How can I identify secondary students with dyslexia?

Although teachers will need a special education specialist to properly identify a student’s learning disability, indicators to look for might include (Pollock, Waller, & Politt, 2004):

• Discrepancies between test scores on reading tests with graded words or that are of a narrative form with contextual clues
• When observed while reading, the student acts anxious, fidgety or unwilling
• Student relies on pictures and contextual clues in reading
• Student shows signs of having memorized the text after hearing a peer or the teacher read it
• While reading, the student has difficult identifying letters and keeping his or her place on the line
• The student omits or adds words to a sentence, and confuses certain letters including b and d, p and g, and u and n
• The student has trouble reading consistently in a left to right direction
• The student gives little attention to punctuation
• The student has a lot of difficulty understanding what he or she has read

Steps toward Intervention

Early intervention (by third grade) is ideal. However, even if students obtain services at a young age, they will likely continue to need them into the middle and high school years.

Additionally, some students struggle through the primary grades without being identified as students with dyslexia. Therefore, if you notice a student struggling with reading and suspect he or she might have a learning disability like dyslexia, there are several steps you can take to initiate the appropriate intervention:

1. Document the signs. Provide as much information as you can that will quantify the symptoms of a learning disability: reading and writing assessments, personal observations of the student's personality, student comments about reading, and descriptions of the student's behavior when under stress as well as when succceeding. (Stowe, 2000)
   
2. Check the student's record. Find out if he or she has a history of any problems with reading or if this is a new or isolated concern.
3. Consult with colleagues. Particularly at the secondary level, find out if other teachers notice the same signs and symptoms.
   
4. Contact the parents. Parents often know more than anyone else about their children's development.
5. Make a referral. The school and district should have procedures in place for making a referral for formal evaluation of a student who might have a learning disability.
   

Recommended Accommodations for Secondary Students

While many students with dyslexia, when given the appropriate specialized education, will have made significant gains by the time they reach middle or high school, these students will still need and benefit from several accommodations to facilitate their learning. Accommodations will differ depending upon the student, but common aids include:

• Allowing students with dyslexia to use a laptop to take notes during class and to help with organization
• Give students who use laptops written tests on a disk or CD format, so the student may use a keyboard rather than have to grapple with difficulties in handwriting
• Give students tests untimed
• If possible, find time to tutor the student one-on-one, or help the student find his or her own tutor outside of class
• Tape record lectures to give to students if needed
• Look into dictation software that allows students to give oral answers for tests or assignments and types wording for them
  
• English teachers can have books on tapes available for students if needed
  

Strategies for Instruction

The following are a few strategies for teachers that can help adolescents with dyslexia continue to succeed in school (Guerin & Male, 2006; Bassik & Guth, 1997; McCray, Vaughn, & Neal, 2001):

• Provide multisensory lessons enhanced by movement and visuals
• Help students with organization and study skills to decrease their apprehensions about school
  
• Provide hands-on learning experiences, such as creating story boards for a short film, in which students learn problem solving strategies and work creatively
• Recognize students' talents in art, science or other areas and incorporate their interests into lessons and assessments
• Give students opportunities to self-select reading material and read independently; choice on any assignment increases students' motivation and curiosity
• Learn strategies for teaching students to break down words and sound them out, instead of just telling students to do so
• Have students read books aloud in small groups, which allows students with dyslexia to learn from hearing higher level readers read new vocabulary and offers opportunities for discussion to increase understanding.
  
• When grading student papers, de-emphasize spelling and handwriting for students with dyslexia and focus on content
• Create alternative assessments instead of giving essay tests
  
• If a student has a severe reading disability, help him or her find a tutor or other special education services

Successful programs for students with dyslexia

The most successful programs and schools for students with dyslexia offer smaller class sizes, student-centered instruction that draws on children's interests and initatives, and curriculum based on multi-sensory methods.

For example, one high school language arts teacher offered a performance-based Shakespeare course in which students acted out scenes in order to learn the text and the story. The combination of kinesthetic, aural, and visual modalities along with collaborative learning allowed students to read a text that uses complex and unfamiliar language when they might otherwise have become frustrated and given up. (Johnson, 1998)

The Lab School of Washington, a non-profit educational institution that includes an independent school for students with severe dyslexia, has been using strategies of multi-sensory and student-centered instruction since 1967. Many of the studens from The Lab School go on to attend colleges and universities.

The Woodward Academy in Atlanta offers a transition program for students with diagnosed learning disabilites to receive an education that will prepare them for college. Faculty are committed to their students' holistic development; they teach students to celebrate their strengths and learn to manage their weaknesses so they can succeed in an academically rigorous environment.

Tips for involving parents

Although their child may have been mainstreamed into regular education classes, parents of students with dyslexia still need to be actively involved in their child's education. In McCray, Vaughn and Neal's study (2001) of middle school students with reading disabilities, many of the students they spoke with cited their parents as important figures for encouraging and supporting their reading programs at school by helping them apply reading strategies at home. In contrast, many students also spoke of impatient, intolerant parents and relatives or changes in their home lives as reasons for having low confidence in their abilities or for not reading as much as they would like to. Teachers can assist parents in guiding their student with dyslexia in several major ways (Stowe, 2000):

1. Offer suggestions for how the parent can observe his or her child, by which the parent can provide valuable information about how the student is working at home.
2. Provide names of resources that parents can utilize to learn about the child's learning style.
   
3. Give specific and practical suggestions for ways in which they can assist their child's learning at home.
   
4. Give specific ways that they can help their child with certain problem areas including homework, and social and emotional issues.