Dysteachia, Not Dyslexia

 

I read the following Tweet by @SciAdapt and replied him.

Questions and comments are welcome

Adapt And Thrive @SciAdapt Apr 16

Bro. I'm a sped teacher and 1000% yes. I've expressed this concern with my admin, the psychs, anyone who will listen. The refrain is they should've been identified sooner. Or? I have handled 12 referrals in 4th grade alone this year.

 

Michael Palany @MichelLuqman Apr 17

Identification can be done by the middle of grade one.

Who cares to listen?

I have been shouting this at the top of my voice since 2010.

Adapt And Thrive @SciAdapt 20h

Agreed. But this assumes a learning disability. This begs the question. What are we identifying? Learning disability or poor tier 1 instruction/curriculum?

Michael Palany @MichelLuqman 20h

It is not a learning disability.

It is dysteachia.

Adapt And Thrive @SciAdapt 18h

There are cases of genuine learning disability to be sure, but instruction is a big variable everyone tends to dismiss for obvious reasons.

Michael Palany @MichelLuqman 13h

Agreed. But as far as learning to read is concerned what specifically is the learning disability?

Why can't many intelligent kids learn to read?

Why are they able to read within a short period of intervention?

Adapt And Thrive @SciAdapt 11h

Many struggle their whole lives. But that's a fair question. I ask it all the time. You're not going to discover it with a blood test, so just as everything in Psychology, it's a little bit hokie. I don't doubt it's real, but it's used as a catch all.

Michael Palany @Luqman Michel

Exactly. For the vast majority, it's not a 'learning disability'—it's dysteachia:

confusion from poor Tier 1 instruction, especially teaching letter sounds with extra vowels (buh, luh, muh) that make blending impossible.

Intelligent kids shut down early, get mislabeled, and struggle for years. Give them pure sounds + structured blending and they read fluently in weeks/months—not a blood test needed. I've seen it with 80+ kids since 2010. True neurobiological dyslexia is rare (~3%). Most 'dyslexics' are made by misguided teaching. Why do the same kids read fine in Malay or other consistent systems?