Dyslexia and High School

Are you tired out yet? Already, this student has barriers to accessing the curriculum akin to walking a minefield — and this only in the first 15 minutes of class. Whew! Halfway through the 50-minute class and already, I could see the difficulty of really understanding what having severe dyslexia means for a student in our educational system.

Being inside a learning difference or disability can feel so invisible. Imagine that you have to go through your day walking across a tightrope. Imagine that no one, including yourself, can see that you are always walking on a tightrope. So everyone treats you as if you can walk without any special considerations. You keep trying to keep up, and can’t figure out how everyone else seems to zoom ahead of you all the time. Teachers tell you to try harder and then assign extra laps for you as an incentive when you are too slow! You get so tired, when others seem to expend any effort…

Back to the class — I sit in the back of the literature class and note the remaining activities and the tasks that the teacher assigns. The student I am shadowing has a very high IQ, most likely one of the highest in the class. Yet, having a dyslexic learning profile affects his ability to use language efficiently. Everything language computes slower. Reading and writing are labored, inaccurate and so slow that he frequently loses his train of thought. Seemingly simple tasks, like copying a definition from the board, or writing down a question dictated by the teacher, become Herculean challenges.

Fourth task: Read To Kill a Mockingbird silently for 15 minutes

This student has documented difficulty reading.

From my work with this student, I know that this is a waste of time. He will have to go home and listen to an audiotape or use reading software on his home computer so that he can read with audio and visual support. Probably, his parents will read the book aloud to him. In class, he sits with his book open, appearing to read, yet I know that this is difficult and inaccurate at best.

Dyslexia used to be known as “word-blindness” which is not completely accurate, but might be a helpful concept when thinking about assigning reading to students who have trouble reading print. You wouldn’t ask a blind student to sit and read a book for 15 minutes. You would provide a different format for the book — audio or braille.

Alternate ideas:

The teacher, knowing that the class is behind on their reading and nearing the end of school, is trying to be helpful. Interestingly, quite a few students don’t pick up their books, but sit doing other things for 15 minutes. I suspect many others in the class would benefit from using various types of software support to “read” the text.

I note that many students have iPods and cellphones. My guess is that because this class is the “rowdy” class, many of the students may not read easily. Perhaps the text could be accessible in various formats so that students could pick how they “read” best. Some might like to listen to a recorded book, usually read by an actor, in mp3 format on the iPods. Some might like to read along with audio and visual support, for instance using WYNN Reader. Of course, some like reading books the traditional way.

Too much writing, too fast, with difficulty trying to spell words correctly.

Again, back again to the language processing difficulties. Listening requires processing the meaning and being able to focus on what is important — quickly and automatically. Think of how quickly and accurately you process information when learning a second language.

Writing down a dictated sentence requires:

• translating what comes in your ears into printed shapes that make letters
• putting the right letters together to spell words
• funneling the correct information through the end of your pencil

This is easy if all systems are go. You need:

• an accurate memory for letters and for spelling words
• efficient language processing to sort all the information in your head
• an accurate, automatic fine-motor memory for forming letters and words
• motor-planning skills
• accurately “seeing” and being able to read your writing to edit spelling

Alternate ideas:

Because listening and writing are not accurate and automatic for many students who have dyslexia, the seemingly simple task of copying dictated questions is NOT EASY. Processing difficulties could be bypassed by using the traditional format of handing out a paper with the questions printed on it.

Or, more interestingly, the teacher could post the questions on a classroom blog or website for students to access in the class, in the library, or at home. Even more engaging, would be to text message the questions to the student’s cell phones. Students could text-message the answers back to the teacher’s e-mail using the free software Jott? Cool? Even cooler is the word prediction support on cellphones, which aids spelling and writing.

Sixth task: Listen to class discussion, then handwrite the answers to the dictated questions

Again, the information is presented in one format — through talking. The student must listen for the main ideas while trying to write down the correct answers — all quickly in a classroom full of distractions.

Okay. The teacher is asking good questions about the story. He has the students write the questions with the answers from the discussion in preparation for a test next week. Many students seem engaged by the questions of race and justice in the story.

Alternate ideas:

All of this information could be posted on a blog or webpage so that the material is already written, and available for text-to-speech support. Expanding from the paper-pencil modalities, the teacher could have the students watch a movie made from the book. Students could write a play and perform the important events from the book, and/or write a rap about the story. In other words, expand on multiple intelligences using multisensory inputs.

By adding free software programs, like Microsoft Reader, or Click,Speak, Google Docs with spellcheck installed, Jott and ScanR for cell phones, mp3 recordings for iPods, as well as more complex programs, such as WYNN Wizard, the classroom becomes more accessible and engaging for all students. Integrating options into the classroom allows all students to access information in the way that works best for them. No student had to sit and pretend to read.

About the author

Melinda Pongrey, MSEd, established Sisiutl Center for Learning in 1997 in Port Townsend after training and working with Another Door to Learning in Tacoma. For the past fifteen years, she has successfully worked with children and adults who experience many types of learning differences, including dyslexia, ADHD, language delays, motor-spatial and visual-spatial difficulties.