One major deficit that is visible amongst dyslexics is a deficient verbal short term working memory. Studies have shown that short term memory ability is important as it is a predictor of oral and written language development in children (Ramus, Marshall, Rosen & Vanderlely, 2013; Majerus & Cowan, 2016). This entail that a deficit verbal short-term memory will impair and further increase difficulties carrying out academic task. A deficit verbal working memory can can contribute to difficulties in applying the alphabetic principle as this affects the phonological and graphemic information during a reading especially when it is not automatized (Martinez Perez, Majerus, Mahot, & Poncelet, 2012b; Majerus …show more content…
For the dyslexic, impairment in the short term memory is at the sound (phonological) rather than the letters (lexicosemantic) representations (Ramus et al., 2013; Majerus & Cowan, 2016). Recent studies in verbal short term memory in dyslexic participants (students) indicate that deficit or absence of item and serial order short term memory where implicated in dyslexics (Wang et al., 2016; Majerus & Cowan 2016). It was also indicated in other developmental learning disabilities like dyscalculia (Attout & Majerus, 2015) as well as increased risk for other learning problems in diverse cognitive domains (leclercq & Majerus, 2010, Jaroslawska, Gathercole, Logie & Holmes, …show more content…
The initial focus basically before fifth and sixth grades is on remediation; here strategies which are aimed at helping the child to improve deficits in the particular area of disability are employed. Areas of disability include reading decoding, reading comprehension, or speed of reading. The dyslexic is helped to identity, recognise and correlate the sounds of alphabets (graphemes). He is also helped to build focus on decoding with abilities to blend sounds (Phonemes) into words (morphemes) and break words into component sounds. With time the child is taught to focus on the content of the reading material and not just on individual words. The tactic of guided oral reading provides feedback to the child so as to spot areas of errors and teach other ways of tackling the task at