In the study of coping, Endler & Parker (1999) suggests that three areas (Task, Emotion & Avoidance) should be investigated, as each play a part in coping methodology:
Task-Based Coping
Coopersmith (1967) found that successful dyslexic teenagers were active and expressive individuals. Wszeborowska-Lipinska (1997) found that successful dyslexics were pro-active to overcoming hurdles, which required high levels of self-confidence. Scott et al.’s (1992) study found key factors to success amongst dyslexics to be: encouragement of talents; hobbies (from peers etc); and a search for self-worth. Reiff, Gerber and Ginsberg (1997) study of successful individuals with learning disability (an American term for dyslexia) also found that persistence and stubbornness were assets. McLoughlin, Leather and Stringer (2002) found hard work and determination to be underlying factors in success at school. All these traits: expressive; pro-active; search for self-worth; persistence; stubbornness; and determination are descriptions of task based coping strategies.
Emotional-Based Coping
Trying hard or asking for help and not receiving any, can cause children enormous frustration (Edwards, 1994). Parents and teachers see bright and enthusiastic children who are not successfully learning to read and write. Ryan (1994) comments that no one knows how hard the dyslexic is really trying, and each year that their peers surpass them in reading skills, their frustration increases.
It is important for teachers to recognise the frustration that dyslexics feel at school in the classroom: an inability to express their ideas in written form; an inability to read books of interest (rather than for their reading age), and having to work considerably harder than their peers to attain the same achievement level (Thomson, 1996). The negative experiences of school, as found by dyslexic teenagers in Edwards (1994), had associated reactions of: lack of confidence; self-doubt/denigration; and sensitivity to criticism; behavioural problems; truancy/school refusal; and competitiveness disorders.
In Butkowsky and Willows’ study (1980), average to good readers attributed their success to their ability, whilst poor readers attributed their lack of success to luck. Poor readers however tended to blame themselves by attributing failure to their own incompetence, and success to environmental factors e.g. luck. Correlations to ‘learnt helplessness’ (Burden, 2005; Diener and Dweck, 1978; Miller and Norman, 1978) can also be made.
Dyslexics often react to their difficulties by withdrawing emotionally, or conversely becoming aggressive, and compensating.... by obtaining negative attention from others (Thomson & Hartley, 1980, p. 19). Supporting Butkowsky and Willows, Hales (1994a) suggest there is strong evidence to imply that dyslexics are more disturbed by criticism. Hales found dyslexics experienced considerable amounts of criticism at school, especially before their condition was diagnosed.
All these traits: frustration; lack of confidence; self-doubt; sensitivity to criticism; behavioural problems; competitiveness disorders; self-blame; and aggressiveness are all descriptions of emotion based coping strategies.
Avoidance-Based Coping
In large schools, avoidance of competing or reaching potential goes unnoticed, compared to smaller schools. This extreme non-participation through lack of confidence is a recurring characteristic in dyslexics (Scott, 2004). Avoidance strategies deflect attention from low academic ability and under-performance and teachers see these avoidance strategies very differently, with perceptions such as laziness and lack of parental support (Alexander-Passe, 2004a, b, 2006, 2008a, 2009).
Edwards (1994, p. 61) also noticed that some dyslexics suffer from competitiveness disorders, with many withdrawing both academically and socially ‘Gareth only tries hard if he thinks he can win. If not he merely gives up…. Nevertheless, he had to be very sure of his good standard before making himself vulnerable again’.
Anxiety causes humans to avoid whatever frightens them, and dyslexia is no exception. However Ryan (1994) notes that teachers misinterpret this avoidance as laziness. In fact he notes that the avoidance is more related to anxiety and confusion than apathy. Reid (1988) found when pupils feel ‘unwanted, rejected, uncared for and disillusioned … they start to manifest their disaffection by staying away, disrupting lessons, or underachieving’.
If academic success cannot give dyslexics self-worth, then they begin to withdraw from classroom activities (negative environments), according to Morgan (1997). There is a growing body of evidence to suggest that children with dyslexia avoid tasks which highlight their difficulties. Avoidance techniques can be as simple as constantly breaking the tips of pencils, so as to spend the maximum time sharpening them and consequently less time at the desk doing work, although dyslexics (especially females) tend to prefer less obtrusive ways to avoid academic work, by rarely putting up their hands or sitting at the back of classes to be invisible (i.e. not picked by teachers to take part in the class), as noted by Alexander-Passe (2004a, b, in press-1).
Riddick (1996, p. 131) suggests ‘by secondary age all dyslexic children claim that they avoid difficult to spell words and over half of them claim that they put off or avoid doing writing’. In a study of dyslexic school children (primary and secondary), Riddick (1996, p. 130) found pupils commenting that they ‘daily avoided using difficult words to spell, wrote less (avoiding making mistakes) and put off starting work as coping strategies’, as also found by Alexander-Passe (2004a, b, 2009).
In fact, out of 45 noted strategies found by Riddick, avoidance was featured in 35 of them. The other 10 were characterised by asking classmates to help. These findings were similar to Mosely’s (1989) study concerning adults and children with general spelling difficulties. Pollock and Waller (1994) found that dyslexic children were perceived as immature (in their vocabulary choice and mode of expression) by school teachers and examination board markers, as they preferred using words they knew how to spell. But, if they did use words where the spelling was uncertain, they felt accused of being careless and risked lower self-esteem. Thus word avoidance has attractive advantages to young dyslexics – they think it is better to be seen as immature than to risk embarrassment.
Another aspect of school refusal is shown by individuals who develop psychosomatic disorders or other illnesses to avoid school: ‘I used to pretend I was sick, make myself puke, and say I don’t wanna go today’, one dyslexic teenager commented (Edwards, 1994, p. 110). Edwards gives an powerful example of psychosomatic pain in the following story of a 12-year-old dyslexic, Trevor developed a pain in his right leg requiring crutches. To him it felt like a rare disease. The hospital doctor concluded that he was dyslexic but intelligent, was therefore frustrated, and that the frustration was expressed as pain in the right thigh, which occurred about once every six months and could last 10 days at a time. Strangely enough, she found this same teenager was reluctant to be truant, as he felt there would be ‘repercussions and (that it) was pointless anyway’ (p. 39).
This suggests a main difference between normal truants and dyslexics avoiding school (social conscience). Another 12-year-old used to get into fights with larger or other (dyslexic) kids to get off school. The injuries were for mutual avoidance reasons, not anger, and usually meant two to three days off school. |
