Dyslexia is a reading difference that affects 1 in 5 people. It is not always a matter of the person 'seeing things differently', or mixing up letters. It is a processing delay that slows down the brain as they are moving from word to word, or letter to letter. Words in print, even the smallest of words - like, is, the, she - a person with dyslexia will stumble over, skip, or miscall. People with dyslexia usually have common characteristics that include poor reading fluency (slower pace of reading). This is due to the processing delay, and the brain needing to catch up to the eyes as a reader is going across the page. By the end of a reading passage, the brain has worked so hard to decode every single word that sometimes the reader is exhausted by the end. This can impact reading comprehension since it's very typical that the reader did not pick up any of the meaning of the sentences, they were only focusing on calling the correct words.
Characteristics of Dyslexia
Slow, inaccurate, labored oral reading
Poor spelling
Seems to work way too hard, for little progress gains
Omits the endings of words when reading or writing (for example, leaving off the -s in cats, or -ed in jumped.
Often substitutes words when reading aloud, like saying the word house when the story uses home
Struggles to use unfamiliar words ('cat' or 'the'), especially when there are no pictures or other context clues; often skips over or confuses small words like 'to' or 'and'.
Stumbles over the same word consistently throughout a passage, even when they've been told what the word was on the page before
Often has trouble explaining what the passage is about when finished reading it
Dyslexia can be a frustrating reading difference because the person may be able to read longer words like 'hippopotamus' but stumble over words like with, because, or they. This is because the mental register of words is visual for people with dyslexia. They can attach a visual picture of hippopotamus and there's only one word that looks like hippopotamus. However, there is no visual picture to attach to words like with, because, or they.
Where To Go From Here? There is hope with Dyslexia...with remediation, a person can overcome and learn to compensate for their reading difference. Through targeted instruction, and a commitment to learning, a student (or adult) can improve! Dyslexia will never go away, but the impact it has on reading and writing can improve!
Dyslexia Interventions through Emerald City Therapies
Available for already identified, or suspected Dyslexia students. MTA (Multisensory Teaching Approach) is the research based dyslexia program that will be used to remediate students. MTA is a comprehensive, integrated language arts program addressing reading decoding and comprehension, spelling and composition cursive handwriting, and alphabet and dictionary skills. The ungraded curriculum, encompassing the structure and science of the English language, is organized into 7 Kits; all students begin instruction with Kit 1. One hour lessons are recommended. The more often that we meet for instruction, the quicker progress will be made. Optimal group size does not exceed 4 students.