Canyon ISD Local Dyslexia Procedures
The Dyslexia Handbook
Manual Sobre Dislexia (The Dyslexia Handbook - Spanish)
Dyslexia Handbook 2021 Update – Information
Actualización del manual de dislexia 2021
Dyslexia FAQ
Dyslexia Information for Parents
What is Dyslexia?
The student who struggles with reading and spelling often puzzles teachers and parents. The student displays average ability to learn in the absence of print and receives the same classroom instruction that benefits most children; however, the student continues to struggle with some or all of the many facets of reading and spelling. This student may be a student with dyslexia.
The Texas Education Code (TEC) §38.003 defines dyslexia in the following way:
Dyslexia means a disorder of constitutional origin manifested by a difficulty in learning to read, write, or spell, despite conventional instruction, adequate intelligence, and sociocultural opportunity.
Related disorders includes disorders similar to or related to dyslexia such as developmental auditory imperception, dysphasia, specific developmental dyslexia, developmental dysgraphia, and developmental spelling disability.
The current definition from the International Dyslexia Association states the following:
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.
Characteristics of Dyslexia
Preschool/Kindergarten:
At this stage, children are developing the underlying oral language base necessary for learning to read. Signs that indicate possible difficulties with reading acquisition include:
- delay in talking
- difficulty with recognizing and producing rhymes
- difficulty remembering rote information such as letter names (also phone number and address)
- difficulty remembering and following directions difficulty learning to write name
Grades 1-3
At this stage, children are developing basic word recognition skills both through the use of word attack strategies and contextual cues. Students with dyslexia will show some of the following characteristics:
- difficulties with learning sound/symbol correspondences
- confusion of visually similar letters (b/d/p, w/m, h/n, f/t)
- confusion of auditorily similar letters (d/t, b/p, f/v)
- difficulties remembering basic sight vocabulary
- problems with segmenting words into individual sounds and blending sounds to form words
- reading and spelling errors that involve difficulties with sequencing and monitoring
- sound/symbol correspondence such as reversals of letters (past/pats), omissions (tip/trip), additions (slip/sip), substitutions (rip/rib), and transpositions (stop/pots)
- omission of grammatical endings in reading and/or writing (-s, -ed, -ing, etc.)
- difficulty remembering spelling words over time and applying spelling rules
extreme difficulty memorizing basic sight words
Grades 4-8
At this stage, children progressing normally have mastered basic reading skills and are now expected to learn new information form reading. Many students with dyslexia continue to have significant difficulties with developing word recognition skills and therefore have trouble coping with more advanced reading activities necessary to succeed in the upper elementary grades and beyond.
- significant difficulty reading and spelling multisyllabic words, often omitting entire
- syllables as well as making single sound errors
- lack of awareness of word structure (prefixes, roots, suffixes)
- frequent misreading of common sight words (where, there, what, then, when, etc.)
- difficulties with reading comprehension and learning new information from text because of underlying word recognition difficulties
- if underlying oral language problems exist affecting vocabulary knowledge and grammar, difficulties in comprehension of text will occur
- significant difficulties in writing related to problems in spelling as well as organizing ideas
- lack of fluency when reading
High School, College, and Adult
Students at this stage are expected to analyze and synthesize information in written form as well as acquire factual information. Although many individuals with dyslexia may have compensated for some of their difficulties with reading, others may continue to have problems with automatic word identification.
- continued difficulties with word recognition which significantly affect acquisition of knowledge and ability to analyze written material
- slow rate of reading
- continued difficulties with spelling and written composition
- difficulty with note taking in class
- trouble learning a foreign language
Primary Deficit of Dyslexia
What is the primary deficit associated with dyslexia?
Phonological awareness – the awareness that words, both written and spoken, can be broken down into smaller units of sound and that the letters constituting the printed word represent the sounds heard in the spoken word.
What symptoms are the direct result of this deficit in phonological awareness?
- Inaccurate and inefficient single word recognition
- Difficulty sounding out (decoding) unfamiliar words
- Inaccurate spelling
What are the consequences?
- Slow and inaccurate text reading
- Poor reading comprehension
- Variable difficulty with the symbol code for reading and writing, including:
- Alphabet letter names
- Letter-sound associations
- Letter forms and direction in writing
- Difficulty with written expression
- Limited time spent in reading activities
What other language-related characteristics may be seen?
- Difficulty finding the correct spoken word or rapidly retrieving names
- Difficulty repeating and pronouncing words precisely
- Difficulty with verbal short-term memory
- What attributes may be either a complication or an asset?
- Oral language
- Attention
- Motor coordination
- Visual-spatial reasoning
- Mathematics
Dyslexia Program in Canyon ISD
Canyon ISD offers a range of services to students with dyslexia. Programming is always decided upon by a committee of people familiar with the student and knowledgeable about dyslexia and related disorders. The options available to the student with dyslexia are as follows:
- accommodations
- modifications
- classroom intervention
- pull-out intervention (provided by campus or district-interventionist)
District-Adopted Dyslexia Curriculum
The Dyslexia Intervention Program is a fast-paced, phonetic-based dyslexia program. There are 146 lessons in the program. The program includes alphabet activities, review of reading and spelling sounds and concepts, new concept (sound), reading practice, handwriting, listening and verbal comprehension, reading comprehension, and writing activities. Students must commit to being in intervention each day and to reading for an additional 20-30 minutes per day. The books read during this additional time need to be on the student’s reading level. This independent practice is crucial to overall progress.
The strategies used in the Dyslexia Intervention Program come from many sources including Scottish Rite Dyslexia programs, Project Read, the Neuhaus Center, and Lawrence Greene and Bernice Bragstad’s Study Skills.
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