Dyslexia, what it means and what to do.

Many times over the years as a Special Education teacher, I have heard the refrain, "I think my child has dyslexia. I want him tested to see if he is dyslexic."

Dyslexia comes from the Greek word "dys" meaning inadequate, and "lexis" meaning language or words. There is no cure for dyslexia, and it doesn't mean the person with it has a lower intelligence. Dyslexia has to do with what happens in the brain, how the brain processes language ... expressive or receptive, oral or written. It is a thing of the mind.

I repeat, it does not mean one has low intelligence. Any parent of a dyslexic child will tell you their kid is smart. The kids I teach who are dyslexic are often average to above average in intelligence.

I do not have a doctorate degree, and do not claim to be the expert in this area, but I have some training in teaching children reading skills in decoding, fluency, and reading comprehension. I wanted to put a few helpful and informative links here today for anyone who knows a child who is having great difficulty with reading.

Chances are you know or knew someone like this. If you were told you were dyslexic as a child, and you think your child is, you may be correct. Recent research shows that dyslexia is inherited.

Dyslexia goes beyond transposing letters and numbers, though that is certainly one of the characteristics that is noticed first. Other signs include being unable to associate sounds in words, to recognize rhymes, to identify single words, or spell words.  Also, difficulty with writing, reading comprehension, difficutly expressing thoughts aloud, confusion with directions and time, handwriting issues, and confusing steps in math processes are signs of dyslexia.

These are just a few. A person doesn't have to have all of these symptoms to be genuinely dyslexic, but if you have a child who exhibits these signs, ask your child's teacher if they see these difficulties in the classroom. Then ask to have your child tested.

If you don't ask to have your child tested early on, waiting until 3rd or 4th grade could lead to reading disaster and disappointment, not to mention dropping out of school.

The first link I'm going to add is for the LDonline website at http://www.ldonline.org . Here anyone can subscribe for a free monthly newsletter for up-to-date news in the field of learning disabilities. Teachers would no doubt find it useful, but so would parents who want to be informed.

I received an issue today in my email, and came across several articles about dyslexia. What I found particularly interesting was the fact that children identified with dyslexia in kindergarten or first grade "will have significantly fewer problems in learning to read at grade level than" children who aren't identified and helped until later, say in 3rd grade. This fact was followed by this even more frightening fact: poor readers in the 3rd grade often "remain poor readers in the ninth grade."

I don't know the statistics yet on how many adults cannot read well, but it seems likely that if a person cannot read well by ninth grade, they will not be reading well by the time they graduate from high school.

In all my training, I have heard over and over again how important it is to find these kids at a younger age, and not wait until they are in the 3rd grade to get them help.

With the eligibility criteria we've been using these past fifteen or so years, at least in my home state, it is possible for a student to have difficulty with reading (or math or writing), yet not qualify for special services due to the requirement of a significant discrepancy between intellectual ability and academic achievement scores. We're talking test scores here.

In the school I have worked at for the past seven years, and the one where I work now, when a student doesn't qualify for special services, there are other in-school programs, math and reading remediation classes, which will take such students for a time period each day and work on specific skills needed. It's probably true that many schools have such programs set up to help at-risk students who flounder in reading and/or math.

The point I want to make is that if parents are aware that their child is struggling with the basics of reading before kindergarten, they can start advocating and helping their child right away. There is no time to waste!

In Common Signs of Dyslexia  there is a list of signs to watch out for in your preschooler:

May talk later than most children

May have difficulty pronouncing words, i.e., busgetti for spaghetti, mawn lower for lawn mower

May be slow to add new vocabulary words

May be unable to recall the right word

May have difficulty with rhyming

May have trouble learning the alphabet, numbers, days of the week, colors, shapes, how to spell and write his or her name

May have trouble interacting with peers

May be unable to follow multi-step directions or routines

Fine motor skills may develop more slowly than in other children

May have difficulty telling and/or retelling a story in the correct sequence

Often has difficulty separating sounds in words and blending sounds to make words

The good news is that there is a new approach for identifying children in need on the horizon, and within five years, all the schools in this state (NC) will be adopting it, called Response To Intervention. I have only heard about it, and am beginning to look more into it because this is going to be the model for identifying children for special education services, according to IDEA 2004.

I do knowthat the model for identifying children based on discrepancy scores between IQ and academic achievement will no longer be used, but replaced by an entitlement model based on the student's response to research based interventions. There is an article, somewhat technical, explaining this model at http://www.ldonline.org/article/11202 if you would like to read about it.

As soon as I become more familiar with it, I may be able to explain it in layman's terms! From what I heard, it's going to be more work intensive for the teachers involved, but will provide help for more students who may otherwise fall between the cracks of our education system.

Finally, here is a link for families, http://www.readingrockets.org/families, and How to Recognize Early Signs of Trouble. These are more reader friendly, I might add!

Tags: Special Education, Response to Intervention, Dyslexia, Reading Rockets, LDOnline.org