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Agenda• Welcome &

IntroductionsDyslexia

Students Who StruggleDyslexiaHow the Brain Learns to

ReadIntervention Success

ALLC:About our agencyTour of the Phoenix

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In elementary school, which groupwere you in? The bluebirds or the buzzards?

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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.

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.

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!

Congress passed the No Child 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.

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Discrepancy Model vs Response to Interventionas a means to identify students for

Special Education Services.

Differentiated Instruction3-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)

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Why do we have Reading Initiatives?

2. Prevention of reading problems is far more effective and humane than trying to remediate after children fail.

1. Far too many poor and minority children are being “left behind” when it comes to growth of proficient reading skills.

10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 10010 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100

WhiteWhite

Percent of Students Performing Below Basic Level - 37%

BlackBlack

HispanicHispanic

PoorPoor

Non-poorNon-poor

5858

6363

2727

6060

2626

Right now, we are leaving too many children behind in reading. A large share of those children come from poor and minority homes

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

Students Who StruggleReading 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)

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Who Are They?Children with low English proficiency Children living in communities in povertyChildren 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)

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At-risk first grade readersPoor 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.

Consequences of early & continuing reading difficultiesLack of reading practice affects fluencyLack of reading affects vocabulary and

knowledge of the worldLack of reading affects the growth of

strategic reading skillsLack of reading perpetuates itself in lack of

interest in reading and lack of learning

•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!

How does this affect society?

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Demystifying the “D” Word!

“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 184620A 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 20

Then try this:

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What it isDys = difficulty withLexia = wordsDyslexia is difficulty with words.It is neurological in originThere is a strong family pattern, genes are

identifiedIt is lifelong, although environmental factors

can influence its course.It results from a core deficit in the

phonological component of language.22

Comprehension is better than word readingReading words in isolation is more difficult

than in contextIt is often accompanied by

ADHDDysgraphia (sensory motor difficulties)Behavior issues frequently emerge

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What Dyslexia ISN’TNot a visual problemNot due to lack of intelligenceNot due to lack of motivation or effortNot a developmental lagNot uncommon (5-20% of the population)Not responsive to standard reading

instruction

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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.

Dr. Sally ShaywitzA pioneer in the study of brain function in typical readers and dyslexic readers.

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

Ectopias are seen in the brains of those who are

reading disabled.

Genetic LinkFamily 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

Who are these people?All walks of lifeAll languagesAll intelligencesPreponderance in:

ArchitectsSurgeonsEngineersEntrepreneursPrison InmatesSchool Dropouts

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Our brains are made to naturally learn how to speak.

Reading is not something our brains are automatically wired to do!

Brain Dominance

Left HemisphereLanguage Math Logic

Right HemisphereSpatial 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

YOUR AMAZING BRAIN

FRONT

BACK

Strong Strong activation activation patternpattern

Weak activation Weak activation patternpattern

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The reading brain……….

• Left inferior frontal gyrus

• Left temporo-parietal cortex

• Left infero-temporal cortex

neural basis of reading

Speech sounds

Alphabetic code

Visual word form

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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ACCOMPANYING CHALLENGES(BEHAVIORAL)

ACCOMPANYING CHALLENGES(SENSORIMOTOR)

Oral MotorMessy Eating

Writing/knots Fingers

Eyes

Tired

Words Swim

LosePlace

Spatial Awareness

Up/Down

Left/Right

WRITTEN LANGUAGECHALLENGES

ORAL LANGUAGECHALLENGES

AUDITORY /

SOUNDING OUT

VISUAL /

SIGHT WORDS

LANGUAGE /

VOCABULARY

GRAMMAR

COMPREHENSION

FLUENCY

3 – LEGGEDSTOOL

NORMAL READER

AUDITORY /

SOUNDING OUT

VISUAL /

SIGHT WORDS

LANGUAGE /

VOCABULARY

GRAMMAR

COMPREHENSION

FLUENCY

3 – LEGGEDSTOOL

AUDITORY /

SOUNDING OUT

AUDITORY /

SOUNDING OUT

AUDITORY /

SOUNDING OUT

AUDITORY /

SOUNDING OUT

AUDITORY /

SOUNDING OUT

AUDITORY /

SOUNDING OUT

DYSLEXIA

STRENGTHS

VISUOSPATIAL / MOTOR SKILLS

SURGEONS ATHLETES

NEUROSURGERY MOHAMMAD ALI NOLAN RYAN

HANS CHRISTIANANDERSEN

LEONARDODa VINCI

HARRISON FORD &STEVEN SPEILBERG

STRENGTHS

CREATIVITY

WRITERS ARTISTS MUSICIANS ACTORS / DIRECTORS

MOZART

STRENGTHS

LEADERSHIP SKILLS THINKING “OUT OF THE BOX”

JFK

PAT

TO

N

CHURCHILL

POLITICAL &

MILITARY

TED TURNER

THOMAS EDISON

(PHONOGRAPH)

ENTREPRENEURS SCIENTISTS&

INVENTORS

What we now know about the reading brain, a very well kept secret….

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Essential Components of Reading

1. Phonemic Awareness2. Phonics3. Fluency4. Vocabulary5. Comprehension

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The First Component:Phonemic Awareness

A student’s awareness of the smallest units of sound in a word.

“Phonemic awareness is effective in improving reading with all types of children under a variety of teaching conditions.”

The National Reading Panel (2002)

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A Few Facts About PhonemesThere are 26 letters in the English alphabet and 40–44

individual sounds (phonemes) that represent each of the letters.

There are two broad categories of phonemes: consonants and vowels.

A digraph is a pair of letters used to write one sound or a combination of sounds that does not correspond to the written letters combined, i.e. /ch/ /sh/.

A diphthong consists of two vowels that form a new sound when combined, i.e., /oi/ /ow/.

There are two letters that make the sound for the letter /x/: “ks”

The purpose of the alphabet is to assign written symbols to the phonemes of our language.

To read and write fluently in English it is necessary to know both the letters and the sound(s) they represent.

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Phonemic AwarenessCritical Skills

Sound Isolation—the recognition that words consist of individual sounds.

Blending—putting individual sounds together to form a word.

Segmentation—the separation of words into phonemes.

Examples

What is the sound of the 1st letter in s/u/n?

ssss/u/nnn is sun

The sounds in sun are sss/u/nnn

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Reading Research

We know that:Phonological awareness and letter

identification skills are the best predictors of a child’s success in learning to read (Adams, 1990).

Phonological awareness needs to be taught (Lunberg, Frost & Peterson, 1988)

"The lack of phonemic awareness is the most

powerful determinant of the likelihood of failure to learn

to read.""Phonemic awareness is more highly related to learning to

read . . . than tests of general intelligence, reading

readiness, and listening comprehension.”

G. Reid LyonNIH

Some phonological humor….

Deficits in in phonemic awareness create problems for

many children, but they can also be devastating for dogs

“Ha, ha, Biff. Guess What? After we go to the drugstore and the post

office, I’m going to the vet’s to get tutored.”

The Second Component:Phonics (Decoding)

The ability to apply your knowledge of letter-sound relationships, including knowledge of letter patterns, to correctly pronounce written words.

Systematic and explicit instruction in phonics:• Significantly improves kindergarten and first-

grade children’s word recognition and spelling skills.

• Is effective in improving the decoding and spelling skills of older students.

• Is effective for children from various social and economic levels.

• Has been shown to have a positive and significant effect on disabled readers’ reading skills.

The National Reading Panel (2002)

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Types of Phonics InstructionSystematic and explicit phonics—letter-sound

relationships taught in a clearly defined sequenceExample: “The sound of the letter s is /sss/. What is the sound of the letter s?”

Embedded phonics—teaching phonics skills by embedding phonics instruction in text reading.Example: Phonics skills are taught sporadically when an opportunity presents itself for the teacher to do so within the text.

Analytic phonics—teaching whole word units followed by systematic instruction linking specific letters with their respective sounds.Example: bar (begins like bus and ends like car)

Big Ideas in Reading (2006)

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Third Big Idea: FluencyFluency is the ability to read quickly,

automatically and with prosody.It sounds like talkingIf fluency is there, comprehension will also

be strong with a correlation of .91.“Automaticity”

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Fourth Big Idea: VocabularyThe words you understand and useExpressive and ReceptiveOral and WrittenBridge from decoding fluently to

comprehension

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Cumulative Language Cumulative Language ExperiencesExperiences

Cumulative Words Per Hour

0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

Welfare Working Professional

Cumulative Words Spoken to Child (in millions)

0

10

20

30

40

50

0 12 24 36 48

Age of child (in months)

Professional

Working

Welfare

Teaching reading is urgent!

•A student at the 10th percentile reads about 60,000 words a year in 5th grade•A student at the 50th percentile reads about 900,000 words a year in 5th grade•Average students receive about 15 times as much practice in a year

(Anderson, R. C., 1992)

Hart and Risley (1995) conducted a longitudinal study of children and families from three groups:Professional familiesWorking-class familiesFamilies on welfare

Big ideas from “Bringing Words to Life”

First-grade children from higher SES groups know about

twice as many words as lower SES children

Poor children, who enter school with vocabulary deficiencies

have a particularly difficult time learning words from “context”

Research has discovered much more powerful ways of teaching vocabulary than are typically used in classrooms – generalization to reading comprehension

A “robust” approach to vocabulary instruction involves directly explaining the meanings of words along with thought-provoking, playful, interactive follow-up.

Fifth Big Idea: ComprehensionThe ultimate goal of reading: Understanding

what we read!Simple, yet very complex…

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Reading is a multifaceted skill, gradually acquired over years of instruction and practice.

The Many Strands that are Woven into Skilled Reading(Scarborough, 2001)

BACKGROUND KNOWLEDGE

VOCABULARY KNOWLEDGE

LANGUAGE STRUCTURES

VERBAL REASONING

LITERACY KNOWLEDGE

PHON. AWARENESS

DECODING (and SPELLING)

SIGHT RECOGNITION

SKILLED READING: fluent execution and coordination of word recognition and text

comprehension.

LANGUAGE COMPREHENSION

WORD RECOGNITION

increasingly

automatic

increasingly

strategic

Skilled Reading- fluent coordination of

word reading and comprehension

processes

NRP’s Five Big Ideas in ReadingReview:

Each idea is essential but not sufficient alone to achieve reading mastery

1. Phonemic awareness2. Alphabetic principle3. Fluency4. Vocabulary5. Comprehension

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UNLOCKING DYSLEXIA

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We have the science that proves what works for childrenwith dyslexia. Appropriate intervention services aremulti-sensory, direct and explicit.

Three excellent resources to find effective programs for readingintervention are:•What Works Clearinghouse•International Dyslexia Association, Matrix of Programs•Florida Center for Reading Research

What are Neural Pathways?

These paths are like roads that we see in the world around us.

Our brains have ten million such pathways and we can create new pathways in our brains.

Learning is the process for building these new pathways.

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20+ Year Old Agency founded by the Phoenix Scottish Rite Masons

Grew into a community based agency serving children, teens and adults referred by parents, schools, doctors, and/or employers

The Board of Directors is made up of women and men includingbankers, CPAs, attorneys, doctors, business people, research scientists, and educators

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Direct Services & Teaching ClinicDirect Services & Teaching Clinic

Early Childhood

For Children with Learning Differences

ComprehensiveAssessment

TreatmentCommunity

Outreach

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Psycho-educationalAuditory Processing

Vision & Hearing Screenings included

Reading/DyslexiaLearning Disabilities

We Provide Comprehensive Assessments for Children and Adults

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Auditory ProcessingReading Disorders (Dyslexia)

We Provide Treatment for:

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Early Childhood

ComprehensiveDevelopmental

Screening

Professional Development

Parent Training

The ALLC Early Childhood programs are dedicated to providing pathways to success through innovative

language-based Health & Education services

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Children, Teen & AdultLiteracy (Dyslexia) ProgramsParent/Teacher Advocacy TrainingParent/Teacher TrainingSpeaker’s Bureau

We Provide Community Outreach:

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Thank you for coming today.Please contact me any time with questions,

comments or to share a thought.

Linda Barr, M.Ed.Program Director

Arizona Literacy & Learning Center

lbarr@azlit.org480 528-5793