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How Can Schools Embrace Dyslexia?

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Dyslexia expert Kelly Steinke, founder of READ Learning Educational Services, talks about raising dyslexia awareness in schools and why it matters.

Source: https://www.brightclassroomideas.com/how-can-schools-embrace-dyslexia/

Recently, instead of dyslexia there is much talk about a broader term,neurodiversity. What is neurodiversity?

The term ‘neurodiversity’ is generally used in context of spectrum disorders like autism or mental health issues such as ADHD. Neurodiversity means that people don’t come with ‘one-size-fits-all’ brains. People are more complicated, and science has shown that different brains are wired in different ways. These differences are part of what gives us our unique abilities, interests, fears, strengths, and weaknesses.

How did you get involved with neurodiversity and dyslexia?

I began my career as a special education teacher and taught for almost 20 years in the Midwest, East Coast, and Pacific Northwest. During this time I became a National Board Certified Teacher in Exceptional Needs, earned a Master of Arts Degree in Education, and founded my company, READ Learning Educational Services. For the past seven years, I have served the community as a dyslexia specialist. 

My interest in dyslexia was spurred out of necessity. Throughout my teaching career, the majority of my students were diagnosed as reading disabled. Though dyslexia was never directly stated on student documents or evaluations, I learned through professional reading that dyslexia was (and still is) the most common type of reading disability. In taking this knowledge back to my classroom, I realized most of my students showed the tell tale signs of dyslexia.

Needless to say, after many frustrating years of teaching without any knowledge of dyslexia, or alternate reading approaches, I experienced a ‘teaching epiphany’. I realized my students made little to no gains in reading because I was using reading interventions that were not in line with what medical research had proven about dyslexia and the brain. My instructional approach (how I was teaching and what I was teaching) was not effective for the majority of my dyslexic readers.

This was a life changing realization for my students and my family. I completely changed how and what I taught when working with students who showed the signs of dyslexia, and on a personal level I identified dyslexia in both of my daughters at only 5 years old. This answered a lot of questions for our family and is why I’ve dedicated my career to the helping families and schools with dyslexia diagnosis, intervention and academic supports.

Why do communities, and especially schools, need to raise dyslexia awareness?

Communities become stronger, more compassionate and more accepting of differences when they are educated to recognize and understand each other’s unique traits – diversity.

Can you give us some examples of awareness campaigns?

One of my favorites was always the ‘Spread the Word to End the Word’ campaign. T-shirts were sold in March and worn on a specified day. Students gave a school-wide presentation that educated peers about treating everyone, despite differences, with respect and compassion. This created an overall positive ‘buzz’ within the school climate. Another positive initiative happens during the month of April when it’s common for schools to celebrate autism awareness month. This is important because it raises awareness. It reinforces acceptance, support, and builds understanding around autism.  The goal is to make life easier and happier for those who have autism. At the same time it aims to build understanding for those who don’t, so they are able to interact, work, and be friends with folks who have autism. It’s mutually beneficial. These initiatives are examples of neurodiversity awareness.

They are beneficial to our communities. As a dyslexia specialist, this makes me pause to think. Over half of our country has some kind of dyslexia legislation in place, yet I’ve never heard of a school celebrating dyslexia awareness month. Come to think of it, I’ve never worked in a school that has recognized October as being significant to dyslexia. Do schools in your area celebrate dyslexia awareness month? I’m sure there are districts that do, and I’d love to hear where they are and what kind of events are planned for dyslexia awareness. Please share!

Its safe to say the majority of schools dont participate in dyslexia awareness activities – but why? Why doesnt dyslexia get more attention? Why arent schools helping to build more understanding of this very prevalent language acquisition disorder?

Autism is generally easy to spot because of how a person interacts or doesn’t interact socially. On the contrary, dyslexia is not visible from the outside. You can’t tell someone has dyslexia by looking at their outward behavior. This makes dyslexia awareness all the more important. Dyslexia comprises 80% of all learning disabilities and is visible through FMRI imaging in neurological research. Yet, the term is still taboo in many of our schools. Neurological imaging has proven that dyslexics have different brain wiring in the language processing center of their brains and have shown different activation patterns within the brain while they are reading. This sounds like neurodiversity to me.

How is your reading center able to bring students up to grade level in reading, when highly qualified teachers and specialists at the childs schools have not?

This is where neurodiversity comes into play and where more awareness and education is needed. Different approaches get different results. As a dyslexia specialist and the founder of a specialized learning center, READ Learning Educational Services, I help students, young and old, learn to read and spell when traditional approaches have failed. There are no “one-size-fits-all” approach to teaching reading and many (not all, but many) in the education world are unaware of two very important principles.

  • First, there are different approaches to teaching reading. Different approaches will reap different results when working with dyslexic learners.
  • Second, neurodiversity should come into play when choosing the most appropriate reading approach for dyslexic students.

What is your approach?

Please note, the term ‘approach’ is not synonymous with the term ‘program’. There are hundreds and maybe thousands of reading programs available to educators. ‘Approach’ refers to the actual teaching method/style in which a student is taught. This includes but is not limited to the sequence of content taught, how content is presented, the type of text that is used for students to read, specific strategies that are taught to support reading and spelling skills, and strategies to support memory and generalization of concepts.

At my reading center we only use Orton Gillingham-based approaches. Orton Gillingham is a very different way of teaching reading (when compared to balanced literacy approaches) and is steeped in medical research as opposed to educational philosophy / theory. It’s intense, explicit, sequential, multisensory, rule-based and focuses on spelling just as much as it does reading. Reading and spelling are taught in tandem. Orton-based interventions focus on phonemic awareness, phonics, decoding, fluency, accuracy, and spelling. If you’d like more information on how to teach spelling systematically, check out the Silver Moon Spelling Rules program.

What are some of the characteristics of students who come to your center?

Students we work with at READ Learning generally enter our doors with five things in common.

  • First, traditional reading approaches have failed them.
  • Second, the student is anywhere from 1 year to 8 or more years behind in reading level.
  • Third, the student has nothing wrong with their intelligence.
  • Fourth, the student feels something is wrong with them and struggles with confidence and often some anxiety.
  • Fifth, the student wants to do well and they want to improve their skills but they just don’t know how.

We’d likely see less students with these five characteristics in common if there were increased awareness and education surrounding dyslexia in our schools. If you’d like to learn more about dyslexia, request our ‘Characteristics of Dyslexia’ or ‘Dyslexia Testing’ resources.

Is it possible for an ordinary teacher to diagnose dyslexia?

Sometimes you don’t know what you don’t know. Last year, I spoke with a special education teacher who shared a frustrating conversation she had while at work. She was in a meeting with her school’s psychologist discussing student literacy needs. She shared that a few of her students were showing signs of dyslexia. She went on to share that most of these students had shown little to no progress in reading even with ongoing tiered intervention and classroom instruction over the past year. The school psychologist responded by saying that it didn’t really matter if her students were dyslexic or not because it wouldn’t change the way they would teach reading to them anyway.

‘It wouldn’t change the way they would teach reading anyway.’

This statement is worth repeating because of its transparency. It shows that this professional is working in a district that’s missing some key information. In other words, ‘he doesn’t know what he doesn’t know.’ This district has not trained their key players to understand the neurological / medical research surrounding dyslexia. If they had, the psychologist would know there are different courses of action (approaches), recommended when working with students who show symptoms of or are diagnosed with dyslexia. When students are not making enough progress to close the achievement gap between themselves and benchmark reading levels, it should, at the very least, spur a conversation about other possible approaches that could be used for the child’s reading instruction and why the current approach is not working.

How often do you come across similar scenarios?

I felt the need to share this story because it’s not an uncommon experience. I hear versions of this quite often, except with different players. In the other versions there have been principals, special education directors, reading specialists, literacy coordinators and other teachers as the persons who aren’t knowledgeable about dyslexia or alternate reading approaches.

Unfortunately, I can relate to this experience. When I was still teaching in the classroom, I listened to my special education director tell our department not to use the word, ‘dyslexia’ when talking to parents, but instead to refer to the cluster of symptoms as being a reading disability. Yikes! This perspective is comparable to going to the doctor with pneumonia and the doctor telling you that all you have is a cold. The prescribed solution for pneumonia is very different from that of a general cold. With a cold you would simply rest up and drink lots of fluids. With the latter, you’d be given medication with specific directions on how to take the medication and for how long. This is a relevant analogy considering dyslexics have different wiring within their brains. They acquire reading differently from the majority of readers.

Because they learn to read differently, it’s important to identify them as early as possible and have alternate, more prescriptive approaches readily available. It’s a common myth that dyslexia is rare. Dyslexia is not rare; the prevalence in the general population is 15-20%. Instead, what tends to be rare is a school’s ability to accurately identify and intervene.

So, how can a school or district embrace neurodiversity awareness for dyslexic learners?

You could sponsor events for dyslexia awareness month. Maybe you could reach out to bring in an expert that is able to speak about dyslexia. If you or someone you know would like to learn more about the science behind teaching those with dyslexia, I would suggest reading the book, Overcoming Dyslexia by Sally Shaywitz. A few years back, I shared this book with a reading specialist who, after reading it, came to me in tears. Had she only known sooner…were some of the feelings she shared. These are just a few ideas that will open up the lines of communication and start those important conversations.

“You may choose to look the other way but you can never say again that you did not know.” – William Wilberforce

 

Bio:

Kelly Steinke is a mother, wife, teacher and business owner. Kelly began her career as a special education teacher and had goals of becoming a special education director. After completing her Master’s Degree in Administration and Leadership, Kelly became licensable as a director of pupil services & special education. It was about this time that she became interested in the field of dyslexia. Instead of pursuing administrative goals, Kelly pursued certifications as a dyslexia specialist and founded her company, READ Learning Educational Services, LLC. READ Learning is a full time reading center specializing in Orton Gillingham-based reading interventions (online and in person) and dyslexia diagnosis. Kelly is also a speaker, adjunct instructor and the creator of Silver Moon® Spelling Rules curriculum and professional development trainings. For more information visit www.ReadLearningServices.com

Caylla's Extraordinary Story ~ 9 Months to Literacy

If you’re in the mood for an uplifting story than you’re in for a treat.  I tell the following story to wrap up many of my presentations because it’s a story of hope, a story that’s not easily forgotten and one that has brought many parents of struggling readers to tears (including myself  - every time I tell it).  The tears these parents have cried aren’t tears of grief; they are tears of joy.  This story has not been dramatized and it is not made up.  This is a real story about a real student. 

Smart & Illiterate 

Several years ago I was teaching as a special education teacher, working with students who qualified for services in reading.  Caylla, one of my students, was a charming young lady whose main interests included fashion, friends and music.  In talking to Caylla you could tell that she was as bright as she was charming.  Caylla’s outward appearance and conversational abilities told this story, but as soon as Caylla was asked to read or write, a totally different story was revealed.  You see, Caylla was different from the majority of her classmates because Caylla was in 5th grade and couldn’t read.  Caylla was completely illiterate and at the same time she was smart.  Sounds like an oxymoron, doesn’t it?  Let me explain more. Caylla had normal intelligence yet in 6 years of formal schooling not a single teacher or her parents had been able to teach her how to read.

Causes for Reading Failure

The cynics would say, “Well there must have been other issues going on.” “What was her home life like, and was she lazy/did she even care about learning to read?” “Did she come from a low socio-economic background?”  "Was their trauma she had experienced?"  Most would think there must have been some type of extrinsic cause for her reading failure.  But, Caylla did not have truancy issues, health issues or other extenuating circumstances. She had loving parents, caring and "highly qualified" teachers, and she was given a lot of extra reading help before and after school for many years.

Dyslexia is Invisible

Unfortunately, none of this mattered because no one realized that Caylla was dyslexic - severely to profoundly dyslexic. Dyslexia is an invisible disability.  You can’t see dyslexia by looking at someone.  Dr. Sally Shaywitz, the Audrey G. Ratner Professor of Pediatrics (Neurology) and Co-Director, Yale Center for Dyslexia & Creativity calls this The Paradox of Dyslexia.

In September of 5th grade, Caylla was not even reading at a prekindergarten level and behaviors were starting to take form.  It was looking like Caylla was on a fast track to dropping out of school at a very young age.  Having dyslexia in our family, I knew a thing or two about dyslexia identification and remediation.  I knew without a doubt Caylla was dyslexic and recognized that if Caylla hadn’t learned to read by this point in her life that she never would unless given the right type of programming - Orton Gillingham based reading intervention.

From Illiterate to Literate  

Caylla had never been given Orton Gillingham based reading instruction, so my I began working with Caylla everyday - 50 minutes each day - and Caylla started to make progress.  Yes, you read that right...I worked with her 5 days a week, one-on-one!!  Some days were easier than others, but by the end of the school year Caylla was reading at a 4thgrade level!  There aren't words to explain the extent of this 9 month long transformation. To put it simply, her teacher’s were amazed, her mom was elated, and Caylla’s reaction was humbling...she knew all along that she had the ability to learn to read.  Deep down she knew she was smart enough to learn to read.

The Right Type of Instruction

At the end of the school year and after completing my final benchmark reading assessment, I said to Caylla, “You have worked so hard this year and you’ve become such a great reader.  All of your hard work has really paid off. What do you think of your growth?”  Caylla responded with a wide smile and corrected my statement.  She said, “Oh, Mrs. Steinke it wasn’t me …you just needed to water my brain with the right type of water.”

Caylla was right. She had always worked hard and all of her hard work and effort had not paid off until she was given the right tools to work with.  Why would you continue using the same reading methods year after year when they haven’t worked year after year?  Changing reading methodology for Caylla was like flipping switch.  All of her hard work was finally able to produce results.

If you have a story of your own or have any questions about Dyslexia, we'd love to hear from you.  Please feel free to contact through our website at www.READLearningServices.com

Systematic Spelling Instruction


I HATE SPELING!
Image result for frustrated studentThat's right...  I was the kid in grade school that had zero stars on the class "Spelling Stars" chart at the end of my 4th-grade year.  To give some perspective, this chart was large, colorful and hung proudly next to the door for everyone to see.  Each week, a spelling test consisting of 20 words was given to the class.  If you spelled all 20 correctly, you received a nice, shiny gold star next to your name.At the end of the year, a few kids had 34-36 stars.  This gave them supreme bragging rights (we affectionately called them nerds).  The majority of my classmates had somewhere between 15-30 stars and a few "not so gifted and talented" kids only had 5-10 stars.  And there I was, dead last with exactly zero stars.  I remember feeling like the dumbest kid in the world.Well, the story ends well.  I recognized that I had strengths in math and science and eventually learned that I wasn't dumb, but that I needed to figure out how I learned.  I still couldn't spell and as luck would have it I married a special education teacher who went on to create the Silver Moon® Spelling Rules program.

Poor Spelling is often a Sign of Dyslexia or other Learning Disabilities

Image result for dyslexia percentage of populationUnfortunately, some are not so lucky.  Researchers believe that 15-20% of the population is affected by dyslexia, with the top 10% being severe enough to need some type of learning intervention and other supports and accommodations.  Dyslexia is a learning disability that is neurobiological in origin and is considered a language acquisition disorder that primarily affects reading fluency, spelling, and reading words in isolation.  There are many other symptoms of dyslexia and they persist despite having quality teachers, caring and involved parents and regular school attendance.

Spelling Instruction that Makes Sense!
This leads us to the reason for this post.  In addition to one-on-one online and in-person instruction, Read Learning Educational Services, LLC offers professional development courses on systematic and multi-sensory spelling instruction using the Silver Moon® Spelling Rules program.  The most recent course offering is designed for educators, private practitioners and dyslexia specialists and answers 5 key questions:

  • What are the 3 Foundational skills required to build strong spellers and readers?
  • How do I teach spelling in a simultaneously multi-sensory manner?
  • What spelling rules do I teach and in what order?
  • Which syllables and what division rules need to be taught in the Silver Moon® Spelling system?
  • What are the components of a Silver Moon® Spelling Rules lesson?

The next class will be offered in Appleton, Spring 2019.

For more information, contact Kelly at [email protected].

An Unexpected Conversation

To say that I was a little irritated would be a major understatement.  It was 6 am Sunday morning and the forecast for Mt. Hood called for epic snowfall.  Under normal circumstances, my wife and I would be driving to the mountain with a steaming mug of coffee, some tunes and a roof rack loaded with snowboard and skis.  Instead, I was driving to the airport to catch an 8-hr flight for our company's annual sales meeting. 

Traveling for work on a Sunday morning sucks and, as you probably guessed, I wasn't in a mood to talk. Little did I know that I would soon have a conversation that made a lasting impression on me.  I was holding out hope that the vacant seat to my right would go unfilled when I noticed an impeccably dressed, older woman and her pet cat eyeing down my vacant seat.  Crap...  

School was a Disaster for this Dyslexic

I don't remember her name but her story was remarkable.  Within minutes, she introduced herself and started asking where I was headed, where I was from and what I did for a living. She even cracked a few jokes about traveling with her cat and I noticed my mood quickly improving.  At some point, I mentioned that my wife was a dyslexia specialist and her eyes lit up.  She told me that she was severely dyslexic but didn't learn this until later on in life. 

Image result for dunce cap

Throughout her childhood, her teachers repeatedly told her parents that she was unteachable.  As she got older, she fell further behind and eventually was placed in a class with cognitively disabled students.  She had few friends and eventually dropped out of high school with severe depression and suicidal thoughts. 

She found peace by visiting the shops, museums and art galleries of downtown Chicago and spent her evenings drawing detailed pictures of the various sites she visited.  She was fascinated with architecture, especially how fabrics and colors could be used to make large spaces feel warm and inviting.  

Extraordinary Success Despite Dyslexia
During one of her outings she had a chance encounter with the owner of an interior design firm and was offered a job to create sketches.  Her talents were quickly recognized and within 5-yrs, she had enough clients to open her own studio which has grown to become one of the largest and most successful in Chicago.  On this particular trip, she was making a quick stop in Chicago to meet up with some friends before flying to the U.A.E. to meet with a new client, a member of the royal family.  

 

 

This Story is not all that Unusual

Most dyslexics struggle in school unless they have been identified and have appropriate supports in place.  That said, many don't realize they are dyslexic till much later in life.  Richard Branson shares a similar experience in the above video. 

Researchers estimate that 20% of the population has some degree of dyslexia.  Fortunately, scientists have made significant advances in understanding how the dyslexic mind works and more importantly, how to teach those with dyslexia using multi-sensory, Orton Gillingham based teaching methods.  Unfortunately, many states in our country still fail to recognize dyslexia in the classroom.  This is a tragedy, considering 85 percent of all juveniles who interface with the juvenile court system are functionally illiterate.  

There is hope and it is possible to overcome dyslexia with the correct teaching interventions and accommodations.  For more information on the signs of Dyslexia, feel free to download our free resource, Characteristics of Dyslexia

Read Learning Services, LLC

“Sound it out” is a common direction that students are given when they can’t read a word.  “Sound it out” makes sense to most of us because it’s what most readers do when they can’t read a word.  They sound it out.  But, what if you don’t read like most readers?  What if you are unable to read by sounding out?  Or, what if “sounding it out” only works some of the time?  That’s when you’ll see students relying on memory, picture clues, context clues, or guessing at words based on the shape and size of a given word or the first letter in the word.  These strategies allow students to compensate, for the inability to sound out words, for a short period of time.  After awhile though, text will become too advanced for these strategies to work all the time.

Why Teach Syllable Division Rules

If a student can’t read by sounding out, they typically hit a wall by the end of  their third grade year, if not sooner.  It’s around this time that reading emphasis shifts from learning to read to reading to learn.  Vocabulary explodes and students are no longer able to “solve” words, or guess at words, by using strategies other than sounding out.  This is why syllable division rules are necessary to teach.  This process makes vowel sounds and other units of sound highly predictable which, in turn, makes unknown words easier to read.  

Find out what research says and how to teach this skill.  Request the full article.  Email us at [email protected]

Background Knowledge & Vocabulary

If student reading is limited because they read as little as possible, then year after year this lack of exposure compounds and can create problems with reading comprehension. After several years of minimal exposure to text, students miss out on different types of vocabulary and expanding their background knowledge on various topics.

Believe it or not, vocabulary and reading comprehension may also be negatively affected if a student solely reads fiction books. In these books, the type of vocabulary used tends to be very general. In non-fiction text, the vocabulary includes academic and technical vocabulary. This is a different type of vocabulary that is important for children to build their understanding of because it is often topic specific or supportive to a topic. This is especially true beginning in the middle school years.

The Remedy

Use Audio-books. This is considered ear reading because students are reading through listening.  Students with dyslexia should be encouraged to listen to books at their grade level and above so they are exposed to rich content and higher-level vocabulary. This is called, “ear reading”. When students get older, audio books can be set to read at a faster rate so students can hear more information in a shorter period of time. Audio books open the door to knowledge and continued learning when books are too labor intensive to read by eye (eye reading). In saying this, I’m not suggesting your student stops reading books altogether. I am suggesting that if your student is not reading at grade level or is taking too long to read, try using audio-books so their knowledge and vocabulary is not limited to text below their grade level. Two good sources for audio books are audible.com and learningally.com.

Students should also be encouraged to use new vocabulary when speaking and writing. You can make vocabulary cards or word journals to keep track of new words and their meaning. It will help if students hear and use higher level and technical vocabulary in conversation. In order to truly expand vocabulary, try to use all four methods of communication with the targeted words – speaking, reading, listening, and writing.

 

Dorothy Morrison, Ph.D.

Retired director of university reading clinic
WI Middle School Interventionist
“I LOVE Silver Moon Spelling. I have used it with my intervention students in both elementary and middle school to help them understand the spelling patterns of the English language. Unlike other spelling programs, this one has engaging pictures, catchy mnemonics, and structured practice with each spelling pattern. My students loved doing this work. An added bonus was that as their spelling improved, so did their automatic word identification. I highly recommend Silver Moon for private tutors, parents, K-3 classroom teachers, and elementary and middle school interventionists.”
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