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.
When children display reading problems in 1st grade, research shows that 74% of these kids will still be poor readers in 9th grade unless they receive explicit instruction in phonemic awareness.
After phonemic awareness skills are mastered, you can start to teach phonics. If your child or student is a struggling reader they will need to be taught phonics in a systematic, explicit, and multisensory fashion. All skills should be taught to mastery and new skills should always build on previously mastered material.
Repeated exposure to previously learned material is also important. This aids weak short-term memory, which is also a component to why struggling readers struggle to retain information they’ve learned. Lessons should contain a review component to make them cumulative in nature. Phonemic awareness and phonics are important building blocks when teaching developing readers, but other components of reading instruction includes vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension.
Myth #6 Very few people are affected by dyslexia.
NIH reports that 1 in 5 children in the United States are dyslexic. Dyslexia affects the same amount of people cross culturally – even when different languages and alphabet systems are used.
Myth #7 People with dyslexia can’t read.
People with dyslexia can be taught to read if they are given the right type of instruction. The severity of the dyslexia will determine how long a student will be able to get by or cope without specialized instruction. Vocabulary will explode during a student’s third grade year. It is usually around this time when children can’t get by any longer using coping strategies to read. If children are taught phonemic awareness and a systematic method for sounding out words, they will learn to read up to their potential.
Myth #8 Some people outgrow dyslexia.
Dyslexia is a life-long learning disability. It can improve with training and support, but it will never completely go away. Dyslexia will not get better by itself. Intervention is the only way to help dyslexia improve. The earlier a child receives intervention, the better off they will be.
Myth #9 Four and five year olds that have reversals in numbers or letters, are probably dyslexic.
It is developmentally appropriate for children to have reversals when they are learning to write. Children should not have reversals after the end of first grade or after two years of handwriting instruction. If children have reversals after the end of first grade look for other sings and symptoms of dyslexia.
Myth #10 People with dyslexia (poor reading ability) have lower intelligence (IQ).
There is no correlation between intelligence and dyslexia. In fact, many people with dyslexia are often gifted in other areas. Individuals with dyslexia can have any range of intelligence – low, average, or high. Intelligence and reading and/or spelling ability are not related.
All of the answers to the quiz were false. What was your score? Don’t feel badly if you had a few answers wrong. Even up to my last year teaching in the public schools, (2014-2015) other teachers, administrators,reading specialists, and special educators weren’t knowledgeable about dyslexia and couldn’t tell the difference between myth and fact when it regarded dyslexia. It is up to us to share the facts and advocate for the children we love and support. By the way…these are not the only myths about dyslexia, just some of the most common.
If you took the Myth or Fact Quiz that was posted in December, check how accurate your answers were below! Come back to read my next post to see the rest of the answers next week.
Dyslexia is real. Dyslexia is one of the most researched learning disabilities and has been studied for over 30 years. Dyslexic reading tendencies are proven and can be seen in fMRI brain imaging. Dyslexia is the most common type of learning disability.
People with dyslexia do not see things backwards. (That would be a super power!) Dyslexia is not a vision problem. Individuals with dyslexia reverse or invert numbers and/or letters (b/p/d, q/g, n/u) because of directionality confusion.
The term dyslexia is another word for developmental reading disability or reading disability. The terms can be used interchangeably. There are other reasons children might struggle to read, but dyslexia is the most common form of reading disability. If a child is dyslexic they will also have difficulty with spelling.
The National Institute of Health (NIH) reports that children can be tested as young as 5 ½ years old with 92% accuracy.
Prevalence for boys and girls are the same. Boys may be identified more often because they tend to act out more than girls. Their behavior gets them in trouble and gets them noticed. Girls are just as likely to have dyslexia as boys.
Being aware of the myths surrounding dyslexia will help you avoid common mistakes (pitfalls) that parents and professionals make when working with children who struggle to read and spell.
Myth
Merriam Webster Dictionary defines a myth as, “An idea or story that is believed by many people but that is not true.” There are surprisingly many myths floating around about dyslexia. Take the true and false quiz below to see how savvy your knowledge is about dyslexia.
True or False "Dyslexia Myth or Fact" Quiz
probably dyslexic.
The answers and explanations will be given in my next several bog posts. Revisit my blog to see how you scored!
Secondary conditions may develop if the dyslexia is left untreated or if the dyslexia is more severe. Some of these problems include difficulty with reading comprehension, vocabulary, and written expression. Many of these issues can be avoided or minimized if a child gets the right type of instruction at an early age. The brain has plasticity and can “rewire” with consistent, intense, and research based interventions in place. Accommodations are usually necessary to support student learning.
Other secondary conditions may be unavoidable. Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) or speech and language impairments are often coexisting. These are often conditions that children are born with.
For ideas on accommodations and strategies to level the playing field in school or at home, contact Kelly and request for more information.
1. Dyslexia is hereditary. Children with a dyslexic parent have a 50% chance of inheriting the disability.
2. Dyslexia affects on 1 in every 5 people in America.
3. Reading disabilities are estimated to comprise 80% of all learning disabilities.
4. 40% of individuals with dyslexia have the coexisting condition, ADD or ADHD.
5. Children are usually not identified as having a reading disability until the 3rd or 4th grade.
6. Children with dyslexia can be diagnosed as early as 5 years old.
7. Phonemic awareness is different from phonics and is the core and causal reason for reading problems.
8. Poor spelling ability is a symptom of dyslexia. Spelling has nothing to do with intelligence. Agatha Christie, Albert Einstein, and Ernest Hemingway were all horrible spellers!
9. Dyslexia is not a vision problem.
10. Individuals with dyslexia often have superior strengths in people skills, music, art, sports, creativity, visual perceptual skills, and critical thinking skills.
Please request my free resource, “Characteristics of Dyslexia” to receive a comprehensive list of symptoms.
I think my daughter and/or son might have dyslexia. But what exactly is dyslexia? How do I know for sure? What symptoms would I see? Isn’t dyslexia when you see words backwards?
When parents initially contact me for information, these are generally the types of questions they first ask. In this article, I will take some time to answer these questions. It is my hope that this information will offer more clarity on the subject and demystify some of the common myths that continue to be prevalent about dyslexia. First, let’s take a look at how dyslexia is defined.
Dyslexia Defined
The International Dyslexia Association (IDA) and National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) defines dyslexia in the following way:
“Dyslexia is a specific learning disability that is neurobiological 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.”
Put simply, dyslexia is an inherited learning disability that runs in families. Dyslexia literally means "difficulty with language." Dyslexia varies in severity and symptom from one person to the next and can affect reading, spelling, writing, handwriting, word retrieval, articulation, directionality, and the ability to remember rote facts.