Theory into Practice Dyslexia, Phonological Processing….pdf

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1、Theory into Practice:Dyslexia,Phonological Processing Deficits,and Explicit and Systematic Instruction Struggling readers are faced with a variety of potential factors that may contribute to their difficulties in reading.When a teacher is faced with a student who is a struggling reader,they should b

2、e able to define the target skills and knowledge to be learned and build instruction upon the students prior knowledge and skills.Reading disabilities require instruction that goes beyond the normal range of instruction.If a student who is a struggling reader has dyslexia,the teachers and parents wo

3、rking with the student should be clear as to what dyslexia is,how phonological processing deficits affect the disability,and how systematic and explicit instruction should be used to work with the student towards becoming a strong reader.This paper focuses on these three components to reading instru

4、ction,as they all are important for teachers to understand when identifying and working with a struggling reader.Dyslexia Dyslexia and reading disabilities exist within a unique place in American culture and the educational system.Misconceptions and misunderstandings of dyslexia are very common as m

5、any Americans are familiar with the term and misuse it constantly.One of the most common held misconceptions is that dyslexia is a problem of writing and reading letters and words backwards,or flipping them.Other misconceptions of dyslexia include believing it is gendered(affecting more boys than gi

6、rls),and that it can be something children can grow out of.By dispelling the common myths of dyslexia to students and their parents,educators can begin to work on addressing a students reading disability.The term dyslexia can be broken up into two parts which can be remembered to help clarification

7、of the concept.The first half,dys,means bad,not,or difficult.The second half,1lexia,means words,reading,or language.Its literal meaning then,is difficult-word.The common misunderstanding that dyslexia is about mixing the letters of a word or words can be a symptom of dyslexia,but this is not the pri

8、mary symptom of dyslexia;many individuals with dyslexia never have these problems.(Hudson,High,Al Otaiba,2007).Beginning readers and writers of all abilities often display this“flipping”characteristic,but simply exhibiting the tendency to reverse letters or words by no means indicates a reading disa

9、bility or dyslexia.Dyslexia is a specific learning disability that is a neurobiological problem.Individuals dont have dyslexia because of poverty,race,or gender,however lack of a literate environment is correlated with language skills.The neurobiological nature means that dyslexia exists as a proble

10、m in the brain.Over the last 20 years or so research has found a causal relationship between deficits in phonological processing and dyslexia.This phonological processing deficit may lie at the core of dyslexia(Catts and Kamhi,2005).Having a phonological processing deficit generally results in diffi

11、culties with word recognition and spelling.Here we can find how the common misunderstanding of flipping letters and words began.Dyslexia is a learning disability that affects reading and in addition often affects spelling.The terms reading disability and dyslexia are often used interchangeably by ma

12、ny professionals.A central characteristic of dyslexia that children often display is the inability to read as many words by sight,or have many sight-words(Hudson et al,2007).Another main feature is that children with dyslexia often stumble or try to“sound out”many words they come across within a tex

13、t.When confronted with a child who may possibly have dyslexia it is important to consider whether or not the child has any delays in language development.Language delay is a failure to develop language abilities on the usual developmental timetable.Language delay is distinct 2from speech delay,in wh

14、ich the speech mechanism itself is the locus of delay.Thus,language delay refers specifically to a delay in the development of the underlying knowledge of language,rather than its implementation.Many children with dyslexia display delays in language development but these characteristics may sometime

15、s dissipate before they enter school.If,however,such delays do not subside and continue to be persistent in the childs development,they would be the result of another factor and would not be considered dyslexia.If other cognitive problems or perceptual problems exist,these too would fall out of the

16、definition of dyslexia.Visual problems cannot cause dyslexia either.Visual problems may co-exist with dyslexia,however they cannot be the cause of dyslexia.Dyslexia involves having problems with phonological processing skills.This is argued to be a central characteristic of dyslexia.“The evidence in

17、 these areas suggests that,in most cases,phonological skills deficiencies associated with phonological coding deficits are the probable causes of the disorder rather than visual,semantic,or syntactic deficits,although reading difficulties in some children may be associated with general language defi

18、cits.”(Vellutino,2004).Vellutino argues for educators to look at the various phonological skills in order to understand if a student has dyslexia and to assess where to begin instruction.Connection to Own Experience.Because of the prevalence of the misconceptions about dyslexia I have spent most of

19、my life bearing these misunderstandings.There have been many students I have worked with who had dyslexia,but I was unaware of it,thinking it was something entirely different from reading disabilities.Looking back at my own learning experiences and students I have worked with I can see how my miscon

20、ceptions of dyslexia obstructed the potential of my instruction.Although my instruction has been limited in terms of reading,I am certain that my instruction with struggling readers would have benefited 3immensely from understanding with reading disabilities really are and how to work with and throu

21、gh them.I spent months last year working with a 3rd grade student,Anthony,on his reading skills.I measured his fluency with curriculum-based measurements(CBM)every week.Anthony had great difficulty making it through the text selections,causing his fluency to be incredibly low.He exhibited the two ma

22、in features of dyslexia,very limited words he could recognize by sight,and most words he came across he would stumble on,trying to sound them out.Each week I spent with Anthony working on his CBMs as well as working with him in the schools resource room,I witnessed him repeatedly try to sound out wo

23、rds that I thought he knew.These were common words,that he should have known by sight,such as the or that.Sometimes Anthony would remember these commonplace words by sight,but if he tried to read them fast he would get them confused with another common word,like reading it instead of in,which really

24、 confused him when I would ask him to tell me what he had just read.I was surprised to see Anthony struggle so much with words I thought to myself“wow,he should know this.”Importance of Concept to Own Practice.As I have learned about dyslexia and unveiled my own misconceptions,I can see how many stu

25、dents I know have dyslexia.The concept of dyslexia is incredibly important for educators,parents,and students to clearly understand.Teachers should never assume that parents or other educators know what dyslexia is because of the widespread misconceptions.To make such assumptions would put the advan

26、ces of a students reading progress at the whims of poor communication between teacher and parent.There is great value in accurately understanding of the concept of dyslexia.I wonder how many educators and parents with students or children with dyslexia or reading disabilities remain in the 4dark abo

27、ut these concepts and their terminology.The clearer everyone is about dyslexia,the more viable communication and growth in reading will become.Phonological Processing Deficits It is critical for educators and parents to understand what it means when their child displays traits of having a phonologic

28、al processing deficit.When educators have a clear understanding of phonological processing there can be early identification of students who may have dyslexia.By waiting until a specific word-reading problem is demonstrated(usually not until 2nd or 3rd grades),students who may have exhibited phonolo

29、gical processing deficits earlier could have potentially been identified and intervention could have taken place(Honig,Diamond&Gutlohn,2000).As Catts and Kamhi assert“by focusing on phonological processing abilities,it is possible to identify children who are dyslexic and at high risk for reading fa

30、ilure before they begin reading instruction,”(Catts&Kamhi,2005).The four areas children with dyslexia have problems in phonological processing include phonological awareness,phonological memory,phonological retrieval,and phonological production.Each of these areas should be the focus of teachers in

31、order to ensure early readers and writers are receiving the appropriate instruction and any necessary interventions they need.When a reader has a phonological processing deficit they have difficulties in“linguistic operations that make use of information involving the sounds of speech,”(Catts&Kamhi,

32、2005).Phonological awareness is the conscious awareness of or sensitivity to the sound structure of language.This includes the ability to detect,match,blend,segment,or otherwise manipulate the sounds in spoken language.As children learn to read and write,their focus generally lies on the meaning or

33、comprehension of words.The four levels of phonological 5awareness,from simplest to most difficult,include word level,syllable level,onset-rime level,and phonological/phoneme level.When readers have the skills to attend to,reflect on,and manipulate the sounds in words they have phonological awareness

34、.However,not all deficits in phonological awareness are caused by a reading problem.When children have been deprived of experience with text and language they are disadvantaged in their reading development skills.Phonological retrieval,the second area of phonological processing,can be thought of as

35、the ability to word-find.This can be exhibited in the tendency to substitute words and to overuse vague words.For example,substituting“dad”for“man”or overusing words or phrases that lack specificity such as“that”or“stuff.”Continuous naming tasks,or rapid naming,can provide evidence as a useful tool

36、for identifying problems with phonological retrieval.“Research further indicates that rapid naming explain unique variance in reading achievement beyond that accounted for by phonological awareness,”(Catts and Kamhi,2005).Phonological processing also consists of phonological memory and phonological

37、production.Children with dyslexia demonstrate problems with their phonological memory.Phonological memory,also called phonological coding,describes the ability to encode and store phonological information in the memory.Research has found that poor readers have difficulty using phonological memory to

38、 encode and store verbal information(Catts and Kamhi,2005).Phonological production,or speech production,may be exhibited if students have trouble producing complex phonological sequences.This may even be the case for words or phrases students are very familiar with.Connection to Own Experience.Antho

39、ny,who I am thinking about a lot after learning these important concepts about reading disabilities,probably had phonological processing 6deficits as a part of his dyslexia.Anthony often substituted overused words or terms for specific words,which indicates difficulties with phonological retrieval.S

40、tudying and reading about dyslexia sparked my interest to delve further into what phonological processing is.After studying in Module 2 about phonological awareness,I want to know more about its function in phonological processing.Because students with dyslexia have phonological processing deficits,

41、I believe it is critical for educators to be aware of what exactly this means.The terminology does not have the vast misconceptions surrounding it like dyslexia does,but sounds highly complex and can be intimidating to the novice instructor.The more understanding there is about what reading disabili

42、ties are and are not,the more successful interventions will be.Importance of Concept to Own Practice.By looking at a students phonological processing deficits and determining where strengths and weaknesses exist,intervention can begin.Because diagnoses of dyslexia usually happens once a student has

43、been struggling with reading for some time(usually around 2nd grade)there needs to be a way to catch these students earlier and make the appropriate modifications,accommodations,and interventions.This is why understanding of phonological processing is so critical.Because readers who have phonologica

44、l processing deficits are more likely to develop a reading disability,educators and parents can catch early warning signs about phonological processing skills much earlier than dyslexia would be diagnosed.Assessments done at the earlier stages are critical for the success of readers,making it possib

45、le to get intervention as soon as possible.By understanding and being able to identify the specific areas of weaknesses in a students reading abilities teachers can target specific goals and determine the appropriate instruction that is needed for each individual student(Hudson,et al,2007).7Explicit

46、 and Systematic Instruction One of the most important skills a teacher should have for working with students with disabilities is effective,explicit and systematic instruction.This is critical for teaching the structure of language to children with reading disabilities.Phonological processing skills

47、(phonological awareness,phonological memory,phonological retrieval,and phonological production)as well as other reading skills,such as fluency should be taught through explicit and systematic instruction in order to ensure students develop strength in each of these areas.“Evidence is presented in su

48、pport of the idea that many poor readers are impaired because of inadequate instruction or other experiential factors.”(Vellutino,2004).There is an enormous need for instruction to be delivered in a systematic way based off of evidenced-based research in order to build strong readers,especially for

49、students who are struggling.Explicit instruction begins with clear instructional goals1.The format of instruction requires that it be continuously clear and understandable,provided through good modeling from the instructor.Teachers need to state the exact instructional targets so that both teacher a

50、nd their students are on the same page with what the expectations and outcomes of the learning experience are.With explicit instruction Explicit instruction also incorporates guided and independent practice with corrective feedback.Student engagement is high and there is a standard of frequent stude