Dyslexia : how can we understand it, detect it and intervene ?

Abstract

When a child has difficulties in reading -how can we help them and how should we teach them? The first step is understanding exactly what their problem is. Dyslexia is a general term for various deficits in reading. There are more than 20 different dyslexia types, each stemming from a deficit at a different component of the reading process or in the connections between these components. The different loci of impairment yield different error types.

I will describe the various types of dyslexia, focusing on the ones that are more frequent in French. For each dyslexia, I will describe the main characteristics: which kinds of errors do the children make in reading? Which types of words are most difficult for them? I will also discuss the way the unique properties of French interact with the manifestation of the different types of dyslexia. I will then describe directions for treatment for these dyslexias, and what a teacher can do to teach children with each kind of dyslexia in the most appropriate way.

I will finish with a further source of difficulties in reading comprehension that is not dyslexia: syntactic difficulties, and discuss ways to distinguish between the different sources of reading comprehension difficulties: reading difficulties and comprehension difficulties.

Simultaneous translation from English.

Naama Friedmann

Naama Friedmann is Professor of Language Neuropsychology at Tel Aviv University's School of Education and Sagol School of Neuroscience. She directs the Language and Brain Laboratory and the Lieselotte Adler Laboratory for Child Development Research, and holds the Branco Weiss Chair in Child Development. She is director of MiLa : The Cukier-Goldstein-Goren Center for Mind, Cognition, and Language.

Naama Friedmann obtained her doctorate at Tel Aviv University and a postdoc at UCSD. She has published over two hundred and thirty articles in leading scientific journals and holds editorial positions in neuropsychological and psycholinguistic journals. She has supervised sixty-four master's students, twenty-six doctoral students and six postdoctoral fellows.

Prof. Friedmann is an elected member of the Israeli Academy of Sciences and Humanities, and winner of the Michael-Landau Award for breakthrough science and research, as well as the Michael-Bruno-Memorial Award, which recognizes outstanding researchers who have demonstrated revolutionary originality of thought, dedication and impact.

Prof. Dr. Naama Friedmann's research focuses on the relationship between the brain and language, mainly in people with language disorders. Her main areas of research are language disorders after brain injury, in particular syntactic and lexical disorders in aphasia, acquired and developmental dyslexia and dysgraphia, language and reading disorders following nutritional deficiencies in early childhood, and following lack of exposure to input during the critical period for language acquisition in children with hearing impairment. She is also working on syntax and sign language reading disorders, phonological working memory and syntax acquisition. To explore the relationship between language and the brain, Prof. Friedmann's research uses comprehension, production and reading tests on brain-damaged and developmentally disabled individuals, as well as stimulation during awake open-brain surgery and imaging techniques including fMRI and DTI. She conducts cross-linguistic studies exploring the interaction between language properties and the manifestation of language disorders in language.

Prof. Friedmann has made decisive contributions to the conceptualization of subtypes of developmental language disorders, the identification and characterization of previously unknown types of acquired and developmental dyslexia and dysgraphia, the characterization of syntactic disorders in aphasia, and models of reading, spelling and lexical retrieval.

Naama Friedmann

Naama Friedmann is Professor of neuropsychology of language in the School of Education and the Sagol School of Neuroscience in Tel Aviv University. She is the head of the Language and Brain Lab and of the Lieselotte Adler Laboratory for Research on Child Development, and holds the Branco Weiss Chair in child development. She is the director of the MiLa: The Cukier-Goldstein-Goren Center for Mind, Cognition, and Language.

Naama Friedmann completed her PhD in Tel-Aviv University and a post-doc in UCSD. She published more than 230 papers in leading scientific journals and holds editorial positions in journals in neuropsychology and psycholinguistics. She supervised 64 MA students, 26 PhD students, and 6 post doctoral fellows.

Prof. Friedmann is an elected member of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, and won the Michael Landau Prize for breakthrough in Sciences and Research: and the Michael Bruno Memorial Awards for outstanding scholars who have demonstrated an exceptional originality of mind, dedication and ground-breaking impact.

Prof. Naama Friedmann's research centers on the relation between brain and language, mainly in impaired populations. Her major areas of research are language impairments after brain damage, focusing on syntactic and lexical impairments in aphasia, acquired and developmental dyslexias and dysgraphias, language and reading impairments following nutritional deficiencies in infancy, and following lack of exposure to input during the critical period for language acquisition in children with hearing impairment. She also works on syntactic and reading impairments in sign language, on phonological working memory, and on the acquisition of syntax. To explore the relations between language and the brain, prof. Friedmann's research uses comprehension, production, and reading testing of individuals after brain damage and individuals with developmental disorders as well as stimulations during open-brain awake surgery and imaging techniques, including fMRI and DTI. She conducts cross-linguistic studies exploring the interaction between properties of the language and the manifestation of language impairments in it.

Prof. Friedmann has made seminal contributions to the conceptualisation of subtypes of developmental language impairments, to the identification and characterisation of previously unknown types of acquired and developmental dyslexia and dysgraphia, to the characterization of the syntactic impairment in aphasia, and to the models of reading, spelling and lexical retrieval.