Are your students with dyslexia sounding out words instead of learning science and social studies?
Why do we insist that students must sound out and spell words instead of using reading by listening and writing by speaking for unimpaired participation in class activities involving print?
We want students to become the best visual readers they can be and not have to depend upon technology all the time. However, when it comes to class activities like science, social studies, language arts, etc., students need full access to the language experience that comes from print. The rate of reading the print must be rapid and automatic. Skilled readers get that through visual reading. Those of us with dyslexia get that through reading by listening. This gives us full access to the language experience that builds vocabulary, general knowledge, and intellectual growth.
We put students in a program of “explicit phonics instruction “and believe that this will lead to them becoming skilled readers when realistically, as the researcher Sally Shaywitz says, “Educators have learned how to help children and young adults to read more accurately,… However, no one has figured out how to overcome the lack of fluency. As a consequence, for dyslexic children and adults, instead of its being rapid and automatic, reading remains slow and effortful.” Slow and effortful means students will not be able to keep up with their peers, be able to read as many words in a day, be able to learn as much about the world, be able to read a passage and ponder its meeting without having to hurry on in an attempt to keep up with peers. In short, they will miss out on a large percentage of the learning that is available through using print.
It doesn’t have to be this way. For example, instead of insisting that students with poor vision not wear glasses and practice seeing without using technology, parents and teachers insist that students start wearing glasses immediately in the classroom so they won’t miss out on learning.
For students with hearing impairments we don’t insist that they do the best they can with their hearing. We insist that they use a hearing aid, closed captioning, or sign language so they don’t miss out on building their vocabulary, general knowledge, and intellectual growth, and so they’ll avoid falling behind their classmates.
For students with dyslexia, we can stop withholding reading by listening technology and stop insisting that they use regular class time to practice their phonics and other skills for sounding out words. Instead, we can give them the technology they need so they can excel academically. In order to support our students with dyslexia like we support our students with visual or hearing impairments, we can insist on having them use reading-by-listening and writing-by-speaking technologies, training, and support, along with the option to use visual reading when necessary, so they will complete reading and writing activities in the same length of time as their peers and stay caught up minute by minute in the classroom. They will not have to miss out on learning from print.
