Dyslexia
Learn more about students with dyslexia, their experiences in school, and ways teachers can help them
School & District Management
Battle Over Reading: Parents of Children With Dyslexia Wage Curriculum War
A program to teach children with dyslexia how to read, will now be used with every child in Arkansas. Parents led the way—forcing the state to rethink reading.
Special Education
Video
Parents of Students With Dyslexia Have Transformed Reading Instruction
The students hid under tables, had stomach aches, were laughed at by classmates. Going to school was traumatic, because they couldn’t learn to read.
Parents spent thousands of dollars on private testing and tutoring to figure out what was wrong. They discovered that their children had dyslexia, a learning disability that affects one in five individuals and makes it difficult to read and spell.
“There’s no need for families to suffer like this,” said Audie Alumbaugh, with the Arkansas Dyslexia Support Group. “All we need to do is implement the appropriate programs.” Alumbaugh, whose niece has dyslexia, says schools need to teach reading differently, and not just for students with dyslexia.
Alumbaugh and other families successfully pushed lawmakers to change reading instruction in Arkansas. The new approach focuses on explicit instruction in phonics, in which students learn all the patterns of how sounds and letters go together. It’s a method backed by scientific research on the brain and how it learns to process written words.
This reading revolution is happening around the country, pushed in part by parents of children with dyslexia. “We’ve been doing it wrong all this time,” says Alumbaugh, a former teacher herself. “We need to get this right for kids.”
Reading & Literacy
Opinion
Explicit Phonics Instruction: It's Not Just for Students With Dyslexia
After a look at reading research, Kyle Redford concluded that instruction for all children should be like that provided to dyslexic children.
Special Education
Quiz
Quiz Yourself: How Much Do You Know About Dyslexia
Quiz yourself about the early signs of dyslexia in children, how educators can improve a child's reading accuracy, and other dyslexia facts.
Special Education
Opinion
A Special Education Student Speaks: Dealing With the Ups and Downs
Ella Griffith-Tager says the support she’s received in coping with her disability has varied year by year and school to school.
Special Education
Five Top Technology Trends in Special Education
Fueled by technological advances, policy changes, and pressure from advocates, companies and researchers craft new tools and strategies to serve students with disabilities.
Special Education
What If a DNA Test Could Show How to Teach a Student With Dyslexia?
The New Haven, Conn., school district is working with a team of education, genetics, and neuroscience researchers from Yale University in what may be the first attempt to design so-called "precision" gene-based education help for the academic disorder.
Education
Opinion
4 Ways to Identify and Support Students With Dyslexia
New California guidelines help teachers and administrators offer targeted remediation and accommodation.
Special Education
Missouri Tackles Challenge of Dyslexia Screening, Services
New state mandates start next school year aimed at identifying and supporting students with dyslexia. The 2016 law also led to development of training for teachers.
Education
Opinion
Reading with Your Ears, Writing With Your Voice
A dyslexic assistant principal explores how assistive technologies can help students with language-based disabilities take advantage of their unique learning styles.
Special Education
Researchers Probe Connections Between Math, Reading Difficulties
Students with dyslexia often struggle with math fluency as well, and scholars at a recent conference put a spotlight on some of the possible connections.
Special Education
Reading and Math Disabilities: Two Sides of the Same Coin?
At a conference sponsored by the National Science Foundation, researchers talked about the latest findings in the connection between dyslexia and other types of learning disabilities.
Special Education
Opinion
Unidentified Dyslexia Takes Heavy Toll
Teachers need to know how to identify early signs of dyslexia, so they can make sure dyslexic students have access to learning accommodations and support, says Kyle Redford.
Special Education
Opinion
Stop the Dyslexia Debate
Rather than arguing about if dyslexia exists, teachers must be able to recognize the condition in their students and provide support.