Dyslexia and Working Memory

Posted by Tracy Monday, March 16th, 2009

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Dyslexia is a learning disability that mainly affects reading and spelling. Common features of dyslexia include spelling errors (‘nock’ for ‘knock’; ‘jerney’ for ‘journey’); mixing upper and lowercase letters in writing (for example: ‘numBers’), and confusing letters like ‘b’ and ‘d’.

Individuals with dyslexia also have poor working memory. They take much longer to process information, particularly in reading where they have to connect letter patterns with associated wounds. As a result, they often mix up longer words. One lady described herself as trying to remember ‘risk management report’ for her meeting. As she walked by the office kitchen, the fridge caught her eye and she ended up saying ‘fridge management report’ instead.

They also take much longer to articulate or say information, which means that they easily forget words, especially in conversations. For example, they might say ‘winimum wage’ instead of ‘minimum wage’.

This is hardly surprising as one view of dyslexia is that it is caused by poor working memory. We use our working memory to connect letters with the correct sounds, put them together to form a word, keep that word in mind while we read the next word, string all those words together to form a sentence, and then figure out the meaning of all those words. It’s no wonder that if someone has poor working memory, this can lead to dyslexia. Without good working memory, it is very difficult to perform well in reading and spelling.

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8 Responses so far


NJH
March 17th, 2009
7:55 pm

Hello Tracy, what do you say to the idea that we are almost uniquely disadvantaged in the English speaking world by having a spelling system that is highly irregular? The spoken language is really quite easy but the written form [for various historical reasons] is very difficult to learn to code and decode. The need for a good working memory is understandable when one realises that the very best spellers and readers have learnt English as word, signs not as a phonemic set of clues that can be decoded. Not all of us have a photographic memory - so it really suits this minority and the rest of us have to use a variety of contradictory strategies to get through. Because English is not a reader-friendly system these obstacles impact right at the beginning at the early stages of learning to read.

Counties that have simpler more rule-orderly spelling systems diagnose dyslexia less often. It is still there and slows reading down but is not the great obstacle to learning that it is in English. Any thoughts?


konnie.teo
March 18th, 2009
7:55 am

Hey. Great post you’ve got there. really informative. This will really useful to those who wants to know more about dyslexia


admin
March 28th, 2009
4:56 pm

Hi Nigel, you are right. There are lots of studies about ‘orthographic transparency’ (ie., do you spell a word like it sounds) and dyslexia. Countries that have high orthographic transparency (you spell like it sounds), such as Spanish or Italian, have very low rates of dyslexia compared to English-speaking languages. Learning different rules for spelling in English makes learning more difficult and can vary depending on teaching techniques (phonics, etc). This also means that students with poor working memory are more likely to have reading and spelling difficulties because they have trouble coping with remembering all the different rules in English.


Kelly Brown
June 12th, 2009
6:57 pm

Hi, gr8 post thanks for posting. Information is useful!


Bonnie
October 21st, 2009
4:31 pm

Is there such thing as memory dislexia? I mean just memory, nothing to do with spelling… I was told there is such a thing by a friend and now my tutor at college has told me there is no such thing… Please tell me someone!!!
I think i have it if there is such a thing because i have a problem with my memory, i believe i have more memory loss than many people i have come accross and im only 20 years of age. Where can i find out about the different types of dyslexia… Or maybe it is not dyslexia and is labelled as something else.. Please help thank you… Bonnie


Zoe Langley
October 24th, 2009
11:40 pm

Great article. Do you think a lot of children with dyslexia are being diagnosed with ADHD and vice versa?


Stephen Peterson
March 11th, 2010
3:43 pm

Hi, I am Stephen, for many years now I have being reading and doing my own research into Dyslexia and memory problems. This is the case due to my own problems with spelling and memory problems. Although I have to take a while to write a paper for exams this problems has plague my academic proformance and my solution was more practical work then theoritical raeding and committing things to memory. What is your take on this, many children in the Caribbean go undiagonse like myself and now we have to fight our way through a system of education and professions with out the problem being dealt with, can you comment?


jay
March 18th, 2010
11:14 am

I suspect that symptoms of dyslexia are less likely to emerge in dyslexic people’s spelling, punctuation and grammar in countries with ‘orthagraphic transparency’.In fact they don’t always emerge strongly in English speakers many of whom manage to cope until reaching F.E./H.E level.

I suspect symptoms of dyslexia will show up in people from orthographically transparent countries as difficulties structuring and organising written and oral presentations and difficulties around time-management (academic or otherwise.

I believe this is because weak working memory and slow processing speed exists in dyslexic people regardless of which first language they have been exposed to.

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