The Case for Labeling

Although 1 in 5 children is dyslexic, less than 30% of these children are ever identified. Why is this? In fact, most schools won’t even use the word dyslexia. There is a philosophy in education today that society shouldn’t “label” these children dyslexic. This philosophy not only discourages children from being “labeled” dyslexic but it also discourages schools from identifying children with learning disabilities. Society sees “labeling” as a bad practice. I disagree with this philosophy. I believe it does a disservice to the dyslexic child and to their families. Today, a dyslexic student is only identified as having a learning disability after the child has fallen significantly behind their peers. Schools are then able to “label” the child as having a Specific Learning Disability. The label Specific Learning Disability includes many different types of disabilities, including brain injury. Dyslexia accounts for 80% of those identified as having a Specific Learning Disability. Dyslexia requires a specific type of intervention so that the student is able to actually close the gap. Without the label of “dyslexia,” most students only receive interventions that are appropriate for a group of disabilities, but never receive interventions that are specific for dyslexia. To me, that’s like identifying a group of people as having cancer and assuming that the same type of treatment will work for each individual regardless of the type of cancer.

If dyslexic students aren’t identified as “dyslexic”, they are often informally identified by their teachers as being lazy or slow. The other kids in the classroom are also labeling these kids as “dumb”. These kids are often picked on and bullied. Everyone seems to have a label for them whether or not the school formally “labels” them.  I can remember teachers telling me that I wasn’t trying hard enough. My second grade teacher told my mom that I was capable of reading but I just didn’t want to do it. She would send home papers that I had trouble reading and wrote in big red letters, “Joshua refused to do this.”    

I think having a “label” of dyslexia will help students get the right help and provide them with the appropriate accommodations for their weaknesses. It also helps families to have a term to research to better understand the learning difficulties. I knew I learned differently and was frustrated because I couldn’t learn the same way as my peers. The word “dyslexia” gave me confidence that I could achieve success.

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Why Bother Testing for Dyslexia in High School or College?

           While it is shocking to most people that one out of five children is dyslexic, it is even more surprising that less than 30% of these children are ever identified. It is not uncommon for people to find out that they are dyslexic once they're in high school or even college. Some people find out once they are adults and have children who are diagnosed with dyslexia. This is probably because dyslexics have an average to above average IQ  and they have learned to accommodate in life and because schools are not  identifying these children.

  My older brother diagnosed himself dyslexic in college. During this time my family was learning about dyslexia and worried about me. My brother recognized the signs and said,  “Why are you so worried about Joshua because I am dyslexic too?”  It took my parents many months before they recognized that he probably was dyslexic and never identified. He had delayed speech as a toddler and had speech therapy for a speech disfluency as a preschooler. In kindergarten, his report card said that he lacked  phonemic awareness. Although he was an honor student in high school, he had difficulty in learning Spanish.  My parents finally agreed to have my brother tested before his sophomore year in college if he was willing to use any accommodations for which he might qualify. My brother was right and he is dyslexic. He was extremely fortunate because he had Orton Gillingham in kindergarten through third grade.  My brother graduated from college last May and is now in graduate school. He has accommodations for extra time on his tests and he gets a separate quiet room for tests, like me.

According to the Yale Center for Dyslexia and Creativity, slow reading and writing is the primary symptom for dyslexia in an accomplished young adult. They explained that,  “In children, the phonetical  weakness affects reading accuracy; over time, accomplished dyslexic adults learn to read a core of words accurately. In bright young adults the phonemic weakness affects the speed of reading.”

Many people wonder how important it is for a student to be identified in high school or college. It is very important. According to Dr. Shaywitz of the Yale Center for Dyslexia and Creativity, “ Far and away the most critical accommodation for the dyslexic reader is the provision of extra time. Dyslexia robs a person of time; accommodations return it.”  Dyslexic students need extra time on tests to achieve their potential. They also require these accommodations to be successful on college entrance exams. Teachers and students that help identify dyslexic students have the potential to forever change a student’s life. Identification provides a student with accommodations and accommodates a dyslexic student to achieve their full potential.

Life as a Dyslexic: Learning to Advocate

Dyslexic students require educational accommodations to achieve their potential. Accommodations are changes that help a student overcome or work around their disability. They help a child learn.  According to the Yale Center for Dyslexia and Creativity, “accommodations represent the bridge that connects him to his strengths and, in the process, allows him to reach his potential. By themselves, accommodations do not produce success; they are the catalyst for success.” Accommodations are outlined in either an Individualized Learning Plan (IEP) or a 504. I have a 504. A 504 plan is a legal document that specifies the accommodations a student should receive. The kinds of accommodations I have are for things like the provision of extra time for tests and a quiet room.

I am learning to advocate for myself. I need to learn to do this because I will have to do this for myself in college. It isn’t easy to do. Some teachers are very helpful and are willing to work with me so that I can do my best work. It is important to be respectful but it requires me to remind teachers of what I need according to my 504.  For example, I may need to remind a teacher that I need extra time on a test. This isn’t easy to do. My experience through the years has been that most teachers want to help you. When an issue arises that is outside of my 504 or contradicts it, I need to talk to my parents to help advocate for me. I have had a recent experience where the teacher called me to the front of the class. It was very quiet at the time. The teacher told me that I was smarter than the accommodation allowed and that I just needed to try harder. She told me that when I used this accommodation during the first grading period, she gave me an “A”. Last grading period she gave me a “B” when I used the accommodation and if I continue to use it, she “would see to it that I failed the class.” I was so embarrassed because I knew the class heard the conversation. After class, someone asked me if they heard it right, that she was really going to fail me. It was the first time that I ever had a teacher deny me of my accommodations. It was so humiliating and made me feel very uncomfortable. I knew that this was a situation that I needed to share with my parents.

It isn’t easy to be a dyslexic. I have to work extremely hard to do well. Due to the fact that dyslexia isn’t a visible disability like other disabilities, many people just don’t understand it. There is a lot of misinformation about dyslexia and people think you just aren’t trying hard enough when in fact, you have to work five to six hours every night on homework. Many people think we see letters backwards. There is a real need for more dyslexia awareness. It will make life easier for dyslexic students.

Although 1 in 5 children is dyslexic, less than 30% are ever identified. Most schools and parents wait to evaluate a child with reading difficulties because they assume that it is just a temporary problem and that they will outgrow it. Data from the Connecticut Longitudinal Study conducted by the Yale Center for Dyslexia and Creativity show that, “at least three out of four children who read poorly in third grade continue to have reading problems in high school and beyond. Without identification and proven interventions, virtually all children who have difficulties early on will struggle with reading when they are adults.”  The importance of identifying these children and young adults and then providing them with evidence-based reading intervention cannot be overstated. As a country, we cannot afford the economic impact of undiagnosed dyslexia and lack of appropriate interventions. 

So how can we identify the signs of dyslexia in an elementary student and beyond?  One sign is that the difficulty in naming the letters of the alphabet during the preschool years is followed by trouble with naming the sounds of each letter in elementary school. Blending sounds is even more difficult.  I had difficulty in actually hearing the differences between some of the vowels. Children with dyslexia often find reading very difficult and try to avoid it. They often have a terrific fear of reading out loud. Their oral reading may be choppy and slow. There is often a history of poor spelling and they may even find that spell check is unable to autocorrect with the appropriate word.  Many dyslexics have difficulty with the rote memorization of information. They often need a little extra time to respond verbally.  There is often a history of reading problems in parents or siblings as dyslexia often runs in families. These difficulties are unexpected because their IQ is average to above average. It isn’t a matter of intelligence. Dyslexics have excellent reasoning abilities and seem to get the big picture.

In successful adults, dyslexics can be identified by their lack of reading fluency.  They often have trouble pronouncing unusual or uncommon names and words. They prefer books with figures, charts, or graphs. Their spelling often remains disastrous. They continue to avoid situations where they are required to read aloud. These young adults are successful because they have learned to accommodate. Successful dyslexics include people like Steve Jobs, Charles Schwab, Steven Spielberg, and Alexander Graham Bell. 

It is important for teachers and parents to educate themselves on the signs of dyslexia. With this knowledge, they have the ability to intervene in the life of a child and ensure that they receive the appropriate intervention necessary for them to succeed. They truly have the power to change the life of a child.

Recognizing the Signs of Dyslexia in Young Children

Dyslexia is very common and according to the National Institutes of Heath (NIH) it affects one out of five people. Unfortunately, less than 30% of dyslexics are identified. Sadly, when they are identified, they are past the optimal age for remediation. It is not uncommon for dyslexics to go unrecognized until adolescence or adulthood. According to Dr. Sally Shaywitz at the Yale Center for Dyslexia and Creativity, it is unacceptable to have children and adults struggling to read when they could benefit from what modern neuroscience has taught us about reading and dyslexia.  It is actually possible to catch these children and intervene before they ever have the chance to fail or to fall behind their peers.  In her book, Overcoming Dyslexia, Dr. Shaywitz states, “new discoveries now make it possible to (1) identify with a high degree of precision those children who are at the highest risk for dyslexia - even before they develop reading problems, (2) diagnose dyslexia accurately in children, young adults, and adults, and (3) manage the disorder with highly effective and proven treatment programs.”

So how can we recognize the signs of dyslexia in a young child before they get behind?  There are many signs that parents often identify early on and question. Although it is possible to see the signs in preschool children, it is important to note that dyslexic children are not all alike and they may have some of the signs but not all of the signs.  One of the first warning signs that parents recognize is not so much what their child is doing, but what they aren’t doing. Delayed speech is common among  dyslexic children. In the early years, they may have difficulty rhyming. They find it hard to memorize simple nursery rhymes such as “Humpty Dumpty” and “Jack and Jill”.  Learning the letters of the alphabet can also be difficult. For me, the letters of the alphabet were basically the alphabet song. To identify a letter, I had to recite the song to find its name. Dyslexic children often mispronounce words for an extended period of time. It can sound like baby talk and it may persist beyond when it seems appropriate.  They also often don’t recognize the letters in their own name. These difficulties are unexpected in these children because they are very bright and have an average to above-average IQ. They appear curious and have great imaginations. They often have large vocabularies for their age and enjoy building models.   The key to success for these children is to identify them as early as possible, even before they are expected to begin to read. Based on the scientific data generated to date on dyslexia, it is possible to identify dyslexic children before they experience failure or fall behind their peers and to provide them with evidence-based instruction.   

 

Orton Gillingham

Orton Gillingham (OG) is a way of teaching reading and writing. It is an intensive phonics based method.  It is also multi-sensory. Multi-sensory instruction uses the visual, auditory, and kinesthetic pathways at the same time when learning new information. Orton Gillingham can help anyone learn to read and write.  Pilot studies have shown big improvements in reading and writing success when OG concepts are taught in K-12 classrooms. Unlike most methods of teaching English, students are taught directly by the teacher. It uses synthetic phonics taught in a sequential way using all three sensory pathways. There are studies that have shown that OG is the only evidence-based approach for teaching reading.

OG helped me improve my reading level by two grades in a seven-month period. At this point I am now learning advanced Orton Gillingham. Advanced OG teaches the meanings of Greek and Latin roots. It has helped me with spelling words correctly and understanding the meanings of words.

Studies have shown that when OG is used in the classroom all children are able to learn to read. So the real question is why aren’t all schools using this approach? OG has been around since 1935 when Samuel Orton and Anna Gillingham published their first book. Unfortunately, there are only a few schools using this evidence-based method to teach reading. Those schools that are using the approach, are not using it through 12th grade. Most schools are unwilling to spend the money to train their teachers to use the approach. If schools spent the money so that their students didn’t fall behind, they wouldn’t need to spend as much money for remediation. This would actually save money. The reading data shows that when children are caught up by 2nd grade, they remain at grade level with their peers. 

I wish more teachers would be trained in the Orton Gillingham approach. Unfortunately, teachers in Indiana are not taught how to teach reading. I believe there needs to be a law like the one in Ohio that requires teachers to be trained in this evidence-based approach. Marian College is the only college in Indiana that teaches this approach. Too many children in Indiana are falling behind in reading and this is unacceptable.

Assistive technologies have the ability to really help dyslexics. Dragon is a speech recognition software program which allows the user to wear a headset and speak to the computer. I use Dragon to write my papers. It allows me to express myself more freely. It is still important to know how to type and to edit, but Dragon allows me to create my initial draft. Dyslexia is a neurobiological learning disability that makes the task of writing difficult.  
E-readers have changed the lives of dyslexics.  It is now possible to listen to almost any book, including textbooks.  This is important because dyslexics often understand information that is presented to them through the auditory channel better than when they read the material themselves. Bookshare is a government-funded program that allows dyslexics to listen to almost any book for free provided that they have educational testing that confirms that they qualify for the service. In addition, Bookshare allows the user to change font size and increase the spacing between lines.
The LiveScribe pen is another technology that can help the dyslexic take notes. Note-taking is a frustrating task for many dyslexics because it’s difficult to listen carefully and absorb information during a lecture while simultaneously writing meaningful notes.  Speed is an issue and it is often difficult to keep up. The pen and notebooks look like typical pens and spiral notebooks.  When a student is listening to a lecture and realizes the information is important, the student begins writing in the notebook. As they begin writing, the pen begins to record the lecture. Later, if the student’s notes seem incomplete, he can place the pen on the exact page of his notes where the information is located and listen to the lecture at that point in time. It is also possible to plug the pen into the computer and transfer the  student’s handwritten words into text. I have used the pen and if you have a teacher that does a lot of lecturing and doesn’t provide notes, the LiveScribe pen can make note-taking easier. 
Apple’s AutoCorrect is also a very helpful tool for dyslexics since dyslexics often have trouble with spelling.  I have found it extremely helpful in writing blog entries and writing personal narratives because it narrows the choices for spelling. In the past, a dyslexic student would have to look up in a dictionary every word they didn’t know how to spell. 
Today, there are many technologies that are available to make life easier for the dyslexic student. It is exciting because with the current advances in science, this is just the beginning of the digital world and help for dyslexics. 

Indiana's Laws are Failing Dyslexic Students

In the state of Indiana, dyslexia is not a word used by most schools.  That’s because there isn’t a definition of dyslexia in Article 7 of Indiana’s education law.  Parents must wait for a child to fall far enough behind his peers before the school will test to see if the child has a Specific Learning Disability (SLD).  Dyslexics make up 80% of those that qualify as having a Specific Learning Disability. Unfortunately, this puts parents in the position of waiting. If they test too soon, the child can’t qualify for accommodations and intervention. If they test too late, after third grade, the child is past the optimal age for intervention. According to studies, dyslexics should get help as early as kindergarten.  Indiana’s education law makes dyslexics fail for several years before they give them any help. According to studies performed by Yale, less than 30% of dyslexics are ever identified and far fewer ever receive appropriate interventions. When they are identified, it is past the optimal age for intervention. By this point, the student is so far behind, it takes one-on-one Orton Gillingham tutoring to get them to grade level. This is very expensive and schools are not trained to provide this intervention nor willing to pay for it.  Currently, those children who have the resources to afford Orton Gillingham tutoring are able to close the gap. Those students that aren’t fortunate to have money, have little chance of closing the gap with the current interventions used in most schools. 

Laws around the country are changing.  Indiana is behind.  Other states are recognizing the social impact of this problem and are making changes.  They are recognizing the benefit of early intervention.  They are finding that it is less expensive to intervene early than it is to provide remediation later.  Data shows that if you get a student up to grade level by second grade, they remain on par with their peers.  As a state and as a country we can’t afford to ignore this group of students.

While most people think dyslexia is just reading backwards, it is actually far more than that. Dyslexia is the way the brain thinks and transmits signals.   When people without dyslexia think or hear something, the information just goes to one side of the brain for processing and stops. When people with dyslexia hear or think of something, it starts off on one side of the brain for processing and moves to the opposite side of the brain for further processing. Functional MRI scans show these differences. While the MRI scans of those without dyslexia, “light up” on one side of the brain while the person is reading, the brain of the dyslexic “lights ups” on both hemispheres. This is why dyslexics take longer to read and write. Dyslexia isn’t a matter of intelligence.  They have at least an average IQ and most have an above average IQ.

Some people find it shocking that one in five people are dyslexic. The Connecticut Longitudinal Study conducted by Yale provided the data for this determination. In other words, every classroom has several children that are dyslexic.  

Dyslexics are 40% more likely to become millionaires than the average person according to a study in England. Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Richard Branson, John Chambers, Charles Schwab, Tommy Hilfiger, Bill Hewlett, Henry Ford, Ted Turner, and Ingvar Kamprad are just a few millionaires who are dyslexic. It’s not known whether their success comes from the way in which their brains process information or because they have learned to work hard to be successful. Either way, dyslexics learn very early on to work hard because they often struggle in school.

While I am dyslexic, I do not read backwards or see letters backwards as many people think.  Dyslexia for me is really about  having difficulty with reading, writing, and rote memorization. Orton Gillingham is an evidence-based method that teaches dyslexics to read and write. It is a multisensory, phonetic approach to teaching reading. I am being tutored by the Dyslexia Institute of Indiana.  They have helped me to improve my ability to read and they are working with me to improve my ability to express myself in writing.