Dyslexia

This brilliant video explains dyslexia in 4.5 minutes.
Well worth the time!

What Is Dyslexia TEDEd Kelli Sandman-Hurley

Dyslexia is a specific learning disability that is neurological 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 the growth of vocabulary and background knowledge (dyslexiaida.org).

Defining dyslexia

Choosing the right instruction

Structured literacy instruction helps all students, especially those with language-based learning challenges like dyslexia. Teaching must be explicit, systematic, and cumulative, with continuous diagnostic assessments. Teachers must impart the links between literacy and language and create engaging experiences that use multiple senses to develop decoding and comprehension. Instruction should enhance skills and cover critical elements like phonology and phonemic awareness, sound-symbol association and alphabetic principle, syllables, morphology, syntax, and semantics.

Students need repeated practice for mastery. For most, the highest success rates come when a student receives intervention with a qualified professional at least three times weekly.

Characteristics of dyslexia

    • Late learning to talk

    • Difficulty pronouncing words

    • Difficulty acquiring vocabulary or using age appropriate grammar

    • Difficulty following directions

    • Confusion with before/after, right/left

    • Difficulty learning the alphabet, nursery rhymes, or songs

    • Difficulty with word retrieval

    • Difficulty learning to read

    • Difficulty identifying or generating rhyming words, or counting syllables in words (phonological awareness)

    • Difficulty with hearing and manipulating sounds in words (phonemic awareness)

    • Difficulty distinguishing different sounds in words (phonological processing)

    • Difficulty in learning the sounds of letters (phonics)

    • Difficulty remembering names, shapes of letters, or naming letters rapidly (RAN)

    • Transposing the order of letters when reading or spelling

    • Misreading or omitting common short words

    • “Stumbles” through longer words

    • Poor reading comprehension during oral or silent reading

    • Slow, laborious oral reading

    • Difficulty putting ideas on paper

    • Many spelling mistakes, typically in daily work even if spelling tests are correct

    • Difficulty proofreading

    • Difficulty naming colors, objects, and letters rapidly, in a sequence (RAN: Rapid Automatized Naming)

    • Weak memory for lists, directions, or facts

    • Needs to see or hear concepts many times to learn them

    • Distracted by visual or auditory stimuli

    • Downward trend in achievement test scores or school performance

    • Inconsistent school work

    • Teacher says, “If only she would try harder,” or “He’s lazy.”

    • Relatives may have similar problems

(From IDA Dyslexia Handbook)

For reasons we've explored, children struggling to read aren't going to be helped by the one-size-fits-all approach that is typical… Rather, we need teachers who are trained to use a toolbox of principals that they can apply to different types of [learning styles].
— Maryanne Wolfe

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