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 and related disorders in the following way:
“Dyslexia” means a disorder of constitutional origin manifested by 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.
TEC §38.003(d)(1)-(2) (1995) http://www.statutes.legis.state.tx.us/Docs/ED/htm/ED.38.htm#38.003
The International Dyslexia Association defines “dyslexia” in the following way:
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.
Adopted by the International Dyslexia Association Board of Directors, November 12, 2002
Characteristics of Dyslexia at different stages or grade levels:
Preschool
- Delay in learning to talk
- Difficulty with rhyming
- Difficulty pronouncing words
- Poor auditory memory for nursery rhymes and chants
- Difficulty adding new vocabulary words
- Inability to recall the right word (word retrieval)
- Trouble learning and naming letters and numbers and remembering the letters in his/her name
- Aversion to print (e.g., doesn’t enjoy following along if a book is read aloud)
Kindergarten and First Grade
- Difficulty breaking words into small parts, or syllables
- Difficulty identifying and manipulating sounds in syllables
- Difficulty remembering the names of letters and recalling their corresponding sounds
- Difficulty decoding single words
- Difficulty spelling words the way the sound (phonetically) or remembering letter sequences in very common words seen often in print
Second Grade and Third Grade
- Difficulty recognizing common sigh words
- Difficulty decoding single words
- Difficulty recalling the correct sounds for letters and letter patterns in reading
- Difficulty connecting speech sounds with appropriate letter or letter combinations and omitting letters in words for spelling
- Difficulty reading fluently
- Difficulty decoding unfamiliar words in sentences using knowledge or phonics
- Reliance on picture clues, story them or guessing at words
Fourth Grade through Six Grade
- Difficulty reading aloud
- Avoidance of reading
- Difficulty reading fluently
- Difficulty decoding unfamiliar words in sentences using knowledge of phonics
- Acquisition of less vocabulary due to reduced independent reading
Middle School and High School
- Difficulty with the volume of reading and written work
- Frustration with the amount of time required and energy expended for reading
- Difficulty reading fluently
- Difficulty decoding unfamiliar words in sentences using knowledge of phonics
- Difficulty with written assignments
- Tendency to avoid reading
- Difficulty learning a foreign language
Since Dyslexia is a neurobiological, language-based disability that persists over time and interferes with an individual's learning, it is critical that identification and intervention occur as early as possible.
Screening
TEC §28.006, Reading Diagnosis, requires each school district to administer a reading instrument to diagnose student reading development and comprehension in kindergarten, first grade, and second grade. Students in grades K, 1, and 2 are screened using mCLASS. First-grade students are screened in the middle of the year, before January 31. Kindergarten students are screened at the end of the school year in May.
The approved reading Instruments on the current list meet the requirements of TEC §28.006 and are available on the Texas Education Agency (TEA) website at
https://tea.texas.gov/academics/early-childhood-education/early-learning-assessments/data-tool-selection-guidance
This law also requires schools to administer a reading instrument at the beginning of seventh grade to students who did not demonstrate reading proficiency on the sixth-grade state reading assessment. Students who did not demonstrate reading proficiency on the grade 6 STAAR reading assessment are required by the state to be assessed with a reading assessment at the beginning of 7th grade. Canyon ISD uses Map Suite (MAP Growth ™ Reading and MAP Reading Fluency ™) (NWEA).
HB 2237 Texas Education Code 28.006 (c-1) 19 TAC 101.6001
Canyon ISD Dyslexia Program Design
Canyon ISD uses the Reading by Design program. Reading by Design: is an individualized literacy intervention, a systematic, multisensory approach aligned with research-based practices for developing literacy, and is designed for students with basic reading difficulties, such as dyslexia. This intervention follows an intensive, explicit, and cumulative design for the remediation of reading and writing skills at all levels. This comprehensive program addresses the following components: phonological awareness, sound-symbol association, six syllable types, written pattern, morphology, syntactic reading fluency, and comprehension. Progress monitoring and review lessons are embedded throughout the program to inform student progress and promote reading and writing automaticity. The district must provide a reading program for any student with dyslexia or a related disorder that contains critical, evidence-based components of dyslexia and follows the descriptors and implementation requirements found in The Dyslexia Handbook. All dyslexia providers must be trained in the instructional strategies that use individualized multisensory, phonetic methods and a variety of writing and spelling components as described in The Dyslexia Handbook. The district must provide each student identified as having dyslexia access to the district’s dyslexia services with a provider trained in dyslexia and related disorders at the student’s campus. Students will receive Reading by Design instruction for 30 minutes, four days a week. The length of program instruction is 1-4 years.
Dyslexia Identification
Once dyslexia has been identified as an IDEA-eligible disability, a determination must be made by the ARD committee regarding the most appropriate way to serve the student. If a student with dyslexia is found eligible for special education (i.e., the student has both the disability and requires dyslexia instruction, which is specially designed instruction), the student’s IEP must include appropriate reading instruction. Reading instruction includes the components and delivery of dyslexia instruction discussed in Chapter 4 of the Dyslexia Handbook: Critical, Evidence-Based Components of Dyslexia Instruction. If a student has previously met special education eligibility and is later identified with dyslexia, the ARD committee should include in the IEP goals that reflect the need for dyslexia instruction and determine the least restrictive environment for delivering the student’s dyslexia instruction. If—based on the data—the student is identified with dyslexia, but is determined by the ARD committee as not eligible for special education and related services because the student is determined to not need dyslexia instruction, (i.e., specially designed instruction) the student may be eligible to receive accommodations under Section 504.
See the link below TEA Resource List of Evidence-Based Dyslexia Programs
https://tea.texas.gov/academics/special-student-populations/special-education/tea-resource-list-evidence-based-dyslexia-programs.pdf
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