My Dyslexic Student is Stuck; Now What?
This post responds to a question from Jennifer Plosz, the Canadian educator doing brilliant groundbreaking work in visual math for dyslexics. She used tools like tracking, scanning, and silent reading first, from my book, Dyslexia Tool Kit Expanded Edition: What to do when phonics isn’t enough, to help her extremely dyslexic student reach third-grade reading level. His confidence soared, he started reading books for fun, and school work got easier. But he stayed at that level. He felt frustrated by the lack of progress. He knew he didn’t read as well as his friends yet. What to do next?
The First Step is Usually Phonics
Most schools now offer only two ways to learn to read: phonics in the classroom, or intense multi-sensory phonics in a small group. To supplement this, many parents invest large piles of money for private tutoring in Orton-Gillingham based programs. These programs deliver intense multi-sensory phonics with massive amounts of repetition, often for an hour a day, 3-5 days a week. This generally results in an adequate ability to slowly read text at about third or fourth-grade level.
Phonetic Reading is Slow Reading
Slow reading presents a serious drawback when students encounter more complex material. Students who continue to read phonetically into high school and college usually use audiobooks and extra time to keep up. To comprehend text, a reader must read fast enough to get the whole idea into working memory for processing. If the short-term working memory window (10-15 seconds) “times out” before reading the entire sentence, the meaning is lost. The reader must return to the beginning of the sentence and re-read it faster to understand.
The frustration of this back-and-forth reading produces anger, hopelessness, and reading avoidance. Most non-dyslexic students make the leap from sounding out words to recognizing words on sight, and so become faster readers. Dyslexic students generally do not make this leap. They flounder, wondering why it’s so easy for everyone else.
The Third Grade Wall
When a dyslexic student hits the “third-grade wall” and sentences become too long and complex to comprehend at word-by-word speed, it’s time to change gears. Congratulate the student on working hard and learning phonics. Let them know their brains have stored this material and they can always go back to it whenever needed to decode a new word. But since they have made outstanding progress, it’s time to reap the benefits and use their dyslexic strengths
Two Outcomes for Adult Dyslexics
Adult dyslexics present two very different outcomes. Most read slowly, avoiding reading when possible. But some adult dyslexics read extremely fast with high comprehension — speed read, in fact. The difference is whether they’ve made the leap to reading with their dyslexic strengths of pattern recognition and context analysis, instead of sounding out one word at a time using their weakest skill; phonemic awareness.
Now What?? Audio Books!!
Dyslexia opportunities improved dramatically when Learning Ally realized it should serve not only blind students but dyslexic students as well. They are a major source of audio textbooks. Audiobooks profoundly benefit dyslexic students. But not enough has been said about the best way for dyslexic students to make use of audiobooks. Most students just listen to the books. What a missed opportunity! The dyslexic student who obtains both the paper book and the audiobook and looks at the text while hearing it links not just words, but phrases and sentences, to the meaning behind the text. With practice, the student starts reading in a way non-dyslexic peers can only dream about.
Tracking Makes All the Difference
The student doesn’t need to look at each word, but just keep his or her eyes on the line or paragraph being read, and turn the page at the right time. The student allows the eyes to flow in a lazy “S” down the middle of the page, following the reader. Some dyslexic students use a card to block off the text that has already been read. However, it’s best to never block the upcoming text, as dyslexics need to subconsciously preview text to become fast readers. Once the student gets the idea of relaxing into the text and flowing along with the reader, it takes little effort. Now the incredible power of the dyslexic brain allows the reader to soar.
Dyslexia Wings
Let your dyslexic student know that oral reading and silent reading are two distinct skills. Saying the words, even in their own minds, limits how fast they read. If they stop saying the words in their heads, they can read faster. Dyslexics have two strong wings to soar above other readers in silent reading comprehension. Those wings are their dyslexic strengths in pattern recognition and in context analysis.
By listening to audiobooks while scanning down the page with the reader, dyslexic readers link dyslexic strengths directly to the task of pulling the meaning out of the text. This does NOT produce fluent oral reading, so don’t expect to see oral reading test scores go up. But it DOES produce lightning-fast silent reading after about six months to a year of DAILY practice. It’s easy to informally test silent reading comprehension. Just have the student read a passage silently, then ask questions about the content.
Picking up the Pace
Many students start speeding up the audio after about three months of daily practice, and then in a year or two, dispense with the audio altogether. Some use an app with a computer-generated voice, such as VoiceDream, so they can listen even faster. (See Dr. Matthew Schneps; How One Dyslexic Speed Reads, at Voice Dream.
Other students prefer a narrator to a computer voice. During this practice, audio-assisted readers store massive amounts of text-to-meaning information and pick up new vocabulary. They also close the dyslexic reading gap. (Their peers have read more books and gathered more book-based language experience, so now they can catch up.) Soon the dyslexic reader, with his or her headphones, audiobooks, and paper copies, surpasses the average reader in silent reading speed and comprehension. Even more important — the soaring dyslexic reader now finds joy, rather than pain, in great books!
by Yvonna Graham, M.Ed.
www.dyslexiakit.net@GrahamYvonna