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Visual‐perceptual difficulties and the impact on children's learning: are teachers missing the page?
Author(s) -
Boyle Christopher,
JindalSnape Divya
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
support for learning
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.25
H-Index - 30
eISSN - 1467-9604
pISSN - 0268-2141
DOI - 10.1111/1467-9604.12001
Subject(s) - dyslexia , reading (process) , psychology , spelling , perception , affect (linguistics) , learning disability , harm , irony , mathematics education , cognitive psychology , developmental psychology , social psychology , linguistics , philosophy , communication , neuroscience
This article attempts to bring to the fore of educational practice the importance of considering the visual‐perceptual condition of M eares– I rlen syndrome ( MIS ) when identifying students who have prolonged reading difficulties. Dyslexia is a frequently used term which can be used to label children who have specific difficulties with reading and/or spelling but this article discusses the problems that this may cause students who have a reading difficulty caused by a visual processing difficulty, as the working definitions of dyslexia do not, generally, consider this aspect as a factor, especially when remediation interventions are put forward. This article discusses the possibility that teachers and school psychologists may not be fully aware of MIS and therefore not able to recognise it. Moreover, if this condition is not adequately picked up at the important transition times in school then this could harm the student's self‐esteem and affect his or her motivation to succeed in school. The authors argue that the irony of MIS being potentially undetected by teachers and other school professionals is that it is relatively straightforward to identify, and in many cases, to correct.