Educator Resources
What is dyslexia?
Dyslexia is a medical condition that results in individuals having difficulty in the areas of language processing. Dyslexia is the most common learning disability. It affects approximately 1 out of every 5 individuals in our country. It is a neurological condition that requires an educational treatment.
Individuals with dyslexia process information in a different part of the brain than do non-dyslexics. Individuals with dyslexia tend to be creative and exhibit a high level of intelligence – it has nothing to do with IQ!
Definition of dyslexia from the International Dyslexia Association:
Dyslexia is a specific learning disability that is neurological in origin. It is characterized by difficulties with accurate and /or fluent word recognition and by poor spelling and decoding abilities. These difficulties typically result from a deficit in the phonological component of language that is often unexpected in relation to other cognitive abilities and the provision of effective classroom instruction. Secondary consequences may include problems in reading comprehension and reduced reading experience that can impede growth of vocabulary and background knowledge.
Non-dyslexics use three areas on the left side of the brain to process language.
The center area is for automatic word retrieval.
 Dyslexics tend to use the right side of the brain to process language, which is an inefficient method. They have great difficulty remembering words they have recently encountered, and their processing speed tends to be slower.
What does dyslexia mean?
dys = difficulty lex = words Term was coined in the 1800’s.
Plato and ancient Greeks were aware of phenomenon.
What causes dyslexia?
While there are cases of “acquired” dyslexia, caused by trauma, the majority of dyslexia is inherited. Researchers have identified a gene that is responsible for dyslexia. If one parent has dyslexia, 50% of their children will have it. If both parents are dyslexic, 100% of their children will be.
How common is dyslexia?
Current studies suggest that 15-20% of the population has a reading disability. Of those, 85% has dyslexia.
Testing for Dyslexia
Dyslexia is a medical condition that requires an educational treatment. Professionals, such as Clinical Psychologists are capable of diagnosing dyslexia. Dyslexia is not specifically listed as an area of disability in either the federal or state law, but some students with dyslexia may meet the criteria for LD services. Steps must be taken by certain identified professional school staff to determine if a student will quality for special education services in their school program. The diagnosis of dyslexia by medical personnel or other providers does not automatically qualify a student for special education services. Students who do not qualify, may benefit from a 504 plan that involves some accommodations.
Dyslexia Characteristics
Preschool:
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delayed speech
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mixing up the sounds and syllables in long words
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constant confusion of left and right
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trouble memorizing address, phone number, alphabet
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difficulty recognizing or creating rhymes
Elementary School:
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dysgraphia (slow, non-automatic handwriting that is hard to read
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letter or number reversals continuing into second grade
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difficulty learning cursive
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can’t tell time
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slow, choppy, inaccurate reading – skips or substitutes small words (the, and, at etc.)
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can’t sound out unknown words
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poor spelling – may know a word one day and not the next
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can’t remember sight words
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slow at coming up with the right word – may use “thingies” or “whatyamacallits”
High School:
All of the above plus:
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limited vocabulary
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extremely poor written expression – large discrepancy between verbal skills and written compositions
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difficulty with a foreign language
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may appear overly tired or lazy – especially at the end of the day – dyslexics use 5 times more energy to do language activities than do non-dyslexics
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may appear to have “given up” - easier to not try than to try and fail yet again
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family member with reading difficulties or dyslexia
Strengths of Dyslexics
Dyslexia occurs in people of all backgrounds and intellectual levels. In addition, it runs in families. People who are very bright can be dyslexic. They are often gifted in areas that do not require language skills, such as art, computer science, design, drama, electronics, math mechanics, music, and sports. (taken from The International Dyslexia Association)
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curiosity
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great imagination
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ability to figure things out
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eager embrace of new ideas
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large vocabulary for age group
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enjoyment in solving puzzles
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talent at building models
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excellent comprehension when stories are read orally
It is most important to promote their strengths along with trying to remediate their weak areas.
What Type of Instruction Does a Dyslexic need?
Dyslexia and other related learning disorders cannot be cured. Proper instruction promotes reading success and alleviates many difficulties associated with dyslexia. Instruction for individuals with learning differences should be:
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Explicit – directly teaches skills for reading, spelling, and writing
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Systematic and cumulative – has a definite, logical sequence of concept introduction
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Structured – has step-by-step procedures for introducing, reviewing, and practicing concepts.
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Multisensory – engages the visual, auditory, and kinesthetic channels simultaneously or in rapid succession
From The International Dyslexia Association 2003
No Child Left Behind Essential Components of Reading Instruction
There should be explicit systematic instruction in:
Phonological Awareness and Phonemic Awareness
Phonological Awareness is a broad term that includes phonemic awareness. In addition, phonological awareness activities can involve work with rhymes, words, syllables, and onsets and rimes.
Phonemic Awareness is the ability to hear, identify, and manipulate the individual sounds – phonemes – in spoken words.
Children who lack phonemic awareness are unable to distinguish or manipulate sounds within spoken words or syllables. They have difficulty doing the following tasks:
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Phoneme segmentation: What sounds do you hear in the word hot?(/h/ /o/ /t/) What is the last sound you hear in the word map? (/p/)
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Phoneme Deletion: What word would be left if the /k/ sound were taken away from cat?(at)
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Phoneme Matching: Do pen and pipe start with the same sound?
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Phoneme Counting: How many sounds do you hear in the word cake? (3)
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Phoneme Substitution: What word would you have if you changed the /h/ in hot to /p/? (pot)
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Blending: What word would you have if you put these sounds together? /s/ /a/ /t/? (sat)
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Rhyming: Tell me as many words as you can that rhyme with the word eat.
People who lack phonemic awareness read by treating each word as though it were a picture. They store a visual image of the word. They pay attention to the first letter or two, the physical shape, and the length.
Quotes from prominent NIH (National Institute of Health) Researchers:
“The lack of phonemic awareness is the most powerful determinant of the likelihood of failure to read”
“Phonemic awareness is more highly related to learning to read than tests of general intelligence, reading readiness, and listening comprehension.”
“Phonemic awareness is the most important core and causal factor separating normal and disabled readers.”
(Taken from www.dys-add.com/define.html)
Phonemic Awareness Web Sites
“Google” phonemic awareness
Reading Rockets: www.readingrockets.org
Bright Solutions: www.brightsolutions.us
Reading Workshop: www.manatee.k12.fl.us/sites/elementary/palmasola/rcompindex1.htm
Beginning Reading: http://reading.uoregon.edu/pa/
Phonics and Phonemic Awareness for Young Learners – many resources! www.esl4kids.net/phonics.html
Time 4 Learning: www.time4learning.com/readingpyramid/awareness.htm
Songs for Teaching – has actual song clips: www.songsforteaching.com/phonemicawareness.htm
Children of the Code: www.childrenofthecode.org
Classroom Accommodations
Whenever possible, instruction should be multisensory. Multisensory teaching is simultaneously visual, auditory, and kinesthetic-tactile to enhance memory and learning. Links are consistently made between the visual (what we see), auditory (what we hear), and kinesthetic-tactile (what we feel). (From The International Dyslexia Association). While this type of instruction is good for all students, it is critical to the student with learning disabilities.
Students do not have to be identified as learning disabled to receive and / or benefit from some or all of the following accommodations:
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Oral testing – Tests are read orally or are put on tape
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Untimed tests – Dyslexics do not perform well under pressure and research shows that it takes them longer to process language because they process through a different portion of the brain. They also use 5 times the energy to do their work and they become tired easily.
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Reduce spelling test lists – Dyslexics do not learn to spell in the same way as non-dyslexics – they may get a word right on a final spelling test, but not use it correctly in written work or not know it the next day. The amount of effort that has to go into learning a list for a test creates a great deal of stress on family life.
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Don’t force oral reading – Dyslexics process language at a slower rate, and are extremely fearful of having to read orally. If it is absolutely necessary, give the child the selection he or she will be reading several days in advance and allow them to practice.
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Accept dictated homework - Dyslexic students can dictate answers much more easily and quickly than they can write them down or type them. Allow parents to act as a scribe. This eliminates a lot of pressure on families.
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Reduce homework load – Many teachers create homework assignments based on how long it would take a “normal” student to complete. It takes a dyslexic student 3 to 4 times longer to complete an assignment. If 4 teachers have assigned homework that was to take 30 minutes, there is literally not enough hours for the dyslexic to finish. These students are already exhausted from trying to get through their school day (they expend 5 times more energy doing what they need to do). Homework can create a great deal of stress on the entire family and cause the student to “never get a break from the pressures of school”.
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Grade on content, not spelling or handwriting – Dyslexics struggle with handwriting and spelling. Allow students to use a Franklin Spelling Ace when working on papers in class.
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Reduce copying tasks – When a dyslexic copies from the board, they may write down an ‘e’ – because they can’t read and spell well, when they look back up they see many ‘e’s’ and have no idea where the ‘e’ they just put down came from. If possible provide students with notes, or a copy of what they are to write. That way they can mark off what they have written down.
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Alternate assignments – Offer students that you know struggle with language issues alternate assignments. They could do video presentations, dioramas, collages, or debates.
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Avoid or reduce essay tests – When possible use match-up, fill-in-the-blank, or short answer formats for tests. Multiple –choice questions are also difficult for dyslexic students due to the volume of reading required. If at all possible, allow the student to do their test orally.
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Books on tape – Recorded books allow the student to focus on the content as opposed to decoding unknown words. Many text books can be obtained from Recordings for the Blind and Dyslexic at: www.rfbd.org
Social and Emotional Impact of Dyslexia
Dyslexia can affect a person’s self image. Students with dyslexia often end up feel “dumb” and less capable than they actually are. Many students just “give up” – in their minds it is better to not try than to try and fail. They tend to suffer from high anxiety, anger, low self-esteem and depression. Dyslexia causes great problems in families. They tend to pull away from friends because of embarrassment. Forty percent of dyslexics are also ADD or ADDHD.
National Institute of Health findings:
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“Dyslexia is the leading cause of reading failure and school dropouts in our nation.”
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“Reading failure is the most commonly shared characteristic of juvenile justice offenders.”
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“Children with both dyslexia and ADD are at dramatically increased risk for substance abuse and felony convictions if they do not receive appropriate interventions.”
From www.emersondickman.org (President of the International Dyslexia Association:
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“50% of adolescents under court supervision have a learning disability
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“60% of adolescents in treatment for substance abuse are learning disabled
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“By adolescence, 50% of children with learning disabilities will have definable psychiatric disorders.”
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“62% of students with learning disabilities are unemployed within one year after graduation from high school.”
Quotes From Famous Dyslexics
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Magic Johnson – “The looks, the stares, the giggles…I wanted to show everybody that I could do better and also that I could read.”
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Tom Cruise – “I had to train myself to focus my attention. I became very visual and learned how to create mental images in order to comprehend what I read.”
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Cher – “I never read in school. I got really bad grades—D’s and F’s and C’s in some classes, and A’s and B’s in other classes. In the second week of the 11th grade, I just quit. When I was in school, it was really difficult. Almost everything I learned, I had to learn by listening. My report card always said that I was not living up to my potential.”
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Nolan Ryan – “When I had dyslexia, they didn’t diagnose it as that. It was frustrating and embarrassing. I could tell you a lot of horror stories about what you feel like on the inside.”
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Winston Churchill – “I was, on the whole, considerably discouraged by my school days. It was not pleasant to feel oneself so completely outclasses and left behind at the beginning of the race.”
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Hans Albert Einstein, on his father, Albert Einstein – He told me that his teachers reported that …he was mentally slow, unsociable, and adrift forever in his foolish dreams.”
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Thomas Edison- “My teachers say I’m addled…my father thought I was stupid, and I almost decided I must be a dunce.”
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Stephen Cannell, screenwriter and actor – “Since I was the stupidest kid in my class, it never occurred to me to try and be perfect, so I’ve always been happy as a writer just to entertain myself. That’s an easier place to start.”
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Bruce Jenner – “I just barely got through school. The problem was a learning disability, at a time when there was nowhere to get help.”
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Henry Winkler – “As a child, I was called stupid and lazy. On the SAT I got 159 out of 800 in math. My parents had no idea that I had a learning disability.”
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Charles Schwab – “I just scraped by. My solution back then was to read classis comic books because I could figure them out from the context of the pictures. Now I listen to books on tape.”
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Nelson Rockefeller – “I was one of the ‘puzzle children’ myself – a dyslexic…And I still have a hard time reading today. Accept the fact that you have a problem. Refuse to feel sorry for yourself. You have a challenge; never quit.”
Web Sites for Dyslexia
Barton Reading: www.bartonreading.com
Bright Solutions for Dyslexia: www.BrightSolutions.us
The International Dyslexia Association: www.interdys.org
Charles Schwab: www.schwablearning.org
National Institute of Health: www.nichd.nih.gov
Learning Disabilities Assoc: www.ldanatl.org
LD On Line: www.ldonline.org
Dyslexia Center: www.dyslexiacenter.org
Dyslexia Teacher: www.dyslexia-teacher.com
National Center for Learning Disabilities: www.nicd.org
Council for Exceptional Children (CEC): www.cec.sped.org
Indiana State University: www.indstate.edu/soe/blumberg/reading/re-webteacher.html
Recordings for the Blind and Dyslexic: www.rfbd.org
National Institute for Child Health and Human Development (NCHD): www.nichd.nih.gov
For children: www.spark.top.org
Can also access from the Schwab page
Local Literacy web site: Community Literacy Collaborative: www.itstartswithreading.org
BDC Lending Library
We are happy to loan the following books to educators. Willard library has a copy of many of the books in addition to many that we do not have. Each school building (that is part of the Battle Creek Area Educators’ Task Force) has been given a copy of Overcoming Dyslexia and each district has been given a copy of Motivational Breakthrough.
The Motivation Breakthrough: Turning on the Tuned-Out Child by Richard Lavoie
Straight Talk About Reading by Susan Hall and Louisa Moats
The Orton Emeritus Series - A set of 17 pamphlets from the International Dyslexia Association
Proust and the Squid- The Story and Science of the Reading Brain by Maryanne Wolf
Overcoming Dyslexia by Sally Shaywitz
Raising Lifelong Learners by Lucy Calkins
Learning to Learn by Carolyn Oliver and Rosemary F. Bowler
Basic Facts About Dyslexia and Other Reading Problems by Louise Cook Moats
Food For Thought…
Taken from The Motivation Breakthrough – 6 Secrets to Turning On the Tuned-Out Child by Richard Lavoie. The BDC has given a copy of this book to the curriculum office of each school district that is part of the Battle Creek Area Educators’ Task Force.
“At the conclusion of a speaking engagement in a major northwestern American city, a young man approached me from the audience and asked if he could share a story with me. He was visibly upset, as evidenced by his shaky hands and mournful voice. We sat backstage in the auditorium as he related his experience.
‘My dad left my life when I was in the third grade. I came downstairs one morning and he was gone. He simply packed up his belongings and left my mother, my two older brothers, and me.
That was seventeen years ago and I have not seen him since. I do not know where he is. I do not know if he is alive or dead and – God help me – I don’t care. I have come to realize that the day he left was, on reflection, the greatest day of my life.
He was a terrible person. Probably the most evil person I have ever known. I was the youngest of three brothers. I was the smallest and the weakest. As a result, my dad used to beat me. Regularly and severely. He beat me for the simple reason that he ENJOYED beating me. He didn’t need a reason. He would reach across the dinner table and slap me without provocation. He was a bully and I hated him for that.
But generally when he beat me, he had been drinking and he would hit me in the living room or the kitchen. I was faster than he was, and I could easily escape by running outside, waiting until he fell asleep, and then sneaking back into the house.
But on the occasion when I made a mistake or did something wrong, I got what my brothers and I called a bathroom beating. My father would drag me into the bathroom, close and lock the door behind us, and simply beat me until he got tired of beating me. In a bathroom beating you couldn’t escape. If you ran into the shower, he was there. If you hid behind the toilet, he was there. If you sought shelter in the linen closed, he was there. A bathroom beating was reserved for situations in which I had broken a rule or made a mistake.
In the first grade I couldn’t read. I struggled and struggled to break the code, but I was simply unable to do so. They had a unique way of teaching reading in my school district at that time. On the first Thursday of each month – shortly after morning recess – Mrs. Donovan, the reading specialist, would arrive at our classroom. She would require all the poor readers to come to the front of the class and read aloud to the other children. This ritual was extremely embarrassing for me. But I devised a strategy to avoid the humiliation.
On the day that Mrs. Donovan was scheduled to visit our class, I would go into the boys’ room during recess. I would take my reading glasses and crack one of the lenses on the sink or simply twist the glasses until they broke in half.
I would approach Mrs. Donovan as soon as she arrived and explain to her that I couldn’t read that day because my glasses were broken.
I did that every first Thursday for five months – with the full knowledge that when I showed my parents the broken glasses that evening I was going to receive a bathroom beating.’
This child was highly motivated. HIS MOTIVATION WAS TO AVOID EMBARRASSMENT, and he was willing to receive a beating from a grown man once each month in order to achieve his goal. (pages 8-10)”
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