Basics and Classroom
Accommodations
• Understand the characteristics and causes of
dyslexia
• Understand how dyslexia characteristics are
different in Spanish speaking students
• Understand how to choose accommodations to
benefit individual students
• Review and discuss common accommodations
• (1) Dyslexia means a disorder of
constitutional origin manifested by a
difficulty in learning to read, write, or
spell, despite conventional instruction,
adequate intelligence, and sociocultural
opportunity.
• 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.
Adopted by the IDA Board of Directors, Nov. 12, 2002. This definition is also used
By the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD)
• In contrast to the more general term learning
disability
• Problems are at the word level
• More defined in terms of cognitive
characteristics (PA, RAN, Phon. Memory)
• Reading disabilities affect at least 80% of the
LD population – more prevalent type of
learning disability
Region 10 Education Center
• Converging evidence using functional brain
imaging in adult dyslexic readers show a failure
of left hemisphere posterior brain systems to
function properly during reading.
Region 10 Education Center
Reading: Four Processing Systems
Background
Information; sentence
context; text structure
Content
Processor
Meaning
Processor
Memory for
Letters
Orthographic
Processor
Print
Phonics
Vocabulary
Speech sound
system
Phonological
Processor
Speech
Broca’s Area
Parieto-temporal
Inferior frontal
gyrus
(word analysis)
Sound Symbol
Connection
(Phonics)
(articulation/word
analysis
Phonological
Processing
Automatic
Word
Recognition
Sally Shaywitz, Overcoming
Dyslexia, 2003
Occipito-temporal
(word
formation/orthographic
processing)
Nonimpaired
Sally Shaywitz, Overcoming
Dyslexia, 2003
Dyslexic
Sally Shaywitz, Overcoming
Dyslexia, 2003
Sally Shaywitz, Overcoming
Dyslexia, 2003
• Difficulties with accurate word recognition,
and/or
• Difficulties with fluent word recognition
• Poor decoding
• Poor spelling
• Secondary consequences MAY include:
• Reading comprehension
• Reduced reading experience
• Impede growth in vocabulary and
• Impede growth in Background knowledge
Unexpected in relation to other
cognitive abilities – Examples
• Ability to learn orally in class: Science, Social
Studies, etc.
• Able to learn and express meanings of words
(vocabulary)
• Average or above reading comprehension
• Understanding of math word problems
• CogAT scores or scores from other group
administered ability assessment
Unexpected in relation to other
cognitive abilities – Examples
Reasoning
Critical
thinking
Concept
formation
Comprehension
General
Knowledge
Decoding
Vocabulary
Problem
Solving
Sea of Strengths Model of Dyslexia
Shaywitz, Overcoming Dyslexia, 2003
• The ability to focus on units of sound in spoken
language
• It includes the awareness of sounds of words
(rather than the meanings) in sentences,
awareness of syllables in words, and awareness
of phonemes – or individual sounds – in short
words or syllables.
Region 10 Education Center
Decoding
Comprehension
Word Identification
Meaning
Dyslexia
Language Systems
Reading
Discourse
Syntax
Comprehension
Semantics
Phonology
Sally Shaywitz, Overcoming
Dyslexia, 2003
Decoding
Rapid Naming:
• Effective retrieval of phonological
information from memory
• Has been found as another core
deficit in developmental dyslexia
• Predictive of reading fluency and rate
• Tested on timed tasks
Sample of a rapid naming task:
3
7
5
8
4
3
7
5
8
5
9
8
4
3
5
9
8
4
7
4
9
5
3
7
4
9
5
4
5
3
9
7
4
5
3
9
Students who have double
deficits – that is, deficits in both
rapid naming and phonological
awareness – have the most
pronounced reading impairments
and are the most resistant to
intervention.
Reading: Four Processing Systems
Background
Information; sentence
context; text structure
Content
Processor
Meaning
Processor
Memory for
Letters
Orthographic
Processor
Print
Phonics
Vocabulary
Speech sound
system
Phonological
Processor
Speech
Orthographic Processing:
• Orthography refers to how spoken words are
represented in written language.
• Orthographic awareness is the ability to perceive
and recall letters, letter strings and words.
• With repeated encounters the reader builds an
orthographic memory (i.e., memory for patterns of
written language) of words so that eventually he or
she instantly recognizes the words without having to
sound them out.
Source: Learning Disabilities and Challenging Behaviors: A Guide to Intervention and
Classroom Management by Nancy Mather and Sam Goldstein.
…Vision problems can interfere with the process of
learning; however, vision problems are not the cause of
primary dyslexia or learning disabilities. Scientific
evidence does not support the efficacy of eye
exercises, behavioral vision therapy, or special tinted
filters or lenses for improving the long-term educational
performance in these complex pediatric neurocognitive
conditions. Diagnostic and treatment approaches that
lack scientific evidence of efficacy, including eye
exercises, behavioral vision therapy, or special tinted
filters or lenses, are not endorsed and should not
be recommended.
Joint Policy Statement in August, 2009:
The American Academy of Pediatrics: Section on Ophthalmology and Council on Children with
Disabilities, American Academy of Ophthalmology, American Association for Pediatric Ophthalmology
and Strabismus, and American Association of Certified Orthoptists
• Although children with dyslexia may make more
oral reading errors than children who are good
readers, the ratio of reversal errors to other
errors is the same.
• Without appropriate reading instruction
children with dyslexia continue to make
decoding errors typical of early readers.
Dyslexia: Theory & Practice of Instruction, Uhry & Clark, 2004
• AD/HD
• Dysgraphia
• Speech/language problems
Memory
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Learning words and names
Learning rote information
Irregular words
Verbal instructions
Lines for a play
Quick recall of math facts
Materials for class
Mental math
Holding ideas long enough to
manipulate them mentally and
transfer to paper
•
•
•
•
•
•
Sequencing
Reading/spelling words with
sounds in correct order
Skip counting
Order of events
Writing in sequence 319 –
931
Verbal directions
Months of the year
•
•
•
•
•
•
Executive Functioning
Working memory
Self regulation
Planning and organizing skills
Ability to get started on tasks
Metacognition
Time
awareness/management
•
•
•
•
•
Processing Speed
Automatic word recognition
Keeping up with pace of
instruction
Responding quickly to
questions
Word retrieval
RAN
• Maybe gifted in various areas
• Music, art, athletics, intellectual pursuits
• Visual-spatial thinking or 3 dimensional awareness
• Architecture, engineering, photography
•
•
•
•
•
•
Technical and mechanical aptitude
Accustomed to trying hard and fighting barriers
Good at seeing the big picture
Problem solvers
Out of the box thinkers
Strong verbal communications
Transparent
Spanish
Opaque
English
• Transparent – one-to-one
correspondence between letters and
sounds in a language
• Opaque – Letter-sound relationship that is
not straightforward
• Spanish (transparent)
• Based on alphabetic principle
• One-to-one correspondence between phonemes and
graphemes
• 29 letters
• 23-26 phonemes
• 5 vowels
• 18-21 consonant sounds
• Consists of common syllable patterns
Cardenas-Hagen, 2005
• English (opaque)
• Based on alphabetic principle
• 26 letters
• 42-44 phonemes
• Approximately 210 graphemes
• Weaknesses
•Phonological
awareness
• Single word
reading
• Pseudoword
reading
(decoding)
• Spelling
• Lack of fluency
• Strengths
•Listening
comprehension
•Ability to learn
in the absence
of print
• Letter-sound learning proceeds more rapidly
for children learning to read more transparent
orthographies and more slowly for children
learning to read more opaque orthographies.
(Goswami, 2002; Serrano & Defior, 2008)
• A deficit in phonology is a major cause of
dyslexia in all languages.
(Serrano & Defoir, 2008; Lindsey, Manis, & Bailey, 2003)
• “a Spanish-speaking child with a mild-tomoderate difficulty in phonological awareness
may acquire word reading skills in Spanish with
minimal difficulty, but manifest difficulties in
fluency because of the more transparent
orthography of Spanish relative to other
alphabetic languages such as English.”
(Wagner, Francis, & Morris, 2005, page 8)
• Children who speak Spanish, a more
transparent orthography, with deficits in
phonological/phonemic awareness will more
easily learn the grapheme-phoneme
correspondences.
• The most apparent indication of dyslexia for
native Spanish speakers will be related to the
speed of word reading.
Serrano & Defior, 2008; Jimenez, Hernandez-Valle, Rodriquez,
Guzman, Diaz, & Ortiz, 2008
• Weaknesses:
•Phonological
awareness
•Rapid naming
• Automaticity of
word reading
• Lack of fluency
•Spelling
• Strengths:
•Listening
comprehension
•Ability to learn
in the absence
of print
• English
• Phonological
awareness
• Alphabet
knowledge
• Word reading
accuracy
• Spelling difficulties
• Rapid naming
• Spanish
• Rapid naming
• Alphabet
knowledge
• Phonological
awareness
• Automaticity of
word reading
Lindsey, et al. (2003); Jimenez, et al. (2008)
• An accommodation is a change in teaching or
learning strategy that does not change the rigor
or level of the instructional curriculum.
• They are not intended to reduce learning
expectations.
• An accommodation answers the question:
HOW TO TEACH/LEARN?
• Thinking back on the activities
• What was hard?
• Why was it hard?
• What did you need to be successful?
• Avoid accommodation checklists
• Extended time
• Extra support
• Assistance with
organization/time
management
• Tools or aids to support
learning
• Note taking assistance
• Preferential seating
• Reduction in length of
assignment
• Dictate answers
• Tests and assignments
one page at a time
• Oral answers
• Written directions to
support oral
• Be willing to make
adjustments to homework
length
• Don’t use homework as a
punishment
• Make it relevant; not
busy work
• Allow students to email
assignments to you
• Visually post assignments
in consistent location
• Reduce amount of
written output required
• Avoid unnecessary
copying or high
standards of neatness
• Break long term projects
up into chunks
• Build in opportunities for
movement
• Use visuals, charts and
models
• Use concrete
manipulatives and hands
on activities
• Write key words and
illustrate throughout
• Provide alternate ways
for students to access
your lectures
• Record and upload to web
• Keep recorded lectures on
flash drives
• Provide opportunites to
preview material before
it is taught (outline)
• Provide options to
demonstrate learning in
ways other than writing
• Oral exams, projects,
visuals
• Break assignments down
into smaller segments
• Provide sentence starter,
topic sentences, or
frames for writing
• Provide checklist of work
to be completed
• Reduce amount of
copying from board or
book
• Use audio recordings of
textbooks
• Extended time
• Choose cursive or print
• Provide reading material • Enlarge spacing and
at different levels
type size
• Highlight textbooks in
• Use materials that
different colors to
include immediate
indicate key information
feedback
• Flash cards
• Experiment with different
• Computer software
lined paper
• Record directions, test
• Provide tools to help
questions, chapters
students not skip lines
when reading
• Use a binder to hold all
papers
• Color code everything
• Yellow science folder,
yellow dot on notebook
paper, yellow divider
• Use assignment
calendars
• Colored, hole punched
folders in binder
• Keep spare materials on
hand so student doesn’t
waste time looking
• Model use of calendar,
binder
• Check binder, calendar
• Ask students to check
each other
• Assist with prioritizing
Cara Wyly, ESC-20
cara.wyly@esc20.net
210.370.5417
• Brenda Taylor, State Dyslexia Contact, ESC-10
• Uhry, Joanna, & Clark, Diana. (2005). Dyslexia Theory &
Practice of Instruction. Austin, TX: Pro Ed.
• Richards, Regina. The source for dyslexia and dysgraphia. East
Moline, IL: LInuiSystems, Inc, 1999. Print.
• Birsh, Judith. Multisensory teaching of basic language skills. 2nd
ed.,. Baltimore, MD: Paul H Brookes Pub Co, 2005. Print.
• Shaywitz, Sally. Overcoming dyslexia. New York, NY: Vintage,
2005. Print.