Dyslexia Screening To Become State Rule

A child with dyslexia might know all the answers, but flunk a written test.

He or she might be able to skate through a written test by guessing parts of the text based on what they did understand, said Kelly Brown, literacy improvement coordinator for the Fayetteville School District.

Web Watch

Dyslexia Rule

www.arkansased.org/…

At A Glance

Parental Support

A dyslexia parent support group meets at 5 p.m. on the first Sunday of each month at Grace Point Church, 1201 McCollum Drive, Bentonville.

Source: Staff Report

At A Glance

Dyslexia Defined

Dyslexia is a learning disability characterized by difficulty with word recognition, poor spelling and difficulty understanding words. It is caused by problems in understanding the sound structure of words. It is also known as word blindness or developmental reading disorder.

Source: Staff Report

"I call it the invisible disability," she said.

Phonetics might be difficult for younger children, but long words made up of unfamiliar pieces will be hard for older children to read, she said.

Students with dyslexia may have a great vocabulary, but spelling, even if they know the correct word, can be a challenge. There might be extra letters added to a word or "great" might come out "grate," she said.

"Spell checker won't pick it up," she said.

State law is mandating changes in the way dyslexia will be addressed in schools.

Teachers will undergo basic training starting next school year. Every school district will be required to employ a dyslexia interventionist by the 2015-16 school year. New guidelines are being designed by the Arkansas Department of Education.

The law calls for screening in kindergarten through second grades, and requires schools to offer tutoring for children with dyslexia through proven methods.

Between 15 percent and 20 percent of the general population has some form of dyslexia, according to the International Dyslexia Association. Six to seven percent of school children have a learning disability related to dyslexia, according to the association.

Kim Head started the Arkansas affiliate of the Dyslexia Project two years ago. The project manager for the parental grassroots site said she heard from many families who complained dyslexia was not covered by special education. Parents checked state laws and pushed for changes in Arkansas. The Arkansas law is comprehensive because it includes screening, intervention, teacher training, a higher education clause and guidance for schools, Head said.

"The world revolves around reading," Head said.

Her son Alex describes dyslexia as words that move or flip around on the page, said Penny Ezell instructional facilitator at Holt Middle School in Fayetteville.

"They wiggle on the page for him," she said.

As a second- and third-grader, he went through the Take Flight program at Owl Creek School, and he improved, she said. Now in fifth grade, he uses an iPad with a screen reversed to black with white text, and sometimes listens to books, so he can keep up with his reading, she said.

Fayetteville added dyslexia-specific interventions about three years ago, Brown said. Every elementary school has two para-professionals trained to work with dyslexic children.

Brown estimates 80 percent of students learn to read with no help and another 15 percent need reading intervention, but 3 percent to 5 percent are strongly dyslexic and need one-on-one help to learn to read.

Therapists repeat, repeat and repeat fundamentals and add in activities. They might sing a phonetic rule and do a visual or physical activity. Dyslexic students are very logical, and older students benefit from learning phonetic tricks.

The brain of a dyslexic learner is wired differently, Brown said. The job in working with a dyslexic student is trying to get that child to go from point A to point B and bypass the four other points it could take them to get to where they need to go.

"A student with dyslexia uses more of their brain than students who don't have dyslexia. The problem is, they're just not using it efficiently," she said.

Dyslexia is a disconnect between symbols and sounds, said Matthew Howard, assistant principal at Reagan Elementary School in Rogers.

Literacy is like a pyramid, Howard said. Phonetic units lay the basis for fluency which builds vocabulary and comprehension. During small group reading time, a teacher might use magnetic letters or flip charts to change one letter or part of a word to help children work on phonemic awareness.

Rogers school staff members screen children for dyslexia, Howard said. School personnel cannot make a diagnosis, but children who show a dyslexic marker are referred to reading interventions, he said.

Screening children for dyslexia, then offering them a program to work on the problem, is all about hope, said Dale Query, superintendent of the Flippin School District in north central Arkansas. His district began screenings and interventions for students in kindergarten through 12th grade this fall. Parents stop him on the street to tell him it's working, Query said.

Parents and students knew something was wrong, but they didn't know what or how to fix it, he said.

"The standard 'sit in a straight row and don't drop your pencil' atmosphere didn't quite get it for them," he said.

During the state hearing on the proposed rule on April 14, Query and Tracie Luttrell, principal of Flippin Elementary School were on hand to endorse the statewide changes.

The biggest effect for them has been in discipline.

The children who were frequent fliers to her office, the ones teachers told parents were just not trying hard enough, those were the children who needed support, Luttrell said. Today she has children in one-on-one or small group sessions break down words and sounds with colored cards. She's trying to find more hours and more teachers to work with kids. Summer school will be just for dyslexic children with two hours of by-appointment tutoring a week, she said.

Query is writing grants to cover $350,000 expenses for the first year, but he estimates it will cost $500,000 to support the 200 students, kindergarten through 12th grade, who showed dyslexic tendencies. In five years the district will scale back efforts to early elementary, but for now it is all students.

"We just couldn't leave those kids behind," he said.

It is hard for parents to find even private therapists who work with proven methods, Ashleigh Fox said. She is working to start a parent support group in Bentonville. The state changes may result in more children being screened, but because of the way training programs are designed -- using repetition -- parents just can't pull a child out of private sessions and have them get tutoring at school.

Her daughter Hadley is in second grade and reads on grade level, Fox said.

"She talks about dyslexia like she talks about having blonde hair," she said.

As a former special education teacher, Fox said she wants to get a certification in one of the several recognized programs for dyslexia, but is hanging back until the state approves them.

The training program for teachers that will be required next school year is complete, said Kevin Beaumont, professional development coordinator at the Arkansas Department of Education. A consultant has been hired in compliance with the law and draft guidelines have been reviewed three times, but are not complete.

The state rules are up for public comment through Tuesday.

NW News on 04/21/2014

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