Debunking dyslexia myths

Dyslexia is not backwards letters or words melting and jumping off the page. It can’t be solved with a colored piece of plastic or by making students try harder or read more.

Readers with dyslexia have an inherited brain difference that causes a processing disconnect between what their eyes see and what the brain understands. Allison Grandfield, dyslexia consultant, tutor and Decoding Dyslexia board member, described it as a circular route the brain takes to get the final destination of understanding a word.

“Your brain just takes a different route to get there,” Grandfield said.

The Learning Center of Southwest Iowa recently held an event to help parents, teachers, caregivers and the public understand “the dyslexia experience.”

Although she stressed that the garbled paragraph on the page is not what students with dyslexia actually see, Grandfield used passages like that to simulate the anxiety students can feel when it seems like everyone else understands.

Grandfield, along with other Decoding Dyslexia board members Linda Cross and Julie Delanoit, gave out folders with two different versions of the same passage — one written standardly and one with letters rearranged or substituted. When participants with the standard paragraphs read aloud, the “teachers” praised them. When those with the rearranged passage tried to read it, they made comments such as, “You need to work a little harder at home,” “Get your mouth ready to say the word,” or “Do you know a word it rhymes with?” — all things a well-meaning teacher might say to a struggling reader.

Grandfield pointed out that these types of comments not only aren’t helpful to a student with dyslexia, they can be harmful.

Those who were asked to read the altered text reported feeling anxious, frustrated and embarrassed.

“It was embarrassing, especially in front of your peers,” one participant said. “Because I couldn’t make out the words.”

“I couldn’t comprehend because I was so trying to figure out the word, even when they were reading because I was trying to read ahead,” another reader said.

Whole language reading approaches, where students are immersed in literature and it is expected that they will eventually just “get” it, don’t work for dyslexic students. Three cuing techniques — “look at the first letter,” “look at the picture,” “use context clues from the sentence” — can actually make it more difficult for dyslexic students to learn.

Decoding Dyslexia teaches that students need explicit, systematic, cumulative, multi-sensory instruction in reading. Students with dyslexia need to master decoding skills in order to read fluently. These skills need to be taught the same way each time. Hopping from strategy to strategy or going on into more difficult material before the current lesson is understood and internalized will not benefit a dyslexic student. However, going back to previous lessons after they’ve been mastered is essential.

Research from the National Reading Council has shown that these strategies benefit all students, not just those with dyslexia.

Recognizing

dyslexia

Signs of dyslexia in preschoolers include delayed speech, mixing up sounds and syllables in long words, difficulty rhyming, and chronic ear infections. By elementary school common signs include difficulty with sight words, guessing based on word shape while reading, terrible spelling, and letter or number reversals continuing past the end of first grade — before first grade these reversals are often a normal part of learning to read and write.

By high school and beyond, students with dyslexia may have to read a page several times in order to understand it. Continued directionality difficulties, determining right from left, may be a sign of dyslexia. These students may have a limited vocabulary or a large discrepancy between their oral and written expression. Grandfield calls this “impoverished written product.” A student may choose simpler words or repeat a few words that they have mastered to try to avoid the difficulty and time consumption of more complex writing. They may use “big” consistently instead of “large” or “enormous.”

What to do

Encourage children, and adults, with dyslexia to find expression in art or movement — a way to showcase their interests and intelligence beyond the traditional and help fend off the anxiety and self esteem issues of being a “poor student.”

Develop strong communication pathways between home and school. Teachers may have outdated and incorrect ideas about dyslexia, just as the general population does. Grandfield said the special education instruction she received about dyslexia was based on myths she now understands to be untrue.

“The tide is changing, for those of us who have children in it right now, it’s never going to be as fast as we want, but 15 years ago ... I went to the AEA and I was told we don’t have dyslexia in Iowa,” Cross said. “It’s grown exponentially ... we’ve even had three laws passed in the past five years.”

Ask for and advocate for non-traditional ways to receive instruction and demonstrate mastery of material — audio books, typed notes instead of copying from the board, and oral reports instead of written tests. This may require a formal meeting with the school to develop an Individualized Education Plan or a 504 plan to set up accommodations for the student.

Parents and teachers who suspect a child might be dyslexic can find more information, including more warning signs and resources at decodingdyslexiaiowa.org. They may also contact a board member to get help with a formal diagnosis or accommodations.