Final Draft Dyslexia
Final Draft Dyslexia
Amanda Montoya
Dr. Hittenberger
Introducing Dyslexia
Dyslexia is a learning disability that affects around 15-20% of the American population.
It is the most common learning disability, impacting 80% of individuals with a learning
disability. Around 12-17% of school-aged children have dyslexia (Gonzalez, 2021). So what is
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
comprehension and reduced reading experience that can impede growth of vocabulary and
background knowledge” (IDA, 2002). This definition of dyslexia debunks some of the myths
that were formerly assumed. Many people used to believe that dyslexia resulted from a lack of
intelligence and thought that you could grow out of it. Others believed that dyslexia resulted
from vision problems, or that it was characterized only by reversal of letters when reading and
writing. Now we know that dyslexia is much more complex and its roots are much deeper. We
now know that there are many strengths and reasons to celebrate dyslexic thinking, whereas
This year, July 10, 2023, Gov. Newsom signed senate bill 691 into law requiring all
schools to implement universal screening for dyslexia starting in Kindergarten (Atkinson et al.,
2023). This is a huge step for our education system and a victory for students with dyslexia
because it will allow the opportunity for them to be supported and accommodated in the
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classroom starting very early on. For around ten years, researchers and experts have been waiting
for the state to mandate dyslexia screening because until this year, we were one of only ten states
in the country that did not require our schools to screen for dyslexia (Hong, 2023). Education
experts have determined that early screening and intervention for students with dyslexia are the
most significant factors in helping students read at grade level, yet it took California until the
year 2024 to officially mandate it in schools. Lawmakers have done their best trying to fight
dyslexia by funding research, teacher training, and literacy coaches, but they were unsuccessful
with the screeners until now because they received such pushback from the California Teachers
Association. In a letter of opposition to a bill in 2021, the CTA said that the bill is “unnecessary,
leads to overidentifying dyslexia in young students, mandates more testing, and jeopardizes the
Students with dyslexia are taught with general education instruction, meaning there are
no laws that require these students to be pulled out during regular class time to meet with a
specialist. Intervention and accommodation has been proven most effective when students with
dyslexia are in an inclusive classroom environment and stay with the general class. According to
Tom Nicholson and Susan Dymock, two New Zealand professors who conducted a teacher
survey to discover how dyslexia is viewed in education, found that “teachers are our best
resource to help students with dyslexia” (2022). In addition, they found that teachers and school
responsibility for students with dyslexia. Teachers would respond saying things like “I should be
catering to all needs”, “It is my job to assist every child to achieve”, and “They won’t progress if
I don’t help them” (Dymock & Nicholson, 2022). Teachers eagerly want to take action and help
their students with dyslexia be successful and overcome their reading difficulties. There are
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numerous things teachers can incorporate into the classroom to accomplish this goal. We will
History of Dyslexia
All known history of dyslexia dates back to 1877, when a German neurologist named
Adolf Kussamaul created the term “word blindness” to mean “complete text
blindness…although the power of sight, the intellect, and the powers of speech are intact”
(Rotatori et al., 2011, pg 62). Kussamaul had noticed that there was a particular thing that
affected people, making it difficult to read words, even though they were perfectly intelligent and
had good vision. Also in the year 1877, a German physician named Rudolph Berlin coined the
term “dyslexia” to describe “a very great difficulty in interpreting written or printed symbols”
(Rotatori et al., 2011, pg 62). Around twenty years later, in the 1890s, Dr. W Pringle Morgan
wrote about a 14 year old boy who had “language problems from birth”. He said the boy was
bright, intelligent, quick, but had great difficulty reading and spelling despite the best efforts of
his teachers. Looking back on the discoveries and research from these doctors and neurologists,
it is interesting why there is a misconception that dyslexia comes from a lack of intelligence
since all these professionals claimed that their subjects had reading difficulty despite intelligence
factors. Moving into the 20th century, in 1905 Dr. W. E. Bruner published the first U.S. report of
childhood reading disabilities. In the 1920s, Dr. Samuel Torrey Orton redefined dyslexia as
“cross-lateralization of the brain.” This means that the left side of the brain was supposedly
doing what the right side was normally supposed to do, and vice versa. This is the first time in
history that a doctor had labeled dyslexia as neurobiological in origin. In the 1970s, researcher
Sandra Naidoo published a book that was one of the first major studies of dyslexia entitled
Specific Dyslexia (Paz, 2022). Today, Sally Shaywitz is one of the most well-known advocates
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for students with dyslexia. She is a physician, scientist, and co-founder and co-director of the
Yale Center for Dyslexia and Creativity. She has been a pioneer in celebrating dyslexia and
Case Study
A case study done by Shadi Tayarani and the Commonwealth Learning Center (2021)
highlights a second-grader who struggled with dyslexia and how she was able to progress and
reach grade-level reading with private tutoring and the help of one-on-one instruction with her
teacher. Her name is Karen. She struggled with phoneme reversals displayed in the way she said
breakfast as bress-ket, animal as aminal, and especially as peshasly. Her parents decided to seek
a private evaluation and start tutoring because they did not like how long it was taking the school
to find a plan of action. The neuropsychologist found that Karen was severely compromised in
phonological awareness and rapid naming- these are both common symptoms of dyslexia. The
neuropsychologist also found that her decoding, word-identification, and single-word spelling
were below the 16th percentile. Her spelling was not phonetic (meaning that Karen did not
represent each sound in the word with a letter). She wrote luc for lunch, bet for best, and sak for
snack.
Karen started the most common and recommended reading foundational program called
Orton-Gillingham and practiced twice a week. She loved spending one-on-one time with her
teacher, playing word games that were built specifically to incorporate her interests. She had
word cards written in purple marker with kitten stickers on the back. She wrote in sand and
shaving cream and drew big imaginary letters in the air. Karen grew in confidence as her ability
to read words also grew. After six months, Karen received her benchmark testing and was placed
in the 42nd percentile in her phonological awareness, the 34th percentile in her decoding, but her
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word identification and spelling were below the 25th percentile (Tayarani, 2021). This was
hard-earned growth for Karen and her parents were excited with her progress. She continued
with the tutoring, moving on to more challenging things like learning syllable types, spelling
generalizations, and syllable division strategies. After another year and more benchmark testing
at the start of her 4th grade year (now one and a half years into tutoring), Karen was reading
grade-level text! She placed in the 50th percentile in her decoding skills and word identification
skills. She had made lots of progress in spelling, now representing each sound she heard with
letters, but still struggled with choosing the correct vowel teams when they made the same
sound. For example, when spelling compete, she wouldn’t know whether to pick compeet,
compete, or compeat. Luckily, her spelling mistakes were minimal enough that spell check could
correct them. Today, Karen only attends tutoring during the summers to maintain and improve
her skills that she has worked so hard to obtain. Reading about Karen’s experience is so valuable
because it gives readers a glimpse into the lives of those with dyslexia. Her story highlights the
struggles of students with dyslexia and reveals the urgency behind diagnosing and intervening
with students as soon as we can. The quicker teachers can determine if their student has dyslexia,
the sooner the student can receive differentiated instruction, targeted instruction, and support.
Specific teaching strategies designed for students with dyslexia heavily involve UDL,
particularly, several modes of delivery. It is crucial that students with dyslexia not only hear or
read direct instruction, but they can see pictures, learn by doing, sing songs, and create things to
help them learn. Marybeth Flachbart with Education Northwest identifies 5 specific teaching
strategies to help teachers teach students with dyslexia. The first teaching strategy is 1)
incorporating multisensory learning. Giving students multiple facets to interact with the material
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will raise their chances of success. Having kinesthetic activities, spatial learning opportunities,
incorporating music, taking students outside- all of these methods are advantageous for students
with dyslexia (and general education students as well). Secondly, 2) be accommodating! Students
with dyslexia might need extra time to read passages or need the teacher to model and read
stories before they can do it on their own. 3) Read to students: this helps all students, but
specifically students with dyslexia in expanding their vocabulary, exposing them to correct
prosody, and increasing their comprehension rate. 4) Using graphic organizers, skeleton outlines,
note-taking prompts, and concept maps helps students with dyslexia to organize their thoughts on
paper and dissect information in multiple formats. 5) Providing audio-based reading alternatives
is an excellent strategy for those with dyslexia because it allows them to read along and hear
correct pronunciation of words, along with expression and reading rate (Flachbart, 2017).
More teaching strategies that are important for students with dyslexia are using assistive
time when answering questions, and presenting material in smaller, less-stressful chunks (Lama,
2019). An example of assistive technology would be providing an audiobook option for dyslexic
students. Whereas an example of regular technology would be allowing students to play a word
decoding game on their laptop. Both options would be incorporating different methods of
delivery in order to stimulate different parts of the brain (Lama, 2019). A study done by Stuart
and Yates (2018) found that “by teaching according to individual preferences of learning style,
students made improvements in spelling and numeracy”. Let students have a say in how they
would like to learn by presenting information in multiple formats- this allows students to engage
in ways that are appropriate for them. Elizabeth R.G. Barker, accessibility research scientist with
her PhD in learning disabilities, says a good rule to follow is the Three A’s: ask,
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accommodations, and assistive technology. Ask the student directly what they feel will support
them best. Accommodations are fluid and flexible- when, where, and how they are used will
evolve over time for each student. Assistive technology is practical and important for students
would rely the most on UDL practices each day. Being mindful of my students with dyslexia, I
numerous opportunities to connect with the material through different parts of their brain. I
would have the desks in my classroom arranged in clusters, so that students would have built-in
groups when we engage with the material. This will allow for collaboration and teamwork
among my entire class, emphasizing inclusion and creating a safe space for my students. This
will particularly help my students with dyslexia not feel separated or different from their peers. I
think having my dyslexic students leave for around 30 minutes once a week to meet with a
specialist would be beneficial for them so that they can receive targeted instruction in their
struggling areas. Of course, I would plan instruction around this pull-out so that they wouldn’t
miss anything important in class. Lastly, I would allow students to show their learning in
whichever method they decided was most appropriate for themselves. I would write the different
options on the board alongside visuals so they could easily pick which one would be best. I feel
Celebrating Dyslexia
I want to finish this paper by focusing on the strengths of dyslexia and reasons to
celebrate this different way of thinking. My favorite quote from Sally Shaywitz is “Dyslexia is
an island of weakness in a sea of strengths.” The work conducted by Sally Shaywitz found that
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“people with dyslexia tend to be big-picture and non-linear conceptualizers who excel in areas
such as reasoning, problem-solving, critical thinking, and more” (Barker, 2023). Because
students with dyslexia have brains that are wired so uniquely, they are adept multimodal thinkers
and have the ability to perceive things in multiple ways. There is a saying “The path to learning
for students with dyslexia is seldom a straight line.” This is because the mainstream way of
thinking does not work for them. They have to be creative and adapt with the way they think,
making zig-zags and roundabouts in their brain to connect all the dots. Because of this, students
with dyslexia are used to putting in hard work and have great work ethics. More strengths of
students with dyslexia include deep comprehension in mathematics, persistence and motivation,
making unique connections in learning, and being observant. Some of the most amazing people
in history were dyslexic including Albert Einstein, Leonardo da Vinci, Winston Churchill, Steven
Spielberg, and Walt Disney- just to name a few. Dyslexic thinking is something to celebrate and
be proud of. Teachers should make their best efforts to bring awareness and positivity to dyslexia
in the classroom.
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References
Atkinson, Andelson, Loya, Ruud & Romo. (n.d.). California mandates dyslexia screening in
schools.
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%2C%20Governor,takes%20effect%20January%201%2C%202024.
Learning. literacyworldwide.org.
Dymock, S., & Nicholson, T. (2022). Dyslexia Seen Through the Eyes of Teachers: An
Embracing Dyslexia. (2015, September 6). Embracing Dyslexia: The Interviews - Susan Barton
Flachbart, Marybeth. (2017). Developing the Strengths of Students with Dyslexia: Six Teaching
https://educationnorthwest.org/insights/developing-strengths-students-dyslexia-six-teaching-s
trategies
Gonzalez, M. (2021, June 18). Dyslexia knowledge, perceived preparedness, and professional
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11881-021-00235-z
Hong, J. (2023, February 7). Why California still doesn’t mandate dyslexia screening.
CalMatters. https://calmatters.org/education/k-12-education/2023/02/dyslexia-screening/
Lama, A. (2019, July 1). Difficulties in English Language Learning for Students with Dyslexia.
https://www.ldrfa.org/the-history-of-dyslexia/
Rotatori, A. F., Obiakor, F., & Bakken, J. P. (2011). History of special education (Ser. Advances
in special education, 21). Emerald Group Pub. Retrieved October 18, 2023, from
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Stuart, A., & Yates, A. (2018, December 20). Inclusive classroom strategies for raising the
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Tayarani, S. (2021, October 7). Dyslexia: a student case study. Commonwealth Learning Center.
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