This article by dyslexia expert Kelli Sandman-Hurley is full of great advice for parents of children who have been recently identified as dyslexic. There are a lot of first steps here, from information on exactly what dyslexia is to questions to ask a tutor when you interview one to work with your dyslexic child. Once again, Dr. Sandman-Hurley does not disappoint!
Tag: teaching reading
Flipping Ahead to the Final Chapter
Are you one of “those” readers who finishes chapter two or three, then flips to the final chapter of a book to see how it is going to end? It is very satisfying to know characters we have become fond of are going to make out alright in the end. The same is true for a me as a tutor; I want to know how my students are going to do once they leave my care and fly solo in the big brave world. My students become quite dear to me, and I hope for them to be successful in using the tools and strategies I have given them.
Meeting a successful dyslexic adult who came through Orton-Gillingham tutoring as a child is like reading that final chapter and learning that the ranch was saved, or the cancer was cured, or the long lost love returned. It is a relief to learn of a good ending after a rocky start. I recently had the pleasure of meeting such a person, Will, and I think we had a profound effect on each other. My appreciation of Will’s story lead me to invite him to do a special Zoom session with my tutoring students and their parents. I wanted them to be encouraged by flipping a few calendar years forward to see what ending was possible for their family. Joycelyn, Will’s mom, joined us to add her perspective to the tale. Many of her comments resonated with the parents of my students, and I was glad to include her, since the story of a dyslexic child is one shared by both parents and the child.
Will and I met when my husband and I were looking into retirement investment options. Will is one of the financial specialists from the firm we chose to manage our funds. After a marathon meeting about finances, Will asked me if I had a few minutes for some questions about dyslexia. I always have a few minutes to talk about dyslexia, and was frankly ready to discuss something besides investment options.
Will told me he is dyslexic, and had Orton-Gillingham tutoring through his elementary years. He was wondering exactly what happened during those tutoring lessons that helped him. I summarized the high points of Orton-Gillingham for him, (if you are wondering, here is a great article), and could almost see the understanding dawn on him as I described the systematic, diagnostic, phonics based approach that is Orton-Gillingham. In subsequent conversations, I was able to get out the Brain Hat and show Will how O-G literally rewires the brain. It all made sense to Will, and he could see how the early training he barely remembered had contributed to his success.
My turn to ask questions came next. I wanted to know how Will did after his family moved and he was thrown into a new school with no O-G tutoring support close by. The answer was typical: only a little bad. It sounded as if a school fit issue clouded the first semester, but after Will’s very wise and insightful mom moved him to a smaller school with more support, a glimmer of light shone at the end of the tunnel. A school counselor appeared to take on the role of advocate for Will, staying with him until high school graduation. Will worked hard, him mom helped him find audio books when possible, the counselor intervened when necessary, and a path forward was forged. Dyslexia sort of faded from view, and a strong work ethic stood Will in good stead as he persevered and graduated honorably. Choosing a small, liberal arts college made sense to Will. Math was an area of strength, as well as the ability to look at situations and problems differently from how others were viewing them, so Will steered toward a major in that arena. During Sophomore year one professor would not grant time accommodations, so Will took it upon himself to formally apply for them, with a successful outcome. Aside from that, Will’s grit and willingness to apply what he had learned about needing lots of repetition as he studied got him through college.
Now married with a toddler in the house, and settled in a career he enjoys and excels at, Will is the picture of a successful adult. His last chapter is one worthy of a best seller.
Steakmints, Anyone?
As the Zoom tutoring continues, both my students and I have learned to adapt for the most part. I learned that what made Orton-Gillingham great for in-person learning is the same as what makes it great for distance learning. For me, at least, strong plans and clear goals are the heart of each lesson. For my students, a cheerful face on the screen with a plan to chase away another layer of language cobwebs from the brain is what really matters.
That is not to say that Zoom funnies don’t happen to us, because they do! Many dyslexic students have difficulties understanding spoken language. The International Dyslexia Association’s year 2000 definition of dyslexia indicates that dyslexia affects both written and oral language, so it would follow that many students misunderstand what is said. That is often where the funny moments of a lesson occur, even in person, but more often by my voice coming through the computer’s audio.
Recently, I was working with Callie, one of my more advanced students, on base words and suffixes. Dyslexic students are often surprised to learn that many long words can be broken down into base words and suffixes, and that the meaning can be extracted by understanding the suffixes’ meanings. Callie and I were going through a drill where I gave her a base word plus a suffix, and she repeated the parts, then gave me the complete word and told me the meaning based on the suffix. I called out the combination, “state plus ment,” expecting her to come up with the complete word “statement.” Imagine my smile of surprise as she gave me this response: “Steak plus mint would be steakmint.” She hurried on to ask about where to get mints designed to clear one’s breath of the effects of a big steak dinner, saying her dad could really use some of those steak mints!
Callie may one day invent and successfully market steak mints, because a whole lot of the cool things out there were dreamed up by dyslexic entrepreneurs. But for now, we talked about how ment, the suffix, sounds a whole lot like mint, the breath saver. Talking through a potential word misunderstanding will help Callie avoid it in the future. Her dad is on his own for taking care of that lingering Texas Road House effect.
Teaching in a Time of Covid19
March 13, 2020. That was the last day I taught students who were physically in the same room with me. Like thousands of other educators across our nation and the globe, I sat at my desk late that afternoon and made a list of possible solutions for how to continue to educate my young charges. One consideration I had that may not have been on other teachers’ minds was that every single one of my students is dyslexic. Giving them passages to read at home and questions to write out answers to would not equal learning. So, what to do?
When I was wrestling with the decision on the best way to teach my students, I naively believed that this was a two week pause in the school year, and that we would scrub and sanitize our way back to in-person learning after spring break. Deep in my heart, I have to admit that even then I wondered how it could all be solved in a few weeks. I suspected that even if some of the students did return, some would be at home for the rest of the school year.
Throughout the school year, I had taught professional development modules on dyslexia for schools from Virginia to Florida using the Zoom platform. It worked well for me, and was user friendly. I wrote “Zoom Small Groups” on my brainstorming list, and kept returning to it as other ideas were listed then discarded. By Monday morning, my staff and I held a staff meeting on Zoom to introduce them to the platform. I had the best group of professionals anyone could ever ask for, and they were willing to make the leap with me in committing that all of our dyslexia department’s instruction would continue to be live, teacher/tutor led, and individualized. We spent a couple of days getting everyone set up with Zoom accounts, and practicing the mechanics of inviting parents to sign in, and remembering passwords and codes were an integral part of successful connections. Where necessary, loaner systems were procured and set up at the homes of both staff and parents. By Wednesday, our invitations to join meetings were sent to parents, and we launched out into the unknown world of virtual instruction.
“Tomorrow is going to be better than today,” became our motto during those early days as everyone, parents as well as staff members, navigated the unknown waters. The motto proved to be true. We communicated, a lot, with everyone involved. We scoured the Zoom information websites, looking for Share my Screen directions, and happily finding the magical “Improve My Appearance” slider. (If that were sold in a jar at the drug store, I would buy a case!) Every moment was not a good moment. Everyone did not participate every lesson. The situation was more stressful for some families than for others. We chose to look the other way when Grandpa answered a meeting notification in his pj’s with hair standing on end, or the potty training little brother streaking through the camera view. Everyone was doing their best, and that is all that can be expected.
As the spring wore on, bi-weekly packet pick up days became the bright spot because it meant we got to see our students, albeit through car windows. I became more convinced of the soundness of my decision to put my staff through the rigors of live instruction. The real proof would come when we conducted our end-of-semester progress monitoring testing. Plans were worked out for exactly how we would conduct that testing within the parameters of the Zoom screen. I went first with my own students, so I could become aware of unforeseen pitfalls and we could devise work arounds. After 6 weeks of on-line tutoring and small group instructions, our resilient students breezed through the testing, not seeing to bat an eye at it coming in a distance format. My staff and I held our collective breath as we awaited the results.
Forty-three students completed the testing. I set out these four categories: scores dropped lower than the December testing, no improvement in the scores compared to the December testing, steady improvement of 4 months to 1 year in all categories tested, and stellar improvement of 6 months to over a year in all categories tested. Scores were verified, reports edited and sent onto parents, and a stroke count made beside each of the four categories. My excitement rose as I sat at a spare table in my living room working through the stacks of testing data and reports. I may frame the scratch paper I used to tally the testing results. In the end, one student dropped below the December score. Two students showed no improvement. A whopping twenty-two fell into that steady improvement category, and eighteen were in the stellar improvement column.
It had worked.
They had learned, even in a time of Covid19.
Creativity Grows on Trees
I had the privilege to sub for a grade 2 small group yesterday, as their regular teacher traveled with her daughter to a cheer competition. I really like subbing for my teachers, because it gives me great snapshots of how the students in that group are doing, and the teacher geek in me just loves teaching kids!
The language portion of the lesson yesterday involved choosing two words from sticky notes to make a compound word, then choosing a different colored sticky note adjective to describe the compound word. Those stickies were taken to the work table, and students wrote a sentence, underlining the compound and boxing the adjective. This activity was great on many levels, including the getting up from the work table and going to the counter were the sticky notes were laid out between each sentence. Planned stretches are important for our students, and creative writing that is one sentence long is less overwhelming than a whole paragraph.
I was going through individual reading assessments with each of the five students as the sentences were being written, so was listening to sentences here and there when young authors were so delighted with their own words that they just had to share a particularly funny sentence with me. That is when Henry started the “money tree” sentence thread. He had recently heard the maxim “Money doesn’t grow on trees.” and was all about imagining the possibility of money actually growing on trees. We talked about what the saying means, and why parents or grandparents might say it, but the giggly, creative imaginations of those five second graders had already taken flight, and I found myself in the role of air traffic controller, keeping them from talking over one another in their enthusiasm to read the sentence they had made with their compound word that related to money growing on trees. Want some examples of their wit?
“If money grows on trees, I will get my whole class orange basketballs for PE.”
“I plant a money tree in the hot sunshine so we can go to Chick-fil-A every day.”
“I got a lot of cool skateboards with dollars from my money tree.”
The sentences went on and on, and the language portion regrettably drew to a close and we moved to spelling, where a new list of words to work on was introduced. Our pattern of introducing words is to underline the target spelling pattern in each word, scoop syllables, then read the words orally and use them in sentences. I know you can see where this is going, and yes, you are right. The money tree theme spread like a bamboo forest, creeping from language lesson into those sample spelling word sentences. Never before had I seen such sharp wit and wide smiles from this group of five students as they somehow fit money trees into oral sentences using their spelling words.
The Spire reading lesson finished out our small group time, with the money tree theme front and center. As we brainstormed all the ways they have learned to spell the long e sound, they were quick to point out that the word “money” ends in the long e sound. We briefly talked about how not many words have the e at the end spelled ey, most are just a y. Mary Lou was right there to remind us all that you can’t spell the sound e at the end of a word with the letter e, because then it will be silent and make the vowel in front of it say its long sound, turning our “money tree” into a “moan-y tree.” Mary Lou had tears of laughter streaming from to corners of her eyes as she painted for us the picture of trees than moaned and complained.
As small group drew to a close, all of us felt the ninety minutes had flown by, like money taking wings of flight. I loved seeing these students’ growth, in both knowledge of how reading and language works, and of the wit and humor that language can bring to us. This year, these five students have journeyed from the land where language is a confusing blur full of puzzling rules and unexpected exceptions to a stable place where the GPS of reliable rules and guidelines lead them to the right word choice nearly every time. How amazing see this change unfold, a money tree of knowledge growing steadily between each student’s ears.
” Knowledge is wealth, wisdom is treasure, understanding is riches, and ignorance is poverty.” Dhliwayo
Practice Builds Neural Pathways
I was at a doctor visit today, and the doc spied my waiting room reading material, “Reading and the Brain.” He laid down his pen and said he just had to ask what I did for a living. After a very brief explanation, he wanted to know more about the neural pathway rewiring that O-G can do. I was glad to have written this Dyslexia Center newsletter article just last week, so had info to share with him on the tip of my mind. You might like reading it too!
What are neural pathways?
Neural pathways are similar to roads between destinations in pioneer days. The more often the road was traveled, the wider and easier the navigation became. Practice makes the brain create pathways within the brain so recalling that information is faster each time it is rehearsed.
Practicing makes permanent!
Knowing that neural pathways are being widened and improved each time a child (or an adult) rehearses a skill helps us to understand the importance of lots of practice. Neural pathways are for both academic recall and for skill in physical tasks, such as quickly fingering a run of notes on a flute or releasing a baseball at just the right moment in a pitch.
More practice for dyslexic brains
Studies have shown that people with dyslexia need 40 rehearsals to recall what a non-dyslexic person can recall in 3 practice sessions. That is because of the brain differences which lay at the root of dyslexia. This also is the reason it is so crucial for a dyslexic person to study the information correctly, and why parents often need to be involved in study sessions.
Practice smarter!
Some techniques have been shown to net longer lasting results for dyslexic individuals. Involving the hand or body in the rehearsals helps with recall. Some examples of how this is done are simple tasks such as tracing a finger on the table in the shape of the letters being studied as the child says his or her drill ring; finger sounding words to be spelled; bouncing a ball as the letters to a word are called out. Marching while saying lists of items to be learned for a history test can also be helpful to a dyslexic child. Study cards which can be picked up and moved or flipped are another way to get movement into the practice.
Want to read more about brain science?
Check out this article:
Great 5 Minute Video!
This excellent video was produced by Dyslexia 411’s Kristie Stewart Haas. It shares important information such as warning signs of dyslexia, enough neurological info to pique curiosity, a message of hope and assurance that specialized teaching methods work, and some thoughts on accommodations.
This wonderful message is told by bright faced, eager students, which made me want to watch it carefully, so I caught each of their messages. Share this with teachers, struggling students who feel alone, and parents whose children are facing unexpected struggles in school!
Watch the video here here
The View from Opposite Points on the Journey
This year one of my students is finishing up her tutoring years, and another is just beginning his. It is interesting to be teaching two students who are at such opposite ends of the journey to understand language. I am struck by how many of the broad concepts that I am teaching my little K guy, Andy, are still being used by my 7th grader, Cathy. It makes me stretch to come up with lots of inventive ways to practice the skills that I can see Andy will be using for many years to come.
When reading and spelling are automatic, as they are for non-dyslexic people, they just seem to happen without effort. A dyslexic individual is putting a whole lot of thought into the process of decoding for reading or encoding for spelling. No wonder it is kinda exhausting for them.
Andy is learning that a syllable is “a word or a piece of a word with one vowel sound.” We practice picking out syllables from among the choices I put onto the white board to find the ones that meet that definition of a syllable. Cathy uses the same syllable definition to check her spelling of multi-syllable words, since she knows she frequently forgets to add the vowel to unaccented syllables when she spells. That quick check helps her to go back and add the needed vowels which she naturally omits.
Andy struggles to hear the difference between some letter sounds such as short e and short i, or f and v. We do oral games to give him lots of chances to strengthen that weak area. Cathy has learned to whisper to herself the short vowel sound and clue words to clarify in her mind if the sound in question should be spelled e or i. She does it so quickly that I have to be paying close attention to even notice her checking. When asked about it, she shrugs it off with a breezy, “Oh yeah, it helps me to hear that out loud.”
In addition to still using the same concepts, the other similarity I see between these two students is how much pleasure they get from their ability to actually read! Both told me they never thought they would be able to read as their classmates do. Happily they have both experienced success in the reading area. Last semester, Cathy finished an entire chapter book during our tutoring lessons, and immediately asked if we could find more books by that author. Andy was able to check a Level 1 book out of the school library and, as he put it, “I can read a lot of the words, not just the pictures.”
Being the person to lead these students to that success is my version of teacher success.
How Reading, or more accurately, Guessing, is taught in American Schools.
On the way home from running errands with my husband, we heard this documentary as we drove in the car. “At A Loss for Words: What’s Wrong with How Schools Teach Reading.” I looked it up after we got home. It is quite eye-opening, showing examples of how students are being taught to “read” by a method called “cueing.” Cueing is actually guessing, and, according to the documentary, works to teach kids to read only about half the time. Phonics based instruction teaches nearly all children to read.
This is an hour long audio documentary, so save it for when you are doing weekend chores or another time when you can listen without interruption. It’s going to be an hour well spent! Listen here.
Tales from the Dyslexia Center 