VOA慢速英语 2008 0207a

This is the VOA Special English Education Report.

People who have unusual difficulty¹ with reading, writing, listening or working with numbers might have a learning² disability. We talked last week about a reading disorder³, dyslexia. Today we discuss a writing disorder, dysgraphia.

Writing is not an easy skill. Not only does it require the ability to organize and express ideas in the mind. It also requires the ability to get the muscles⁵ in the hands and fingers to form those ideas, letter by letter, on paper.

 
 
Experts say teachers and parents should suspect dysgraphia if a child's handwriting is unusually difficult to read. Letters might be sized or spaced incorrectly⁶. Capital letters might be in the wrong places.  The child's hand, body or paper might be in a strange position. These can all be signs of dysgraphia. Spelling problems can also be related⁷ to the disorder.

Many people have poor handwriting, but dysgraphia is more serious. Dsygraphia is a neurological disorder that generally appears when children are first learning to write. Writing by hand can be physically⁸ painful for people who have it. There are different kinds of dysgraphia. And it can appear with other learning disabilities, especially involving language.

Experts are not sure what causes it. But they say early treatment can help prevent or reduce many problems. For example, special exercises can increase strength in the hands and improve muscle⁴ memory. This is training muscles to remember the shapes of letters and numbers.

Children can try a writing aid like a thick pencil to see if that helps. Schools can also provide simple interventions⁹ like more time to complete writing activities or assistance¹⁰ from a note taker. Teachers could have students with dysgraphia take tests by speaking the answers into a recorder, or type their work instead of writing it.

Children with dysgraphia might be able to avoid the problems of handwriting by using a computer. Yet experts say they could still gain from special instruction to help them organize their thoughts and put them into writing. Such skills become more important as children get older and schoolwork becomes more difficult.

And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. Our continuing series¹¹ on learning disabilities, along with links to more information, can be found at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember.

 

1 difficulty   

n.困难，费劲；难事，难题；麻烦，困境

参考例句：

• If there is any difficulty,please let us know promptly.倘有困难，请迅速通知我们。
• A little difficulty like this is nothing to us.这点困难算不了什么。

2 learning   

n.学问，学识，学习；动词learn的现在分词

参考例句：

• When you are learning to ride a bicycle,you often fall off.初学骑自行车时，常会从车上掉下来。
• Learning languages isn't just a matter of remembering words.学习语言不仅仅是记些单词的事。

3 disorder   

n.紊乱，混乱；骚动，骚乱；疾病，失调

参考例句：

• When returning back,he discovered the room to be in disorder.回家后，他发现屋子里乱七八糟。
• It contained a vast number of letters in great disorder.里面七零八落地装着许多信件。

4 muscle   

n.肌肉，膂力；v.硬挤

参考例句：

• The heart is made of muscle.心脏是肌肉组织。
• He is a man of muscle.他是个大力士。

5 muscles   

n.肌肉( muscle的名词复数 )；（操纵他人的）力量；权力；肌肉组织

参考例句：

• I must take some exercise and loosen up my muscles. 我必须活动活动使肌肉放松些。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Gosh! My muscles is going to ache all over tomorrow. 哎呀！明天我全身肌肉都会痛了。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 incorrectly   

adv.错误地

参考例句：

• The oral message was incorrectly transmitted.口信传达错了。
• I'v filled in this form incorrectly.Can I have another blank?我把表格填错了。再给我一张空白的，可以吗？

7 related   

adj.有关系的，有关联的，叙述的，讲述的

参考例句：

• I am not related to him in any way.我和他无任何关系。
• We spent days going through all related reference material.我们花了好多天功夫查阅所有有关的参考资料。

8 physically   

adj.物质上，体格上，身体上，按自然规律

参考例句：

• He was out of sorts physically,as well as disordered mentally.他浑身不舒服，心绪也很乱。
• Every time I think about it I feel physically sick.一想起那件事我就感到极恶心。

9 interventions   

n.介入，干涉，干预( intervention的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Economic analysis of government interventions deserves detailed discussion. 政府对经济的干预应该给予充分的论述。 来自辞典例句
• The judge's frequent interventions made a mockery of justice. 法官的屡屡干预是对正义的践踏。 来自互联网

10 assistance   

n.援助，帮助

参考例句：

• She called and called but no one came to her assistance.她叫了又叫，但没有人来帮。
• He will get the great possible assistance.他将获得尽可能大的帮助。

11 series   

n.连续；系列

参考例句：

• The students have put forward a series of questions.学生们提出了一系列问题。
• He gave forth a series of works in rapid succession.他很快连续发表了一系列的作品。