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Sold a Story: How Teaching Kids to Read Went So Wrong

There's an idea about how children learn to read that's held sway in schools for more than a generation - even though it was proven wrong by cognitive scientists decades ago. Teaching methods based on this idea can make it harder for children to learn how to read. In this podcast, host Emily Hanford investigates the influential authors who promote this idea and the company that sells their work. It's an exposé of how educators came to believe in something that isn't true and are now reckoning with the consequences - children harmed, money wasted, an education system upended.

Sixty years ago, Marie Clay developed a way to teach reading she said would help kids who were falling behind. They'd catch up and never need help again. Today, her program remains popular and her theory about how people read is at the root of a lot of reading instruction in schools. But Marie Clay was wrong.
Sold a Story is an independent investigative journalism project from American Public Media. We rely on your donations to support this kind of rigorous reporting.
The controversial educational publishing company has sold instructional materials and professional resources in almost every state, earning at least $1.6 billion over a decade. Explore a map of school districts.

More states are now requiring districts to adopt curriculum that adheres to the science of reading. Look up the policy in your state.

At least 15 states have passed laws about how schools teach reading since the Sold a Story podcast was released in 2022, but there is pushback.

Here's a reading list put together by Emily Hanford.

This discussion guide, created by a teacher, invites educators, parents, community members and kids to have a conversation about the podcast.

Emails and voice messages poured in from people who listened to Sold a Story.

We'll let you know when we release new episodes of the podcast. Enter your address below.

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Sold a Story: How Teaching Kids to Read Went So Wrong

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There's an idea about how children learn to read that's held sway in schools for more than a generation - even though it was proven wrong by cognitive scientists decades ago. Teaching methods based on this idea can make it harder for children to learn how to read.

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school based therapy, collaboration and intervention strategies for sensory processing disorder, ADHD, dyslexia, autism, classroom strategies, therapy in schools, therapy at school, diana henry, carol kranowitz, sensory processing measure

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S'cool Moves or School Moves provides strategies for focus, learning, ADHD, reading challenges, dyslexia, and sensory processing issues. Collaboration as best practice for school based therapists is an important aspect of our program. Our activities include therapy based academics and behavior suppo

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Understood - For Learning and Thinking Differences

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Understood.org is the resource that helps the 70 million people with learning and thinking differences anticipate the challenges, barriers, or opportunities in life and confidently reach their potential.

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Reporter podcasts about Dyslexia

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Scientific research has shown how children learn to read and how they should be taught. But many educators don’t know the science and, in some cases, actively resist it. As a result, millions of kids are being set up to fail.

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Read an interview with neuroscientist Guinevere Eden.

"We knew something wasn't right," said Billy's mom, Maggie Gibson.

"You can tell things are off, but you don't know specifically what," said Rob, Billy's father.

The Gibsons, from Baltimore County, Maryland, have five kids. All of them have dyslexia. They know, because they paid thousands of dollars for private testing.

But when the Gibsons showed the test results to their children's schools, administrators didn't buy it, says Rob. "The schools essentially said, 'Yeah, we understand this is a test showing abnormalities from a reputed institution that recommends a child with dyslexia have this, that and the other. And, oh, we don't agree with it.' And when we got to that disagreement it was almost like we were disagreeing over reality."

The Gibsons gave APM Reports an audio recording of the meeting where they discussed the test results with staff at their son Eddie's school. In the recording, a staff member says, "We do not suspect a learning disability."

The Gibsons wanted their children to have Individualized Education Plans, or IEPs. Those are the specialized education plans that students with disabilities who are behind in school are entitled to by federal law.

But in the recording, the school staff says Eddie can't have a disability because he has passing grades and average standardized test scores.

More than a dozen families across the country interviewed by APM Reports reported getting into similar fights with their child's school. Parents say their children figure out ways to compensate for their dyslexia and get by in school, but they aren't being taught to read. Children with dyslexia need specialized reading instruction.

"I would just constantly have these anxiety attacks and it got to a point where I refused to go to school."
- Billy Gibson

But specialized instruction is expensive. The average cost to educate a student in public school is about $12,500, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. The cost to educate a child receiving special education services can be more than twice that. When the federal special education law first went into effect in 1975, Congress committed to covering 40 percent of the extra cost of educating children with disabilities. But the federal government is only covering slightly more than 15 percent. States and local districts pay for the rest.

That's one reason schools have avoided using the word dyslexia, according to Fran Bowman, a former special education teacher who now runs an educational services company that works with school districts to train teachers. "They would say, 'We don't use the word dyslexia.' Because once you open Pandora's box, you have to serve those children."

In other words, if schools acknowledge a student has dyslexia, they may be legally obligated to provide special education.

Six special education directors from around the country interviewed by APM Reports denied their schools were refusing to use the word dyslexia to keep students out of special ed.

Kevin Gorman, director of special education in Upper Arlington, Ohio, and a former school principal in another Ohio district, said schools were avoiding the word because it wasn't a term used by the state on IEP forms. Instead, the state used the umbrella term "specific learning disability." Gorman explained that schools are so concerned about adhering to the letter of the law that they are reluctant to use terms that do not appear on official paperwork.

Avoiding the word was such a problem in schools across the country that in 2015 the U.S. Department of Education issued a special letter reminding schools that not only can they use the word dyslexia, they should use the word if it can help them tailor an appropriate education plan for a student.

It's a legal requirement for schools to identify all children who have disabilities and provide them an "appropriate" education. But many schools have resisted the approaches to reading instruction that students with dyslexia need - and that would help all children read better - because of a long-running dispute about how to teach children to read.

The reading wars

You can trace the debate in the United States about how to teach kids to read all the way back to Horace Mann, the father of the public schools movement. In the 1800s, Mann railed against the idea of teaching kids that letters represent sounds. He believed children would better understand what they were reading if they first learned to read whole words.

This came to be known as the "whole language" approach. On the other side of the debate are people who say children must be explicitly taught how sounds correlate with letters. This is commonly referred to as the "phonics" approach.

The argument over which approach is best has been intense and political, with phonics cast as a traditional, conservative approach. Think of children sitting in front of a blackboard, sounding out words as a teacher points to the letters that represent each sound.

Whole language, on the other hand, holds that learning to read is a natural process and that kids don't need explicit instruction. Expose them to lots of good books and they will learn to read. That approach is seen as the more liberal, progressive way.

As with many ideas in education, there have been big pendulum shifts over the decades. Whole language was big in the 1920s, for example, as progressive education became influential. The pendulum swung back toward phonics in the 1960s. By the 1980s, whole language was popular again.

Bowman, the former special education teacher, got extensive training in phonics in the 1970s and used that approach early in her teaching career. But she says she soon got a supervisor who told her she wasn't allowed to teach phonics. "You should be teaching by the entire word, instead of these little sounds," she recalls the supervisor telling her.

Bowman says it's easier to train teachers to use the whole language method than to train them to use phonics. She thinks that's one reason whole language has been so attractive. "School districts were like 'Wow! We can just give you a bunch of books!'"

Proponents of whole language say the approach is more than that. They promote a set of strategies that emphasize comprehension, engagement, and helping children to develop a love of literature.

But by the late 1990s, there was rising panic in the United States that too many kids were not reading well. Scores on the National Assessment for Educational Progress showed most students were not reading proficiently.

In 1997, Congress called for a National Reading Panel to determine how best to teach reading. It reviewed more than 100,000 studies and in 2000, the panel published a 449-page report that was a crushing blow to the whole language movement. There was no evidence to show whole language worked and lots of evidence that teaching children the relationship among sounds, letters and spelling patterns improves reading achievement.

This is for all kids, not just those with dyslexia.

Andrea Rowson was teaching in a public school in Ohio when the report was released, but she says she didn't learn about the findings until years later. "What happens in public education is a lot of initiatives come through, a lot of information gets thrown at schools. New regulations, new this, new that," she said. "And I think it was just one of those things where (schools) said 'OK' and didn't really realize how huge it was."

'I'm not going to be anything. I don't have any dreams'

In 2012 when the public schools in Baltimore County refused to give the Gibson children IEPs, Rob and Maggie decided to hire a lawyer. "All we wanted was to secure their right to learn in public school," said Maggie.

Their son Billy was in middle school and struggling. "It just got so overwhelming," he said. "I would just constantly have these anxiety attacks and it got to a point where I refused to go to school."

Trying to get him the help he needed for his dyslexia was turning into a long and contentious process. Maggie and Rob felt that for Billy and his older sister, time was running out. They decided to send them to the Jemicy School, a private school for students with language-based learning differences in Owings Mills, Maryland.

Jemicy has about 380 students in grades one through 12. The hallways are covered in student artwork and there's a woodworking shop where students can take geometry. For students who struggle with written language, learning by doing is especially helpful.

Class sizes at Jemicy are capped at 12. The school also provides intensive reading remediation in small-group tutoring sessions.

In a recent tutoring session, Josie and Christopher - fifth-graders in their first year at Jemicy - were seated at a table with a teacher. They were working on the letter combination double vowel "oo."

"I talk to a lot of upper-class white families who were able to take their kids out and send them to private school. Those kids are doing well now, and we didn't have that opportunity."
- Pam Guest

"What are the two sounds that 'oo' make?" the teacher asked.

Christopher responded confidently with the long vowel sound that "oo" makes in the word "school." But there's another sound "oo" makes. Josie and Christopher didn't catch on.

"'Uh' as in 'book,'" said the teacher.

This tutoring is based on an approach known as Orton-Gillingham, named after Samuel Orton and Anna Gillingham, early 20th century pioneers in dyslexia research and remediation. They figured out that children with dyslexia struggle to understand how sounds and letters correspond. To teach them to read, they need to be explicitly taught the rules of the way written language works. Orton and Gillingham developed a systematic approach for doing this. Their ideas form the basis for a number of effective instructional approaches in use today.

When Billy Gibson started at Jemicy as a ninth grader, he wasn't sure he would finish high school. His dream was to be an artist, but his middle school art teacher gave him C's because he didn't follow written directions. Billy went into Jemicy thinking, "I'm not going to be anything. I don't have any dreams."

But Jemicy's small classes and intensive reading instruction helped him catch up and gave him confidence he'd never felt in school. On his first day, he says an art teacher noticed him doodling and told him she thought he could be a great artist. "You should take my class," Billy remembers her saying to him. "I won't give up on you."

Billy graduated from Jemicy in 2017. He's now studying 3D computer animation at the Ringling College of Art and Design in Sarasota, Florida. His goal is to work in the film industry. "Hopefully someday you'll be in the movie theater and see my name on the credits of the big screen," he said.

More than $60,000 a year

Billy's mom Maggie noticed a difference at Jemicy right away. As the parent of kids with dyslexia in public school, she says you get used to being in fight mode. "You're fighting for it to be recognized that your kid needs X, Y and Z," she said. "And then you go into Jemicy and you have a teacher conference and the teachers sit down and say, 'You know, we think your child would benefit from this, this and this. And we notice that your child needs' - whatever it is. And you're like, 'Oh my gosh! We're speaking the same language. We're all noticing the same thing.'"

But to send two kids to Jemicy cost more than $60,000 a year. Maggie and Rob are fortunate: He's a physician and they got financial help from their children's grandparents. But five private school tuitions weren't in their budget. So, with their lawyer, the Gibsons kept fighting with the Baltimore County Public Schools to try to get their three other kids better help.

The Gibsons eventually got the school system to pay for two of their children to go to Baltimore Lab School, a private school for students with learning disabilities. The Gibsons don't think they would have gotten that if they hadn't hired an attorney. Getting what you need for a kid with dyslexia is a rich man's game, says Maggie. The Gibsons estimate their family has spent more than $350,000 - including legal fees, private tutoring and tuition - to get their five dyslexic kids what they needed to be successful in school.

Without help from grandparents, Maggie says she and Rob probably couldn't have made private school work. "What does a person do that doesn't have the luxury of other people to help them?" she said. "What do you do?"

Pam Guest, for example, did not have the financial means to send her son Dayne to private school. "I talk to a lot of upper-class white families who were able to take their kids out and send them to private school. Those kids are doing well now, and they're able to go to college," she said. "And we didn't have that opportunity."

Dayne went to the Baltimore County Public Schools, too. There's no evidence that Baltimore County has more of a problem than other public school systems when it comes to identifying and providing proper instruction to students with dyslexia. But officials with the Baltimore County Schools are now admitting they have a problem. "We need to do better," said Rebecca Rider, who's been director of special education for the Baltimore County Public Schools since 2014. Under her leadership, the school system has begun to train teachers in Orton-Gillingham. Before this effort began in 2016, the county schools did not have anyone trained to provide this instruction.

Stephen Cowles, a lawyer for BCPS, said the school system is making more of an effort to identify students with dyslexia. As a result, he says the county is paying for more students to go to private schools. In the 2016 fiscal year, the county paid nearly $40 million dollars for students with disabilities who could not be appropriately served in public schools to go to specialized private schools. BCPS couldn't say how much of that money is being spent on students with dyslexia.

But helping students with dyslexia is not just about expanding special education services. Research suggests that if students with dyslexia got effective early reading instruction in their regular classrooms, some of them may not need intensive, specialized instruction. The problem is that many teachers do not know how to teach reading effectively.

Thousands of teacher preparation programs

In 2000, the National Reading Panel identified five key components of effective reading instruction. Ten years later, the U.S. Department of Education decided to find out whether people coming out of teacher preparation programs had learned those five components.

New teachers could correctly answer only about half the questions on a multiple-choice test. They rated their own preparation in how to teach reading as below "moderate."

In 2016, the National Council on Teacher Quality, a think tank in Washington, D.C., analyzed syllabi from undergraduate elementary teacher preparation programs and found that fewer than 40 percent covered all the components of effective reading instruction. And that was a big improvement from 2014 when NCTQ found just 17 percent of teacher preparation programs taught all five components.

What are teachers learning about how to teach children to read?

"We learned a lot about creating a literature-rich environment," said Rowson, the Ohio teacher. She got her initial training in the 1980s and says she learned nothing about phonics; in fact, she says her professors were against the idea of explicitly teaching children the relationship between sounds and letters. She learned the whole language approach.

Rowson says she didn't learn how to teach children to read until she was trained in Orton-Gillingham. She now trains teachers in Upper Arlington, Ohio, a school district that has significantly changed how it teaches reading in response to a formal complaint filed by a group of parents.

Amelia Smith, a teacher in Upper Arlington who got her degree in elementary and special education in 2012, says by then there was recognition that phonics was important. "We knew what it was but we weren't taught how to teach it," she said.

Upper Arlington

Read about an Ohio school district that changed the way all kids are taught to read.

One reason teachers are not being better prepared to teach reading is there's still an ideological fight going on about whole language versus phonics, according to Jule McCombes-Tolis, chief academic officer for educator training initiatives at the International Dyslexia Association. She spent more than two decades as a professor in teacher preparation programs. "The division in higher ed in reading is alive and well," she said.

McCombes-Tolis says in the wake of the National Reading Panel report, many teacher educators who believed in the whole language approach promoted the idea of "balanced literacy" instead.

But balanced literacy is basically whole language with some phonics mixed in, says Tim Shanahan, a literacy expert who served on the National Reading Panel. "Balanced literacy began as the notion of a different attempt to try to settle the reading wars. It's supposed to be the best of both worlds."

Shanahan says what's wrong with balanced literacy is that it combines a whole bunch of things that don't work with a little bit of what does work, and that's not good reading instruction. He thinks a big problem with teacher preparation programs is that many of the people who are teaching the reading instruction courses don't know the science of reading that well.

"The folks who teach these courses range in their knowledge dramatically," he said. Enroll in a teacher preparation program and your instructor might have a Ph.D. and be familiar with the latest research, says Shanahan. But "you could have somebody who - this person teaches four other things for us and we'll give them an extra course in reading instruction. They have last year's syllabus and they do their best," he said.

There are thousands of teacher preparation programs in the United States and there's very little oversight of them. In higher education, the faculty typically controls the curriculum. There is no one authority to hold accountable for how teachers in America are trained.

States do have some power and many are trying to exert more control over what gets taught in teacher preparation programs as well as what is happening in public schools when it comes to students with dyslexia.

As of this month, 41 states have some sort of dyslexia law, regulation or resolution. The laws and regulations vary widely. Some require graduates of teacher preparation programs to pass science of reading tests; others encourage public schools to provide teacher training on how to identify dyslexia.

33 states have passed dyslexia laws since 2012

An analysis by APM Reports shows that while most states have taken some kind of action to address the needs of kids with dyslexia, the laws often go unenforced and unfunded. Read more.

Sources: LegiScan, Decoding Dyslexia and staff research

Most of these laws have passed in the past few years partly due to parent advocacy groups pushing for change.

Pam Guest is a leader of one of these groups, Decoding Dyslexia-Maryland. Decoding Dyslexia has chapters in all 50 states. In Maryland, the group succeeded in getting a bill through the legislature to establish a task force that reviewed how students in the state are identified and treated for dyslexia. Now the group wants funding for a pilot program to demonstrate best practices when it comes to not only helping students with dyslexia, but to teaching all children how to read.

Even though it's too late for her son, Guest says she's determined to change things so what happened to Dayne won't happen to other kids.

"It's simple," she said. "Teachers must be able to teach children how to read."

Update: Oct. 24, 2017 The map and story have been updated to reflect new analysis of state laws pertaining to dyslexia.

"Hard to Read" is one of three audio documentaries this season from the Educate podcast - stories about education, opportunity, and how people learn.

CORRESPONDENT/PRODUCER
Emily Hanford

RESEARCH AND PRODUCTION FELLOWS
Jeffrey Bissoy-Mattis
Lila Cherneff
Josh Marcus

PRODUCTION HELP
Josie Fan
Liz Lyon
Chris Julin

Special thanks: Amare, Curtis, Forrest, Hadassah, Inez, Jordan, Norah, Oliver and Ryan.

Support for this program comes from Lumina Foundation and the Spencer Foundation.

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How American schools fail kids with dyslexia

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There are proven ways to help people with dyslexia learn to read, and a federal law that's supposed to ensure schools provide kids with help. But across the country, public schools are denying children proper treatment and often failing to identify them with dyslexia in the first place.

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4:20

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Please [contact us](https://www.ted.com/contact) and let us know what happened.

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Dyslexia and Privilege | Samantha Coppola | TEDxTheMastersSchool

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Dyslexic Font | Great looking fonts, Now free for Institutions

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Dyslexic Font | Great looking fonts, Now free for Institutions

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How a font can help people with dyslexia to read | Christian Boer | TEDxFultonStreet

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Dyslexia -- dispelling myths | Jessica Collins | TEDxPearsonCollegeUWC

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Thanks, Founding Dyslexic Advantage Board Member Tom West for this presentation "A New World Shaped by
Dyslexics." Tom is the author of In the Mind's Eye and Thinking Like Einstein for A New World Shaped by Dyslexics for Embrace Dyslexia Symposium in Singapore.

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A New World Shaped by Dyslexics - Thomas G. West | Dyslexia | Dyslexic Advantage

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Thanks, Founding Dyslexic Advantage Board Member Tom West for this presentation "A New World Shaped by Dyslexics." Tom is the author of In the Mind's Eye and Thinking Like Einstein for A New World Shaped by Dyslexics for Embrace Dyslexia Symposium in Singapore. Content Related Posts:Q & A: Can I be a Doctor if [...]

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Different areas of brain that are activated while reading

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Different areas of brain that are activated while reading

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Feel what it's like to take notes with dyslexia - Bell House

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Explore reading basics as well as the key role of background knowledge and motivation in becoming a lifelong reader and learner. Watch our PBS Launching Young Readers series and try our self-paced Reading 101 course to deepen your understanding.

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Aouad, J. and Savage, R. (2009). The component structure of preliteracy skills: Further evidence for the simple view of reading. Canadian Journal of School Psychology, 24 (2), 183-200.

Catts, H., Adlof, S., and Weismer, S. (2006). Language deficits in poor comprehenders: A case for the simple view of reading. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 49, 278-293.

Gough, P., Hoover, W., and Patterson, C. (1996). Some observations on a simple view of reading. In C. Cornoldi and J. Oakhill (eds.), Reading comprehension difficulties: Processes and intervention (pp. 1-13). Mahway, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

*Gough, P. and Tunmer, W. (1986). Decoding, reading, and reading disability. Remedial and Special Education, 7, 6-10.

Hoover, W. and Gough, P. (1990). The simple view of reading. Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 2, 127-160.

*Kamhi, A. (2007). Knowledge deficits: the true crisis in education. ASHA Leader, 12 (7), 28-29.

*These articles are short and easy to read.

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The Simple View of Reading is a formula demonstrating the widely accepted view that reading has two basic components: word recognition (decoding) and language comprehension. Research studies show that a student's reading comprehension score can be predicted if decoding skills and language comprehension abilities are known.

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Why is it important?

Imagine that it is your first time driving in England (assuming you're from the U.S.). Not only are you trying to find your way in an unfamiliar area, but you are driving on the opposite side of the road, the traffic laws are different, and you have to drive a manual shift car (when you're used to an automatic). Nothing about this experience feels automatic. Your heart rate would go up and you would focus all of your attention on trying to get to where you're going without any mishaps. Now contrast that to your everyday experience of driving to and from work or the grocery store which you can do on "auto-pilot." You can plan your meeting or meal on the way there (and probably listen to music at the same time).

The effortlessness of driving a well-known route can be referred to as automaticity. In reading, such fluency (or automaticity) allows one to see an object, symbol, or word, and name or process it quickly and accurately. The lack of automaticity (in the first driving example above) is precisely what people with dyslexia encounter when they have to read something (particularly when they do not have familiarity with the content). Difficulty in this skill can hamper speaking, reading, and writing.
Assessment
Standardized tests such as the Comprehensive Test Of Phonological Processing (CTOPP) and RAN-RAS (Rapid Automatized Naming-Rapid Alternating Stimulus) assess rapid automatic naming of pictured items, numbers, and letters. Once you have formally tested your student's difficulty with rapid naming or word retrieval, you may wish to probe a little further. Below are several questions to consider as you are conducting your dynamic assessment:

Is my student better at word recall for oral or written tasks?

How does the stimuli affect my student (i.e., Does he do better when there is a picture?)

Are divergent or convergent naming tasks more difficult? (i.e., Is it easier to name ten fruits or to hear "orange, grapefruit, and lime" and provide the category citrus fruits?)

What type of learning does your student prefer?

What strategies (if any) does he use when he experiences difficulty with naming?

Don't forget to use your most valuable source of information-the student himself! Ask him what contexts are the hardest for him to produce the right word. It will likely be very insightful. With the data that you have gleaned, it is time to begin intervention for word retrieval fluency and rapid automatic naming.
Meta-cognition
It is advantageous to incorporate some type of meta-cognitive task. Your student will benefit from knowing what area you are working on and how that fits into the larger picture. For example, a second grader who cannot read letters or numbers aloud when he is called on may be relieved that this is because of trouble with RAN, not because he is "dumb." Armed with this knowledge and the awareness that therapy will help him with this problem, he will likely persevere with the arduous task that lies before him rather than give up.

Meta-cognitive tasks can be fun! For example, you could have an early elementary school student have "a race" against the clock to see how quickly he can name written/pictured items. Alternatively, he can compete against himself to name as many animals as he can in a minute. Have him tally up the animals that you wrote down and compare his scores. This type of collaboration in therapy results in greater awareness of goals and progress, as well as more carry-over into the classroom (and everyday life).
Teaching to your student's strengths and interests
You should tailor your intervention to the student's relative strengths and use this as a bridge for improving his weaknesses. If your student is a visual learner, guide him in how he can use visualization to name more words (in less time). For example, if the task is "Name as many appliances as you can in one minute," he should try to see himself walking through each room in the house (in his mind's eye) while noting the appliances in the kitchen, laundry room, bathroom, etc. You may scaffold this task by doing the task yourself and verbally mediating the process ("I am standing in the kitchen and I place my hand on the stainless steel refrigerator and I notice the digital clock on the microwave above the stove.") Vivid and lifelike mental images facilitate greater fluency for naming.

Auditory learners are going to gravitate more to the sounds of words. For example, if you provide a rhyming word or the first sound of the word, they will be able to generate more words in a rapid naming task. A fourth grader trying to generate as many words as possible with the "er" sound may need a single word "turn" to name "burn" "churn," "learn," "concern" and "earn." Initially, you may need to provide the first word in a category, but you can teach your student to use this strategy to self-cue independently. He may need to verbalize the sounds corresponding to the letters of the alphabet to cue himself as well.

A multi-sensory approach for fluently describing objects is presented in the Expanding Expression Tool (www.expandingexpression.com). Visual learners will benefit from the stickers with symbols, templates, and color-coded organization. Auditory learners will learn to self-cue using the chant that reminds them of the multiple ways to describe an object. Kinesthetic learners will gravitate towards the manipulatives that are provided.

Curriculum relevant activities interspersed with high interest topics and games will provide the necessary motivation for students to work on rapid automatic naming. For example, you may begin with the student writing down as many chemicals on the periodic table in one minute as possible (after he has become quite familiar with them). After that, you could teach a strategy that incorporates his learning style and "retest" the same set of elements using the strategy. Ask the student to compare the number of words and to assess the effectiveness of this strategy. (Remember, you may have to try a few strategies before you find the "right fit".) If your student is interested in sports, you might turn to the "sports section" of a picture dictionary and cover up the written words. You could ask him to name all of the sports in the pictures (as quickly as possible). You could repeat this activity for "sports equipment," "cars," or whatever the student is interested in. The Internet is a great source of pictures as well. You can type a category into Google images and use those as stimuli. It is important to pick a topic that the student is "an expert" in, so that all of tasks are addressing automaticity for previous knowledge.

Games are another intrinsically motivating context for addressing automaticity. There is also ecological validity for these when you are doing group therapy. There are a host of games that require word retrieval and place time constraints on the students (bear in mind that you can alter the rules or adjust the timers to make the games more accessible for your students). Several rapid naming/word retrieval games are listed below.

Word retrieval and rapid automatic naming can be improved through high interest tasks. Moreover, students who learn meta-cognitive skills will be more apt to self-cue and carryover new skills. An individualized approach that takes the student's learning preferences into consideration will help him or her to automatically navigate in the high-speed world of words that we live in. Success starts here!

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Word Retrieval and Rapid Automatic Naming (RAN)

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Why is it important? Imagine that it is your first time driving in England (assuming you're from the U.S.). Not only are you trying to find your way in an unfamiliar area, but you are driving on the opposite side of the road, the traffic laws are different, and you have to drive a manual shift car (when you're used to an automatic).

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Reading risk in children with speech sound disorders

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Effective Methods for Reading Instruction

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Understanding Dyslexia in the Context of Developmental Language Disorders

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Exploring the Overlap Between Dyslexia and Speech Sound Production Deficits

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Early Identification of Dyslexia Understanding the Issues

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Elementary Grade Intervention Approaches to Treat Specific Learning Disabilities Including Dyslexia

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Why Children With Dyslexia Struggle With Writing and How to Help Them

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From Deficit Remediation to Capacity Building Learning to Enable Rather Than Disable Students With Dyslexia

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As a company, our main focus is to serve the ophthalmic community. With this task in mind, we offer to our professional customers to match or beat anyone's pricing on our 2,000+ products! Wholesale Primary Care, Optical, Low Vision, Contact Lens, and Vision Therapy Products

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It is often difficult to explain to parents why a child may be experiencing Visual Perceptual or Visual Motor problems. Many times, the problem involves an Ocular Motor deficit. Vision Therapy is a very specialized field, and should be addressed by a professional. I will touch on some basic concepts that may help you know what to look for.
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In general, "eyesight" refers to a person's acuity, which is how clear you can see. Medical issues with the eye itself, such as cataracts or glaucoma, will impact how clearly the eye can see. Likewise, retinal focus issues, including being near-sighted, far-sighted, or having an astigmatism will impact acuity. When a child appears to have a vision issue (which is often screened by the school nurse), they are usually referred to an optometrist.

An optometrist is the typical "eye doctor". These are the individuals found at your local vision centers, such as Pearle Vision® and Empire Vision®. An optometrist looks at the physical condition and health of your child's eye. They also look for acuity problems such as near-sightedness, far-sightedness and astigmatisms. They may prescribe glasses or contacts to reduce the difficulties your child has with his/her " eyesight". However, your child may have good eyesight, but they may not have efficient vision.

A developmental optometrist, sometimes called a behavioral optometrist, is an optometrist that specializes in the function of the vision. They complete additional schooling and internships in order to receive their title. A developmental optometrist looks at the acuity of the eye, just like an optometrist. But, more importantly, a developmental optometrist will also look at how efficiently your child's eyes work with his/her brain to create their " vision". This means that the developmental optometrist will look into your child's:

1.) Binocularity, or how the eyes work together, and how they give visual information to the brain. The developmental optometrist will measure the eyes' ability to focus together to create single vision, and they check to make certain the eyes don't slide out of alignment, such as with crossed or wandering eyes.

2.) Oculomotility, or tracking. Developmental optometrists will also check the ability to control where they aim their eyes (such as the skill required for reading) so we don't lose our place. They also make sure the eyes can follow a moving target smoothly and are able to make accurate eye jumps from one point to another.

3.) Accommodation or focusing. Developmental optometrists evaluate the ability to change focus rapidly and smoothly when looking from distance to near, and back again (such as from board to desk). In addition, developmental optometrists check to see if the child can maintain clear focus at near ranges for extended periods of time without blur or fatigue (such as required for reading small print).

4.) Vision Perception. Developmental optometrists also run tests to determine if the child has developed the perceptual skills he/she needs to understand and analyze what they see, checking skills such as visual memory, visual discrimination, visual closure, and visual figure-ground.

5.) Visual Motor Integration or eye-hand-body coordination. Developmental optometrists run tests to see if the visual systems are efficiently providing the brain with accurate information, so the brain can tell the muscles how to move in order to have good balance and coordination. These skills are especially important in the academic setting, for coloring, drawing, cutting, printing and copying.

Most ocular motor issues require the intervention of a developmental optometrist. However, two areas that your OT may be able to assist you in are the areas of Visual Perceptual and Visual Motor Skill Development. Click the links below to read more.

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It is often difficult to explain to parents why a child may be experiencing Visual Perceptual or Visual Motor problems. Many times, the problem involves an Ocular Motor deficit. Vision Therapy is a very specialized field, and should be addressed by a professional.

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As an African-American educator and school leader who came of age during the 1970s, I am well acquainted with and inspired by the chapters and verse of the Civil Rights Movement. Even as a young child, I remember thinking deeply about people being excluded and rendered invisible because of who they were, and I wondered about the meaning of liberty and the possibility of justice for all. My school bus ride between my black and Hispanic neighborhood in Brooklyn and my all-white elementary school in Queens was a daily reminder of the geographical and psychological boundaries that kept people ensconced in their zones of fear and ignorance, and I decided then that my life's work would focus on leveling those walls and the playing field, too.

Those early experiences have become my bridge to understanding dyslexia and the plight of students whose strengths go unnoticed in the classroom. When I consider the struggles and marginalization of many dyslexic children and their families, the passionate activists and allies who are pushing for school reform, and the shared vision for a more inclusive and innovative world, it seems natural to reframe dyslexia as a civil rights issue.

Research shows that one in five students is dyslexic. Obviously, some are more severely dyslexic than others, and some go through school without proper diagnosis. When a child's learning profile is baffling and beyond the scope of the classroom teacher's expertise (an issue that I will return to), then formal testing is an appropriate course of action. What makes the critical difference between helpful testing that empowers children and harmful testing that marginalizes them is the conclusion we draw from the data. Too often, testing is mistakenly interpreted as a sign that something is broken, terribly wrong, and dysfunctional. The language of telephone calls, parent conferences, and report cards begins to focus on what a child cannot do rather than his or her unique strengths. The implied and explicit message is that the child is no longer considered smart or successful. It does not have to be this way. I have witnessed first-hand the liberation, pride, and excitement that become part of a child's life at school when an evaluation provides insights into how the child's brain functions, along with a set of reasonable accommodations and strategies to support instruction.

Indeed, while dyslexic children have trouble getting to the individual sounds of spoken words, leading to spelling difficulties and slower reading, they are also highly intelligent, adaptable, creative, and tenacious in the classroom. The impressive roster of successful adult dyslexics is further proof that the world is shaped by all kinds of brains. Shifting the current educational paradigm about fixing learning disabilities to a conversation about accommodating and celebrating true diversity in the classroom would be revolutionary.

Speaking of revolutions, the quest for equality has always required collective energy and effort. Just as whites marched with blacks, and men became champions for women's rights, people without dyslexia will need to link arms with those who are dyslexic. Becoming an ally for children-getting on the proverbial bus-means learning as much as we can about the biological basis of dyslexia and its impact. It's also about recognizing dyslexia as early as possible, identifying it, and providing children with effective interventions while at the same time celebrating their strengths. Being a drum major for justice means educators, employers, and legislators working tirelessly to eradicate old mindsets about who can succeed.

Teachers, in particular, have a large role to play in leveling the playing field by understanding the root causes of dyslexia and not letting it become a label or liability. All heads of school need to prioritize increasing teachers' capacities to meet the needs of a diverse group of learners. In some cases, this will mean a reallocation of funds for professional development as well as creating time for teachers to collaborate and discuss teaching and learning goals. When teachers acquire new knowledge and refine their pedagogical skills, they will be more adept in designing learning environments that are dynamic, flexible, and fertile for student growth. (See how one school created a dyslexia-friendly environment.)

Of course, some of the "old-school" knowledge and best practices still work. Recommitting to direct instruction in phonics, decoding, spelling, and writing; integrating assistive technology; and using formative and summative assessments to monitor growth and drive instruction will increase the levels of engagement and achievement for ALL students. Of course, parents will need to educate themselves, trust their instincts about their own children, and respect teachers' insights as well. Students will be the direct beneficiaries when parents and teachers join in open dialogue and courageous action.

Ultimately, dyslexia will not be reframed as a civil rights issue until two fundamental truths are evident: First, there must be an unshakable belief in the importance and power of heterogeneous communities. I believe wholeheartedly that brain differences are a gift and that diversity is a component of excellence. Creative minds can solve some of the world's greatest problems.

The second truth that must be evident in order for justice to roll down like water is a willingness to recognize unearned privilege. Ultimately, the majority of the population was not negatively affected by the development of the printing press and the proliferation of books in the 1400s; those people were unwittingly granted power to navigate reading, spelling, and writing with ease. On the other hand, a smaller subset of the population whose brains were not wired in that way did not become fluid readers, struggled mightily in school, doubted their self-worth, and often disappointed their parents and teachers. We all lose human capital when dyslexic children's creativity is stifled and when they are made to feel less valuable than others. It's time to disrupt the practices that have left some children on the curb and create seats for all on the bus.

Wanda M. Holland Greene is Head of School at The Hamlin School in San Francisco. She is a proud New Yorker and a graduate of Columbia College, receiving her B.A. in English and Psychology. She earned her M.A. in the Department of Curriculum and Teaching from Teachers College, Columbia University. Wanda complements her work as an educator by serving independent schools and nonprofit organizations as a trustee. She is a vocal performer (jazz, gospel, and soul), an avid reader, poet, and writer.

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Dyslexia and Civil Rights: Making Room on the Bus for All Children - Yale Dyslexia

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As an African-American educator and school leader who came of age during the 1970s, I am well acquainted with and inspired by the chapters and verse of the Civil Rights Movement. Even as a young child, I remember thinking deeply about people being excluded and rendered invisible because of who they were, and I wondered about the meaning of liberty and the possibility of justice for all.

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While there are key characteristics of dyslexia, every person with dyslexia has a slightly different cluster of difficulties.This is why individual intervention and support is most effective.

Anyone who works with dyslexic students or parents who have more than one child with dyslexia will tell you that there are different types of dyslexia.While cumulative, systematic multisensory teaching benefits all dyslexic students, there are different materials and approaches which can used depending on the type of dyslexia.In any intervention, it makes sense to utilise a child's strengths and work on improving areas of weakness.

Different websites and authors explain these differences in their own way and use different terminology. Some choose to split the main areas of difficulty while others group certain difficulties together. This can be confusing and perhaps is unnecessarily complicated. Understood.org have an article that gives a good overview of different types of dyslexia. While Nessy.com have an ebook that lists many different types of dyslexia and explains how these impact a learner.They have chosen to use more categories so many children will fit into more than one categories.

In essence, there are 3 main types of dyslexia.Nearly all dyslexics struggle with working memory however some have more visual difficulties and some have more auditory difficulties and some have equal difficulties in both areas. In addition, all of these groups may have slow processing (this may be identified as rapid naming deficit) and motor skills difficulties (this may include dysgraphia or dyspraxia).

Those dyslexics who have more difficulty with processing auditory information but have strong visual skills have dysphonetic dyslexia (it is also called phonological dyslexia.) This group also includes double deficit dyslexia which is children with difficulties with phonological awareness and rapid naming.

These are the children who muddle words that sound similar like 'bag' and 'back' or 'rag'and 'rug'. They will have trouble identifying all the sounds in a word when they try to segment a word for spelling. They will try to use their visual memory and could spell chased as 'cashed' or farmer as 'framer'. They often miss sounds or syllables or suffixes from longer words like 'epty' for empty, swim for 'swimming'. These children will have trouble reading names or sounding out polysyllabic words. They can often say the sounds in a word but have trouble blending them together and they may swap over the order of the letters.

When the child starts to learn to read they may initially do quite well as they use their strong visual skills to learn key sight vocabulary and use picture cues to decipher simple texts. However, their decoding skills do not develop in the same way.If the school uses a scheme that is based on introducing sight vocabulary a little at a time, with predictable sentence structure like Oxford Reading Tree then the child will appear to be learning read. However, as texts become more varied, complex and less predictable they will have no skills to work out new words. Suddenly, the teacher and/or the parents will realise the child has reading difficulties. If the school uses a phonic based scheme like Read Write Inc then these reading difficulties will be evident earlier.

These children also tend to be good at maths as they recognise patterns and so do not rely on memory for number bonds and times tables.

Other dyslexics struggle more with visual perception and are said to have
dyseidetic dyslexia (this may also be called surface dyslexia or visual dyslexia.) These children often struggle with Maths as well as reading and writing. They find it hard to visualise maths concepts and develop a concept of number. They do not notice visual patterns and rely on their weak working memory skills to try to remember number facts and calculation methods.

These are the children who struggle to learn irregular high frequency which make up so much of our early reading (in more transparent languages these children would have fewer difficulties.) If the school uses a phonic based reading scheme these children will learn to decode simple 3 or 4 letter words but it will be noticeable that they will sound out words again and again. They do not commit words to memory. In their writing, high frequency words are spelt phonetically like 'becos' and 'sed' and they may reverse letters and words. These difficulties are considered normal in the early stages of writing. However, as other children begin to master letter formation and key vocabulary these errors will persist. Verbalising what is tricky about a word is helpful in learning spellings, as are mnemonics.

Some dyslexics have
3. both visual and auditory difficulties.These tend to be the child who are noticed early on and are most readily identified as dyslexic by teachers and parents. They struggle to develop reading and writing skills at all in a normal school context as they cannot use stronger skills to compensate. It is vital that these children receive structured, culmulative, multisensory support.

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While there are key characteristics of dyslexia, every person with dyslexia has a slightly different cluster of difficulties.This is why individual intervention and support is most effective.

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Sue Blyth Hall: Dyslexia: Enable the Learning Difference

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Everyone is learning-able, however, different learners are often labelled learning-disabled, when nothing could be further from the truth! Author and Facilitator, Sue Blyth Hall is the mother of a son who loved learning, until he went to school. She questioned the 'give him more of what he couldn't do already' approach, and uncovered a very simple alternative.

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Here, you find a huge resource on visual motor skills including information, visual motor activities, and tools to support visual motor skill development in kids. We have shared quite a few posts relating to vision and the integration of what the eyes see with motor movements. On this page, you will find a huge variety of visual motor activities for kids.

Visual Motor Skills

Read on to find out more about how visual perception, eye-hand coordination, and visual processing skills play a part in the overarching visual motor skill development so we can perceive and process visual information and use that information with motor skills to manipulate and move objects in tasks and activities.

What are Visual Motor Skills?

Visual motor skills are essential to coordinated and efficient use of the hands and eyes. Visual motor integration is a skill we require for functioning. There is more that plays into the integration of visual motor skills into what we do and how we use our hands in activities.

Visual Motor Skills enable an individual to process information around them. The ability to observe, recognize, and use visual information about forms, shapes, figures, and objects makes up our visual motor abilities.

Visual motor skills include a coordination of visual information that is perceived and processed with motor skills, including fine motor, gross motor, and sensory motor.

Visual motor skills (and visual motor integration) are needed for coordinating the hands, legs, and the rest of the body's movements with what the eyes perceive.
When a child performs activities involving motor tasks, they are using visual motor skills. Visual motor skills are made up of several areas:
1. Visual Processing Skills- These skills include how the eyes move and collect information. These are visual skills that take in and use the information in order to process that input.

Visual skills include visual tracking, convergence, saccades, visual fixation, and visual attention. A component of visual processing includes visual efficiency. This refers to the effective use of that visual information.

2. Visual Perceptual Skills- Visual perception is our ability to make sense of what we see. Visual perceptual skills are essential for everything from navigating our world to reading, writing, and manipulating items. Visual perception is made up of a complex combination of various skills.

Visual perceptual skills include visual memory, visual closure, form constancy, visual spatial relations, visual discrimination, visual attention, visual sequential memory, and visual figure ground.

3. Eye-Hand Coordination- Using the visual input effectively and efficiently with the hands allows us to manipulate and manage objects and items. This coordinated motor skill requires fine motor skill development. These motor skills allow us to collect visual information and use it in a motor action. Eye-hand coordination requires fine motor dexterity, strength, shoulder stability, core stability, etc.

Examples of eye-hand coordination include catching a ball, manipulating pegs into a pegboard, lacing a lacing card, etc. Visual motor skills both require and utilize eye-hand coordination, however the overarching visual motor skills utilize additional components and are a higher level skill.

Red flags for visual motor skill difficulties include:

Letter reversal

Poor line awareness in handwriting

Poor margin use in written work

Difficulty copying written work

Trouble recognizing patterns and completing hands-on math problems

Difficulty catching or kicking a ball

Trouble with movement games like hopscotch.

Clumsiness

Difficulty with sports

Difficulty drawing and copying pictures or shapes

Difficulty copying block forms

Difficulty with puzzles

Poor pencil control when writing

Difficulty keeping place when reading and writing

Difficulty perceiving and copying shapes Visual Motor Skills are made up of many areas related to vision and the ability to perceive sight with relation to movement of the hands and body in functional tasks.

Problems with Visual motor SKills

What if you suspect vision problems? When vision problems are suspected after a screening by the OT, it is best practice to refer the family to a developmental optometrist.

A developmental optometrist will complete a full evaluation and determine the need for corrective lenses, vision therapy or a home program to address vision concerns.

As occupational therapists, it is imperative that we rule out vision problems before treating handwriting or delays in visual motor integration, to ensure the best possible trajectory of development and success for the child.

Occupational Therapy Vision Screening Tool Occupational Therapists screen for visual problems in order to determine how they may impact functional tasks. Visual screening can occur in the classroom setting, in inpatient settings, in outpatient therapy, and in early intervention or home care.

This visual screening tool was created by an occupational therapist and provides information on visual terms, frequently asked questions regarding visual problems, a variety of visual screening techniques, and other tools that therapists will find valuable in visual screenings.

This is a digital file. Upon purchase, you will be able to download the 10 page file and print off to use over and over again in vision screenings and in educating therapists, teachers, parents, and other child advocates or caregivers.

Visual perceptual skills make up an important component of visual motor skills. For children, these abilities are necessary for so many things...from self-care to fine motor skills, to gross motor skills...all parts of a child's development require visual perception. There are many pieces to the giant term of "visual perception".

There are many resources related to visual perceptual skills here on The OT Toolbox:

Search "Visual Perception" or individual visual perceptual skills in the search bar at the top of this website for more activities.

Visual Motor Integration

When it comes to vision, there is so much to learn! Start by checking out Visual Motor Integration developmental milestones for age-appropriate skills that children typically master from age 0-5.
Visual motor integration can be defined as the coordination of visual perception and fine motor control. visual motor integration allows us to use our eyes and our hands in a coordinated manner to perform tasks such as copying letters or numbers, forming shapes, copying patterns, or other tasks.
visual motor integration activities:

The activities below are designed to develop the ability to integrate and coordinate visual input with motor skills. I am breaking down the activities into different areas. Click on the main links to find even more explanation of each area.
These visual motor activities are powerful ways to work on various sub areas of visual processing that impact function, reading, handwriting, math skills, sports, and so much more.
Eye-Hand Coordination Activity for Kids

Hand-eye coordination is using the information received through the vision system to coordinate the hands with control, in order to complete a task, such as handwriting or catching a ball.

Visual scanning is essential for handwriting skills, puzzles, word searches, mazes, and many many functional tasks. Scanning a room for a missing sock may be difficult if a child demonstrates difficulty with visual scanning.

Visual Figure Ground is the ability to locate objects within a cluttered area (think "I Spy"). Finding a red square among the pile of foam pieces is one fun way to work on this area of visual perception.

Visual Closure is the ability to fill in parts of a form in the mind's eye to determine shape or a whole object.

Visual Discrimination is determining differences in color, form, size, shape.

Visual Spatial Relations is organizing the body in relation to objects or spatial awareness. This is an important part of handwriting. Spacing pieces of a puzzle amongst the others and writing in relation to the lines is one way to work on this skill.

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Visual Motor Skills Resources and Activities - The OT Toolbox

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This massive resource on visual motor skills includes visual motor activities and a breakdown of all things visual motor integration.

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The coolest dictionary known to hombre! (Click to find out what it means.)

* Even though the bearing of a torch formed an integral aspect of Greek ceremonies, the ancient Olympic Games did not include it, nor was there a symbol formed by interconnecting rings.

* Upon winning the games, the victor would have not only the prestige of being in first place but would also be presented with a crown of olive leaves.

* From the 241 participants from 14 nations in 1896, the Games grew to nearly 11,100 competitors from 202 countries at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens.

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lingro: The coolest dictionary known to hombre!

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The coolest dictionary known to hombre! (Click to find out what it means.) * Even though the bearing of a torch formed an integral aspect of Greek ceremonies, the ancient Olympic Games did not include it, nor was there a symbol formed by interconnecting rings.

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Welcome to the Visual Dictionary Online, the dictionary with a new point of view.

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It's an online interactive English dictionary and thesaurus that helps you find the meanings of words and draw connections to associated words. You can easily see the meaning of each by simply placing the mouse cursor over it.

Why use Snappy Words visual dictionary?

Easy to use dictionary and thesaurus.

Learn how words associate in a visually interactive display.

Get ideas to help write content for your blog, article, thesis or simply play with words!

No registration required.

No limit on number of searches. Look up as many words as you need anytime.

No software installation needed. All you need is an internet connection and a browser (Firefox, Safari, Internet Explorer and others).

It's free and fun!

How do I use it?

Type words in the search box and click Go or simply hit Enter. Once the words branch off the main query, you can double click a node to find other related words. To explore the features:

1. Place the mouse cursor over a word to view the meaning.

2. Double click a node from the branch to view other related words.

3. Scroll the mouse wheel over words to zoom in or out. This helps you see more
associations or view words and meanings more clearly.

4. Click and drag a word or branch to move it around and explore other branches.

What dictionary does Snappy Words use?

The Snappy Words interface queries the WordNet lexical database developed by Princeton University and made available for students and language researchers. This dictionary groups synonyms into synsets through lexical relations between terms. These meanings and semantic relationships are revealed graphically by the interactive web technology made available by Snappy Words.

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Free Visual Dictionary & Thesaurus | Online Dictionary | Associated Words | Synonyms Dictionary at SnappyWords.com

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Snappy Words is a free visual English dictionary and thesaurus that lets you search the meaning of words and other associated words. It's fun to use and great way for students, teachers, bloggers and writers of all types to get ideas when creating content.

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Browse through Flickr photos in 3D with this flash application.

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Those with Dyslexia have difficulty with decoding & encoding. They also seem to have difficulty with grammar and identifying parts of speech. Teaching grammar to those with Dyslexia should include a structured, systematic, & sequential approach, similar to the approach we use to teach them the logical connections between the sounds and symbols in the English language.

There tends to be a school of thought that when we present grammar to our students in such a detailed and methodical manner, they lose the creative side of writing. The cognitive effort spent to make certain their sentence structure is grammatically correct stifles any of the student's efforts at being creative with their written expression. The problem with this school of thought, as I see it, is that until the student with Dyslexia is able to form a sentence with accuracy and automaticity, s/he will not be able to display the creativity in written expression that is so often innately an attribute in those with Dyslexia.

A teacher should teach grammar using the same format to teach the Orton Gillingham Basic Language curriculum . Teaching one part of speech at a time (beginning with nouns), while applying the same structured, sequential, and cumulative nature of the Orton Gillingham Approach, will allow students to master the various grammatical concepts. Students with Dyslexia tend to be cluttered cognitively; therefore, it is important to assist them with creating a "mental file cabinet" to house all of their learned materials. When teaching grammar to those with Dyslexia, it essential that the students connect the new concepts with those already mastered, so as to cognitively "file" accordingly for easy retrieval. This method of teaching grammar to those with Dyslexia should be continued until all grammatical concepts have been mastered.

Teaching grammar to those with Dyslexia explicitly is important because:

It assists with comprehension skills

It improves written expression

It helps with cognitive organization & structure

The order of presentation of grammatical concepts I would recommend is as follows:

Nouns - Person, place, thing, or idea (a magazine is a wonderful resource a student can use to begin naming nouns) Ask student to categorize nouns. Have an assortment of noun cards mixed and have student sort & categorize the nouns.

Pronouns - Pronouns take the place of nouns (PRO = for, pronouns are FOR nouns)

Simple Plurals - The spelling rule of simply adding /s/ to a word

Action Verbs - A word that shows action. What is the noun DOING? Create a word list using magazines or books. Use noun & verb word lists to create sentences. MAKE THIS AN ORAL TASK INITIALLY.

Your student can then draw pictures that illustrate their new sentences. *NOTE: Drawing is a very laborious task for some students with fine motor deficits, so this activity may be omitted for them. Perhaps mental imagery would work better for these students.

Sentences - Every sentence contains a noun and a verb that expresses a complete thought. It is important to ask your student to speak in complete sentences & assist when necessary. Make certain your student has ample practice reading two-word sentences at this point. When performing sentence analysis, your student will label the parts of speech within a sentence. When looking at functional analysis, your student will identify the purpose in a sentence. Finally, sentence diagrams are a wonderful visual aid to enhance understanding.

Adjectives - Adjectives paint images in our minds that describe the nouns in sentences. When teaching adjectives, ask your student to first write down his or her thoughts in simple form with words s/he is able to spell. S/he can then go back to the sentence and add adjectives to enhance creativity.

Prepositions/Prepositional Phrases -A preposition shows the following relationships among other words in a sentence:

direction (to - "He walked to the store.")

time (at, on, in - "He will arrive at 2 o'clock.")

agent (with - "He chopped the wood with an axe.")

place (between, near, across)

manner (by - "By going the short route, you will save time.")

measure (for - "She ran for two miles.")

Once again, when teaching grammar to those with Dyslexia it important to understand they need to be taught using the following approach:

All pathways of the brain should be accessed simultaneously.

Constant review of the materials is important while adding one new concept at a time. This helps the child with Dyslexia to see how the new concept fits in with the old concept to understand the big picture.

The Orton Gillingham Online Academy offers a wonderful Grammar resource:

Developing Essential Grammar Skills is a complete curriculum covering:

This multisensory approach to teaching grammar skills is a must have in every classroom library! To purchase or preview this product, click on the following image:

I hope these suggestions are helpful while teaching grammar to those with Dyslexia. They can certainly be used as a whole group instruction, as all students would benefit from a structured, systematic, & sequential approach to teaching the grammatical concepts.

Keep doing what you are doing because the world needs what only you have to offer!

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Those with Dyslexia have difficulty with decoding & encoding. They also seem to have difficulty with grammar and identifying parts of speech. Teaching grammar to those with Dyslexia should include a structured, systematic, & sequential approach, similar to the approach we use to teach them the logical connections between the sounds and symbols in the English language.

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Nonword Repetition Tasks | LEADERSproject​

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Nonword Repetition Tasks | LEADERSproject​

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Nonword Repetition Tasks (NWRT) can be used as a dynamic assessment as opposed to static assessment. NWRTs assess phonological working memory, speech perception, phonological assembly, and short term memory. These skills can have an impact on phonological awareness, word learning, and overall language acquisition. NWRTs are a useful tool to identify children/students with developmental language disorders because they are less culturally and linguistically biased than standardized language tests, as they do not call upon a child's/student's prior knowledge as many standardized tests do. Rather, NWRTs ask the child/student to repeat a series of nonwords of differing syllable length and complexity of sound combinations, thereby assessing linguistic abilities that have not been taught or learned previously. Nonword repetition tasks have been analyzed by number of consonants correct or number of items correct. There are different NWRTs for several languages, which contain phonemes specific for that particular language.

For more information on how to utilize NWRTs with children with and without language impairments, please watch the following videos from the Preschool Disability Evaluation modules:

Dynamic Assessment: Non-Word Repetition Task Part 1 - Using NWRT with a typically developing child and a low-average performing child

Dynamic Assessment: Non-Word Repetition Task Part 2 - Using NWRT with a child with a mild language delay and a child with a moderate-to-severe delay

Download: English NWRT Scoring Sheet, Dollaghan and Campbell, 1998
Download: Spanish NWRT Scoring Sheet, Gutierrez-Clellen and Simon-Cerejido, 2010 Download: Spanish NWRT Scoring Sheet, Kohnert, 2008

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Nonword Repetition Tasks (NWRT) can be used as a dynamic assessment as opposed to static assessment. NWRTs assess phonological working memory, speech perception, phonological assembly, and short term memory. These skills can have an impact on phonological awareness, word learning, and overall language acquisition.

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Speech Therapy for Children | Discover Simplified Information & Resources

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HomeSpeechHome has the best digital speech therapy resources on the web. Find simple information, apps, activities, and more that encourage speech and language development.

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Introducing Kate

British social entrepreneur, founder and CEO of charity, Made By Dyslexia, Kate Griggs has been shifting the narrative on dyslexia and educating people on its strengths since 2004. Dyslexic herself and having been surrounded by an extraordinary 'smorgasbord of Dyslexic Thinking' her whole life, Griggs knows the superpower of dyslexia all too well.

She is a leading voice in global advocacy and is leading the charge to disrupt the world's thinking around dyslexia, which is vital for the workplace of the future.

Her work to define Dyslexic Thinking skills has been central to Made By Dyslexia's ground-breaking reports, and has seen Dyslexic Thinking added as a skill to the world's largest careers platform, LinkedIn, and added as a noun to the dictionary. These incredible leaps forward are transforming the way the world understands and values dyslexia. Now her latest campaign, Learn Dyslexia, asks every school to Take A Day For Dyslexia and skill up using Made By Dyslexia's 3 free online training courses to empower the 1 in 5 dyslexic learners in every classroom.

Kate is the author of two Amazon #1 best-selling books published by Penguin Random House, a children's book Xtraordinary People and her new book for adults, THIS is Dyslexia, which redefines and reshapes what it means to be dyslexic.

Recent stories and a bit of history

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Introducing Kate British social entrepreneur, founder and CEO of charity, Made By Dyslexia, Kate Griggs has been shifting the narrative on dyslexia and educating people on its strengths since 2004. Dyslexic herself and having been surrounded by an extraordinary 'smorgasbord of Dyslexic Thinking' her whole life, Griggs knows the superpower of dyslexia all too well.

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The official website of the City of New York

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Video available at: https://youtu.be/aDP0UpmBV9M
First-Ever Investment to Support and Screen Dyslexic Students in New York City History Announcement Comes on Heels of News That NYC Will Host World Dyslexia Assembly in Spring 2023
NEW YORK - New York City Mayor Eric Adams and New York City Department of Education (DOE) Chancellor David C. Banks today announced the largest, most comprehensive approach to supporting public school students with dyslexia in the United States. For the first time, all New York City public school students will be assessed for being at risk of dyslexia, be supported in their neighborhood school, and receive specialized instruction through the development of special programs and academies.

"As a student, I struggled with identifying my dyslexia until long after leaving the public school system. Today, we are announcing the most comprehensive approach to supporting dyslexic students in New York City to prevent students from experiencing that disadvantage," said Mayor Adams. "By changing the way we approach dyslexia, we can unlock the untapped potential in students who may feel insecure about their dyslexia or any other language-based learning disabilities they may have."

"Early screening ensures that every child who needs support will get the help and resources they need," said Chancellor Banks. "These screeners are emblematic of this administration's commitment to uplifting all of our students and making sure they are well equipped to succeed."

"Every student deserves the resources and support needed to thrive in our schools," said Deputy Mayor for Strategic Initiatives Sheena Wright. "Today's announcement on Dyslexia Awareness Day brings us one step closer to living up to that promise. From universal screenings to first-of-its-kind pilots, New York City is leading the way in building a more equitable school system and committing to a comprehensive investment in dyslexic students."

Beginning in fall 2022, the DOE will pilot two first-of-their-kind programs within New York City public schools, where 80 elementary schools and 80 middle schools across the city will receive targeted support and training to screen and identify students at risk for dyslexia and provide targeted interventions. Every student will participate in short, adaptive literacy screeners as part of the pilot at these schools.

All schools will be supported by district-based Academic Intervention Support coordinators on how to adjust core instruction and provide intervention when screeners, and other evidence of student work, indicate that students are not making adequate progress.

By offering accessible screening across the city, Mayor Adams and Chancellor Banks are breaking down a major barrier that has faced working families for many years. For the first time, every child from every zip code will have this important opportunity afforded to them, free of charge. Identifying student needs at an early age while breaking down cost barriers is a win for students, working families, and school communities across the city.

In addition, Literacy Academy Collective in P.S. 161 in the Bronx and Lab School for Family Literacy in P.S. 125 in Manhattan will both offer specialized programs for students with dyslexia and other language-based learning disabilities. The DOE will immediately move to build programs at additional schools with the goal of having at least one school offering specialized instruction in each borough by fall 2023.

Teachers are the city's most valuable partners in reimagining literacy instruction in schools. By April 2023, all teachers in kindergarten through 12th grade will participate in Made by Dyslexia's two-hour introductory training. Teachers across the city will have opportunities to participate in training for evidence-based reading programs grounded in explicit phonics techniques, including Wilson and Orton-Gillingham. Teachers will receive additional job-embedded literacy support from trained literacy coaches across all grade levels in targeted schools. As previously announced, over the course of the next year, the DOE will require teachers in grades K-2 to have a phonics-based, proven foundational literacy curriculum.

Keeping Chancellor Banks' promise, the DOE Central Literacy Team convened a Literacy Advisory Council of local community members, experts in literacy, public school staff, students, and parents to help guide the rollout of this and future literacy initiatives. Additionally, the DOE is launching a Dyslexia Task Force that will develop a policy paper on the New York City public schools' vision and approach to supporting students at risk of and/or living with dyslexia inclusive of multilingual learners and students from communities of dense dialect. The DOE looks to have this done by August 2022.

This announcement is coming on the heels of the World Dyslexia Assembly that took place last week in Stockholm, Sweden. New York City will host the next assembly in spring 2023 as a sign of the city's commitment to supporting dyslexic students citywide. Further details will be shared at a later date.

"All students in New York and nationwide deserve the tools to succeed in the classroom," said U.S. Representative Jerrold Nadler. "These early screenings are a great step toward ensuring that each student is given adequate resources to achieve academic success. This new approach will help New York City public schools break down barriers, and I applaud Mayor Adams and Chancellor Banks for their work on this."

"As a former teacher, I have seen firsthand the educational differences between each and every student, and I'm proud to see New York City leading the country in securing the resources children need early on to succeed in school," said U.S. Representative Carolyn Maloney. "I applaud Mayor Adams' commitment to providing the screening and resources needed to identify dyslexia early and support students. This will strengthen the quality of education and remove barriers for those who need it most: working families and school districts across the city."

"Every child has special needs, and we should be funding our schools accordingly, so we can provide our students with every resource to succeed," said U.S. Representative Jamaal Bowman, Ed.D. "Equitable access to dyslexia screening has been a longstanding issue, and I am heartened to see youth in New York City schools will benefit from comprehensive access to screening and be connected to the support needed to thrive in the classroom and be lifelong learners. These measures should be a universal matter of fact for all students without relying on archaic and punitive measures that overlook our children and often force them into a school-to-prison pipeline."

"This ambitious pilot program will ultimately allow students with dyslexia to be supported and gain more equal footing with their peers and in turn pave the way towards a more equitable education system," said New York City Comptroller Brad Lander. "Identifying needs early and providing resources to educators will ensure that schools can provide the targeted support needed to help all students achieve their full academic potential."

"Any effort to support students at risk for or already experiencing a learning disability is one we should collectively get behind as a city. The quicker we can connect students to the educational services they need, the stronger our families and our communities will be," said Queens Borough President Donovan Richards Jr. "I look forward to working with the Adams administration on this important initiative."

"Identifying student needs through early screening will ensure our education system is inclusive and accessible for students who learn differently. Too often, students with dyslexia and specialized needs fall through the cracks and never receive the critical services and support they need," said New York State Senator Jamaal Bailey. "Universal screenings and intervention at an early age will equip our school communities to better identify and address learning differences at the critical moments of a child's education and development. I applaud Mayor Adams and Chancellor Banks for this vital investment in the academic success and future of our students."

"Ensuring all New York City public school students will be screened for dyslexia is a game-changer - for our students, for their families, and for our city's future," said New York State Senator Andrew Gounardes. "Without full access to screening, we know that too many students now are falling through the cracks, and unable to achieve their fullest potential. Expanding access to screening and to targeted support services for those children who may need them will change the lives of thousands of New Yorkers. I am so glad to see the mayor and the chancellor announcing this change, and I look forward to working with them to ensure all southern Brooklyn families receive the screening and support that they need."

"My husband and I only learned our daughter was dyslexic when she was already in fourth grade," said New York State Senator Brad Hoylman. "In fact, estimates show we have over 200,000 undiagnosed dyslexic students in New York City alone. I applaud Mayor Adams and Chancellor Banks for this holistic approach to better supporting the 20 percent of our students affected by dyslexia, which is long overdue and will substantially benefit the educational experience of New York City students. Now, we must use this momentum to extend these findings and measures to the hundreds of thousands of kids affected by dyslexia statewide."

"Dyslexia is one of the most common learning disabilities globally, yet it is woefully misunderstood and unrecognized. Too many students either graduate without knowing how to read or drop out of school. The statistics are even worse for students of color," said
New York State Senator Robert Jackson. "Providing access to universal screenings and to evidence-based interventions for an overwhelmingly Black and brown school system is about promoting equity. I welcome this announcement on Dyslexia Awareness Day and commend the city for recognizing that the crisis of dyslexia is real and must be addressed with urgency. New York City must continue building a more equitable school system and set all our students and their educators for success!"

"Early identification of dyslexia among New York City school students is essential," said New York State Senator Roxanne J. Persaud. "The sooner that students have access to services and supports, the better they will thrive. I applaud the department's initiative to lift up and better serve students with dyslexia."

"Early intervention is so important to identify and help students with dyslexia, so they can have the best chance at a successful learning experience," said New York State Senator James Sanders Jr. "We don't want them to fall behind or feel ostracized by their peers. I commend the mayor and his administration for making this a priority for our youth."

"The mayor is absolutely correct in this approach," said New York State Senator Diane Savino. "For too long, students who have gone undiagnosed suffer the consequences. Early detection is key to helping these students and stemming the tide of dyslexia."

"Dyslexia is the most prevalent learning disability in children, and yet it is woefully misunderstood, unrecognized, and just plain ignored," said New York State Assemblymember Jo Anne Simon. "The mayor and the chancellor's historic initiative forges a new path of hope for young students - to be screened for dyslexia and get the support they need to read and to thrive as their full selves. Literacy is social justice. I'm overjoyed and thankful to the mayor for his leadership, especially on Dyslexia Awareness Day."

"I want to thank Mayor Eric Adams and Chancellor David Banks for committing to screening public school children for dyslexia and implementing evidence-based curriculum interventions like Wilson and Orton-Gillingham. Dyslexia screening and evidence-based instruction will be life changing for so many students," said New York State Assemblymember Robert Carroll. "As someone who was lucky to have my own dyslexia identified in first grade and receive evidence-based literacy intervention, I know how important early identification and intervention are to making dyslexic students academically successful. Coupling all this with the announcement that the next World Dyslexia Assembly will be held in New York City in the spring of 2023 is thrilling. I was happy to help bring Mayor Adams and Kate Driggs of Made By Dyslexia together to make next year's World Assembly possible. With these announcements, New York is becoming a leader in educating dyslexic students and solving our literacy crisis."

"It's been proven repeatedly that early screening for dyslexia is one of the best tools we have to set students up for success by ensuring they have the resources they need to do their best work," said New York State Assemblymember Harvey Epstein."This is a great step towards enhancing our school system's responsive to the needs of all children. As the largest public school system in the country, with over 1 million students, we are taking on an important challenge that has the potential to change the lives of thousands of students and their families."

"Mayor Eric Adams overcame his own dyslexia and is now the mayor of the greatest city in the world. Today, the mayor is ensuring that every child in our city has a chance to succeed like he did," said New York State Assemblymember Jenifer Rajkumar. "The Department of Education will make dyslexia screening and support services widely available and commits to the goal of at least one school offering dyslexia support services in every borough. Now, all children in New York benefit by having a mayor who 'Gets Stuff Done.'"

"For too long, the invisible nature of dyslexia has left students to suffer silently, but this historic investment in dyslexia screenings and services will positively impact the remainder of affected students' lives," said Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine. "These early interventions will promote greater literacy equity across our schools."

"The more resources and specialized instruction we can provide to students with dyslexia, the better their entire academic experience will be," said Staten Island Borough President Vito Fossella. "On Staten Island, we are proud to be the home of Bridge Preparatory Charter School, which is the first-of-its-kind public school in the state that is specifically designed to teach students with dyslexia. I want to commend Mayor Adams and Chancellor Banks for spearheading this universal assessment for all students and recognizing the need for specific instruction for those who may struggle with literacy."

"Teaching kids to read is job one for our schools," said New York City Councilmember Shaun Abreu. "We know how to teach reading, and we know how to support struggling readers - we just haven't committed to doing it before. Now, we have a schools chancellor who is committed to the science of reading and a mayor willing to put his money where his mouth is. The impact of this investment cannot be overstated: A generation of New Yorkers will learn more, earn more, avoid entanglement in the criminal justice system, and be set on a path toward lifelong success."

"I commend Mayor Adams and Chancellor Banks for investing resources to screen for and support students with dyslexia. Dyslexia makes it difficult for many students to learn to read and write, but there are proven methods that work, and students with dyslexia need specialized attention to ensure their future success," said New York City Councilmember Gale Brewer. "It is critical, particularly following the height of the pandemic, that we do everything we can to uplift all of New York's students."

"Staten Island's Bridge Preparatory Charter School, which was championed by former Borough President James Oddo, has provided a model for how we can successfully serve students with dyslexia. Like Bridge Prep, these new screenings and local programs will be a game-changer for many students who, up to this point, have not been provided the specialized assistance they need because their dyslexia have gone undiagnosed," said New York City Councilmember David Carr. "I applaud the mayor, who has been very open about his own struggles with dyslexia as a child, for being such a strong advocate on this issue and ensuring students receive the learning support he may not have received."

"I am thrilled by the ambitious scale of this screening program to ensure that students with dyslexia get their needs met by our school system," said New York City Councilmember Eric Dinowitz. "Access to free screening and training for teachers will make a huge difference in our classrooms and put students on the right path. Every child learns differently, and we must make sure we understand their learning style and provide them with a world-class education."

"This is an incredible investment in our city's students, which will hopefully provide them with the necessary resources that they would not have had otherwise," said New York City Councilmember Kamillah Hanks. "Studies have shown that early detection of learning disabilities in children can prevent negative future outcomes and deter entrance into the criminal justice system, and those goals should be a priority for us all."

"I welcome this announcement from the mayor and the chancellor, especially because dyslexic students were disproportionately affected during the pandemic and need to catch up," said New York City Councilmember Robert Holden. "As a retired educator, I know that it's critical to determine and fulfill students' needs as early as possible to give them the opportunities they deserve."

"For too long, our students who suffer from dyslexia have gone unsupported and ignored by an education system that historically struggles to accommodate students who are different. Ensuring that none of our children fall behind in their education is critical, and screening and specialized support services for students struggling with dyslexia are necessary to ensure that they receive the quality education they deserve," said New York City Councilmember Ari Kagan. "Without these services, the damage done by educational neglect will be carried deep into adolescence and adulthood, where they are more impactful, detrimental, and difficult to address. This new pilot program is a crucial step in advancing educational equity for all students. I would like to thank Mayor Adams and Chancellor Banks for taking this important step."

"All children deserve the tools to thrive in school, which is why I am thrilled that Mayor Adams and Chancellor Banks have rightly identified dyslexia as a silent barrier for so many children," said New York City Councilmember Linda Lee, chair, Committee on Mental Health, Disabilities, and Addictions. "Early detection is critical in order to identify students who are at risk of learning disorders and other language-based learning disabilities to prevent them from falling through the cracks of our education system and being mislabeled down the road. This is an important step towards supporting students with dyslexia across the city, as we allocate the resources and specialized programming for literacy support in New York City schools."

"By implementing this first-of-its-kind program, we're fostering fairness in the classroom, removing barriers, and providing much needed investments for early intervention. Dyslexia should not be stigmatized, nor should it be a hurdle in our efforts to create an equitable education system," said New York City Councilmember Farah Louis. "I look forward to working with Mayor Adams and my colleagues in the Council to support this program and prepare our scholars for long-term success."

"So many parents in my district have been organizing for better learning conditions for dyslexic students. Identifying dyslexia early will help so many students feel more confident in the classroom and get the assistance they need to thrive," said New York City Councilmember Christopher Marte. "Mayor Adams and Chancellor Banks show these students and families that they have a voice in City Hall, and I'm excited to see this plan in action."

"This comprehensive approach to support all students by providing dyslexia screenings and targeted interventions is an important initiative that has the potential to help so many students who may not be aware that they are struggling with language-based learning disabilities," said New York City Councilmember Julie Menin. "I thank Mayor Eric Adams and Chancellor David C. Banks for providing the proper tools, specialized instruction, and assistance that our children need to be successful."

"Universal dyslexia screenings will ensure our schools provide early interventions, specialized literacy instruction, and ultimately place all of your students on a path to success," said New York City Councilmember Lincoln Restler. "Thank you to the mayor, chancellor, and especially Assemblymember Bobby Carroll for their leadership in implementing evidence-based solutions on this critical issue."

"No child should ever feel left out or left behind. On Dyslexia Awareness Day, I am proud join in celebrating the announcement of the nation's largest dyslexia screening and support system coming to New York City public schools," said New York City Councilmember Carlina Rivera. "For years, parents and teachers in my district and throughout New York City have come together through the Literacy Academy Collective to advocate for evidence-based literacy instruction for all New York City students, and I am grateful to the mayor and Chancellor Banks for this investment in the expansion of efforts to support students with dyslexia."

"Students learn through a variety of ways, and every student deserves programming catered to their development and growth needs," said New York City Councilmember Pierina Sanchez. "Screening, coupled with increased programming for students, is a welcomed initiative. Supporting our students with effective and evidence-informed tools and resources to support their learning should be key in our commitment to New York City's public-school youth."

"I'm pleased about Mayor Adams and Chancellor Banks' announcement to effectively invest in students with dyslexia," said New York City Councilmember Althea Stevens. "It is important that we are establishing universal resources, especially in underserved communities. Early detection is vital, as it provides the necessary tools to allow students equitable access to a successful education."

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Mayor Adams, Chancellor Banks Announce Comprehensive Approach to Supporting Students with Dyslexia

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Video available at: https://youtu.be/aDP0UpmBV9M First-Ever Investment to Support and Screen Dyslexic Students in New York City History Announcement Comes on Heels of News That NYC Will Host World Dyslexia Assembly in Spring 2023 NEW YORK - New York City Mayor Eric Adams and New York City Department of Education (DOE) Chancellor David C.