1. Chapter Two Factors Involved in Reading and Writing Difficulties After: Before:

3. How Much Do You “Think” You Know About Reading Difficulties? K now W ant to Know L earned

4. Reading problems are often a result of a host of interacting or contributing causes. Possible factors that lead to reading and writing difficulty. Cognitive Visual /Perceptual Linguistic Emotional Physical Educational Social Cultural Economic

8. Memory Outside data is translated into a code (encoded) and placed into working memory and then long-term memory , from which it can later be retrieved through recall or recognition . Verbal encoding is essential in reading. Inefficient verbal encoding may be at the heart of word recognition, comprehension, and vocabulary difficulties. Inefficient use of working memory may hinder comprehension.

9. Associative Word-Learning Difficulty Serious difficulty learning to associate symbols and their spoken equivalents: letters and sounds; written words and their oral equivalents. Rooted in phonological coding difficulties and inefficient memory

10. “ There can be no learning without …. ATTENTION Attention fulfills three functions: screening out irrelevant stimuli, selecting relevant elements, and shifting from one stimulus to another (Robeck & Wallace, 1990) Reading difficulty may arise when students have difficulty paying attention, when it becomes a serious impediment doctors may diagnose students with Attention-Deficit/ Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).

11. Students with ADHD seem to be at greater risk for a reading disorder. “In a recent study, about 30% of boys and 17% of girls who had serious reading problems were also judged to have ADHD. In contrast on 5% of boys and 3% of girls without serious reading problems were assessed as having ADHD” (Willcutt & Pennington, 2000).

15. What are the causes and cures for learned helplessness? Learned helplessness is the response manifested by people who believe they are unable to exert any influence over a situation. A large cause for this attribute in the social/emotional factor is based on a student’s repeated failure which leads them to convincing themselves that they are unable to read. The cure is to breed success. Teachers can do this by allowing students the opportunity to complete tasks that are leveled and appropriate and by consistently providing positive reinforcement.