If you want to survive in America, that is if you want to be able to keep a roof over your head, food on the table, and out of intractable poverty, you had better know how to read. Yet only about 1/3 of scholars are reading with proficiency by fourth grade with 1/3 at a basic level and the other third below basic. What all of that means is that the top third will have the skills to go to college. The middle third will be able to get a job that requires more physical labor than reading skills and the bottom third will probably spend most of their adult life unemployed. The numbers and outcomes are not written in stone and a given school or group of scholars will not necessarily reflect those percentages, but they are the national averages. We already know that reading disorders are the most commonly diagnosed learning disability in the United States with estimates of its prevalence ranging from 4% to 20%. Dr. Shaywitz of Yale University has found that 80% of scholars with learning disorders also have reading problems. Males are diagnosed up to five times more frequently than females, but males are screened more frequently for learning disabilities due to incidences of disruptive behavior so this number may not be totally accurate, and we are probably missing lots of females with reading problems.
MULTIPLE SIGNS OF A READING DISABILITY
So, what does all of this mean for the advocate or parent trying to create an IEP that has goals that support functional outcomes? It means that reading is a priority and getting it right is critical to the overall educational success of the scholar. There are multiple signs that point to a reading disability.
It is important to pay attention to see if a scholar is having difficulty learning how to:
o Follow directions with multiple steps o Organize their thoughts and what they want to say o Sequence a story when telling it o Connect letters to their sounds
o Rhyme words o Begin a task
Can the scholar
Use mathematical symbols and numbers consistently
Deal with emotional issues
"Get" jokes and sarcasm
Read aloud with minimal mistakes
Follow social rules of conversation
Read comprehension problems
These are issues that then send you to the following checklist that can give insight into what is the fundamental problem. What is most important is that the evaluations include the sub-skills or splinter skills so that skills that are foundational to the reading process are not missed and can be remediated if necessary. Too often not enough attention is paid to the foundational skills and then no one can seem to figure out why there is so little progress. It is a lot like building a house on sand. Good Luck!!
EVALUATIONS ARE INDICATED - IF ANY OF THE FOLLOWING OCCUR:
Anxiety with reading or writing
Decreased reading comprehension
Decreased reading fluency
Difficulty blending sounds
Difficulty comprehending complex grammatical structures
Difficulty distinguishing different sounds in words (auditory discrimination)
Difficulty hearing and manipulating sounds in words (phonemic awareness)
Difficulty learning a foreign language.
Difficulty learning rules for spelling–spell words the way they sound.
Difficulty learning the alphabet
Difficulty reading or spelling simple/ common small words like: the, of, said
Difficulty remembering words like: the, of, said, that, be
Difficulty rhyming or counting syllables in words (phonological awareness)
Difficulty sounding out longer words or nonsense words
Difficulty sounding out words not already in their listening vocabulary
Difficulty spelling in general
Difficulty spelling words the way they sound
Difficulty using or comprehending complex grammatical structures
Difficulty with activities of daily living
Difficulty with identifying, pronouncing, or recalling sounds.
Difficulty with letter sequence or the order of letter is reversed
Difficulty with letter sound correlation (names and shapes of letters)
Difficulty with memorizing number facts and operations
Difficulty with rhyming, blending sounds, learning the alphabet, linking letters with sounds
Difficulty with vocabulary knowledge and use
Difficulty with words in lists
Difficulty with words in lists, nonsense words
Difficulty with words not in their listening vocabulary
Does not like reading
Family history of reading difficulties
Good listening comprehension
Lack of persistence for longer assignments
Listening comprehension better than reading comprehension
Memory deficits
Mispronouncing common words
Non-fluent, slow, poor quality and quantity writers
Poor background knowledge due to lack of exposure
Poor comprehension during oral or silent reading
Poor fund of knowledge
Poor organization
Poor self-esteem
Poor speller
Poor study skills
Poor timed reading comprehension (listening comprehension higher)
Poor vocabulary knowledge and use
Poor writing quality and quantity
Pronouncing common words (floor mat vs. format)
Reading fatigue
Reduced reading experience
Reluctant readers
Slow growth in vocabulary
Slow reading – fluency (word by word)
Slow speed of processing information (visual or auditory)
Slow writing fluency
Slow, laborious oral reading
Slow, word-by-word readers
Time management skills