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Dyslexia in the Classroom

Amanda Montoya

School of Education, Vanguard University of Southern California

EDUG 524: Foundations of Teaching

Dr. Hittenberger

October 24, 2023

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

dyslexia? There is no exact definition, but a well-regarded one written by professional

researchers and endorsed by the International Dyslexia Association (IDA) is as follows:

“Dyslexia is a specific learning disability that is neurobiological in origin. It is characterized by

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

effective classroom instruction. Secondary consequences may include problems in reading

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

before dyslexia was looked at only with a deficit mindset.

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

limited instructional time for students” (Hong, 2023).

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

leaders had a well-rounded understanding of dyslexia as well as feeling a high level of

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

discuss them later in this paper.

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

bringing awareness to the topic.

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.

Classroom Accommodations and Strategies

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

technology, giving hand-outs in advance, encouraging pre-reading, giving longer comprehension

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

with dyslexia (Barker, 2023).

If I were to apply this knowledge of teaching strategies into an imaginary classroom, I

would rely the most on UDL practices each day. Being mindful of my students with dyslexia, I

would make sure to present information in a multi-sensory environment- giving my students

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

prepared to support my future students with dyslexia in the classroom.

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.

Barker, E. R. G. (2023, October). Celebrating Dyslexic Thinking: Inclusive Teaching &

Learning. literacyworldwide.org.

Dymock, S., & Nicholson, T. (2022). Dyslexia Seen Through the Eyes of Teachers: An

exploratory survey. Reading Research Quarterly. https://doi.org/10.1002/rrq.490

Embracing Dyslexia. (2015, September 6). Embracing Dyslexia: The Interviews - Susan Barton

[Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcpyR_K5X_k

Flachbart, Marybeth. (2017). Developing the Strengths of Students with Dyslexia: Six Teaching

Strategies. Education Northwest.

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Gonzalez, M. (2021, June 18). Dyslexia knowledge, perceived preparedness, and professional

development needs of in-service educators. Annals of Dyslexia, 71(3), 547–567.

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.

SEEU Review, 14(1), 196–206. https://doi.org/10.2478/seeur-2019-0011

Paz, Z. (2022, February 18). The History of Dyslexia - LDRFA. LDRFA.

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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achievement of students with dyslexia. Teachers’ Work, 15(2), 100–104.

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Tayarani, S. (2021, October 7). Dyslexia: a student case study. Commonwealth Learning Center.

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