At the Children’s Dyslexia Center – Central New York our goal is to assist school-age children who have major difficulties with reading and writing through individual tutoring and through training and certification in Orton Gillingham given to qualified persons. Both of the above services are presently offered free of charge.
The reading and writing difficulties are usually linked to a specific learning disability known as dyslexia. Dyslexia is a genetically disposed, neurobiological, learning disability often characterized by difficulties with accurate and/or fluent word recognition and by poor spelling and reading. The exact cause of dyslexia is not completely clear but research has shown that it is likely related to the way the brain develops and subsequently functions. What we do know is that it is not related to a lack of either intelligence or the desire to learn. The majority of children and adults diagnosed with dyslexia have been found to be of average or above average intelligence with the latter being the more common.
A few years ago I had the opportunity to attend the New York State International Dyslexia Association Annual Conference where Dr. Sally Shaywitz was one of the keynote speakers. Dr. Shaywitz is considered one of the leading authorities on dyslexia throughout the world and her book Overcoming Dyslexia is a wonderful resource for anyone involved with dyslexia; including families, educators and those testing for and diagnosing the disorder.
At the conference, Dr. Shaywitz related that studies show that a minimum of 20% of the population has a reading disability and of those, 85% have a form of dyslexia. The impact of dyslexia can be different for each person, dependent upon the severity of the condition and the timing and approaches of remediation.
In her book Dr. Shaywitz discusses the complexity of diagnosing dyslexia. I often hear from parents and educators that they have been told there is no way to test for or diagnose dyslexia. This is, of course, not true. This is not to say that the process is easy or always done correctly- many, many children and adults with dyslexia have fallen (or been pushed) through the system. The fact that most with the disability are of higher intelligence often allows them to find compensatory ways of dealing with their difficulty or – avoiding it.
I will give you some insight to the criteria we use in considering diagnosis of developmental dyslexia. Developmental dyslexia can be defined as a delay in the acquisition of written language skills (rading and writing) mainly due to inadequate function of the appropriate language areas of the brain – this could be another whole talk. Primary dyslexia can be a highly specific disorder in that all other aspects of neurological function may be entirely normal. In many cases there is a strong hereditary or genetic background in persons with dyslexia.
Although the disorder clearly has a neurological basis, its remediation depends on appropriate educational strategies. There are not pills, no exercise regimen, no ‘surgery’ that will take care of this disorder. Remediation (there is no definite cure or magic spell that ever makes dyslexia go away-just hard work on the part of the child, family and educators to provide and assimilate the rules and tools that make the mystery more understandable) –remediation is directed at the written language problem itself- the decoding and encoding necessary to read and write. In all Orton-Gillingham programs this is done with a multisensory based- visual, auditory and kinesthetic/tactile, method. The criteria we like to see used to diagnose developmental dyslexia include the following:
- The child’s cognitive ability, as measured by standardized intelligence of cognitive ability testing is within at least the averge range (85+)
- Reading, spelling and/or written language scores on standardized tests are lower than would be expected in relation to the child’s cognitive ability.
- When characteristic types of errors made in reading, spelling, oral or written language are noted, it can strengthen the diagnosis. Children in early grades often exhibit poor phonological awareness and/or difficulty in learning to read and spell. We often see difficulty with limited short-term memory and difficulty with rapid automatic naming as well as comprehension and fluency.
- Added to the previous, a strong family history can be a strong clue to the diagnosis of dyslexia.
I think you all must agree that no child “signs up” to have severe difficulty in learning to read. Due to the usually above average intelligence, we often see regressive or aggressive behavior on the part of these children to mask their inability to read.
As Dr. Shaywitz notes, there is no single test that ensures a diagnosis of dyslexia…It is the overall picture that matters. In the application packets that we send to families interested in our program we include a list of current testing mediums which have been found to be better indicators of a child’s tendency toward dyslexia. We understand that learning difficulties are seldom found in isolation but we also know that some diagnoses of other learning difficulties are modified when the diagnosis of dyslexia has been addressed. For example, some children diagnosed as ADHD are found to have been constantly moving to avoid having to read and/or write. We have also noted that some children diagnosed with dyslexia are found to have Central Auditory Processing Deficits when the basics of reading and writing have been addressed. CAPD seems to be increasingly prevalent and requires a more intensive form of remediation, not dealt with at our Center. Time and money are always impacting issues when diagnosing children with learning difficulties but it is hoped that the welfare of the child and not the school budget will be the major priority.
Some of the more common warning signs of dyslexia are:
- Difficulty recognizing letters of the alphabet
- Difficulty assigning specific sounds to letters and letter combinations
- Difficulty understanding the basic components of words
- Difficulty with proper sound pronunciation
- Difficulty with spelling
Much of the most recent research has emphasized the need for intervention at an early age for children showing possible signs of dyslexia and researchers are even recommending starting at the pre-school level. We now know that the pre-schoolers who display the characteristics noted above are most likely to display reading and writing difficulties by the time they reach 2nd and 3rd grade. It is of interest to note that the average reading level of children entering our program is mid -2nd grade. We have had 69 children participate in our program since we began in 2005, ranging from first graders to those in BOCES programs working to earn their GED. The age range for these children has been 6 years to 19 ½ years old when beginning the program. Still the average reading level is mid-second grade.
We have also certified 24 tutors in the Orton-Gillingham program under IMSLEC (the International Multisensory Structured Education Council.) These tutors were required to participate in 45 hours of classroom instruction, 24 of which had to occur before beginning the 100 hours of required supervised practicum at the Center. A minimum grade of 85 was necessary for the tutor to receive certification. As you can guess, this is a very intensive program that takes approximately one year to complete.
When I took the course it was a dream realized after many years of working with children with learning difficulties. My 42 year career in education began as a Speech Pathologist and Audiologist. During this phase I began to realize that many of the children I worked with had even greater issues in dealing with education. Long before the Children’s Dyslexia Centers existed and before Dr. Shaywitz considered writing her book, I attended a four day conference with her in NYC. I learned enough to know I did not know enough. Later I gained a Master’s degree in Psychology and Counseling in Education and moved on to working with children with high cognitive skills and severe learning disabilities. This led to another Master’s in Teaching with a concentration in English and Computers. My career then led me to work as a Learning Specialist at Paul Smith’s College and then I became the Retention Counselor where I concentrated on provisionally accepted students and those on probation. Then I was asked to direct the Children’s Dyslexia Center- Central New York. This is the true ‘dream-come-true’ job where I get to help children read and train people to help children read, both offered at no cost.
In Orton-Gillingham lessons, the teacher uses the auditory, visual, and kinesthetic multisensory pathways of the student’s brain in order to enhance memory and learning. Rules and concepts of the language are taught and each lesson builds upon the previous lesson. The lessons are systematic and cumulative. Each lesson is based on what the child already knows and new material that has been presented by the tutor. New sounds and concepts are learned piece by piece through the direct instruction of a specially trained tutor. Previously learned material is always reviewed. The purpose of the instruction is to provide the child with a structure of the language that allows him/her to become an independent reader and writer.
Orton-Gillingham lessons always have direct instruction; they are systematic, sequential and cumulative using multisensory techniques. The lessons are always success-oriented, rule based and involve extensive review. It often takes tutors the full 10-12 months of training to achieve full competency in the lesson delivery which brings about such great success for the child.
We use the two hours a week that we see our children to make a huge difference in their world. We have certified teachers working in schools that, if supported in what they are trained to do, can make an even greater difference just by virtue of seeing the more often. Our mission is to assist children with reading and writing difficulties in learning the basics of our language and how to use the rules and tools to achieve reading and writing proficiency.
email- lmartin@cnyclc.org
Phone- (315) 736-0574
Mail- Children’s Dyslexia Center- CNY, PO Box 638, Oriskany, NY 13424
