Research on Literacy Learning Possibilities for Students with Dyslexia

 

Introduction

     

Children with dyslexia can become readers that achieve great success in life. Successes of individuals with dyslexia are documented in studies, books, and personal stories. Adults with dyslexia have grown to be professionals in many areas. Some of those areas include writing, law, medicine, science, poetry, and more. Patricia Polacco is one of those authors and has illustrated her struggle with learning to read in her children’s book, Thank, Mr. Falker.  Students with dyslexia need many things, but perhaps the most important can be found in parents and teachers that become their advocate and support system while understanding the struggle presented by dyslexia and continue to stand beside the student throughout the process of learning to read and beyond (Shaywitz & Shaywitz, 2020). Below I have provided a link to a book review in which author, Patricia Polacco, highlighted the hero and advocate, Mr. Falker, that stood beside her through her own journey as a child struggling with dyslexia and the difficulties it brings to one’s life. Through her struggles, Patricia not only became a reader, but she also became a teacher and then a successful author as an adult with dyslexia. 

Book Review

Students with Dyslexia can Learn to Read

   

    Dyslexia is a specific learning disability that directly affects learning to read and is neuro-biological in nature. These struggles are marked by inaccurate word recognition, weak spelling skills, the inability to use phonics to decode words, and the lack of fluency while reading aloud. Dyslexia is the result of a deficit in phonological awareness that can be first noticed in speech development and later in an unexpected struggle in learning to read (Wagner et al., 2020). Perhaps if educators and society, in general, changed the idea of what is considered normal the symptoms of dyslexia would be embraced and the language of good versus bad students would as a result also change (Cosenza, 2014). Self-efficacy is vital for the development of all students despite if the student is a typically developing student or student with disabilities such as dyslexia. My earliest days of teaching were spent in PreK and kindergarten classrooms. It was there that I identified and truly believed what I had learned in my early childhood education classes in college, it is our priority to foster a love for learning and a deep attachment to school and the community it provides for learning. Students with dyslexia struggle with self-efficacy as they watch their peers learn to read and they are left behind struggling with attaching letters to sound that provides students with the ability to accurately decode words to create meaning from text and explore the worlds of each opened book while finding the love for reading. However different it may be students with dyslexia can learn to read. Although, the process will take extra time, patience, and perseverance while being supported by strong supporters that work to build up the self-efficacy of students with dyslexia (Shaywitz & Shaywitz, 2020).

 

As students begin school and formal literacy instruction they bring with them a wealth of knowledge available through experience that has built a usable fund of knowledge. Early screening to identify students at risk for dyslexia sets up the best possibilities for students that are diagnosed with dyslexia (Shaywitz & Shaywitz, 2020). Beginning in prekindergarten and kindergarten students move through stages of reading development that is clearly defined by shifts of knowledge and skills used by students (Handsfield, 2016). The graph below will help to show the stages described in the stage theories and spelling development that show the progression of skills all students must go through in the journey of becoming readers. This journey presents difficulties for many with disabilities such as dyslexia but nonetheless is part of becoming a reader.

 

Stage Theories and Spelling Development

 

 

                                     (Handsfield, 2016)

                

Learning to Read with a Team and a Plan

When students become readers phonological and phonemic awareness, spelling, phonics/decoding skills, and fluency are the building blocks provided by the earliest years of literacy instruction to create and grow readers that make sense of text and the world around them. This is a difficult process for students with dyslexia because of the inability to connect letters to sounds but with intense instruction and practice, and partnership between home and school, these students can also learn to read (Shaywitz & Shaywitz, 2020). As discussed in earlier posts dyslexia is a result of a phonological awareness deficit that leads to the inability to connect letters and sounds. Difficulties in learning to read for those with disabilities such as dyslexia involve issues with the cognitive processes accessed during reading and not the general intelligence, therefore, individual strengths should guide plans and accommodations for students with dyslexia (Bell et al., 2011). An early diagnosis will help students with dyslexia receive more intense instruction earlier in school. Evidence-based strategies are strategies proven effective through practice, research and data analysis.  Educators should use evidence-based strategies that include decoding, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension with persistent monitoring to ensure needs are met, reteaching is provided as needed, or progression of instruction continues in order to meet new goals so that the achievement gap between students with dyslexia and their peers can decrease so that positive gains will be evident as reading abilities increase (Shaywitz & Shaywitz, 2020). A reading plan for students with dyslexia should be lead by a highly qualified teacher and created using the strengths of the students while partnering with parents and tutors to ensure success and growth for the students(Shaywitz & Shaywitz, 2020). After repeated instruction that provides much practice through school and home students with dyslexia become readers.

 

A Quick Glance at Students with Dyslexia Becoming a Reader

 

 

 

 

College and Beyond

    Students with dyslexia can proceed to successful career paths or college after the completion of high school and have unlimited opportunities. A literacy plan during the high school years for students with dyslexia should include accommodations such as extra time to read, scheduling details to ensure assignments and tests are not to be completed on the same day, as well as instruction in self-advocacy so that students can advocate for themselves in order to receive or allow themselves necessary accommodations to help ensure success in the future (Shaywitz & Shaywitz, 2020). The recognition of personal needs and self-advocacy can be used by individuals as they go through life utilizing literacy skills to continue learning throughout life. When students leave high school with positive self-efficacy and awareness of personal needs life success awaits. College students have found small communities for students with dyslexia in order to learn about themselves, digital text that includes photos and videos, and peer connections are useful to guide learning and growth in college (Barden, 2014). Shaywitz (2020) provided an example of self-advocacy in which a student, Kayla, at Yale University requested an extra semester to extend her studies to provide time to be certain she had gained all necessary knowledge. She explained to officials a great deal of time was spent early in her college career reading at a slow pace and it took great effort to keep up and she feared she would not finish her final semester accurately reflecting her intellectual abilities due to the struggle of time to keep up. Kayla was awarded permission for an extra semester at Yale graduating the next semester and becoming a successful screenwriter with many movie and television credits. (Shaywitz & Shaywitz, 2020). Without self-regulation, recognition of needs, and self-advocacy skills Kayla perhaps would not have finished her time at Yale and not experienced the many successful experiences her future held for. 

Conclusion 

    As an educator, I believe that all children can learn and that it is my responsibility as a teacher to help students reach their full potential while gaining academic knowledge and social skills. When I think of my students with disabilities this belief is even more strong. As students with dyslexia proceed through school and face the realization of the struggle of learning to read while watching peers become readers, it must affect their whole being and all that they know about themselves. By fiercely standing beside students with dyslexia, becoming an advocate, creating a school to home connection, recognizing the struggle of learning to read, building self-efficacy, and providing the appropriate instruction to help this student population become readers educators like myself can lead students with dyslexia to successful futures that include life-long learning.

    Bibliography

 

                        

                                                                                    

 

Key Challenges for Students with Dyslexia: The Myths & Facts

Because the student with dyslexia is often a bright and curious child, dyslexia may be overlooked as a possible disability. There are so many myths tied to dyslexia that parents, teachers, and other stakeholders may not suspect dyslexia. One of the first major challenges a student with dyslexia faces is just getting the proper diagnosis. This post will attempt to bust the myths and deliver facts about the key challenges for students with dyslexia. 

Busting Common Dyslexia Myths

MYTH 1: Dyslexia is a thinking disability.

It is important to recognize that dyslexia is not a thinking disability. Slow reading does not mean that a student is a slow thinker (Shaywitz & Shaywitz, 2020). Dyslexia, however, is “clinically defined as a specific deficit in phonological processing” (Hruby, 2019). Children who are bright and even gifted can suffer with dyslexia. A very bright child who has trouble reading may have dyslexia. Bright children can be overlooked as having dyslexia because they are viewed as “too smart.” On the other hand, students who are dyslexic may be labeled as “not smart.” In either case, these children fail to get the support they need, and their self-esteem pays the price. 

MYTH 2: Transposing or reversing letters is a key sign of dyslexia.

Transposing or reversing letters is not a sign of dyslexia. It is quite common for emerging readers and writers to transpose or reverse letters (Shaywitz & Shaywitz, 2020). A student who is dyslexic may not transpose or reverse letters; therefore, parents and teachers must be able to identify the legitimate characteristics of dyslexia, mainly great difficulty reading and spelling, in order to support those students who need it. 

MYTH  3: Dyslexic students have low reading comprehension skills

While it is true that students with dyslexia have a processing issue that impacts their ability to read, many student with dyslexia can perform well on reading comprehension assessments (Shaywitz, 2020). However, they are using their inference skills to decode using context. Reading comprehension scores may not deliver a clear picture of whether or not a child is struggling with decoding texts. Therefore, if you know your child is struggling with reading even though their reading scores are considered average, ask to have your child screened. 

MYTH 4: They will grow out of it

One of the biggest challenges facing children with dyslexia is the notion that they will grow out of it. If a child is showing the characteristics of dyslexia, it is important to get them screened as soon as possible. Many teachers, counselors, and even parents may believe that a child who is struggling with reading may just need more time to develop their skills (Shaywitz & Shaywitz, 2020).  While this may be true, it is important to get your child screened. If they do have dyslexia, waiting will only worsen the situation. Every year that a child suffers with dyslexia is another year of feeling unsuccessful and, sadly, they can grow to feel hopeless and they may perceive of themselves as dumb. This is known as Empty Bucket Syndrome, and, unfortunately, a student who keeps struggling without any positive feedback eventually runs out of gas to continue trying (Shaywitz & Shaywitz, 2020). 

Now that we understand the major myths associated with dyslexia, let’s take a look at the facts. It is important to know the characteristics of dyslexia in order to act quickly in order to give the student the support they need to thrive. 

Understanding the Facts

FACT 1: Fuzzy Phonemes

Phonemes are the sounds that make words. Students with dyslexia have a processing disorder that keeps them from properly decoding phonemes. This processing disorder often impacts a student’s ability to pronounce words correctly. Therefore, if you hear a student who regularly mispronounces words such as “aminal” instead of “animal” or “lotion” instead of “ocean,” this “baby talk” can be characteristic of dyslexia. A student who struggles to find the correct word or often uses vague language such as “stuff” or “things” may have dyslexia (Shaywitz & Shaywitx, 2020). Struggling to say words properly reflects their inability to phonologically process the words in their brain.

 

FACT 2: Rhyme Time

Because students with dyslexia can not properly decode words, they often can not perceive whether words rhyme or not. For instance, a student with dyslexia may not have the phonological awareness to understand that “mat” rhymes with “cat.” (Shaywitz & Shaywitz, 2020). Checking a child’s ability to comprehend how words rhyme is one way to assess if they have dyslexia.  

FACT 3: Slow Flow

Fluency, or the ability to read quickly or with ease, is a measure of a child’s reading ability. In fact, the National Reading Panel states that fluency is the most important factor in determining if a student is a strong reader (Shaywitz & Shaywitz, 2020).. Therefore, if a child is not a fluent reader, they may be dyslexic. A child who stumbles slowly through a sentence struggling to sound out the words may be having trouble decoding texts. Research reveals that students who have to spend too much of their mental energy decoding texts do not have the reserves to then comprehend those texts (Rasinski, 2017). Slow test taking or taking a long time to complete work can also reveal fluency troubles. The child dealing with dyslexia is having to work extra hard to read, process, and understand. This can be absolutely exhausting! 

What can we do to help our children face these challenges?

Screening:

If you believe a child is dyslexic, get them screened as soon as possible. As the adult, you must be the child’s advocate. The child who has been identified as dyslexic can begin to get the support they need to thrive; however, without support, they will continue to experience difficulties in school.  The younger a child is when identified as dyslexic, the more quickly they will receive the tools and support they need to overcome the challenges that dyslexia presents. Additionally, children who receive the diagnosis of dyslexia actually experience an increase in self-esteem due to the fact that they have an explanation for why they are struggling in school (Glazzard, 2010). 

Self-Esteem:

The most important way to support your child is to help them to continue developing their self-esteem. A child does not grow out of dyslexia; therefore, children with dyslexia need to understand who they are, how they learn, and they must learn to advocate for themselves. Your child will have to learn how to use their learning strengths in order to conquer their weaknesses. The research of Kalka and Lockiewicz (2018) reveals that “the usage of one’s own personal resources, and external support from significant persons or institutions can serve as protective factors...diminishing the factors of long term stress” (p.493). Students with dyslexia may learn differently, but they must understand that dyslexia will not keep them from reaching their full potential. 

Support at Home:

As the parent of a child with dyslexia, you have a vital role to play in being your child’s advocate and partner. It is important  to educate yourself about dyslexia in order to support your child. Communicate with your child’s teachers in order to support what the child is learning in school with plenty of practice at home. Finally, the best practice for children with dyslexia is guided oral reading (Shaywitz & Shaywitz, 2020). Make time every day for your child to spend time reading aloud to you. Help your child sound out the words with which they are struggling. Help them embrace the challenges they will face as a reader and a learner.  

Bibliography

Characteristics of Students with Dyslexia

 

Introduction

Classroom teachers around the world face many challenges while teaching students to read. Many of these challenges can be overcome with the interventions and strategies applied by general education teachers, reading specialists, and special education teachers. One of these challenges is dyslexia and helping those students to become readers that are able to interact with all text in order to gain information.  Dyslexia is a neurobiological-specific learning disability that directly affects learning to read (Wagner et al., 2020). This is a life-long disability that does not go away over time, but with evidence-based interventions, students can flourish in school and be successful in life. Evidence of dyslexia can be traced back to the 1800s when “word-blindness” was recorded when Dr. Morgan first made note of it as an acquired condition in an adult and then in its congenital form in a child. Dr. Hinshelwood, an ophthalmologist,  later identified the need for early detection so that intense training could help these children that also possessed many strengths but struggled with reading  (Shaywitz & Shaywitz, 2020). It is estimated that 3-5% of struggling readers are accurately diagnosed as dyslexic (Hruby, 2019). Although, dyslexia is mostly thought of as extreme difficulty in learning to read Adolf and Hogan (2018) pointed out that students with dyslexia also have language needs outside the phonological domain (Adlof & Hogan, 2018).  I believe that to truly be able to assist students to the best of our ability educators need to have an understanding of the definition of dyslexia and the characteristics displayed by students diagnosed as having dyslexia in order to properly plan instruction while providing helpful accommodations in order to help ensure future school and life successes. 

   

 

Speech Development 

     

The earliest signs of dyslexia can happen in the years before a child enters school and begins formal reading instruction. Parents and caretakers work together to create experience and funds of knowledge to be used in educational settings to promote literacy learning and development. However, speech development can be the first signs that are evident in a child with dyslexia, therefore parents should be vigilant and aware of milestone developments as children grow and progress from toddlers to preschool children. The earliest language development skill that could indicate dyslexia are late talking and moving from single words to phrases, As a child continues to grow and uses speech more regularly issues with speech development can include mispronunciation, word retrieval, and the learning of nursery rhymes  (Shaywitz & Shaywitz, 2020). Shaywitz (2020) recommends parents listen and notice speech development in their children (Shaywitz & Shaywitz, 2020).

 

Effects of Dyslexia on Reading Development

 

Although students with dyslexia have a tremendous struggle in learning to read, it is important to remember these characteristics are often unexpected because the struggles with reading do not reflect the student’s intellectual abilities or other aspects of development. Often students with dyslexia have high IQs and even qualify as gifted learners that excel in other academic areas (Adlof & Hogan, 2018). Difficulty in reading does not match the expectations for reading success that early childhood teachers and parents have for children with dyslexia based upon the strengths used regularly in and out of the classroom by the child (Shaywitz & Shaywitz, 2020). The core of dyslexia is the deficit presented in phonological awareness as this deficit is present in both children and adults identified to have dyslexia (Cavalli et al., 2017). A phonological awareness deficit does not stand alone as the only symptom for dyslexia, as the students display symptoms in multiple areas along and also a weakness in phonological awareness (Catts et al., 2017). 

 

 

 

 

What does this mean for our students with dyslexia?

 

Students that struggle to learn to read and struggle with phonological awareness may show a developmental delay, but those with dyslexia have an atypical development in this area (Kuppen & Goswami, 2016). Phonological awareness allows young children to recognize and manipulate the sounds of a spoken language. Students with a deficit in phonological awareness in kindergarten are more likely to be identified as having dyslexia by the end of second grade (Catts et al., 2017). This weakness is located in the bottom layer of the hierarchy of the language system, therefore at times, it is also noticed in speech when an individual is unable to correctly identify the word or hear the phoneme in speech that needs to be used (Shaywitz & Shaywitz, 2020).

 

Examples of Phonological Awareness

 

Children must then use phonological knowledge to master phonics in which sound is then associated and matched with letter symbols used in texts. Connecting letters to sounds to correctly blend those sounds together to form words allows individuals to identify words from print that are then transferred to the language system. Students with dyslexia struggle to do this because of the difficulty in connecting letters to sounds (Shaywitz & Shaywitz, 2020). The disconnect between letters and sounds to form words from print results in weak spelling skills. Weak spelling will often persist way past a child with dyslexia learning to read as it remains a constant struggle throughout life (Shaywitz & Shaywitz, 2020). With the inability to connect sound to letter symbols to enable blending, readers are subsequently unable to use phonics to become accurate decoders necessary for reading. Fluency is necessary for readers to fully comprehend text as it is read. When students read fluently or with prosody, the reading is accurate, smooth, and utilizes phrasing and expression. Fluency allows for quick accurate reading that allows energy to be used on comprehension instead of decoding and word identification (Young et al., 2018).  Phonological and phonemic awareness, spelling, phonics/decoding skills, and fluency are the building blocks that early childhood literacy teachers use to guide students toward becoming readers that use print to learn and make sense of the world around them. Unfortunately, all of these skills link to phonological awareness making it evident why learning to read is an uphill battle for students with dyslexia in classrooms around the world.

 

What happens as students progress through school?

 

 In the upper elementary years, there is typically a change in learning to read to reading to learn. These reading skills will be further developed in middle school and high school so that reading to learn becomes a life-long skill. On the infographic above I included issues surrounding comprehension as symptoms for students with dyslexia. Through my reading from Wagner’s article and Shaywitz’s book, I have determined that this is a result of less reading experience that has affected the growth of vocabulary as well as background knowledge. Vocabulary is essential to comprehension as it provides readers with more options when encountering an unknown word. Life experiences, as well as more exposure to print and reading, provide an opportunity to also build background knowledge to assist in vocabulary growth.  A dyslexia diagnosis is not the result of poor comprehension because young adults with dyslexia are able to employ individual strengths to strategically use context clues to assist with unknown words leading to accurate comprehension of text (Shaywitz & Shaywitz, 2020). The inability to use the vital components of reading, phonological awareness, decoding,  and fluency, to become readers students with dyslexia are left with a continuous struggle to accurately read (Young et al., 2018). Young readers avoid reading, therefore, a result is the lack of vocabulary growth that will assist with comprehension in later school years (Wagner et al., 2020). These readers then become struggling readers that have avoided reading and failed to develop necessary skills such as vocabulary to aid comprehension of text.

   

 

Conclusion

 

I became a teacher so that I could help every student that passes through my classroom throughout my teaching career to be the best version of themselves equipped for successful skills for futures choices. For me, that means I will use data collected through observation, daily tasks, assessments, and relationships with my students to recognize their strengths and weaknesses to help my students be prepared for the next step of their educational journey. Dyslexia has been left out of the conversation in the state in which I have taught. However, several things have piqued my interest in this topic in the last several years. New state legislation, an effort toward staff development in this area within my district, current students with diagnoses of dyslexia, and my participation in my master’s program are among the events that have created an interest in working to better serve this population. Educators must use their own knowledge to identify any and all issues to help all learners reach full potential and that includes students with dyslexia. By using resources available teachers and parents can recognize the symptoms of dyslexia and act accordingly to provide the best educational path for students. 

   

 

Bibliography