Friday, October 25, 2024

Difference between dyslexia and struggling readers

 


This is a LinkedIn thread from Ethan Lynn's post

Luqman Michel 

Tell us what the difference is between people 'with dyslexia' and kids who can't read. How do you teach a kid 'with dyslexia' and a kid who can't read?

Note: Ethan did not answer.

Dr. Gwendolyn Lavert, PhD (She/Her) • 1st

International Literacy Trainer of Leaders and Teachers, Writer/Researcher, Coaching, Mentoring, Cognitive Mediator

Luqman Michel, Dyslexia and struggling readers differ in their underlying causes and instructional needs. Dyslexia is a neurological disorder affecting reading, writing, and spelling skills, despite average or above-average intelligence, requiring specialized multisensory instruction, phonics-based approaches, and assistive technology. Struggling readers may face challenges due to lack of exposure, limited vocabulary, poor instruction, or environmental factors, benefiting from targeted interventions, small group instruction, reading recovery programs, and vocabulary building. Shared strategies include patient support, progress monitoring, individualized instruction, confidence-building, and collaboration with specialists. Effective teaching involves identifying underlying issues, using evidence-based methods, providing consistent support, fostering growth mindsets, and celebrating progress.

Note: This person is an international Literacy Trainer and researcher.

 

Luqman Michel 

Dr. Gwendolyn Lavert, PhD.  Thank you. The instructional needs are the same for both. Let us dig into this a little further. What percentage of the population are 'dyslexic' and what percentage are struggling readers?

 

Luqman Michel 

Ethan Lynn, PhD You said 'sometimes poor teaching practices '. What are the poor teaching practices that prevent kids from decoding and blending?

 

Luqman Michel 

Dr. Gwendolyn Lavert, PhD, I am still awaiting a response to my comment. Here are further questions. You said, 'Effective teaching involves identifying underlying issues, using evidence-based methods.'

What are the underlying issues and the evidence-based methods?

 

How do we progress when questions are not answered?

The following from the interview of Dr. Julian Elliott by Dr.  Martin Bloomfield answers my question. LINK

 

At minute 12:02:  I've come up with my idea of what I mean by dyslexia. What I mean by that is let's return to the original meaning of this term which is a severe and persistent problem with reading.  We can use that to discuss or to describe children or adults who find it difficult to read and this is a process it's like an educational process anyone can say well I struggle with dyslexia as long as they're talking about reading.

At minute 19:41: I'm saying in this book we should not be doing this. We should not be trying to make this distinction. It's impossible to make the distinction. The other thing I say is that for 50 years now I have been asking people what criteria they have employed to differentiate a dyslexic child from another poor reader and no one has answered that question.

The hundreds if not thousands of children I've assessed over the last five decades the idea that you know you come across these kids who are poor readers and they don't have any problems in those areas that they can exist so this is a false split.  They're just an environmentally poor reader. Get those environmentally poor readers and run a whole bunch of tests with them you'll find strengths and weaknesses.

I met my supervisor at senior’s college and he said he'd spent all morning trying to work out whether this child was dyslexic or not and I and you know she had a reading problem. She's dyslexic. I said what did you come up with and he said, well it might be I think it was dyslexic. I said what did you recommend. I put her on what was called a data pack. It is a behavioral objective where you build up with clear phonic starting with letter sounds and build digraph blends and so on. I said what would you have done then if you thought that she wasn't dyslexic and he paused for a moment and said I would have still put her on the same program.

I said, so why did you spend the morning trying to make this differentiation if it was going to make no difference to what you're doing? He was doing it because that's what parents wanted but JY didn't have a clue what he was talking about either. The point is I've asked constantly senior people in the dyslexia world to debate with me publicly or to tell me privately what we're stumbling around in the dark to end up with a difference between a dyslexic and a non-dyslexic and I've read that this report and I cannot for the life of me see how when you read that how you would be able to determine that someone is not dyslexic than just label somebody as dyslexia that's exactly what I'm saying.

At minute 46:44: If people want to use the term dyslexia to describe a reading difficulty that's fine as long as we stick with that. I mean dyslexia if you look at the Greek origins of the word you know I mean that's what it's saying a problem with the reading process so then we can and then people can say well I'm dyslexic if people want to describe themselves as dyslexic they've got a reading problem. It's no longer problematic because what it's not doing anymore is cutting that population into two.

I think there are loads of diagnosticians out there who play that game because it suits their purposes. Yes, I have written in the book it's a billion-dollar industry.

Reading problem is one of the most fundamental things. Dyslexia is a phony word with no criteria. It's only a phony word because people aren't using it consistently. All the scientific papers use the word dyslexia to describe people in that distribution curve of reading and so then these diagnosticians grab that and then come up with a different understanding. What I'm saying is these diagnosticians should not be doing this. What they should be doing is working with parents and teachers to understand where the child is in terms of literacy and advice. I'm not trying to put these people out of work I'm trying to say don't play this medical labelling game. Make yourself useful and advise people.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

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