Written Language Learning: Constructivism, Stages, and Disorders
The Written Language: Learning from a Constructivist Perspective
The constructivist learning explanation adopts the concept of meaningful learning. Learning is not simply accumulating new knowledge but integrating, modifying, building relationships, and coordinating what is already known with what one wants to learn.
From the constructivist perspective, the primary role of the teacher, according to Vygotsky, is to create zones of proximal development. That is, knowing the starting point of each student (or actual development area) and providing appropriate conditions to enable progress towards the zone of optimal development.
The subject that is learning is an active constructor of his knowledge. Thus, learning involves reworking and modifying the knowledge they already possess. The child actively constructs their knowledge. Learning to read and write is a process of gradual approximation to the properties and uses of written language.
Stages of Learning to Read
- Logographic Phase
- Alphabetic Phase
- Orthographic Phase
Phases of Learning to Write
How to write for controlled production, formally creating different scripts:
- Writing as controlled production: Syllable segmentation of the word.
- Writing as controlled production: Alphabetical syllable segmentation of the word.
- Writing as production controlled by alphabetical-depth segmentation of the word.
Dyslexia
A child with dyslexia usually has normal intelligence. Despite having been taught to read with typical teaching strategies, they manifest symptoms of neuropsychological deficits and commit so many errors in reading and writing that it makes it difficult to understand. These deficits can occur due to a variety of interacting causes. A dyslexic child’s symptoms are similar to those in other learning disabilities in written language, such as rotations, substitutions, omissions, phonological segmentation disabilities, etc. However, they also have other neuropsychological symptoms not present in other learning difficulties, which are specific to the following types of dyslexia:
- Visuospatial Dyslexia
- Auditory-temporal Dyslexia
- Deep or Mixed Dyslexia
Dysgraphia
Dysgraphia is a functional disorder that affects the quality of a person’s writing, in regard to layout or spelling.
To diagnose it, several conditions must be considered:
- Intellectual capacity within the normal or average range.
- Absence of severe sensory impairment, such as motor trauma, that could condition the quality of writing.
- Adequate cultural and educational stimulation.
- No serious neurological disorders, including brain damage, with or without a motor component, which could prevent normal performance of the writing process.
- It is important to consider the age factor for the diagnosis of dysgraphia. Some authors suggest that this alteration of writing does not begin to take shape until after the learning period (beyond seven years), so it is not appropriate to make a diagnosis before this age.
Symptoms include: Stiffness, slowness, clumsiness, looseness, hyper-precision, and impulsivity.