controls our vestibular system, hence our
ability to balance. Also, it makes sure we hear things properly and tunes
in the tones. I know from my own experience in life that vowels and
consonants sound quite different when your inner ear is in pain, and the
nerves wince quite badly. Hence the message doesn't get properly to the
brain so you shut yourself down.
Jennifer's doctor (she lives in New York) has been expounding this theory
quite a bit. And it seems to make but a little sense. Dyslexia is what
happens when printed material is compromised by the eyes or the ears on
its way to the brain, and lots of us are either "ear" learners
or "eye" learners. So I think it would be the same if some part
of the eye (say rods and cones) didn't work quite the way it should.
Adelaide
Jennifer has put together a site with some very valuable and varied
issues around dyslexia. I hope her site proves valuable towards better
recognition of dyslexia.
For many years there has been many theories as too what causes dyslexia
sometimes like professionals are trying to isolate a single medical
condition and call this "dyslexia"!!!
However we are now recognising dyslexia is not one single medical
condition, but many and many combinations. Hearing is one of these
difficulties. I realised this when starting to use voice recognition
software. You need to spend time training the software to understand how
you talk and pronounce words. However I think the software teachers you
how to talk. I wanted the word "specific" all I could get from
my voice recognition software was "Pacific" I never knew there
was an S at the beginning I never acknowledged that sound when people said
that would. That with many other words I was pronouncing wrong because
that's how I heard them from others.
Another common thing said about dyslexia people is many have poor short
term memory and good long term memory. That's interesting because that is
also said for many with ADD or AD/HD. As I'm diagnosed with this! It
suggests to me that I have a combination of difficulties that courses my
dyslexia (which is severe).
This makes me think of something else and that's how valuable forums can
be on the Internet to learn more about our difficulties and find better
ways of moving forward with them.
Thanks Adelaide, for raising this issue could be valuable on the hi2u
"dyslexic pages"
Take care all, Andy
I was so interested to hear (sorry! no joke intended!) what Adelaide had to say about Dyslexia and the inner ear.
My daughter has been diagnosed as Dyslexic and she definitely experiences difficulties with her hearing. She doesn't hear the beginning sounds of words, or sometimes the ends. Like you mentioned she doesn't realise words begin with certain letters. This surely makes learning to spell and read even more difficult? This problem never seems to be addressed by teachers. They seem to think we all hear the words perfectly clearly but some Dyslexics, if not all of them don't.
Thank you for this peice it really made a difference. I was beginning to think it was just me being a crazy mother!?
Keep up the great work!
Emma
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