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Abstract
The purpose of this study was to validate Bakker's (1990, 1992) clinical neuropsychological balance model of dyslexia when implemented in a traditional general education classroom environment. The sample included 45 middle school, right-handed boys and girls (mean age = 12.78) with L-type dyslexia (excessively fast readers who make substantive reading errors), P-type dyslexia (displaying accurate but slow and laborious reading), and M-type dyslexia (readers who commit a combination of L-type and P-type dyslexia errors). The experimental groups (L and P type dyslexia) were presented with hemisphere specific stimulation (HSS) and hemispheric alluding stimuli (HAS). HSS involves the presentation of words into the right visual field (RVF) or the left visual field (LVF) or through tactile exercises with the right or left hand. HAS is achieved by constructing semantically and phonetically challenging letters and words. The children with M-type dyslexia served as a control group and received traditional decoding and comprehension exercises. The readers were exposed to a specific treatment model for 16 weeks, depending on their reading accuracy and comprehension. Statistical analyses indicated that, although there were no significant changes in word recognition for the dyslexia subtypes, the readers with L-type, P-type, and M-type dyslexia exhibited significant improvement in reading accuracy and comprehension as assessed by results from pretest to posttest. These results suggest that Bakker's clinical neuropsychological intervention can be effectively applied to the general education setting as well.
Historically, there has not been a consistent and effective way to remediate dyslexia. This is primarily due to the difficulty in diagnosing severe reading difficulties, differences in learning, and the variety of deficits presented (Pennington, 1990). Dyslexia is now the commonly used term to describe severe reading delay. Multiple reading approaches have been implemented in an effort to more effectively teach children to read. Currently, some common techniques for treating dyslexia in educational environments include the Language Experience Approach (LEA; Stauffer, 1951), the whole word method (Betts, 1943) and the linguistic approach (Marsh, Freedman, Welch, & Desberg, 1981; Marsh, Freedman, & Desberg, 1983). The LEA teaches reading and vocabulary to a reader as he or she is personally narrating a story (Cohen, 1987). The whole word method involves the introduction of meaningful words into a reader's lexicon for the purpose of increased...