Dyslexia/Reading & Learning Disabilities

As I continue to go through my piles of hoarded articles, I came across one of my favorites – “How Learning to Read a Book Is Like Learning to Play the Piano” (Brent Staples, New York Times, March, 2002).

When the article was written there was a debate raging as to what was the best way to teach emerging and struggling readers.

Essentially, there were two camps. (Sound familiar?)

At the time, the first camp was thought to be more cutting edge and progressive in their approach to teaching children to read.

Espousing what was viewed as a “top-down” model, its view was that learning to read was largely seen as a process that occurred naturally, like learning to walk and talk. All that was needed for children to learn to read, was an enriched language-loaded environment (such as reading stories to children) that fostered the natural unfolding of the skills.

For these “top-down” adherents, the teaching of sound-symbol relationships (i.e., phonics) was “so yesterday,” so old school. For those who maintained the “old school” approaches (i.e., the “bottom-up” camp), there was considerable criticism, often expressed contempt directed their way.

From the NYT article that I’ve held onto for nearly 20 years, the Windward School, a specialized school based in Westchester County, New York, was featured.

As stated in the article:

“Windward rejects just about all of the conventional wisdom underlying programs at traditional schools. The most important difference is that the school views reading and writing not as a thing that human beings are “naturally wired” to do, but as acquired skills – like driving or playing the piano that require structured practice and constant conceptual reinforcement.”

Citing Ms. Phylis Bertin, the director of reading for Windward’s Teacher Training Institute, she, “likens the school and their methods to a conservatory where aspiring musicians practice scales and play exercises to prepare themselves for the masterworks they one day hope to play. Ms. Bertin says the nation’s sense of having a reading crisis will only deepen until school system and colleges of education adopt a structured approach that reaches the 4 in 10 American children who have trouble learning to read.”

Ms. Bertin stated, “Windward is not the answer. The answer is to change the way we teach teachers to teach reading.”

Since 2002 the research evidence has not been particularly kind to the “top-down” group. In fact, their theories have largely been rejected.

The problem is we are still largely feeling the effects of the top-down theories. If we could, instead of waiting to unfold these theories, introduced the children to more practical forms of learning like STEM teaching which opens them to the world of science, arts, technology, it would have helped them a great deal. Introducing STEM in early childhood could help them to become curious and independently attempt to solve their own problems using the help of technology.

Let’s take Ethan, an 8-year-old third grader who is struggling to read, spell and write. Since there were “red flags of concern in first grade, he should have gotten a healthy dose of targeted, focused, structured instruction.

At the time that I met Ethan he had received little “bottom-up” instruction,”

Instead, the parents were told, “It’s too early to do anything – we need to wait and see.”

This “wait and see” approach is opposite to all of the best research and one of the reason the Ethans of the world are struggling far more than they should be in the middle elementary school grades.

Ethan could have and should have been practicing his scales, notes and chords as soon as there was any suggestion of difficulty, but if reading, spelling and writing are viewed as a natural unfolding, then you listen to songs and hope they will be absorbed.

Takeaway Point

If you see your child struggling, even as early as six or seven years of age, don’t wait. Find a good “music teacher.”

Understanding dyslexia is challenging, primarily because of the deeply embedded mythologies that we hold, chief among them is what I call “the reversal thing.”

You know, try my experiment this holiday season.  With any friend or relative ask them, “Hey, Uncle George, what do you know of dyslexia?”  Guaranteed you will get the, “Isn’t that when,” response (i.e., “Isn’t that when you read upside down and backward?”)

It happens every time.

Not sure how we all got so hypnotized to believe that mythology, but of the last 100 or so dyslexic kids I evaluated, not one of them showed any sign of reading upside down or backward.

A few years back when I was doing my School Struggles podcast series as a part of the CoffeeKlatch Network I had the honor of interviewing James (Jamie) Redford, a documentary filmmaker, who had directed  the award winning film, “The Big Picture: Rethinking Dyslexia.”

The interview centered on the struggles that Jamie and his wife,  Kyle, had gone through in helping their son overcome his struggles with dyslexia.

James was warm, accessible and a pleasure to interview.  I remember thinking at some point in the interview that I felt like I was talking with an old friend over a cup of coffee.

Sadly, James passed away in October at the age of 58 from complications related to liver cancer.

In this replay of the interview, we raise a glass to you, Jamie, and thank you for fighting the good fight.

Here is the interview:

James Redford Dyslexia Interview

Copyright, 2020 www.shutdownlearner.com
Questions or topics email Dr. Selznick.  Not in the South Jersey area? For a free 15 Minute Consultation, contact Dr. Selznick: email – rselznick615@gmail.com.

Last week we discussed Gina, a frustrated 17 year old who was not getting the results she had hoped  on tests like the SATs, in spite of her putting in a great deal of effort prepping for the test  (Gina, Part I).

Gina had been previously evaluated by the school’s special education team who found her to be “fine,” with scores falling in the average range or better.

When I subsequently evaluated Gina, I found that she had an unrecognized “heel spur,” affecting her ability to perform effectively on challenging tests.

This “heel spur” did not allow her to read complex words very efficiently, slowing down her overall reading process.    While ultimately reading words like mechanic, pedestrian and multitudinous correctly, she did so with a great deal of effort, expanding time considerably while reading, greatly impacting timed tests like the SATs.

After the post went public, questions were received from New York to Thailand,  including:

“How is this type of problem addressed/corrected?”

“What exactly is her “heel spur?”

“Why was she able to ultimately  correctly read the words that were challenging to her?

As it turns out Gina always struggled with reading words, but she was always “good enough” to fall in the dreaded portion of the average range where nothing is done (around the 30^th % ile of the bell shaped curve).

Primarily, Gina read words from her memory.  This was a habit (style) of hers since first grade.

So, when she saw a word like “pedestrian,” her instinct was to immediately say a word from her memory like “pediatrician,” which looked like “pedestrian.”  Eventually stumbling on the word the process was exhausting.

This style/habit was her “heel spur.”

Relative to the question of how to address/correct the problem,  if Gina were younger specialized tutoring would be recommended to target her word reading and reading fluency skills.

At this point in her senior year of high school, Gina needs greater understanding  that her issue is not her intelligence, as she was getting down on herself and frustrated.  Gina needs to understand that we all have “heel spurs” of one sort or another, so she doesn’t make the harsh self statements she was starting to make about herself.

Gina is also in need of accommodations in the form of a 504 Plan, which offers accommodations to those with an identified disability.

Two accommodations come to mind.

First, Gina needs extended time.  Typically,  students are given either time and a half or double time extension on standardized tests.   Even if she is not given this accommodation for the SAT as sometimes happens, the likelihood is that she would be given such accommodations in college.

Another accommodation that is not done with standardized testing, but can be offered in less formal settings such as the classroom, would be to allow Gina the opportunity to preview the difficult words prior to taking a test.

This accommodation would not be giving her an unfair advantage, which is not the purpose of a 504 Plan, but would help to “level the playing field.”

For so many like Gina out there, they can’t manage difficult text and with a little assistance in the form of an accommodation or two, these allow them to get in the game.

Copyright, 2020 www.shutdownlearner.com
Questions or topics email Dr. Selznick.  Not in the South Jersey area? For a free 15 Minute Consultation, contact Dr. Selznick: email – rselznick615@gmail.com

Gina is a frustrated 17 year old junior in high school.

Feeling that she’s done everything  people have asked of her and more to prepare for the SAT’s, have left her frustrated with not great results.

Putting in practically an hour a day studying for the SAT’s (in contrast to the “the idiot boys,” she thinks, “who do nothing but play their stupid video games”),  she’s also  taken a six month course to improve her scores and “test-taking strategies.”

A year ago, Gina was vaguely “diagnosed” as “ADHD,” of the inattentive variety,  by a very wise-seeming grandfather type, medical specialist who spent about ten minutes with her, telling her, “I think you need medication,” while scratching his beard in professorial fashion.

Dutifully, Gina went on stimulant medication, but the SAT needle didn’t budg, nor did her test taking in school, where she continued to receive mediocre grade after mediocre grade.

At her parents’ request, Gina was evaluated by the school’s special education team. Their findings were not compelling, as scores clustered in the “average range,” even though some were in dreaded “lower portion of the average range,” (i.e., the 30^th %ile).

The message indirectly given from the team to the parents was, “Yes, the doctor is right.  Even though we’re not physicians,  it does sound like ADD.”

When I meet Gina for an assessment, she was not on medication.  Working with her for over three hours, there wasn’t a moment of distractibility.  Gina recounted how hard she’s worked over the last year.

Here’s the thing, though, Gina had a metaphorical “heel spur,” that no one has ever commented on that impacted every aspect of her academics.

Here’s a glimpse into her “heel spur.”

As part of the assessment Gina was given tough words to read, such: 

• mechanic
• illustrious
• tentative
• pedestrian
• investigative
• metaphorical

Even though Gina ultimately read each one of these correctly, it was only after a great deal of effort for each of the words that she arrived at a correct response.

To give you a flavor of it, here’s how Gina read some of the words transcribed as close as possible to exactly what she said.

For “mechanic,” Gina quickly said, “machine…no, wait, medicine, no, mech…mech… mechanic,”

For “pedestrian,” there was a about a five second delay while Gina tried to figure out the word.  She started to say “pediatrician,” but stopped herself ultimately saying, “pedestrian.”

“Illustrious,” started out as, “illustrated,” with considerable stumbling before arriving correctly at the word.

Technically speaking, Gina would probably have been given a check mark after each of the words, but the scores would not be telling the story of her “heel spur.”

When Gina read a high school level story to me out loud, there were no errors, but the reading was choppy, labored and strained, probably taking her nearly triple the amount of time expected for the reading of the passage.

Listening to her read the words and the story was exhausting (for her and me).

Takeaway Point

Often the scores don’t tell the story.  Regardless of the age of your child take out a book roughly within his/her grade level.

Have the child read out loud.  Is it smooth sounding without a lot of stumbling or choppiness?

If it is not, then there is a “heel spur” that needs to be identified and addressed.

In the 500 or so blog posts that have been posted on the site, many of them receive comments.

As a change of pace, we offer some of the comments.  In later blogs we will continue to share comments with you to get other voices – other perspectives on the issues

To a blog that was written some time ago, but recently reposted, #Comprehension:  Often Forgotten in Dyslexia Land (https://shutdownlearner.com/comprehension-sometimes-forgotten-in-dyslexia-land/), was this comment from Mira:

“I see this all the time– Now that the focus has REALLY shifted to decoding and fluency– these kids are missing so much LANGUAGE! Comprehension and flexibility are lost. We have found we have to really work with kids to help them visualize — go back to fantasy and nursery rhymes. Thanks for recognizing that comprehension is sorely lacking– parents don’t recognize it either- as they are given lots of data on decoding.”

That comment made me think of an adolescent, I evaluated recently, 16 year old Catherine.

When it came to responding to basic factual questions such as “How many states are there in the United States,” or responding to questions of vocabulary, such as “What is a island,”  Catherine was at a total loss.  For the word “island” she said something vaguely like, “It has sand and mountains,” but could say little else even when prompted.

When Catherine’s reading was assessed, while her reading fluency was ok, she really had no idea how to respond to questions of the passages she had read.  While the factual questions of the passages were managed (e.g., “How many people were in the family?”), when it came to anything involving an inference, such as answering a “why question” or drawing a conclusion from what she had read, she seemed fundamentally confused.

For Catherine who is planning on going to college, a great deal of work is needed in targeting her vocabulary and how to understand higher order thinking questions.

Then there was the comment from Stan, an educator himself, who commented on the post, “Challenging Our Assumptions”  (https://shutdownlearner.com/challenging-our-assumptions/).

The theme of that post involved challenging statements we make all the time with a low-motivated child, such as “He’s just not trying  – he just doesn’t care,” by trying to step-back and understand the emotional variables contributing to the low motivation.

As noted in Stan’s comment:

“There is a larger lesson here that applies to all of us, and especially to kids in school. One of the great negative motivators is “fear of embarrassment.” It’s the reason someone answers “I don’t know” to the question “What do you think?” If you say what you think, you risk being ridiculed because that thought is silly (or worse). It’s why students don’t ask clarifying questions in the classroom, lest the teacher or their fellow students make fun of the naivete of the question. Acknowledging this fear, and then working to overcome it, requires a community of supporters who cherish hearing what you actually think — and will not make you regret putting your true thoughts out into the world.”

 In the summer, was the post, “The Diagnosis:  Medication & Knowing the Limits”:  (https://shutdownlearner.com/the-diagnosis-medication-and-knowing-the-limits/)

To that post a fellow psychologist, Dr. Steven Sussman, said the following:

“I am a psychologist specializing exclusively with kids and teens with “Disruptive Behavior Disorders.” Meds as you say can only help with focus… but before teaching them compensatory life skills/strategies…my experience is that I have to highly motivate the child first…to WANT to practice and master life/academic skills…otherwise they resist similarly to the way they resist their teachers, parents, coaches, etc.

Such kids need highly stimulating, exciting, and entertaining/humorous techniques to overcome their attention and concentration difficulties; particularly if they have AD/HD. Traditional therapy often fails them because it uses “auditory learning” techniques (questioning, explaining, verbiage, etc) when as you point out AD/HD kids tend to be “visual learners.” They need to learn through hands on, creative techniques that stimulate their senses and minds). Your work has influenced me greatly.” Sincerely, Steven Sussman, PhD Psychologist

When it comes to the challenges of getting kids to connect and “buy-in,” I could not agree more with Dr. Sussman’s comments.

Takeaway Point

Keep the comments coming folks!  We really appreciate them.

Copyright, 2020 www.shutdownlearner.com
Questions or topics email Dr. Selznick.  Not in the South Jersey area? For a free 15 Minute Consultation, contact Dr. Selznick: email – rselznick615@gmail.com

To purchase a signed copy of  “What To Do About Dyslexia: 25 Essential Concepts” & Dr. Selznick’s other books and to receive blog updates go to https://shutdownlearner.com.

Over the years I have been somewhat plagued by what I call a Sentimental Hoarding Disorder (SHD).

My SHD mostly involves some form of paper. Certain items could never be thrown out and have been kept for many years. So, for example, if there was an article or a magazine featuring the Rolling Stones or the racehorse Secretariat, I still have it in a box or a pile somewhere.

The same has been true with any article related to reading disabilities and dyslexia.

With the symbolic start of a new year post Labor Day, I recently tried decluttering by tossing out some of the accumulated SHD sitting in piles. It was a good thing I didn’t have masses and masses of random objects and stuff, otherwise, I would have had to have called in a Rubbish Removals Clayton service or got myself a massive skip to dump everything in.

While painfully decluttering, I came upon a 2002 article from the New York Times titled, “How Learning to Read a Book is Like Learning to Play the Piano” (Brent Staples, 2002).

Extensively quoted in the article is Phyllis Bertin, the then director of reading at the acclaimed Windward School, a private school for children with learning disabilities/dyslexia.

The article summarized Ms. Bertin’s explanation of the philosophy underlying the school:

“Windward rejects just about all of the conventional wisdom underlying programs at traditional schools. The most important difference is that the school views reading and writing not as things that humans are “naturally wired” to do, but as acquired skills – like driving or playing the piano – that require structured practice and constant conceptual reinforcement.”

The article went on to say that Bertin felt many children who fall behind are “curriculum disabled,” by schools that do not know how to teach them.

“Ms. Bertin likens the school to a conservatory where aspiring musicians practice scales and play exercises to prepare themselves for the masterworks they one day hope to play,” it was noted

Eighteen years later the article is as relevant now as it was then.

Just yesterday a mom called me upset that her 8 year old child was still stuck in an early first grade level.

“I don’t understand,” the mom said. “I don’t know how it happened, but his older brother just learned to read, like the light bulb went off in second grade and he was reading by exposure to school and other things.”

I said to her, “Yep, it’s what I call the ‘smooth road and the rough road’. About 80% of the kids get on the bike and by second grade they’re riding – no big deal. It’s a smooth road. For the rest, they are still wobbling at the starting point. They need much more patient, direct instruction with a lot of skill practice – just like learning to play an instrument or hit a tennis ball. I will send you an article I have from about 20 years ago that lays this all out.”

Takeaway Point

Beside the obvious disadvantage of creating clutter, a “Sentimental Hoarding Disorder” has some advantages.

Holding on to an article nearly 20 years old helps to adds fuel to the fire.

With about 460 or so blog posts in I know I am going to repeat myself.  I think it’s ok, though, as I keep hearing the same themes brought to me to me by parents and professionals about topics around dyslexia, reading struggles, ADD and anything related to the topic of school struggling.

The mythologies and misinformation abound.

Of course, one of the favored myths that is almost impossible to shake from our collective consciousness is what I call the “reversal thing,” when it comes to reading disability/dyslexia.

Not sure how this happened (I suspect it started with a show like “60 Minutes” back in the early 1980s), but somewhere along the line, we all were hypnotized.  No matter what your background or level of education chances are the “reversal thing” is deeply embedded in your thought process.

To show you how embedded this mythology is, as we approach Labor Day with family and friends (keeping appropriate social distance of course), try this little experiment.  Turn to your aunt, uncle or cousin and ask, “Hey, Uncle Bill, do you know what dyslexia is?”

I will make a $20 bet that Uncle Bill will say something like, “Isn’t that when (The answer always starts with “Isn’t that when…”) you read upside down and backwards?  You know, like the words and letters are all upside down or something, right.”

Uncle Bill is in good company.  The “reversal thing” is a dominating and ruling mythology.  We seem unable to shake it from our “mental tree.”

When you look to the widely accepted definition of dyslexia, it states the following in the first part of the definition:

Dyslexia is a specific learning disability that is neurobiological in origin. It is characterized by difficulties with accurate and/or fluent word recognition and by poor spelling and decoding abilities.

Where’s the word “reversal?”  Even though I only offered the first part of the definition, in no place in the more expanded definition can the word “reversal” be found.

Taking “reversal” out of it,    One way to think about dyslexia is to consider it as “reading inefficiency.” Or in the simple definition, it represents difficulty identifying words accurately and fluently.

For example, If I read “pricopinny” for  “porcupine” or “Sweden” for “seaweed,” that’s a problem.  The reading will be conducted very inefficiently and understanding will be greatly impacted.

 Takeaway Point

We will be discussing the other main mythologies in future blogs, but for now let’s try and loosen the “reversal thing” from your mental tree.  Listen to your child read.  Does he/she sound inefficient?  Are there lots of words like “pricopinny” substituting for real words like “porcupine?” If so, then you are probably in the realm of dyslexia, (although it is important to understand that there are other variables or factors to consider).

Copyright, 2020 www.shutdownlearner.com
Questions or topics email Dr. Selznick.  Not in the South Jersey area? For a free 15 Minute Consultation, contact Dr. Selznick: email – rselznick615@gmail.com

To purchase a signed copy of  “What To Do About Dyslexia: 25 Essential Concepts” & Dr. Selznick’s other books and to receive blog updates go to https://shutdownlearner.com.