Najela Blain-Hammond Breaking the Code Helping Students with Dyslexia Become More Proficient Readers

have a deeper understanding of dyslexia. know about the history, philosophy and current research in the field of dyslexia identify some warning signs of dyslexia. be able to implement some practices in the regular classroom that can help dyslexic students. At the end of this session, you will:

Two Truths and a Lie

Slide A 1. A child can be highly dyslexic and not reverse letters. 2. Dyslexia is a visual processing difficulty that causes adults and children to write letters and words backwards. 3. Children reverse letters when learning to write regardless of whether or not they are dyslexic.

Slide B 1. Dyslexia is far more common in boys than girls. 2. Dyslexia affects comparable numbers of boys and girls. The actual prevalence is nearly identical in both sexes. 3. Girls with reading difficulties are not as readily identified as boys, and they are often more severely impaired in reading before they are identified.

Slide C 1. Many dyslexics learn to read accurately, but may continue to read slowly and not automatically. 2. Dyslexia is a temporary lag in reading development—it can be outgrown with proper intervention in phonological skills. 3. Dyslexia is a chronic condition that is not only common, but persistent.

Slide D 1. The prevalence of dyslexia varies with the ratio of sounds to written letters in a native language. 2. Neurologic mechanisms of dyslexia are similar regardless of native language. 3. Dyslexia affects those who speak alphabetic languages, such as English and German, not those who speak languages that are primarily logographic, such as Chinese and Japanese.

Slide E 1. People with dyslexia have subtle visual system differences that cause the condition and its associated reading difficulties. 2. Children with dyslexia do not experience the same” reading-induced” change in the visual system that is seen in typical readers. 3. Brain’s visual system increases when children with dyslexia receive intensive reading intervention.

Answers

Slide A 2. Dyslexia is a visual processing difficulty that causes adults and children to write letters and words backwards.

Slide B 1. Dyslexia is far more common in boys than girls.

Slide C 2. Dyslexia is a temporary lag in reading development—it can be outgrown with proper intervention in phonological skills.

Slide D 3. Dyslexia affects those who speak alphabetic languages, such as English and German, not those who speak languages that are primarily logographic, such as Chinese and Japanese.

Slide E 1. People with dyslexia have subtle visual system differences that cause the condition and its associated reading difficulties.

“Dyslexia is a specific learning disability that is neurological in origin”. It is characterized by:  difficulties with accurate and/or fluent word recognition  difficulties with 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 the growth of vocabulary and background knowledge.” (IDA, 2002) “Dyslexia is also associated with processing impairments in orthographic and rapid automatic naming.” (RAN; Berninger et al.l, 2001)

The Language System: Reading and Speaking Discourse Syntax Semantics Phonology Despite the emphasis on phonemic awareness and reading, it is important to recognize that dyslexia affects more than reading, spelling, and phonological awareness. It affects language processing, in a variety of ways, social and emotional functioning.

Early Perspectives on Dyslexia  In 1878, Adolph Kussmaul—a German neurologist— introduced the term “word blindness.”  In 1887, a German physician, Rudolf Berlin of Stuttgart uses the term dyslexia. He conceptualizes dyslexia as a member of the a larger family of language disorders called aphasia.

 In the 1900’s, Dr. James Hishelwood work reinforced the use of the term word blindness.  In 1925, Dr. Orton, an American neurologist, introduced the term strephosymbolia. He was the first to recognize that children with reading difficulties often reversed letters.

 He also introduced the term developmental alexia.  In the mid-1930s, learning difficulties were beginning to be viewed primarily as educational problems.  In the 1990s the availability of functional brain imaging has made it possible for scientists to map the “many reading pathways: in the brain involved in dyslexia.

Reprinted from Overcoming Dyslexia: A New and Complete Science-Based Program for Reading Problems at Any Level, by Sally E. Shaywitz, 2003, p. 78, New York: Alfred A. Knopf. Copyright 2003 by Alfred A. Knopf. Reprinted with permission.

What are some clues that can alert you to the possibility that someone is dyslexic ? #1 Clue – A Delay in Language Preschool Years:  Difficulties with rhyming words and a lack of appreciation for them  Difficulty learning common nursery rhymes  Mispronounced words “tebby-dare” for “teddy bear”  Difficulty in learning and/or remembering names of letters  Does not know the letters in his own name  Confusion between directional words (e.g up/down; in/out)

Kindergarten/ First Grade:  Failure to understand that words come apart; for example, that batboy can be pulled apart into bat and boy, and later on, that the word bat can be broken down still further and sounded out as: "b" "aaa" "t“  Inability to learn to associate letters with sounds, such as being unable to connect the letter b with the "b" sound.  Reading errors that show no connection to the sounds of the letters; for example, the word big is read as goat.  The inability to read common one-syllable words or to sound out even the simplest of words, such as mat, cat, hop, nap.  Complaints about how hard reading is, or running and hiding when it is time to read.  A history of reading problems in parents or siblings.

Second Grade –On:  Mispronunciation of long, unfamiliar and complicated words; leaving out parts of words or confusing the order of the parts of words; ex: aluminum becomes alumium.  Pause and hesitation when speaking  The use of imprecise language (i.e saying stuff instead of the exact word)  Difficulty remembering pieces of verbal information: their birth date, seasons of the year, time (yesterday, today, tomorrow  Slow Progress in acquiring reading skills

 Lacks strategy to read new words  Is hesitant and labored in reading, especially when reading out loud.  Fails to recognize small “function” words – that, and, in  Oral reading that is filled with substitution, omissions or mispronunciations  Reading whose accuracy improves over time, though it continues to lack fluency and is laborious.

Writing:  Has poor handwriting with many “reversals”.  Spell as a word several different ways in a piece of writing.  Uses unusual sequencing of letters or words  Makes anagrams of words (i.e tired for tried)  Is confused by letters which look similar, particularly b/d, p/g, p/q, n/u, m/w.

Numeracy:  Shows confusion with number order (units, tens, hundreds)  Is confused by symbols such as + and X  Difficulty remembering anything in sequential order e.g tables

Dyslexia in Young Adults:  Hesitation to say aloud words that might be mispronounced.  Word reading becomes more accurate over time but continues to require great effort.  Lack of fluency  Substitution of made-up words during reading for words that cannot be pronounced—ex: metropolitan becomes mitan and a failure to recognize the word when it is seen again the next day.  Spelling that remains disastrous and a preference for less complicated words in writing that are easier to spell.  Does not like to read for pleasure.

What can you do in the mainstream classroom to help your students with dyslexia ?

Teaching a dyslexic child to read is based on the same principles used to teach any child to read the difference lies in the intensity of reading intervention.

An effective reading program is predicated on a three-prong approach: 1) Reading intervention. 2) Integration of the intervention with regular schoolwork. 3) Frequent monitoring of reading progress.

 150 to 300 hours of intensive instruction (at least ninety minutes a day for most school days over a one-to three year period  Intense Instruction in small group of 3-4 students at least four and preferably five days a week.  Teacher must interact with the student often to detect change and adjust instruction—slow down, repeat, speed up, or find an alternate explanation.

Teach Oral Language  Oral Language is preparation for written language.  Oral receptive and expressive language aid reading comprehension in turn reading comprehension enhances oral vocabulary growth.

 Start with a question of the day. “What are the steps for washing your hands?”  Work with parts of speech  Build Sentences  Play with Language  Read to Children

Teaching of phonemic awareness (15 minutes)  Developing an awareness of rhymes –rhymes lay the groundwork for teaching phonemic awareness.  Children can be asked to listen to beginning sounds in words (alliterations).  Children can be asked to recite poems and jingles.  Children can pull words apart, pull words together; move parts of words.

Reading Fluency  Students should practice on material that they can decode ( no more than one error for any 20 words).  Practice (rereading the same passage 3 to 4 times).  Graphing fluency rates.

Prereading preparation with vocabulary meaning and oral reading of words and phrases. 1) Phrase awareness e.g “The first three words tell “who” (nominal phrase) 2) Awareness of inflectional endings –s, ed.

Teaching Writing  Handwriting  Spelling (15 minutes a day)

Accommodations  E-books  Voice to Text Software  Time  Understanding

3 things that really interested you. 2 things you would like to know more about. 1 idea that you will take back to your school.

Najela Blain-Hammond

I hope you enjoyed the presentation. Thank you for coming.