Goodbye Mother Goose! Hello Harry!

There was a shocking headline recently in the New York Times!  It stated that 80% of New York City’s high school graduates cannot read! Many of these students are probably dyslexic.

Dyslexia affects 1 in 5 children in America and is usually passed down through the generations. If a parent has dyslexia, one or all of the children will likely suffer from dyslexia as well.

Dyslexia is a problem with the decoding step of reading. But decoding is only the first step of reading, so if a child can’t decode the words, how will he access the information? How can he possibly comprehend? And even if he can comprehend some of the information by reading his memorized sight words, how much of his comprehension will be compromised by his inability to decode the unfamiliar words?  The answer is a lot!  Reading groups will be stressful and challenging, and spelling will be a problem for life!

The good news is we can treat dyslexia. In fact, here at Jodie K. Schuller & Associates, we can prevent dyslexia. If we get a child young enough, by kindergarten or first grade at the very latest, we can identify the cause of the problem and treat it from the ground up……... before the child is labeled “dyslexic”. We can address the problems that are causing the dyslexia and then teach that child to read.

We can get that child up to grade level and beyond. Together we can conquer dyslexia.

Melia is living proof. Here is her story…

Her mom first called us at the beginning of her kindergarten year. Melia’s dad was dyslexic. He had been fortunate to have parents who had the savvy and the resources to get him on the path to success. He is now a successful engineer in a large corporation.

His youngest daughter was showing all of the early signs. She had been in speech therapy since age three with little to no success, and she hated going. Her mother was also anxious about the other signs of struggle throughout Melia’s preschool years. Melia wasn’t remembering the names of the letters she had been taught in preschool…her handwriting was awkward and illegible… and she was reversing a bunch of numbers and letters, especially ‘b’s’ and ‘d’s.’

Our assessment confirmed her parent’s suspicions. Melia was dyslexic. She had inherited the dyslexia genes. The part of her brain that processes language, especially the individual sounds, was out of whack. Melia couldn’t process the individual sounds in words, the way we can hear that “dog” can be pronounced “d-o-g”, so Melia couldn’t learn phonics.

Together with her parents and the support of her grandparents, we put Melia in intense intervention...one hour a week of speech therapy to address her problems with speech production and sentence structures…and 4 hours a week of literacy.

It was a team effort. In her literacy program, Ilene targeted Melia’s phonemic awareness. She helped Melia hear the syllables in words, and once Melia could count the syllables, they moved on to sounds. Ilene taught Melia to say “dog” slowly….”d-o-g”. And then she taught Melia to replace the ‘d’ in “dog” with an ‘f’ and make the word “fog”. That’s phonemic awareness. When a child gets that concept, you can easily teach her phonics. Melia is bright….she caught on quickly!

So then, Ilene taught Melia phonics. That is…there is a written letter for each sound in a spoken word. “Fog” is easy…. there is one letter for each sound. But Melia also needed to learn that the sound ‘sh’ is spelled with two letters and the sound ‘ch’ is sometimes spelled with three (we spell ‘ch’ with a ‘tch’ in “catch”.). As I said, Melia is bright…she got it!

Then Ilene found pre-kindergarten books for Melia to read. They practiced sounding out the words, and then Ilene sent the books home for mastery.  Because, as literacy specialists, we know that once Melia had read those words 4 times correctly without stumbling, those words would become sight words…she would never have to sound them out again.

Isn’t that how you parents/teachers/doctors read?  You don’t sound out words very often any more. But those of you who are great readers have the ability to sound out words when you need to. And, as an adult, the reason you are a good speller and can read hundreds of thousands of words is because you learned phonics at a very early age.

Have I mentioned that Melia is bright?  She was bored with pre-kindergarten books. She wanted to read Harry Potter and Charlotte’s Web. There was no holding her back. Ilene and Melia quickly progressed to “Splat the Cat” and “Frog and Toad” books.

Meanwhile, Tessa worked on Melia’s speech. Melia typically said “sue” for “shoe” and “puss” for “push”, so Tessa worked to help Melia hear the difference between the two and then taught her the lip rounding and tongue position that were necessary to make ‘sh’. Once Melia got it, Tessa told Ilene to listen for the correct productions as Melia read “Then Frog pushed Toad out of bed”.

This is the final semester of Melia’s first grade year. She is still at that same private school. Fortunately for Melia, her first grade teacher has been supportive of outside intervention.

We cringe when we meet a teacher who thinks she can provide all the support necessary to help a dyslexic child read. That’s not realistic. Dyslexic children may need intensive individual intervention 4 – 8 hours a week for several years to close their gaps. How can a classroom teacher provide that?

The other factor is training. Classroom teachers are not trained to treat dyslexia. They are trained to help neuro-typical children who are learning to read normally.

Dyslexia intervention is rocket science. At JKS & Associates, we have researched and mastered the most effective programs available for treating dyslexia…Wilson Reading System, Orton Gillingham,  Lindamood Bell, Language!, Reading Recovery, Slingerland, and more...we use them ALL!  We assess our children’s weaknesses and then develop an integrated, intensive intervention plan to help our students conquer their dyslexia once and for all.

And now back to Melia.  She is thriving in her 1st grade class.  She is reading 52 correct words per minute, which is better than average at 48.  She is reading 1st – 2nd grade literature like “Paper Bag Princess”. She is comprehending anything and everything her parents read to her, and she is writing book summaries like a pro.

Goodbye Mother Goose!  Hello Harry Potter!  It won’t be long before Melia can read ANYTHING she chooses!

If you know a child of any age who is struggling to read, call us at 858.509.1131 or visit our website www.speak4success.com.   Better yet, send us a preschooler who has speech challenges which are the red flags for dyslexia. 

We can prevent their reading problems!  We can help children of all ages overcome dyslexia.  But the earlier the better…..so remember our motto……Early to Talk, Early to Read, Ready to Succeed!

http://www.speak4success.com/ 

Jodie K. Schuller & Associates  858-509-1131