Treating Dyslexia

Video Transcript

"A question every teacher and administrator should be asking, is what is the best approach to treating or working effectively with children who have dyslexia. The most important thing to remember is that early identification is critical. The earlier we can identify a child who is struggling in reading, who may have some of the family characteristics of reading difficulties, who had language impairment early on. If we can get that child very early, we can help that child to learn the right way. Children who are not identified early tend to try to take shortcuts, and it does not serve them well in the end. The second thing to think about is learning or teaching so that a child learns at the mastery level. In most cases we can assume that we can teach a lesson, maybe review the lesson, and the child or most children in the classroom will be able to take it in, and use it over time. With children who have dyslexia that is not the case. Here is a profile of Aaron. Aaron was in fourth grade, and this shows his reading and spelling accuracy. Mastery is up here at the ninety percent level, instructional level where we should be teaching him is somewhere here between sixty-one and eighty percent. And then anything down here he is being measured at his frustration level. If we look at the grade level of words that Aaron can read at mastery, it's the first grade. Aaron is in the fourth grade. If we look at the words that he can spell, he can spell first grade words at the instructional level somewhere round the seventy-five percent level, but that's second grade. If we look at where Aaron's ability to read and spell second grade words are, he's at frustration. And certainly at third grade and fourth grade. And so what has not happened for Aaron. Aaron has not had the opportunity to learn the content for reading and spelling to mastery at each grade level. And so now remediation for Aaron will require that we go back to his instructional level for spelling and reading, and rework with him the skills that he needs to acquire to just master the concepts and the de-coding characteristics of words at the second grade level, before we can begin to think about bringing him to the point where he can read and spell at grade level. This takes a long time for someone who is already three years behind in his abilities."