The Online Information Search about a Client Who Needs Information about Dyslexia - Assignment Example

Information Consultant: Stage 1 Name Institution Date Introduction The role of an information consultant is very significant. Clients always rely on the information consultants for professional advice regarding a specific problem. It is always important for the consultants to ensure that the clients are satisfied and that they receive the most accurate information. Errors may worsen the clients’ situations and result into legal battles (Gillette, 2011). The source of information used by the consultant should be trusted and accurate. This is because some of the sources cannot be verified and hence leading to errors. The internet sources are major sources of information due to its easy access by the consultant. Other sources such as books and journals can also be used provided they are credible and accurate. The process is quite demanding for the consultant and it is a must to follow certain procedures and steps so as to ensure that the information is relevant to the client. The sources of information are also dependant on the needs of the client. Some of the sources may work for a particular field but fail in the others. It is therefore important to choose accurately the source of information to use. It is also important to use more than one source for the purpose of making a comparison. The comparison is useful in determining the degree of accuracy of the information used. The report thus discusses the online information search in relation to a client who needs information about dyslexia for the treatment of her son. Stage 1 Client Information Need Synopsis The client is a mother of a fifteen year old son who has been diagnosed with dyslexia. The client is very worried and does not know what will happen to his son. This condition may have negative impacts on his academic performance which is a major concern. The client therefore wants more information about the condition affecting her son so as to facilitate treatment. What worry the client most are myths that surrounds the condition. Some of her neighbors and friends have recommended several solutions to her problem. However some of the solutions have not been proven medically which has caused a major confusion to her. Several myths also surround the condition and are very worrying. Some of her neighbors have even gone further and suggested that she should ensure that her son wears rose colored glasses. Others have suggested that she should start teaching her son how to crawl like a baby so as to improve his condition. All these solutions have not been proved medically and they are just speculations. However the neighbors could be very convincing which worries her a lot. It is for this reason that she requires accurate information from an expert about possible treatment that will help her son regardless of whether it has been proved medically or not. The client information need is purely for the purpose of ensuring that her son is treated and the condition managed through the use of the relevant information. During the interview with the client, several questions were asked which provided a useful guide to the needs of the clients. The interview questions and answers involving the client and me as the consultant are listed below. Question: What really is dyslexia? Answer: It is a learning disability that impairs a person’s fluency in being able to read. Question: What are the major causes of dyslexia? Answer: It is caused by a non –neurological deficiency with vision, or poor hearing and lack of adequate reading instructions. Question: Is the condition manageable? Answer: The condition is manageable. Question: Some neighbors have been suggesting several strange solutions to the problem including magical one, what is the truth about the treatment of the condition? Answer: The condition can be managed using some of the scientifically and medically proven methods. The mythical methods have not been proved to be working. Question: Can the condition be cured completely? Answer: The condition has no cure but is can only be managed. 2. Search Objectives The main search objectives for the client need are to identify the main methods that can be used to manage the condition successfully. This objective is very important to the client as it will be applied in her situation. The identification of the truth concerning the myths about the condition is also an objective of the search. This is for the purpose of verifying the truth about the information given to her by the neighbors. The last search objective is to obtain all the information concerning the condition that will enable the client to understand better what her son is facing. 3. Analysis of key words and synonyms Concepts Key words Definition Dyslexia condition Learning disability Significant learning problems in an academic area caused by various factors. Short term memory Poor abilities of memorizing words taught. Reading instructions The specifications that are supposed to guide a learner when reading. Rapid naming An exercise that measures how fast an individual can name a loud objects or specified colors Spelling Transcribing the language sounds into alphabetic letters. Alexia Acquired reading disability. Dyslexia management Graphemes The smallest unit in a written language with an example being an alphabetic letter. Phonemes A small unit of sound used to give contrast between utterances. Orthographic The rules used during writing in a particular language. Child development The growth stages of a child. Heritability The ability of traits to be passed from one generation to the next through a genetic process Lexicon Vocabularies found in a specific language. Cognitive psychology A branch of psychology that mainly deals with internal mental processes Dyslexic education Methods used to teach dyslexic people. Remedial teaching Alternative teaching techniques. Neurosciences A branch of medicine that deals with the study of the nervous system. Myths about dyslexia Rose colored glasses Glasses that appear red in color Magic Use of extra ordinary powers to achieve a specific objective Complications Occurrence of several diseases in one patient. Speech disorder Disruption of normal speech due to poor communication. Specific language impairment The failure of a child’s language to develop normally due to slow brain development. 4. Online search tools selected Google This was the main search engine used during the process of obtaining information from the internet. This search engine is very popular among the internet users and is ranked as the most used search engine. The information from this search engine is general and I composed of both academic and non academic sources. This search engine requires the users to type the words they are searching for on the tool bar then press enter. It is easy to use and is quite fact and accurate. Once the words have been typed, the search engine returns several results that match the words typed. The user can then use the most relevant information in the study. This search engine is thus easy to use and quite accurate. The main reason as to why this search engine was used during the research is due to its easy to use nature and accuracy of the information. This is opposed to other search engines which re complicated and only presents few results which may not be relevant. The results from this source are also verified which increases its accuracy and hence its reliability (Cheng, 2010). The search engine is also quite fast and hence reduces the time taken to search for information. This also played an important role in reducing the cost of searching for information on the internet. This search engine was thus used during the research due to its advantages over the other search engines. University Database During the research, this search tool was utilized for the purpose of obtaining specific information from books, journals and other articles. This search tool contains mainly academic information. This is because most of the audiences of the database are students and lecturers conducting academic research. It was equally easy to use once logged in and it gives relevant information one the words have been typed. This search engine was also very efficient since it provided several options regarding the information being searched. It has options of whether the information required should be obtained from a book or a journal. This search tool was preferred during the research for the purpose of obtaining information from books and journals. The information obtained from books and journals are more a curate as compared to the internet sources. This is because the books have to be verified before being published. Some o the information required by the client required a lot of accuracy and hence the need to search the information from the books. It was thus necessary to use the information from the university database due to its high levels of accuracy. The university library database also has a wide variety of books with relevant information to the research as compared to the other sources. 5. Discussion of the initial search strategies for each online resource Google After logging in to Google, the next step was to type the relevant words required in order to obtain the information required by the client. The relevant word in this research was dyslexia. The search returned a lot of options ranging to thousands. However, although al the information was about dyslexia, some were not specific enough and thus not required. I narrowed the search to the information that dealt with the causes, treatment and the myths about dyslexia. This leads to the scrutiny of about ten sources which were more relevant to the study. This lead to a final analysis of the sources and five of the sources proved to be more relevant to the study. The use of this tool is different from the others since the information is usually obtained from different sites within the internet. It is for this reason that the search results always returns thousands of options. When using this search tool, it is always important to be very specific in order to obtain the right results (Hearst, 2009). This is due to the high number of sources available when using this search tool. The search results also include information from different sources which are both academic and non-academic. This therefore provides a good basis for comparing the information. However, some of the non academic results from the sources are not accurate and require proper scrutiny. University Database This source also require login in for the purpose of obtaining the required results. After logging in, the search tool had different options. This search tool requires the user o be specific on what source of information should be used. It has an option of books, journal and very other source. I typed the word dyslexia and ticked on the book option. This returned various books that are relevant to the study. I then selected several books which seemed to be more relent to the research as compared to the others. I repeated the same with journals and he other options and selected several materials using the same procedure. The books and journals were mainly academic but very relevant to the research. This resource is different from Google since it contains only the books and journals that are available in the university library. This is unlike goggle which has materials from many different sources. The materials from this database were mainly composed of academic sources. However, it is easier to search for materials using this source as it is not complicated and it is also more specific as compared to Google. The search strategy was different while using this search tool due to the specific nature of the search tool. The information from this source did not require much scrutiny as they are reliable. The materials are usually scrutinized before being entered into the university database and hence the high levels of accuracy. References Hearst, M, 2009, The Evaluation of Search User Interfaces. Search User Interfaces, Cambridge University Press. Cheng, J, 2010, New Measures for the Evaluation of Interactive Information Retrieval Systems: Normalized Task Completion Time and Normalized User Effectiveness. mailasisorg, 1-9. Retrieved on 3 October 2012 from . Gillette, F, 2011, How Do You Make Money Answering Questions? Bloomberg Business week, (4214), 64-69. Read More