In my last post we explored the exceptional ways in which dyslexia enhances certain types of thinking. This week we’ll look at some best practices, including useful education technologies that are addressing the needs of dyslexic, and indeed other students with special learning needs.
First, let’s remove the elephant from the room: identifying a child with dyslexia as “a dyslexic student” does them and their family nothing but good. Many studies have found that not having the ability to frame one’s struggles with reading and writing as “dyslexia” causes unnecessary stress and confusion. Once dyslexia has been identified, the student and their support structures can discard the notion of being “stupid” or “lazy” and address the issue at hand, using the very many resources available to dyslexic learners and teachers.
When school or work is difficult, the best news to tell a parent, child or adult is “it’s because you have dyslexia”. This unlocks doors to self-understanding”. Bernadette McLean, Principle Helen Arkell Dyslexia Centre.
In her doctoral thesis, Ruth Gwernan-Jones studied (through in-depth interviews), the actual coping mechanisms of dyslexics, as a way of contributing sociological and educational research to the medico-psychological bias in the available research on dyslexia. She found that according to her interviewees, “Identification of dyslexia provided a means of making sense of difficulties, bolstered self-belief in intelligence, and initiated changes in support and personal motivation which, for the majority of participants, were notably beneficial.”
Yale University’s article puts a finer point on the issue: “Policies at all levels of government, but especially in school districts, often resist naming dyslexia as a specific disability, making it harder to identify and help dyslexic individuals.”
A number of books and studies indicate that using the term “dyslexia” as a catchall for students with learning disabilities is unhelpful because it applies a regime of changes that are not always specific enough to that particular student's issues. The solution however is far from ideal, “Specific Learning Difficulties” - which, when one is a parent or teacher, is in effect less specific, or helpful, than the term “dyslexia”.
A more subversive reason schools don’t like to use the word dyslexia has also emerged: money. Schools are obliged to provide special assistance and tools to special needs students — but only if they are identified as “special needs”. With tightening budgets, schools are slipping into a nefarious habit of simply ignoring potentially expensive problems, like dyslexia.
From a formal policy point of view, and in terms of resources made available to schools through the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), it is critical to realize that dyslexia does not, in and of itself, qualify a student for IDEA resources, and this is perhaps the nub of why some teachers and schools are cautious about including “specific learning disability” in their prognosis and solution-design.
Let’s move onto the long-promised classroom techniques, technologies and processes that are not only assisting students with dyslexia, but indeed children with other learning disabilities, as well as the entire class.
The Schenk School, in Atlanta has long been one of the preeminent schools for students with dyslexia, and are part of a broader campaign to educate educators about dyslexia, and how these special students can be taught in a way that engenders confidence, creativity and help them to find “their learning lane.”
Of course, activities like experiments, maker spaces, movement, sports and arts are all fields research has shown dyslexics can thrive in, however it remains a fact that reading and writing are essential to every graduate’s very basic skill-set. In that regard the school applies the Orton Gllingham (OG) principles in terms of reading, spelling and writing.
Teachers are trained in the phonological (sound structure), morphological (form of words), and orthographical (writing convention) structure of the language. By using tactile, manipulable, sensory, and phonetic tools to spell, hear and see words, the teacher helps students with dyslexia to engage a more multisensory “word world”. Students with dyslexia tend to struggle with “decoding letters”; here are a few tips and tricks from both the OG syllabus, as well as experienced teachers to overcome that hurdle.
Naturally there are a range of simple and common technologies that are an absolute boon to students with dyslexia. It is important that teachers jettison any idea within the class that students typing, or using text to speech are in any way cheating — if the lesson is about frogs, and some students comprehend the lesson better when the text is read out loud, or when they can provide a portfolio (rather than essay) on their understanding of frogs, so much the better.
Here are some technologies to consider:
The truth is that we have only caught the tip of the iceberg in terms of contemporary research on dyslexia and other associated, or similar, learning disabilities. The common approach, however, in all cases is: early diagnosis, support and planning.