A number of years ago, I had the good fortune to take part on a panel during a symposium on dyslexia sponsored by the grassroots parenting group, Decoding Dyslexia: NJ. Dr. Sally Shaywitz, the author of “Overcoming Dyslexia” was the keynote speaker.
While talking about assessing dyslexia, Dr. Shaywitz said something that really struck me, as it reminded of something I had been saying for years.
As she stated, “Dyslexia is not a score.”
That statement is right on the money.
In the assessment of dyslexia, scores are certainly involved. Tests such as the Woodcock Reading Mastery Test, the Tests of Word Reading Efficiency and the Comprehensive Tests of Phonological Processing, among other standardized measures, yield reliable and valid standard scores, grade equivalents and percentiles. Such scores can be helpful markers in formulating the diagnosis.
However, the scores often don’t tell the whole story, as seen in the case of Marla a 12-year-old sixth grader.
Cognitive scores found Marla in the 60th %ile of verbal intelligence, with her nonverbal scores clustering in the 75th % percentile, meaning Marla’s a pretty bright kid. Marla’s word identification (words read in isolation) placed her in the lower portion of the average range, with similar word attack (decoding) and passage comprehensions scores.
Marla’s academic scores would not have gotten the school too excited since the sores clustered in the average range, albeit on the low end of average.
However, listening to Marla read was almost painful. Every time she came upon a large word that was not all that common (such as, historical, pedestrian, departure) she hesitated a number of seconds, and either stumbled finally coming up with the right word or substituted a nonsense word (e.g., “ostrich” for “orhestra”). The substitutions completely altered the meaning, making comprehension challenging, even though she did compensate on comprehension questions getting many of them right.
Two other areas of concern involved the way that Marla spelled (circle/serkul, correct/crect, minute/mintue) and her sentence/paragraph writing. While Marla could memorize for a spelling test and get good grades, her spelling and her open writing were very weak.
Similar to the sound of Marla’s painful oral reading, producing something in writing was a painful process for her.
Takeaway Point:
With dyslexia, you can’t just look at the scores and make a conclusion. You need to look under the hood to see what’s going on with the engine.
“Dyslexia is not a score.”