Expert Roundtable: Dispelling the Myths and Misunderstandings About Dyslexia
Many educators and parents, including the readers of this blog, may know that October is Dyslexia Awareness Month. This presents a good opportunity to explore this language-based learning challenge and question our own knowledge. While awareness and understanding of dyslexia have increased over the years, there is still a lot to learn.
In this “roundtable” blog post, a number of literacy and dyslexia experts were asked to briefly share their insights in response to the following question:
What are the one or two things that you believe are most commonly misunderstood about dyslexia today, and what message would you want to share with educators, parents and/or students to increase their awareness of the reality?
What follows are a diverse and interesting set of responses, coming from some of the most valuable perspectives available across the education field. We hope you’ll enjoy these insights and find them useful in your own practice. And, even though October is ending soon, you can still join the conversation around dyslexia awareness by using the hashtags #DyslexiaAwareness and #DyslexiaAwarenessMonth on Twitter.
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Regie Routman shares her advice to raise expectations for what’s possible:
While dyslexia is a specific reading disability that requires explicit and highly knowledgeable teaching in order to learn to read, too often the label and diagnosis are used to define and limit a learner’s possibilities. It’s vital that teachers, leaders, parents, and students raise their expectations for what’s possible! Some of the most imaginative, brilliant, and highly successful people who have ever lived are believed to have had dyslexia, for example, Steve Jobs, Thomas Edison, Leonardo da Vinci, Steven Spielberg, John Lennon, and Jamie Oliver, to name several. Share those luminaries’ life stories, and help students with dyslexia find and follow their own passions and talents. Those passions will help fuel learners’ hunger and need to know so they can find unique expression for their inspired thoughts and ideas-- beyond reading and writing-- through music, the visual and performing arts, inventions, cooking, and other creative means.
Regie Routman is an educator, reading specialist, and author--most recently--of Literacy Essentials: Engagement, Excellence, and Equity for All Learners. Visit Regieroutman.org to learn more.
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Jamie Williamson shares two myths, and the reality all educators and parents should understand:
There are many myths and misunderstandings about dyslexia, even today, and we could likely develop a long list. However, to narrow it down to two, these are a couple of myths that are important to understand:
I think the most prevalent myth is that dyslexics see letters and numbers backward or in reverse. Rather, dyslexia is an unexpected difficulty in learning to read that is characterized by struggles with accurate word reading, decoding, and spelling.
The second myth is that you can’t diagnosis dyslexia until 3rd or 4th grade. While it is true that for many children, the discrepancy between reading skills and cognitive ability is not as pronounced until this point, there are many early at-risk markers to help screen and identify students much earlier. The following article has more information on early warning signs: “Kindergarten Teachers to the Rescue–Please!”
Jamie Williamson is head of The Windward School, a coeducational, independent day school with three campuses in White Plains, NY, and New York City, dedicated to providing a proven instructional program for children with language-based learning disabilities.
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Dr. Michael Hart explains that dyslexia isn’t something students just grow out of:
One of the most commonly misunderstood aspects of dyslexia is that people “grow out of it.” In fact, dyslexia is a lifelong challenge that may manifest differently depending on the environment in which the person is operating.
During the K-12 school years, it is really important to recognize that, even if the student receives intensive support early on, issues with decoding multisyllabic words and fluency may impact how well a student can keep up as the demands of the classroom increase over the years. Ultimately, if the student is struggling with some of the more basic skills of reading, comprehension will suffer because all their energy is being used to sound out words and read fluently.
Michael Hart, Ph.D. is a child psychologist with 25 years of experience in the diagnostic assessment and treatment of a full range of learning differences, including dyslexia and ADHD. Learn more about his work and access online tools, training and resources by visiting TrueLiteracy.in.
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Rachel Berger shares two common misbeliefs held by many stakeholders:
Dyslexia Fonts solve the issue for students with dyslexia and struggling readers. Not True. While a font can reduce the eye strain experienced by a small fraction of individuals who struggle with printed word due to dyslexia, a specific font style is not a cure-all and is not proven to be effective for all. Struggling readers and individuals with dyslexia benefit from and require specific literacy interventions known as structured literacy. Those are prescriptive for dyslexics but also benefit all readers. They are characterized by systematic, explicit, sequential, phonetic based instruction practiced with fidelity.
Students with dyslexia can’t be identified until they’ve received literacy instruction for 2-3 years and are not achieving grade level reading proficiency. Not True. The hallmarks of dyslexia are identifiable in an individual as early as age 5.5. However, if a student isn’t identified until grade 3, they stand a less than 17% chance of ever catching up to their peers. Early screening is critical to ensuring grade level reading proficiency. The earlier students are identified with reading issues, the sooner they can be matched to the appropriate instruction to meet their specific needs. Dyslexia specific interventions are beneficial to all readers because they practice based on the science of reading utilizing structured literacy.
For resources and information on dyslexia and literacy look up your local branch of the International Dyslexia Association and your local Decoding Dyslexia chapter.
Rachel Berger is the Executive Director of Decoding Dyslexia Minnesota and also works with Microsoft as a dyslexia and learning disability community assistive tech consultant. Educators can learn more about tools for increasing accessibility and supporting students who struggle with reading and writing in her presentations at FETC 2020 in Miami.
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Nikosi Darnell explains that it is possible to diagnose dyslexia in young children:
A common misconception among parents and teachers is that dyslexia cannot be diagnosed before the age of 6. This errant frame of thought may result in parents and teachers overlooking hallmark characteristics of dyslexia that may be identifiable in children younger than 6.
Young children presenting with dyslexia may be identified through their difficulties in:
Frequent ear infections are not causative of dyslexia, but they can have a significant impact on sound (phonemic awareness) and language (receptive and expressive) development in children.
Speech and language development can be delayed in children presenting with dyslexia. When compared with their neurotypically developing peers, children with dyslexia may present with delayed speech and language skills. For instance, they may not begin talking until a later age. However, there are many children with dyslexia who develop speech and expressive language skills at a normal rate.
Mixing up sounds can be a common hallmark present in young children with dyslexia. This might be most notable in verbal productions such as, "hecilopter" for /helicopter/, "gig birl" for /big girl/, and so on.
Vocabulary impairments are not uncommon as children may exhibit difficulty processing information. They may experience difficulty associating the correct word with the given object. Children with dyslexia may present with a higher frequency of word substitutions, hesitations, and interjections such as, "umm". (218)
Kids with phonological awareness deficits may experience trouble learning nursery rhymes, a lack of enjoyment when listening to rhyming stories, difficulty counting syllables in words, and problems noticing sound repetition or alliteration.
Understanding and remembering sequences may be a problem present in young children with dyslexia. They may experience difficulty recalling the order of the alphabet, days of the week, counting sequentially, as well as when learning colors, shapes, how to spell or even write their own name.
Dr. Nikosi Darnell a speech-language pathologist and developmental specialist with over 17-years of experience working with individuals across the lifespan in clinical, non-clinical, and hospital settings. Learn her insights on tech tools for supporting dyslexia in her upcoming sessions at FETC 2020.
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Michele Haiken shares her advice on using a multisensory approach to teaching dyslexic students:
The International Dyslexia Association estimates that as many as 15 to 20 percent of the population as a whole has some symptoms of dyslexia. As a middle school teacher, I come in contact with 4-5 students every year who are dyslexic. In secondary school the material is dense and it is a matter of helping students read and understand these harder texts in different content areas. Providing a multisensory approach to teaching and learning can help students. For example, audio books are a great tool but students shouldn’t just be listening to the text, they need to see the text as well as hear the text to follow along for comprehension. Additionally, visuals are helpful. Providing visual clues on review sheets or a graphic novel in conjunction with a classic text can help connect the student with the material.
There are so many assistive technology tools to support students with dyslexia. Learning Ally provides audio books and support services for students with dyslexia. Reading Plus is an adaptive literacy tool to develop fluency and comprehension. Utilizing text to speech tools like Readspeaker or Voice Dream Reader that convert PDFs, web pages, Microsoft Word, and other document formats into spoken word, also offer additional features such as bookmarking, note-taking, and a built-in dictionary. These tools can all our students be successful in the classroom. The more practice students have with content information and support from their teachers, dyslexic students are able to thrive in the classroom.
Michele Haiken, Ed.D. is an educator and author with a passion for all things literacy and edtech. She has taught middle school English for the past 20 years and is an adjunct professor in literacy in New York. Learn some more tips for supporting diverse readers with digital strategies in her recent edCircuit Q&A.
This is a guest post. The views expressed in the above article do not necessarily represent the views of any of the contributors.