Dr. Patricia Anderson
CT State Department of Education
Bureau of Special Education
patricia.anderson@ct.gov
An Act Establishing the Office of
Early Childhood, Expanding
Opportunities for Early Childhood
Education and Concerning
Dyslexia and Special Education
 Not later than January 1, 2015, the
Department of Education shall add "SLD Dyslexia" under "Specific Learning
Disabilities" in the "Primary Disability"
section of the individualized education
program form used by planning and
placement teams for the provision of
special education and related services to
children requiring special education and
related services.
 On and after July 1, 2006, any program of
teacher preparation leading to professional
certification shall include, as part of the
curriculum, instruction in literacy skills and
processes that reflects current research and
best practices in the field of literacy training.
Such instruction shall (1) be incorporated into
requirements of student major and
concentration, and (2) on and after July 1,
2015, include the detection and recognition
of, and evidence-based interventions for,
students with dyslexia.
 Assembled an internal Specific Learning
Disabilities/Dyslexia (SLD/Dyslexia) advisory
group to address the requirements of the
legislation and consider the needs of the field
regarding the upcoming change in the “Primary
Disability” section of the IEP document.
 Compiled an external SLD/Dyslexia Workgroup
comprised of a wide range of stakeholders that
met monthly for five meetings to develop
statewide guidance and recommendations.
 Revised IEP document to include
“SLD/Dyslexia” in the Primary
Disability section on page one
 Revised IEP Manual
 Communicated changes to electronic
IEP vendors
 Revised SEDAC data collection file
layout
 Explored issues surrounding the identification
and instruction of students with SLD/Dyslexia
 Reviewed and identified a shared
understanding and definition of “dyslexia”
 Identified pertinent legislation and
implementation practices from other states
 Discussed evidence-based practices for the
screening, identification, and instruction of
students with SLD/Dyslexia
1. What is Dyslexia?
2. Who can identify a child with a Specific
Learning Disability (SLD)/Dyslexia?
3. What is a comprehensive evaluation for a
child suspected of having SLD/Dyslexia?
4. Is a child identified with SLD/Dyslexia
automatically qualified for special education
services?
5. What is appropriate specialized instruction
for a student with SLD/Dyslexia?
 SLD/Dyslexia FAQs are located under “Eligibility
Documents” following the Guidelines on Identifying
Children with Learning Disabilities:
http://www.sde.ct.gov/sde/cwp/view.asp?a=2626&q=32
2672#Elig
 The responses to the FAQs are based on information from
the LD Guidelines and updated with new research and
input from the SLD/Dyslexia Workgroup.
 The complete CSDE Working Definition of Dyslexia can be
found as the response to the first FAQ - “What is
Dyslexia.”
 The IEP Manual contains the IDEA definition of specific
learning disabilities and the initial segment of the CSDE
Working Definition of Dyslexia.

Designation of a CSDE employee to provide
information and assistance to LEAs and
parents regarding dyslexia.

On and after July 1, 2015 not fewer than 12
clock hours of instruction in the detection
and recognition of, and evidence-based
structured literacy interventions for
students with dyslexia.

Inservice training on the detection and
recognition of and evidence-based
structured literacy interventions for
students with dyslexia.

On or before January 1, 2016, CSDE shall
develop or approve reading assessments . . .
Commencing as of July 1, 2016 to identify
students in K – 3 who are below proficiency
in reading, provided any reading assessments
developed or approved by the department
include frequent screening and progress
monitoring of students.

Such reading assessments shall . . . 5) assist
in identifying, in whole or in part, students
at risk for dyslexia
Contributions of Speech-Language
Pathologists to Reading Assessment and
Intervention on Interdisciplinary Teams
Richard P. Zipoli, Jr.
Southern Connecticut State University
zipoli1@southernct.edu
Language Foundations
Five Domains of Language
1. Phonology
 sound system
2. Morphology  word structure and parts
3. Syntax
 word order in sentences
4. Semantics
 meaning
5. Pragmatics
 social use and discourse skills
Simple View of Reading
Gough & Tunmer, 1986
Reading Comprehension =
Decoding x Linguistic Comprehension
Subgroups of Poor Readers
Based on Catts & Kahmi, 2005
Poor Decoding and Poor Comprehension
Poor Decoding
Poor Comprehension
Subgroups of Poor Readers
Catts, Hogan, & Adolf, 2005
1. Dyslexia
–
Deficits in word recognition
–
Spelling difficulties
–
Relatively good listening comprehension
–
Often present with underlying deficits in
phonological awareness
Subgroups of Poor Readers
Catts, Hogan, & Adolf, 2005
2. Specific Comprehension Deficit
− Deficits in listening comprehension
− Relatively good word recognition
3. Mixed Reading Disability
− Deficits in word recognition and listening
comprehension
Example of a Comprehensive,
Interdisciplinary Evaluation
Roberts & Scott, 2006, p. 139
Area
Component
Measure
Administrator*
* varies based on team
members, setting, etc.
Reading
Spelling
Writing
Phonological
Processing
Oral Language
Single-word decoding
Nonword reading
Oral reading fluency
Passage comprehension
Product measures
Process measures
Product measures
Phonological awareness
Phonological memory
Rapid naming
Receptive language
Expressive language
Vocabulary
Narrative discourse
TOWRE
WDRB: Word attack
GORT
WDRB: Passage
CBM
Portfolio
Portfolio
CTOPP
CTOPP
CTOPP
CELF-4
CELF-4
EVT
SNAP
Reading specialist
Reading specialist
Reading specialist
Reading specialist
Classroom teacher
Classroom teacher
Classroom teacher
SLP
SLP
SLP
SLP
SLP
SLP
SLP
Transition services
• CT State Dept of Ed Secondary Transition
Resource Page:
http://www.sde.ct.gov/sde/cwp/view.asp?a=26
26&q=322676
• National Technical Assistance Center for
Transtion
http://www.nsttac.org/
Adolescents with Reading Difficulties
• Adolescents’ needs and pathways to literacy
vary from their younger counterparts (O’Brien
& Dillon, 2014)
– Developmental differences
– School histories – compromised assent to learn
– Reading histories – differential practice,
confidence motivation & engagement
– Intervention histories –artifacts of learned
approaches (unintended consequences)
Addressing Adolescent Difficulties
• Student-created and student-selected text
(comprehensible input)
• Action-oriented reading and writing
• Support for discourse and sentence-level cues
– Meaning and syntactic cueing systems
• Social reasons for reading
• Opportunities for high-success experiences
A “first language” foundation for
reading: engaged reading experiences
Engaged reading
experiences
Independent reading
proficiency
Modified from Cummins’ iceberg model of interdependence)_,
The Engagement Model of Reading
Development
Guthrie, 2014
Motivation in
Reading*
Classroom
Instruction
& Teaching
Components:
Relevance/choice
Success
Importance
Collaboration
Volume
Components:
Intrinsic
Efficacy
Value
Social
Cognition in
Reading
Components:
Word rec.
Fluency
Vocabulary
Comprehension
Reading
Engagement
Components:
Effort
Enthusiasm
Persistence
Self-regulation
Reading
Achievement
Components:
Reasoning
Literal
Fluency
Vocabulary
*Ongoing research suggests this is all true of writing as well!