John Koehler Literacy Progress Memo

Growing up I had a stuttering issue which now I attribute to my dyslexia which wasnt diagnosed till a later age. This was a major speed bump in my literacy development, in order to compensate my parents enrolled me in speech therapy classes with a speech pathologist. The goal of these classes was to improve my fluency and reading abilities. Research has been done that shows that 1% of the worlds population struggles or struggled with stuttering at some point in their lives. (speech) My personal literacy and fluency in speech was greatly influenced by the speech pathologist. Without attending the speech therapy my fluency would still be poor and my reading ability would not be as strong. When attending these classes I would spend time reading, speaking, and listening. Often times it was in the form of flashcards with pictures, words, audio or video. Eventually after attending the speech therapy classes I was able to overcome the stuttering problem. It wasnt an easy process I took speech therapy classes for 2 and half years. I kept with it though and overcame the stuttering. Overcoming my stuttering problem allowed me to become more fluent and communicate what I want to say with ease. In the second grade I was diagnosed with dyslexia. This diagnosis was a very large part of my literacy history. When I was diagnosed I felt as if less was expected of me because I had been diagnosed with a learning disability. I didnt let the diagnoses get in the way of my education. So even though assignments took longer, and books took longer to read I didnt let the diagnoses affect my classroom performance. Gradually I started to take harder and harder classes challenging to not let my dyslexia affect my education.

Dyslexia is defined as Developmental reading disorder is a reading disability that occurs when the brain does not properly recognize and process certain symbols. (Goldenring) This reading disability highly effected the way I learned how to read and write. The affect dyslexia has on the brain is that it affects the language areas of the brain and prevents them from working correctly. (brown) This affected the way I learned to read and write.
Speech Pathology Australia, . 16 Sep 2013. <http://www.speechpathologyaustralia.org.au/library/2013Factsheets/Factsheet_Stuttering.pdf>. Goldenring, J.. N.p.. Web. 16 Sep 2013. <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0002379/>.