Welcome!

1. Welcome!

2. Agenda • Welcome & Introductions • Dyslexia • Students Who Struggle • Dyslexia • How the Brain Learns to Read • Intervention Success • ALLC: • About our agency • Tour of the Phoenix office

3. In elementary school, which group were you in? The bluebirds or the buzzards?

5. What do you know for sure?True or False • Children learn to read naturally with exposure to text, just as they learn to talk and walk. • Intelligence is the strongest correlation to reading ability. • Reading is developmentally varied, some children naturally learn earlier and others need more time. • Teaching reading is an art/science/mystery. • Children with reading delays can’t be identified until second grade.

6. And the answer is: • Children learn to read naturally with exposure to text. • It’s true that most (80%) do with any type of instruction, however 15-20% require explicit instruction during the earliest years. • Intelligence is the strongest correlation to reading ability. • NO! In fact phonological awareness is the strongest correlate. • Reading is developmentally varied, some children naturally learn earlier and others need more time. • True, but a late bloomer never blooms. We need to identify those students with reading disabilities early and intervene. • Teaching reading is an art/science/mystery. • True-all of the above, but the art side has been emphasized, ignoring the science available. • Children with reading delays can’t be identified until second grade. • False, while a student isn’t expected to read in preschool, early warning flags are there and intervention can and should begin there.

7. Some history: • In 1997, Congress asked the Director of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), along with the Secretary of Education, to convene a national panel on reading. The National Reading Panel (NRP) was asked by Congress to assess the status of research-based knowledge about reading, including the effectiveness of various approaches to teaching children to read. The panel was made up of 14 people, including leading scientists in reading research, representatives of colleges of education, teachers, educational administrators, and parents. The NRP met over a period of two years to discuss their findings and prepare the results in two reports and a video titled, "Teaching Children to Read.“ • NCLB 2001 • Reauthorization of ESEA • IDEA 2004 • “Big 5” Ideas!

8. Congress passed the NoChild Left Behind Act. Part of that law authorized spending approximately 5 billion dollars over the next six years to improve reading instruction in grades k-3. This is called the Reading First Initiative. The goal: Every child in America reading at grade level by the end of grade three within 12 years. This has been replaced by “Race to the Top” under the Obama administration.

9. Discrepancy Model vsResponse to Intervention as a means to identify students for Special Education Services.

10. Differentiated Instruction • 3-Tiered Model • Primary: A core reading program grounded in scientifically based reading research. • Secondary: supplemental, or secondary, programs to address the reading skills of students who are not making adequate progress in their core reading instruction. • Tertiary: designed for students with low reading skills and sustained lack of adequate progress when provided with primary and secondary intervention. Vaughan Gross Center for Reading and Language Arts (2006)

11. Why do we have Reading Initiatives? 1. Far too many poor and minority children are being “left behind” when it comes to growth of proficient reading skills. 2. Prevention of reading problems is far more effective and humane than trying to remediate after children fail.

12. 27 63 58 60 26 Right now, we are leaving too many children behind in reading. A large share of those children come from poor and minority homes Percent of Students Performing Below Basic Level - 37% 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 White Black Hispanic Poor Non-poor

13. Why is this all so important? • Effective early reading instruction can prevent reading difficulties later. • 37 % of nation’s 4th graders are performing below “basic” level (i.e., they cannot read well enough to understand a simple story) • More than two-thirds of high school students receiving special ed. instruction are three or more grade levels behind in reading (20 % are behind by five or more grade levels) • Reading problems are much more difficult to remediate in later grades

14. Students Who Struggle • Reading is a challenge for about 40% of students. • Approximately half of the students who are challenged will continue to struggle with reading even after instruction in an effective core reading program. Reading Rockets (2006)

15. Who Are They? • Children with low English proficiency • Children living in communities in poverty • Children with disabilities • Cognitive • Sensory • Language impairments • Children whose parents have a history of reading difficulty • Children who lack the motivation to read Reading Rockets (2006)

16. At-risk first grade readers • Poor readers at the end of first grade are at very significant risk for long term academic difficulty. “The probability of remaining a poor reader at the end of fourth grade, given a child was a poor reader at the end of first grade, was .88 .... the probability of remaining an average reader in fourth grade, given an average reading ability in first grade, was .87.” (Juel, 1988) • Poor readers at the end of first grade are likely to require intensive instructional support to reach third grade reading outcomes.

17. Consequences of early & continuing reading difficulties • Lack of reading practice affects fluency • Lack of reading affects vocabulary and knowledge of the world • Lack of reading affects the growth of strategic reading skills • Lack of reading perpetuates itself in lack of interest in reading and lack of learning

18. How does this affect society? • Studies show that 60-85% of prison inmates are illiterate • Over 50% of welfare recipients are illiterate • Arizona and other states base the numbers of prisons beds for the future on the literacy scores of 4th graders. • The economic cost is too high to continue!

19. Dyslexia Demystifying the “D” Word!

20. “What Do You Mean You Can’t Read This?” Eht dam rettah ni secila serutnevda ni dnalrednow si a llew nwonk yraretil retcarahc tahw si ton os llew nwonk si taht ereht erew stol fo dam srettah ni dnalgne erofeb eht noitnevni fo a tlef-gnikam enihcam in 1846 20A ralupop cirbaf rof stah tlef si edam fo loow srebif ro lamina riah dettam rehtegot Cirucrem etartin saw desu ni eht ssecorp dna gnol-emit erusopxe ot siht deuac tah srekam ot evah gnihctiwt selcsum a gnihcrul tiag tnerehocni hceeps dna desufnoc sdnim Ni eseht syad lepoep deredisnoc meht enasni ro dam. Suht eht esarhp dam sa a rettah deretne eht egaugnal

21. Then try this:

22. What it is • Dys = difficulty with • Lexia = words • Dyslexia is difficulty with words. • It is neurological in origin • There is a strong family pattern, genes are identified • It is lifelong, although environmental factors can influence its course. • It results from a core deficit in the phonological component of language.

23. Comprehension is better than word reading • Reading words in isolation is more difficult than in context • It is often accompanied by • ADHD • Dysgraphia (sensory motor difficulties) • Behavior issues frequently emerge

24. What Dyslexia ISN’T • Not a visual problem • Not due to lack of intelligence • Not due to lack of motivation or effort • Not a developmental lag • Not uncommon (5-20% of the population) • Not responsive to standard reading instruction

26. Dyslexia is the most common cause of reading, writing and spelling difficulties.

27. National Institutes of Health • 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. • Secondary consequences may include problems in reading comprehension and reduced reading experience that can impede growth of vocabulary and background knowledge.

28. Dr. Sally Shaywitz A pioneer in the study of brain function in typical readers and dyslexic readers.

29. fMRI is… Allows us to actively monitor the brain while it is processing information, performing phonological and reading tasks.

30. Ectopias are seen in the brains of those who are reading disabled.

31. Genetic Link Family history? Research has identified : chromosome 6 ~ phonemic awareness chromosome 15 ~ rapid naming chromosome 1 ~ visual memory for words chromosomes 2, 3, 7, 11, 13 and 18 have also been implicated in dyslexia

32. Who are these people? • All walks of life • All languages • All intelligences • Preponderance in: • Architects • Surgeons • Engineers • Entrepreneurs • Prison Inmates • School Dropouts

33. Our brains are made to naturally learn how to speak.Reading is not something our brains are automatically wired to do!

34. Brain Dominance Left Hemisphere • Language • Math • Logic Right Hemisphere • Spatial abilities • Face recognition • Visual imagery • Music The cerebral hemispheres are divided right down the middle into a right hemisphere and a left hemisphere. Each hemisphere appears to be specialized for some behaviors

35. YOUR AMAZING BRAIN FRONT BACK

36. Strong activation pattern Weak activation pattern

38. So what happens? • Children who are poor readers have a disruption in the part of the brain that processes phonological awareness, the sounds of our language. • They eventually compensate for this weakness by using less efficient parts of the brain as back up systems • Although most of these children do eventually learn to read, they typically never gain normal fluency. This is because these back up systems do not process information as efficiently as brain systems primarily involved in reading.

39. Early Signs of Dyslexia • delayed speech • mixing up sounds in multi-syllabic words • early stuttering • lots of ear infections • can't master tying shoes • confusion with positional concepts • late to establish a dominant hand • Inability to perform phonemic tasks • Unable to identify rhyming words • difficulty learning the names of the letters or sounds in the alphabet; difficulty writing the alphabet in order • Trouble correctly articulating R's and L's as well as M's and N's. They often have "immature" speech.

40. reading comprehension may be low due to spending so much energy trying to figure out the words. Listening comprehension is usually significantly higher than reading comprehension. • directionality confusion shows up when reading and when writing • b-d confusion is a classic warning sign. • b-p, n-u, or m-w confusion. • Substitutes similar-looking words, even if it changes the meaning of the sentence, such as sunrise for surprise, house for horse, while for white, wanting for walking • When reading a story or a sentence, substitutes a word that means the same thing but doesn't look at all similar, such as trip for journey, fast for speed, or cry for weep • Misreads, omits, or even adds small function words, such as an, a, from, the, to, were, are, of • Omits or changes suffixes, saying need for needed, talks for talking, or late for lately.

41. can read a word on one page, but won't recognize it on the next page. • knows phonics, but can't—or won't—sound out an unknown word. • slow, labored, inaccurate reading of single words in isolation • When they misread, they often say a word that has the same first and last letters, and the same shape • they may insert or leave out letters • they may say a word that has the same letters, but in a different sequence, such as who-how, lots-lost, saw-was, or girl-grill. • when reading aloud, reads in a slow, choppy cadence (not in smooth phrases), and often ignores punctuation • becomes visibly tired after reading for only a short time

42. Signs of Dyslexia: Spelling • Written expression is worse than reading. This requires them to integrate their weakest skills. • They may be able to memorize the spelling list for the week, but will misspell the same words when writing a story. • Continually misspells high frequency sight words • Misspells even when copying something from the board or from a book. • Written work shows signs of spelling uncertainty--numerous erasures, cross outs, etc.

45. Brain / Behavior Disorders Attention / Executive Function Anxiety OCD Oppositional Behavior Depression Parents with similar challenges ACCOMPANYING CHALLENGES (BEHAVIORAL)

46. Messy Eating Oral Motor Writing/knots Fingers Lose Place Words Swim Eyes Tired Left/Right Spatial Awareness Up/Down ACCOMPANYING CHALLENGES (SENSORIMOTOR)

47. READING SPELLING/WRITING Mechanics Comprehension Mechanics Expressing Ideas Speed Speed WRITTEN LANGUAGE CHALLENGES

48. LISTENING SPEAKING Poor PHONOLOGICALAWARENESS Word Finding Multi- syllables Memory for word sequence (phone numbers, directions) Sequencing Ideas Foreign Language Foreign Language ORAL LANGUAGE CHALLENGES

49. 3 – LEGGED STOOL COMPREHENSION FLUENCY AUDITORY / SOUNDING OUT VISUAL / SIGHT WORDS LANGUAGE / VOCABULARY GRAMMAR NORMAL READER

50. 3 – LEGGED STOOL COMPREHENSION FLUENCY VISUAL / SIGHT WORDS AUDITORY / SOUNDING OUT LANGUAGE / VOCABULARY GRAMMAR AUDITORY / SOUNDING OUT AUDITORY / SOUNDING OUT AUDITORY / SOUNDING OUT AUDITORY / SOUNDING OUT AUDITORY / SOUNDING OUT AUDITORY / SOUNDING OUT DYSLEXIA