Teaching Dyslexic Students

The term dyslexia comes from Greek, and means difficulty with words (McClure, 2007, p. 86). A neurobiological disorder, it can vary in severity, and fluctuate over time, but can impact reading, writing, communication skills, and capacity to decode. Although it is not, however, related to intelligence or effort, it can be very challenging for students with dyslexia to succeed in school tasks without appropriate assistance and teaching methods. This article briefly describes dyslexia and describes details of some of the existing theories about its causes. It also includes a section of summaries from various sites specifically about how to teach dyslexic students.

Keywords Auditory Processing Disorder; Decoding; Dyslexia; Learning Disability; Multi-Sensory Teaching; Phonological Awareness; Phonological Deficit; Visual Attention Span; Visual Theory

Overview

What is Dyslexia?

The term dyslexia comes from the Greek language, and means, literally, difficulty with words (McClure, 2007, p. 86). A neurobiological disorder, it can vary in severity, and fluctuate over time, but can impact reading, writing, communication skills, and capacity to decode. Although it is not related to intelligence or effort, it can be very challenging for students with dyslexia to succeed in school tasks without appropriate assistance and teaching methods.

Identifying Dyslexia

Dyslexia Teacher (2007) provides the following guidelines for identifying dyslexic students, noting that if a student seems intelligent and is otherwise not having difficulty understanding, indicators of dyslexia may include:

• Confusion over the direction letters face (b/d, p/9, p/q);

• Difficulties with left and right;

• Difficulties with keeping organized;

• Difficulties with spelling;

• Difficulties with directions (e.g. East and west);

• Missing out words when (Dyslexia Teacher, "Information About Dyslexia," 2007).

GoPhonics (2007) adds the following clues:

• Difficulty remembering the names of the letters of the alphabet

• Difficulty remembering the sounds of the letters

• Writing right to left -- mirror writing

• Reading words backwards (tap - pat)

• Scrambling letters in reading or writing (gril - girl)

• Substituting words for the written word (rat - mouse, truck - van, house - home) (GoPhonics, "Identifying and Teaching," 2007).

Ahissar (2007) explains: "Dyslexia is a persistent difficulty in acquiring adequate reading skills, in spite of normal education and general intelligence. Its prevalence is estimated as 5-10% of the population" (p. 458).

Types of Dyslexia

In a book summarizing conference proceedings on dyslexia, Blachman (2007) discusses the range of theories of potential causes and types of dyslexia, including:

• Naming speed deficit,

• Phonological dyslexia,

• Surface dyslexia,

• General auditory deficit,

• Differences in speech perception, and

• Deficits in temporal processing, among others.

Dinsmore and Isaacson (1986) describe differences between the auditory-linguistic and visual-spatial forms of dyslexia perception challenges:

Auditory-linguistic dyslexia is characterized by an inability to distinguish phonemic (or smallest) units of speech and a subsequent inability to learn the relationships between the visual appearances and sounds of letters and words. Deficits are evidenced in auditory discrimination, auditory sequencing, auditory focus, and auditory affective (emotional) perception. This disturbance is thought to be the most common cause of a developmental reading disorder (Mattis et al., 1975). Visual-spatial dyslexia is a less common cause of a developmental reading disorder. Students with visual-spatial dyslexia appear to have normal language development but are unable to learn the spatial and visual requirements necessary for acquiring reading skills. Deficits are evidenced in visual discrimination, visual sequencing, visual figure ground discrimination, visual depth perception, and visual affective perception (Dinsmore & Isaacson, 1986, par. 3).

Further Insights

Theories on the Causes of Dyslexia

Phonological Theory

Shaywitz and Shaywitz (2007) suggest a neurobiological basis for dyslexia, noting that "a strong consensus now supports the phonological theory, which recognizes that speech is natural, while reading is acquired and must be taught" (p. 20). This is aligned with theories that suggest that although speech has been part of the human experience for eons, reading is relatively new, and therefore the decoding process required for reading may be less developed in the brain, and is, in any case, different from the process required to speak and understand spoken words.

Various studies and data cited by Shaywitz & Shaywitz (2007) "show that children with dyslexia exhibit a failure of the left-hemisphere posterior brain system" (p. 20). Specifically, "Disruption or significant underactivation of posterior neural systems in dyslexia, especially disruption of the word form area, has been termed the "neural signature" of dyslexia" (p. 20).

Further, they suggest there is converging evidence indicating that over time, dyslexic readers come to rely on a memory-based system-so that instead of learning to sound out words, as skilled readers do, they instead rely on memorizing printed words to read. The brain systems used by good readers tends be the same areas of the brain used by readers using sound-based systems of word identification.

Shaywitz and Shaywitz (2007) go on to recommend that "the provision of an evidence-based reading intervention at an early age improves reading accuracy and facilitates the development of those neural systems that underlie skilled reading" (p. 21). Not only did struggling readers exposed to the specific intervention they suggested improve their reading skills, they also appeared to increase activity in the neural systems related to reading that are used by skilled readers.

Visual Attention Span Deficit

Some researchers suggests that phonological deficit is not the only explanation for dyslexia. Bosse, Tainturier, & Valdois (2007) suggest a multifaceted set of issues are engaged in dyslexia, "Both recent empirical data and theoretical accounts suggest that a VA [visual attention] span deficit might contribute to developmental dyslexia, independently of a phonological disorder" (Abstract).

They looked at two large samples of children from France and Britain, matching them to children of the same chronological age who had not experienced challenges in reading. They found in the French study that visual attention deficits could account for at least as much variance in reading performance as phonological skills issues did. The British study reinforced the findings, and added evidence that this finding held even after controlling for other factors such as IQ, verbal fluency, letter identification, vocabulary skills and phoneme awareness (Bosse, Tainturier, & Valdois, 2007).

"Overall," they conclude, "these findings support a multi-factorial view of developmental dyslexia. In many cases, developmental reading disorders do not seem to be due to phonological disorders. We propose that a VA span deficit is a likely alternative underlying cognitive deficit in dyslexia" (Abstract).

Anchoring Deficit Hypothesis

Ahissar (2007) reports that dyslexia may result from a difficulty in 'tuning out' competing stimuli for attention. "Recent findings," says Ahissar,

suggest that a single type of impairment in the dynamics of perception, which affects the efficiency of short-term memory, might underlie the broad range of difficulties of dyslexics. Experimental findings show that the general population quickly and automatically tunes around incoming stimuli, 'anchors to them' and performs faster and more accurately when these stimuli are subsequently repeated. Dyslexic individuals fail to benefit from stimulus-specific repetitions. This deficit can account for phonological, working memory, visual and auditory difficulties, in addition to the greater sensitivity of dyslexics to external noise (2007, Abstract).

Using various tasks and studies involving tones, memory and auditory processing, Ahissar and others (2007) concluded that their results showed that "show that the difficulties of dyslexics are in anchoring to repeated stimuli and using consistencies to sharpen perception", explaining that "in contrast to controls, the performance of dyslexics did not improve when the same reference was repeated across trials, indicating that their ability to construct and use an internal anchor is impaired" ("Difficulty in Forming Perceptual Memory").

In another kind of study, they determined that "the pattern of errors of dyslexics suggested that they performed each trial as if 'from scratch', whereas the pattern of controls revealed the implicit assumption that recently presented words have a higher likelihood of being presented again" (Ahissar, 2007, "Implications and Predictions").

This means that while for most people speech perception is improved by exposure to repeated stimuli in conjunction with the sounds, that does not appear to be so for some people with dyslexia. The researchers infer that this process probably helps improve 'signal perception' when the environment is noisy, or crowded with other signals. For dyslexic students, this may not happen, and it is therefore more difficult for them to focus on the stimuli they need to in order to read or hear specific sounds.

Instead, Ahissar (2007) suggests, "that the deficit of dyslexics resides in the dynamics that link perception with perceptual memory through the implicit formation of stimulus-specific anchors. These anchors guide the perceptual interpretation of subsequent stimuli, and contribute to our ability to retain and explicitly retrieve recently presented stimuli" (Conclusion).

The Good News

It appears that some of the outcomes for dyslexic students are actually quite positive. Ahissar hypothesizes that the less accurate perception of people with dyslexia may allow them to perceive things more broadly, and also possibly, more innovatively, allowing them greater innovation and creativity in their thinking and work.

Bowers (2007) reports that people with dyslexia are disproportionately represented among small business owners, and do succeed in that field, possibly due to increased creativity and exceptional verbal communication skills, which may be related to Ahissar's hypothesis.

Applications

Challenges of Teaching Dyslexic Students

Melton (2007) explains that because of the various challenges they face, it can be challenging to teach dyslexic students. They may read and write more slowly than other students, and may find it extremely difficult to take notes, as they must carefully process both what they are hearing, and what they are writing down.

What Teaching Methods are Helpful to Dyslexic Students?

Choosing which methods to use to teach dyslexic students will depend to some extent on what the driving cause may be, and on whether a student has phonological, auditory, visual or other perception issues detrimental to their reading progress.

McClure cites two small studies showing the capacity to improve reading activity among children who have been trained using a computer program with rhyming games and through developmentally appropriate instruction focusing on grammar and meaning, rather than spelling.

Broadly, McClure (2007) reports that the Dyslexia Association recommends:

. . . that children with dyslexia receive systematic, explicit instruction in reading, spelling and writing, combined with structured practice, immediate feedback and allowing extra time to complete tasks" (p.86).

The Dyslexia Teacher website (2007) suggests that multi-sensory teaching is essential for a dyslexic student; that is, providing information that is auditory, tactile, kinetic, and visual, if possible. This appears to provide a variety of memories related to the experience of a letter or word that the student can then draw upon later to recall the letter or word. The same article suggests building self-confidence in dyslexic students, by helping them to assess what skills they are good at, and helping them to understand that dyslexia is a condition they are not responsible for, and that they are not unintelligent, merely challenged in reading.

Reading out loud, in whispers, or while moving the mouth can help some dyslexic students learn well, which may be related to stimulation of muscle memory related to word and sound formation (Dyslexia Teacher, 2007).

Dinsmore & Isaacson (1996) recommends the following techniques for students with strong visual processing skills:

• Think of another word (or part of another word) an unfamiliar word resembles.

• Create mental images to associate with words (and letters) during initial learning.

• Use material that presents letters embedded in a picture.

• Choose materials that employ whole word, repeated pattern presentations.

• Have the student create stories through the language experience method.

• Use picture and word-matching activities.

• Play word "concentration" games.

• For spelling, look at the word, close his eyes and picture it, and then copy the letters from the mental picture. Or use the new word in a sentence (p. 1).

For students with strong auditory processing skills, Dinsmore and Isaacson (1996) recommend:

• Begin with dissimilar letters and words such as "m", "t" (not "b", "d") and "mop", "he" (not "saw", "was").

• Begin with high meaning words with ascendant and descendant features such as "bike" and "tiger" rather than words such as "come" and "as".

• Teach sounds of letters first and names later. Do not teach both at once.

• For students with visual acuity problems, avoid small, fuzzy print.

• If students do not hear spoken words as separate, use materials with wide spaces or draw lines between each word. Later draw lines between phrases and clauses.

• If words are reversed, use color to highlight the first letter of words (or confusing words). The student may also be taught to point to the beginning of each word as he reads.

• For students with problems in copying, have him say the word or sentence silently to himself before he begins to write it.

• Allow the student to whisper the words as he is reading. Later he should be encouraged to say the words "in his head".

• For students who have trouble crossing the midline visually, instruct them to turn their book to the vertical and read up the page rather than across it (p. 1).

Based on various references, Melton (2007) recommends that teachers examine the whole learning environment for the dyslexic child. A phonics site (Gophonics.com, 2007, "Dyslexia") suggests various processes that may apply to all early readers, and echo some suggestions already cited.

The University of Sheffield, in the U.K. (2007, "Teaching Students with Dyslexia"), provides a comprehensive set of guidelines for teachers of older students as well, outlining ways in which teachers can be helpful to students with dyslexia as follows:

Conclusion

Dyslexic students face a multitude of barriers to success at school, primarily based in their difficulties in reading and/or writing and in processing many stimuli at one time. There are various theories about the causes of dyslexia, and methods of teaching may vary depending upon what cause is thought to be the source of a particular student's dyslexia.

Most teaching guides emphasize a focus on multi-sensory teaching; that is, presenting materials in a variety of forms so that the student is not forced to rely on one mode of learning. Repetition and reinforcement of anything that can enhance memory around a particular experience are also recommended.

It may help students to underline certain words, or see print in various colors, sans serif fonts, and broken up into short paragraphs, bulleted form, or other blocks of print. Other students may benefit from reading out loud, or moving their mouths by reading, and from hearing words read rather than seeing them in print.

Activities related to meta-cognition are encouraged across the spectrum of dyslexia. It is helpful to students if they understand ahead of time what they will be learning about, and if learning is summarized at the end of a session. Printed notes can be especially helpful to students who may find it extremely difficult to process a lecture auditorily while attempting to write notes. Extra time for students to process information during lessons, following lessons, and during testing are all helpful.

Terms & Concepts

Auditory Processing Disorder: An auditory processing disorder related to the way auditory stimuli are processed in the brain. Such a disorder may be related to the experience of dyslexia.

Learning Disability: A mismatch between a child's apparent capacity to learn and his or her actual performance.

Multi-Sensory Teaching: Teaching through materials appealing to more than one sense (e.g. visual, auditory, tactile).

Phonological Awareness: Phonological awareness occurs when a child begins to recognize the difference segments of speech that contribute to understanding language.

Phonological Deficit: Phonological theory of dyslexia contends that reading difficulties are related to problems with representing, sorting and /or retrieving speech sounds.

Visual Attention Span: The Visual Attention (VA) span is defined as the amount of distinct visual elements which can be processed in parallel in a multi-element array.

Visual Theory: The visual theory related to dyslexia suggests that part of the reason a student cannot read is related to visual processing or letters, words, and language.

Bibliography

Ahissar, M. (2007). Dyslexia and the anchoring-deficit hypothesis. Trends in Cognitive Sciences 11 , p. 458-465.

Blachman, B.A. (1997). Foundations of Reading Acquisition and Dyslexia: Implications for Early Intervention. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Bosse, M.L., Tainturier, M.J., & Valdois, S. (2007). Developmental dyslexia: The visual attention span deficit hypothesis. Cognition, 104 , p. 198-230.

Bowers, B. (2007). Tracing business acumen to dyslexia. The New York Times (December 6, 2007), p. C1, C6.

Bryson, K. J. (2013). Teaching a student with dyslexia. Journal Of Singing, 69, 429–435. Retrieved December 12, 2013 from EBSCO Online Database Education Research Complete. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ehh&AN=85987173

Dinsmore, J.A. & Isaacson, D.K. (1986). Tactics for teaching dyslexic students. Academic Therapy, 21 . Retrieved online December 12, 2007 from Child & Family Canada website http://www.cfc-efc.ca/docs/ldac/00000455.htm

Dyslexia Teacher. (2007). Information about dyslexia. Retrieved online December 12, 2007, from Dyslexia-Teacher.com http://www.dyslexia-teacher.com/index.htm

GoPhonics. (2007.) Identifying and teaching students with dyslexia. Retrieved December 12, 2007 from http://www.gophonics.com/dyslexia.htm

Harker, J. (2007). Dealing with dyslexia. Child Education, 84 , p.37.

Leveroy, D. (2013). Locating dyslexic performance: Text, identity and creativity. Research In Drama Education, 18, 374–387. Retrieved December 12, 2013 from EBSCO Online Database Education Research Complete. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ehh&AN=92039339

McClure, C.T., (2007). Demystifying dyslexia District Administration, 43 , p. 86. Retrieved December 11, 2007 from EBSCO online database, Academic Search Premier, http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=27746720&site=ehost-live

Melton, L.S. (2007). The Challenges of Teaching Dyslexic Children. Retrieved December 12, 2007, from Helium website http://www.helium.com/tm/525603/dyslexic-students-teaching-challenges

Shaywitz, S. E., & Shaywitz, B. A. (2007). The neurobiology of reading and dyslexia. ASHA Leader, 12 , p. 20-21. Retrieved online December 11, 2007 from EBSCO online database, Academic Search Premier, http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=26597212&site=ehost-live

Tops, W. W., Callens, C. C., Cauwenberghe, E. E., Adriaens, J. J., & Brysbaert, M. M. (2013). Beyond spelling: The writing skills of students with dyslexia in higher education. Reading & Writing, 26, 705–720. Retrieved December 12, 2013 from EBSCO Online Database Education Research Complete. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ehh&AN=87090310

Suggested Reading

Deacon, S. S., Cook, K., & Parrila, R. (2012). Identifying high-functioning dyslexics: Is self-report of early reading problems enough?. Annals Of Dyslexia, 62, 120–134. Retrieved December 12, 2013 from EBSCO Online Database Education Research Complete. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ehh&AN=76140881

Long, L., MacBlain, S., & MacBlain, M. (2007). Supporting students with dyslexia at the secondary level: An emotional model of literacy. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 51 , p. 124-134. Retrieved December 11, 2007 from EBSCO online database Academic Search Premier, http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=26915484&site=ehost-live

Madigan, T. P. (2007). Thinking, writing, talking: A discourse analysis of writing instruction for boys with dyslexia. Reading & Writing Quarterly, 23 , p. 359-416. Retrieved December 11, 2007 from EBSCO online database Academic Search Premier, http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=26446854&site=ehost-live

Ott, P. (2007.) Teaching children with dyslexia: A practical guide. New York, NY: Routledge.

Paintin, K. (2007). [Review] Dyslexia, speech and language: A practitioner's handbook (2nd edition). Child Language Teaching & Therapy, 23 , p.372-374. Retrieved December 11, 2007 from EBSCO online database Academic Search Premier, http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=26632148&site=ehost-live

Wennas Brante, E. (2013). 'I don't know what it is to be able to read': How students with dyslexia experience their reading impairment. Support For Learning, 28, 79–86. Retrieved December 12, 2013 from EBSCO Online Database Education Research Complete. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ehh&AN=88904177