Why does spatial orientation cause problems for some students with learning disabilities?
Prior to reading, everything in the environment stays the same no matter what the orientation. That changes upon the process of reading and writing. That’s an abstract construct that kids are exposed to in a reading environment. They may look at a b and see a p. They need to know their eyes will play a trick on them and compensate. All kids will reverse some letters, but once they progress developmentally, we expect to see that go away around age 7 or 8 completely. It’s a common reading disability: dyslexia. They hang on to that much longer. The skill is developmental, but we believe there’s a neurological glitch that happens in some kids with LD. We are taught from birth that objects remain constant regardless of their spatial orientation. For example, if I show you a toy car, but turn it upside down, it is still a toy car. It does not change what it is because we are viewing it from a different perspective. However written language is impacted by spatial orientation. The letter “b” i
