Dyslexia, Dysgraphia, and All the Rest with Gratitude to Co-Author

5/6/2015

With Gratitude to Co-Author:

Dyslexia, Virginia W. Berninger Dysgraphia, University of Washington, Learning Sciences and Human and All the Development Slingerland Spring Conference Rest April 2015 Bev Wolf

Samuel Orton identified learning problems in this way 1. Developmental alexia (without word reading) 2. Developmental word deafness—the inability to identify sounds and understand language despite adequate hearing 3. Special disability in writing Good Instruction Includes 4. Motor speech delay Review 5. Stuttering Mary Helen Robinson said, “I can still hear Mrs. Slingerland, in no uncertain words, insist we refer to it as Specific Language Disability.”

I remember her often saying, “The disability is specific to language.”

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Language is not a single system. It partners with sensory input through ears and eyes and motor output through mouths and Medical people and researchers who hands. Weaknesses may show in any of identified key qualities of the disability these areas. called it dyslexia

As research continues we have learned Children show individual differences in the that we are able to distinguish the rates and ways in which the four language differences, pinpoint characteristics, and systems develop and learn to work identify appropriate instructional strategies. together.

Dyslexia

Remember! The International Dyslexia Association (2002) defined Not all reading disabilities are dyslexia as characterized by difficulties with: dyslexia, and not all math disabilities  Accurate and / or fluent word recognition and  by poor spelling and decoding abilities. These are dyscalculia. difficulties typically result from  a deficit in the phonological component of language that is often These learning differences can be  unexpected in relation to other cognitive abilities and defined and appropriate instruction the provision of effective classroom instruction.  Secondary consequences may include problems in for them designed. reading comprehension and reduced reading experience that can impede growth of vocabulary and background knowledge.

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Dyslexia, the condition of having Instruction for dyslexia impaired word skills. Instruction in word reading and spelling skills are Children at risk for dyslexia struggle in needed beginning in first grade, continuing through middle school, and sometimes even in high school.  naming letters  writing letters Phonics instruction in correspondences between a  associating sounds with letters. grapheme (one or more letters) and a phoneme (sound) are necessary, but not sufficient:  Accuracy and rate of oral reading  Difficulty recognizing words on lists without Instruction in morphology--how prefixes and suffixes sentence context are added to base words  Difficulty in orally reading “fake” words with no  To change or shade meaning, meaning  To mark number (singular or plural), tense (present or  Problems in silent word reading past)  Problems in spelling and written language  To change parts of speech (nouns into verbs, adjectives, adverbs etc.).

Dysgraphia  May occur in students who read without difficulty The condition of having impaired letter  Impaired handwriting may interfere with their production. spelling and composing. Those with dysgraphia may have: Difficulty with recall of letter form  Other children have developmental motor Difficulty with letter formation disorder which interferes with a variety of fine Difficulty producing legible letters (small) and/or gross (large) motor skills. These Difficulty writing automatically and children may have difficulty with handwriting, too, but for different reasons, which require consistently to avoid draining limited different instructional approaches working memory resources.

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Instruction for Dysgraphia Oral and Written Language

Teach the sequence of the component strokes Learning Disability (OWL LD) needed to form the letter, a unit of written language.

Teach motor skills to develop automatic recall of the sequence of movements for writing.

Teach language skills—finding, retrieving, and Impairs units of language larger than producing letters, a unit of language smaller than the word. Berninger (2012, 2013, 2015) Berninger & Niedo, the single word. (2014); Berninger & Wolf, (2009) ( 2012) Wolf, (2011).

*Some, individuals with dyslexia may also have dysgraphia. If so, use treatment approach described above. Wolf (2010); Nunes & Bryant, (2009)

Oral expression (language Listening (language by ear) by mouth) • Written language problems • Difficulty distinguishing sounds • Language • Automatic recall of letter name • May be delayed • Encoding • Lack organization • Spelling • Be hard to trigger, they can’t get started • Written expressive language • Semantics • Word finding Written comprehension • Vocabulary development (language by hand) • Syntax • Immature grammar • Automatic letter recall • Unembellished sentence structure • Spelling • Written expressive language

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Reading comprehension Instruction for Students with (language by eye) OWL LD Unfortunately, children with OWL LD are often • Written language problems not identified or are misdiagnosed as having dyslexia. Consequently, they do not receive • Decoding appropriate instruction, particularly in oral • Reading comprehension language.

Students with OWL LD require explicit, systematic, structured, and sequential Students with OWL LD tend to have instruction in processing and producing significant impairment in reading real language involving multiple words in clauses, words and understanding the paragraphs, and longer texts. Berninger (2015) and sentence and texts they read. Silliman and Berninger (2011).

Dyscalculia

• Like all children they need instruction in The impaired condition of calculation handwriting, word decoding, and (computational procedures for the basic spelling, addition, subtraction, multiplication, and • Provide specialized instruction in : division operations). • oral expression • May be impaired in all quantitative • listening comprehension, (number) skills or the visual-spatial skills • reading comprehension, involved in math learning. • written expression. See Arfé, Dockrell, and • Berninger (2015). Affected by language skills contributing to math learning (Thus, OWL LD may interfere with math learning)

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Instruction for Dyscalculia Resources

All students need to:  Arfé, B., Dockrell, J., & Berninger, V. (Eds.) (2015). Writing development in children with hearing loss, dyslexia, or oral language problems: Implications for • Process teacher instructional talk during math assessment and instruction. NY: Oxford University Press. Also available as an lessons: eBook.  Berninger, V., & Wolf, B. (2009 ). Teaching students with dyslexia and • Understand math-specific vocabulary dysgraphia: Lessons from teaching and science. Baltimore: Paul H. Brookes. Second edition expected 2015: Teaching Students with Dyslexia, Dysgraphia, • Acquire strategies for reading and solving word OWL LD, and Dyscalculia: Lessons from Science and Teaching for All Teachers. problems.  Henry, M. (2010). Unlocking literacy. Effective decoding and spelling instruction. Baltimore: Paul H. Brookes Publishing. • Effective instruction for dyscalculia includes oral  Nunes, T., & Bryant, P. (2009). Children’s reading and spelling. Beyond the first language strategies for: steps. Oxford UK: Wiley-Blackwell.  Orton, S. (1989). Reading, writing, and speech problems in children and • Learning to count selected papers. Austin, TX: PRO-ED. • Remembering math facts  Robinson, N., Abbott, R., Berninger, V., & Busse, J. (1996). Structure of precocious mathematical abilities: Gender similarities and differences. • Apply the steps for adding, subtracting, Journal of Educational Psychology, 88, 341-352. multiplying, and dividing  Silliman, E., & Berninger, V. (2011). Cross-disciplinary dialogue about the nature of oral and written language problems in the context of developmental, • Keep place value and part-whole relationships in academic, and phenotypic profiles. Topics in Language Disorders, 31, 6-23. mind. free access at

 http://journals.lww.com/topicsinlanguagedisorders/Fulltext/2011/01 000/Cross_Disciplinary_Dialogue_about_the_Nature_of.3.aspx  Wolf, B. (2011) Teaching Handwriting. In J. Birsh (Ed.), Multisensory Teaching of Basic Language Skills: Theory and Practice, Third Edition (pp. 179-206). Baltimore, MD. Brookes Publishing Co.

On-Line Resources  Berninger, V., & Fayol, M. (2008). Why spelling is important and how to teach it effectively. Encyclopedia of Language and Literacy Development (pp. 1-13). London,ON: Canadian Language and Literacy Research Network.  ON LINE JUST THE FACTS for INTERNATIONAL DYSLEXIA ASSOCIATION  Understanding Dysgraphia (Berninger & Wolf, 2012) Website: http://www.interdys.org Click on Fact Sheets What is Dysgraphia?  Specific Learning Disabilities: Plural, Definable, Diagnosable, and Treatable Wolf, B., Berninger, V. (2015 ) Dyslexia Connections On Line Fact Sheet for Parents Published on Line March 20, 2015 by the International Dyslexia Association

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