Coping with Dyslexia

Last week I promised to discuss ways to work with dyslexic readers, briefly mentioning Orton-Gillingham (O-G) methods. I also referred to a NIFL listserv that specifically addresses learning disabilities - learningdisabilities@nifl.gov and the great discussion happening over there.

Well! The discussion has circled around the argument between a lack of empirical evidence vs. anticdotal accounts of the effectiveness of O-G. Let me give you a brief definition of O-G, the first of five Principles of Instruction, and resources. We'll come back to the argument and my thoughts at the end.

This information is from "Clinical Studies of Multisensory Structured Language Education for Students with Dyslexia and Related Disorders" published by Internaitonal Multisensory Structured Language Education Council (IMSLEC):

"Orton-Gillingham and/or Multisensory Structured Language Approaches: The principles of instruction and content of a multisensory structured language program are essential for effective teaching methodologies. The International Dyslexia Association (IDA) actively promotes effective teaching approaches and related clinical educaitonal intervention strategies for people with dyslexia."

Remember from our discussion last week that the basic definition of dyslexia is an inability to distinguish between sounds like /b/ and /d/ and to identfy those sounds with appropriate letters. One reader contributed this information: "Dyslexia is a specific learning disability that is neurological in origin. It is characterized by difficulties with accurate and/or fluent word recognition and by poor spelling and decoding abilities. These difficulties typically result from a deficit in the phonological component of language that is often unexpected in relation to other cognitive abilities and the provision of effective classroom instruction."

So - decoding problems, inability to differentiate sounds, and is a neurological issue.

What's a person to do?

Always begin with explicit instruction:

1. Identify what you want your student to learn.
2. Tell you student how to do it.
3. Show how to do it - model what you want your student to do.
4. Guide their application of new learning.

O-G/Multisensory breaks reading into 6 segments:
* Phonology and Phonological Awareness
* Sound-Symbol Association
* Syllable Instuction
* Morphology
* Syntax
* Semantics

O-G/Multisensory Principles of Instruction:
1. Simultaneous, Multisensory (VAKT): Teaching is done using all learning pathways in the brain (visual/auditory, kinesthetic-tactile) simultaneously in order to enhance memory and learning.
(to be discussed over the coming weeks:)
2. Systematic and Cumulative
3. Explicit Instruction
4. Diagnostic Teaching
5. Synthetic and Analytic Instruction

Let's take Principle #1 (VAKT) and apply it to the first reading segment: Phonology and Phonological Awareness.

A phoneme is the smallest unit of sound that can be recognized as being distinct from other sounds in the language. Phonological awareness is the understanding of the internal linguistic sturcture of words, thus an important part of phonological awareness is phonemic awareness: the ability to segment words into their components sounds.

How do we apply VAKT to phonemic awareness? O-G/Multisensory instructs us to use as many of the senses that we can during instruction/learning. Here are some examples (follwoing explicit instruction)

1. Tell your student what letters/sounds you'll be working on. "Karen, our goal today is to learn the vowels /a/ and /e/, that is, how they sound and what they look like. Ready?"

2. Draw the letter a (or use flashcards) and tell your student, "This is the letter "a." When you want to remember how the letter "a" sounds, remember this key word, "apple." The letter "a" makes the first sound heard in "apple." (Exaggerate a bit here on the first sound so as to distinguish it from the next sound.)

3. Model for your student how they will read the flashcard or draw the letter. "Okay, Karen, now its your turn. Watch how I do it: "a," apple, /a/. Now you try it, "a," apple, /a/."

4. Listen carefully as your student works on the phonemes. At this point, phonemes are about the sounds the letters make and that's what we want the student to become proficient in - identifying sounds.

Other ways to used VAKT:

* Let students draw letters in sand or rice while saying the name and making the sound of the letter.
* Use magnetic letters on a cookie tray
* Demonstrate hand movements to cue the student (circle your mouth with your index finger will making the long "o" sound).

This has been a long post!

I know I promised more on the Great O-G Debate, but I'll have to make that post later in the week.

In the mean time, please share whatever you use in your classrooms with your students! What is working and what is not? What other information can we get for you on LD?