 Presentation by Kristin Blain 8 th Grade Resource Teacher Lakeshore Middle School teachersites.schoolworld.com

 Learning Disabilities  Reading Decoding  Decoding Strategies

 LD affects the brain’s ability to receive, process, store, respond to, and communicate information  NOT an intellectual disability  Average to above average intelligence  Struggling to acquire new skills impacts school performance  No apparent cause for LD (National Center for Learning Disabilities, 2013) KinaLearn.com: How a Dyslexic Brain Works- A simple Demonstration

DyslexiaDifficulty readingProblems reading, writing, spelling, speaking DyscalculiaDifficulty with mathProblems doing math problems, understanding time, using money Dysgraphia Difficulty with writingProblems with handwriting, spelling, organizing ideas Dyspraxia (Sensory Integration Disorder) Difficulty with fine motor skillsProblems with hand–eye coordination, balance, manual dexterity Dysphasia/AphasiaDifficulty with languageProblems understanding spoken language, poor reading comprehension Auditory Processing DisorderDifficulty hearing differences between sounds Problems with reading, comprehension, language Visual Processing DisorderDifficulty interpreting visual informationProblems with reading, math, maps, charts, symbols, pictures

 Secondary students with a Learning Disability (LD) experience significant deficits in reading when compared to other students in their grade level  Dropout rate for students with LD was estimated at 31.6 % as compared to 9.4 % for students with no disabilities (U. S. Dept. of Education, 2007c)  Only 11% of students with LD, as compared to 53% of students in the general education population, have attended a four-year postsecondary program within two years of leaving high school (National Longitudinal Study II, 2003) blog.zucklaw.com

1.) Older students don’t practice reading and avoid it because reading is taxing, slow, and frustrating 2.) Because they have not read much, they are not familiar with the vocabulary, sentence structure, text organization and concepts of academic “book” language 3.) Over time, comprehension skills decline because they don’t read, become poor spellers and poor writers 4.) What usually begins as a decoding deficit becomes a debilitating problem with language (both spoken and written) (Moats, 2002)

 A wealth of evidence shows that intensive, high-quality literacy instruction can help students who are struggling build the skills they need to succeed in high school and beyond (Biancarosa & Snow, 2004).

 Students with learning disabilities can be very successful in school  It is up to parents, guardians, and teachers to work together to develop a system that will work for the student  Implement simple but helpful strategies with your student at home

 Decoding (word identification), refers to the ability to correctly decipher a particular word out of a group of letters.  Two skills involved in decoding: 1. Phonemic awareness is the understanding that spoken words are made up of individual units of sound. These units of sound are called phonemes (i.e. /k/,/a/, and /t/, form the word cat). 2. Phonics is the understanding of the relationship between the letters in written words and the sounds of these words when spoken. Students use this understanding as the basis for learning to read (recognize familiar words and pronounce new words) and write. (National Institute for Literacy, 2008)

 If decoding is not fully developed by adolescence, students experience difficulty when they encounter new words  Research supports instruction in decoding, word recognition, and spelling helps improve phonemic awareness for students who have difficulty understanding how to blend sounds to articulate unfamiliar words (National Institute for Literacy, 2008) blogs.ksbe.edu

 Adolescents with decoding difficulties need more intensive practice to develop their reading skills more thoroughly both in and out of school  Both phonics and phonemic awareness instruction should occur using the language used in educational settings  Focus on only one or two strategies at a time (National Institute for Literacy, 2008)

 Research-based recommendations (with each strategy, you model and have your student repeat): o When looking at new vocabulary words, articulate each syllable slowly (i.e., e-co-sys-tem), pausing slightly between the syllables. Repeat this articulation several times. o Point out patterns in the pronunciation and spelling of prefixes, suffixes, and vowels in selected words (i.e., rac- ism, sex-ism, age-ism, etc.). prefixes, suffixes o Point out similarities and differences among words that belong to "word families" (e.g., define, definitely, definition). (National Institute for Literacy, 2008)

*Please refer to your parent activity handout Appleby, Ph.D., J., Brinkley, Ph.D., A., Broussard, Ph.D., A. S., McPherson, Ph.D., J. M., & Ritchie, D. A. (2009). Social reform. In Americana journey: Early years (p. 418). Columbus, OH: McGraw-Hill. Teach your student to begin their homework by looking at the section vocabulary

 Adolescent readers who struggle with decoding need extra time to decode each word AND to apply their higher order thinking skills to fully comprehend the text that they read (National Institute for Literacy, 2008)  Encourage your student to self-advocate for the extra time that they will need for reading in and out of the classroom  Practicing these decoding strategies at home will help your student feel more confident and comfortable using them at school theredranch.blogspot.com

 With research-based strategies, encouragement, and persistence, your student can and will achieve great things! MedicalNewsOnline: Overcoming Learning Disabilities

 Appleby, Ph.D., J., Brinkley, Ph.D., A., Broussard, Ph.D., A. S., McPherson, Ph.D., J. M., & Ritchie, D. A. (2009). Social reform. In Americana journey: Early years (p. 418). Columbus, OH: McGraw-Hill  Manzo, C. (Actor). McGraw, P., & McGraw, J. (Producer).(2012). Overcoming Learning Disabilities [Online video]. Hollywood: CBS Television Distribution. Retrieved April 7, 2013, from  Moats, L. (2002). When older students can't read. In LD Online. Retrieved April 1, 2013, from  National Institute for Literacy. (2008). Key literacy component: Decoding. In all about Adolescent Literacy. Retrieved February 7, 2013, from  National Joint Committee on Learning Disabilities. (2008, June). Adolescent literacy and older students with learning disabilities: A report from the national joint committee on learning disabilities. In LD Online. Retrieved February 10, 2013  NCLD Editorial Team. (2013). What are learning disabilities?. In National Center for Learning Disabilities. Retrieved April 1, 2013, from  QuestGarden, Inc. (2011). Prefixes and suffixes. In QuestGarden. Retrieved April 7, 2013, from  Vogel, D. (Narrator). (2011). How a dyslexic brain works [Online video]. KinaLearn.com. Retrieved February 25, 2013, from simple-demo_people#.UWIQsZPviSo