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Dyslexia and Reading
Stealth Dyslexia
Dyslexia at
Different Ages
Math and Dyslexia
Helping Students with
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What It Takes to Read
One of the hardest things about teaching a child to read
is it may be hard to remember what steps you had to take
when you first learned to read. As we talk more about in
The
Mislabeled Child,
effortless reading requires: 1) a good "hearing" of the
sounds that make up words, 2) good "seeing" of words as
the eyes move across and then down lines of text, 3)
good memory for sound-letter combinations and the visual
appearance of words, and finally, 4) a good
understanding of how letters, letter groups, and words
should be spoken.
Some students who struggle with reading, may have only
one of these areas that are weak. However, many have
more than one weakness so that the greatest gains in
reading will be seen if all are factored into account.
Fortunately, like a trip into a city's downtown, there
are many alternative paths to take if a roadblock
occurs. Students with poor hearing of the sounds that
make up words (phonology), may be able to get by pretty
well for a while if their visual memory for words is
strong. Or, a student with weak visual memory for words
may find that she can figure out the meaning of a
reading passage on the basis of sound cues and educated
guesses (inference).
There still may be situations in which problems arise -
like when a visually-reading student encounters a word
he's never seen before (can't sound it out to help make
a guess) or when an sound-reading student tries to write
or spell a word that can't be predicted by sound alone.
Understanding how a child reads is as important as
knowing that she reads. Many students make excellent
progress with reading in the earliest years of
education, but fail to become fluent readers with deep
comprehension because they couldn't pinpoint the source
of their troubles.
If a person can't read fluently, it doesn't mean that
they can't be successful in life, but it does make it
harder. There are now many resources and opportunities
available for people who have reading challenges, and
there is no age when teaching or training no longer
helps.
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