I often find myself in the important position of helping parents become savvy consumers of instructors for their children who have Dyslexia. What’s the difference between the teacher who tutors after school and a Dyslexia Therapist? Individuals with Dyslexia require an instructor with highly specialized knowledge and experience of WHAT and HOW to teach Structured Literacy. 

Below is a new infographic developed by the International Dyslexia Association that explains what Structured Literacy encompasses. Dyslexic students require instruction in every component of Structured Literacy. It’s not just phonics focused, nor is the instruction workbook or computer heavy. Carefully crafted lesson plans that address all areas of Structured Literacy are developed and delivered in a multimodal manner, preferably in-person.

Another section of IDA's new infographic explains WHO should be providing the instruction and WHEN. For example, all general education teachers should have basic knowledge of Structured Literacy. Educators working with struggling general education students identified through universal screening require a deeper set of knowledge and experience in order to meaningfully address the needs of struggling readers. Finally, those students that have not made progress within their school's Tier 2 program of support not only require greater intensity and frequency of an intervention, they require an expert instructor who holds the necessary credentials.

Another important infographic, pictured below, was created by me to help explain to parents the intensive program that individuals like myself complete in order to become a certified Dyslexia Therapist through Wilson Language, accredited by the International Dyslexia Association (IDA). The Wilson Reading System is an intensive intervention grounded in Structured Literacy (sometimes used interchangeably with the term, Orton-Gillingham). The successful completion of three supervised practicums and graduate coursework were required to earn this esteemed credential. The credential, by the way, must be renewed by submitting proof of ongoing professional learning in the field of Structured Literacy. Our field of Dyslexia and its associated learning disabilities is dynamic - there is always a new study or resource to learn about. A Dyslexia Therapist who maintains their credentials is on top of the latest research which has implications for our clients. 

When interviewing a potential instructor, I tell parents that they should ask the individual WHERE they received their training from and whether they completed at least one supervised graduate level practicum. In addition to Wilson Language that prepares Dyslexia Therapists, Fairleigh Dickinson University in New Jersey offers the therapist level certification. If you have a dyslexic child who has mastered early phonetic patterns and now needs that same multimodal explicit instruction for advanced phonics, morphology, and developing fluency with academic text, you need to ask if the potential instructor has completed advanced coursework to learn what and how to teach advanced English orthographic patterns. 

Not every program that trains educators in Structured Literacy offers advanced coursework that so many of our middle and high school students require to succeed. As I have observed in several late elementary and middle school supplemental reading lessons this year, dyslexic students have a steady diet of decodable stories with little to no work on developing academic vocabulary and reading comprehension with authentic academic texts. 

As an LDT-C (educational diagnostician) and Dyslexia Therapist, I have been trained on how to conduct thorough assessments and progress monitor to ensure that my lessons are tailored to the very specific needs of my clients - technically it is called "diagnostic instruction." A Dyslexia Therapist doesn't teach from scripted program, that is where the art of "diagnostic" teaching comes into play. I have evaluated too many students who get "stuck" on a 2nd/3rd grade level because their intervention teacher does not have the advanced knowledge to know how to advance their own skills and tackle academic reading and writing. They also don't have the diagnostic expertise to identify what skills require instruction versus skills that have been mastered. 

Unfortunately, due to time constraints, the Structured Literacy lesson plan that the school-based intervention teacher may have been trained to use is not fully implemented. This is one of the most carefully kept secrets among school administrators. Two 30 minute sessions a week with the school's intervention teacher yields, barely, one full intensive Structured Literacy lesson plan. Thus, the ongoing need for parents to seek outside specialized intervention to avoid the development of a greater gap with peers rather than closing it and attaining the dyslexic child's full potential.

My go-to resource for parents is the International Dyslexia Association's website that lists programs that offer supervised graduate level practicums. As a parent of a child with identified Dyslexia, you want someone who holds the highest level of credentials to help make a difference with your childl; someone who has graduated from one of the higher ed. or independent programs listed as being Accreditation Plus on the International Dyslexia Association's website. Here is the link for your reference: https://dyslexiaida.org/accredited-teaching-training-programs/

To learn more about how a Dyslexia Therapist can make a difference, contact susan@write2readsolutions.com

There are many literacy screeners on the market, many of which are well-designed, valid, and reliable, that are now being used by our NJ public schools - by force, not choice, by the way due to new state mandates. Some, like iReady and Acadience, include spelling aside from the usual phoneme segmentation, nonsense word reading, and oral reading fluency tasks. Acadience's supplemental spelling assessment, for example, requires the student to produce the word in writing. iReady, on the other hand,  presents tasks that require the selection of the correctly spelled word rather than writing it independently. Acadience only assesses spelling in K through 3rd grades. Others, like iReady, are adaptive, so if a student performs well early on, they "test out" of spelling. 

We have many K to 3rd grade students in our schools that look good on these early literacy screeners. They "passed" or "tested out of" the phonological awareness and spelling tasks asked of them in 1st and 2nd grades, but yet, now in 4th, 5th or 7th grades, they are not reading or spelling accurately. Of note, is that screening laws like those in New Jersey do not extend beyond 3rd grade, so higher level phonemic awareness, decoding, and encoding skills are not mandated to be assessed in 4th grade and beyond. I have evaluated many older struggling readers who qualified for Special Education services due to poor reading/spelling skills who "passed" early screeners. They typically had amazing visual memories, btw, which helped them fly under the radar as well as attending schools that had little to no expectations for accurate spelling. "Spelling doesn't matter in this day and age," is a quote that I'm tired of hearing from educators - spelling matters. I have worked with countless adults who were embarrassed about their spelling skills despite having "spellcheckers."

If you want to know how well a student is processing sounds, understands and applies English orthography, and also get a snapshot of their overall literacy skills, give them a SPELLING assessment. Research continually informs the field that spelling weaknesses hinder overall writing development, so it's worth the 10-15 minutes to assess a student's spelling skills. And yes, it doesn't take long to conduct a classwide spelling assessment. The only time I've had teachers of older students say it took longer than 15 minutes to assess spelling was when their students’ letter formation skills hindered the ability to quickly get their words on paper..... the issue of letter formation requires a separate blog post!

SUGGESTIONS 

1.  use one of the resources below, organized by grade level (thank you Neuhaus!)

2. conduct the spelling assessment with your whole class (we have a lot of hidden SLD's in our schools)

3. dictate the word, have the students repeat the word to ensure they all heard it correctly

4. use the charts below to determine common error patterns that require instruction (a worksheet is not instruction)

5. did you identify students with well-below grade level spelling skills - outliers in the class whose spelling attempts are not even phonologically accurate?

6. Use the chart to plan intensive intervention (3x to 5x weekly for 6 weeks) for those well-below for reading and spelling purposes

7. Repeat assessment after 6 weeks (assess only those patterns that were taught in that timeframe - this is not about memorizing the words on the lists below, but truly owning the patterns/rules that were taught.

My favorite resources:

Wilson Assessment for Decoding and Encoding

Spellography

LETRS Spelling Screener (https://learn71.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Instructions160for160LETRS-Spelling-Screeners.pdf)

Acadience Spelling Screeners (https://acadiencelearning.org/acadience-reading/spelling/)

 QUESTIONS - send them my way

Susan E. Miller

susan@write2readsolutions.com

Did you know that over 75% of students with learning disabilities spend a majority of their time in general education classes, especially at the middle and high school levels? While capable of learning the content, students with specific learning disabilities, like Dyslexia, do not pick up on study skills like their typical peers who generally "figure out" how to study. 

Dyslexic students report that they do study, but.... they often study ineffectively. Reading notes over and over is not an effective strategy. Dyslexic college students report working hours more than their peers only to earn a C, at best, on tests. Check out the infographic to learn about the gaps in our teacher prep programs, educator beliefs about study skills, and more! Need help for a student in your life that would benefit from explicit study skills instruction, please contact me at susan@write2readsolutions.com

Just in time for Dyslexia Awareness month, we have a controlled, semi-decodable Reader's Theater play about two kids with Dyslexia. In keeping with the fact that no two Dyslexic individuals are the same, the two students in this play present with their own unique profiles of this common specific learning disability that impacts the development of decoding and encoding skills. Perfectly short for a small group intervention lesson! As with any fluency related activity, it's important to practice to attain fluent, natural delivery of the character's lines. While no grade level is mentioned in the play, the two students were inspired by two 5th graders. Interested in using this with your group or class? Click the link below to sign up to join Write2Read Solutions' mailing list. Thank you.