Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Hi, I'm Maggie. And I'm Nicole. Welcome to the DAC Dyslexia and Coffee Podcast. We're so happy you could join us. We're both moms and dyslexia interventionists who want to talk about our students and children. What dyslexia is, how it affects our kids, strategies to help and topics related to other learning disabilities will all be covered in this podcast. Parents are not alone, and we want to give voice to the concerns and struggles we are all having. This is a safe place, place to learn more about how to help our children grow and succeed in school, in the world. Grab a cup of coffee and enjoy the conversation.
[00:00:33] Hi, everybody. Welcome to episode 105 of Dyslexia and Coffee Podcast. We're going to start today's episode like we do every single episode, which is with the concept of the week.
[00:00:48] So today's concept of the week is high five frequency words.
[00:00:53] So high frequency words are very commonly confused with sight word. We actually talked about sight words last time.
[00:01:04] But just to recap it, sight word is a word that we know by sight. We do not have to decode that word. We know it immediately. It's orthographically mapped in our brain. Really and truly. We want all words to become sight words over time. But high frequency words are exactly what they sound like. It is the words that are most commonly used in print.
[00:01:29] Actually in most children's literature, they make up more than 50% of the text.
[00:01:35] They're words like is the on all those kind of direction words. There are some common lists like the dolch or the fry lists. Many schools will use either the dolch words or the fry list.
[00:01:51] The fry list is like 100 words. The Dolch is a little bit, a little bit longer and organized by grade level. But both are very commonly used in schools.
[00:02:05] That's what they usually will try to use for like sight words or snap words. So it's really understandable why those two terms are frequently interchanged, but they really do mean different things.
[00:02:20] So remember, we actually want all words to be sight words because that means they're orthographically mapped and we can instantly read those words without sounding them out.
[00:02:35] So welcome to episode 105. We're gonna discuss some teacher questions about dyslexia. So we get asked a lot at our center, questions that come from teachers about many different topics relating or surrounding dyslexia.
[00:02:55] And I guess the most common one we get is dyslexia. Yes. Right. So once again, for everyone listening. Right.
[00:03:04] Dyslexia is a specific learning disability in reading.
[00:03:10] That is usually what I lead with if a teacher asks me this question because they'll be familiar with that term.
[00:03:18] It is how dyslexia is kind of defined at school.
[00:03:23] If a child is going to receive services for a reading disability, that's going to be the category that will be selected.
[00:03:33] So that's usually what I lead with.
[00:03:36] I always want to reinforce with the teacher. It is very common.
[00:03:40] About one in five people do have dyslexia.
[00:03:45] It always kind of makes me giggle.
[00:03:49] We get phone calls from teachers when we have done an assessment, and then we'll get a phone call from a teacher who really wants to support a student. So the parent will have shared the assessment with a teacher and then we'll get a phone call.
[00:04:05] And it does make me kind of smile because a lot of times the teachers are like, oh, this is the first time we've had a student with dyslexia in my class. So I just really, really want to know more.
[00:04:17] And I just silently to myself kind of giggle and go, it's definitely not the first student that you have had with dyslexia. It is maybe the first student that has been diagnosed overtly with dyslexia. It may be the first time it's coming into your consciousness that you have a student with dyslexia in the classroom.
[00:04:44] Sometimes I will say, well, about how many kids are in your classroom?
[00:04:47] And they might say, 20, 25. And I'll say, well, you probably have four to five students actually with dyslexia in your classroom right now. They are usually like, whoa, really?
[00:05:06] So a lot of the teachers also ask, how can I help my students in search name here.
[00:05:14] Bobby, Jen, Sarah, xyz. Keep going.
[00:05:22] Because right there, they want to know how they can support them in the classroom.
[00:05:26] Yeah, excellent. You know, and our answer to that question is it's going to really depend on that specific student.
[00:05:39] So this is kind of where I find myself so often with the answer. It depends.
[00:05:46] I know we say it a lot. We say it a lot. And I always really try to be conscious of, okay, I can give you some general tips, I can give you some general statements, but truly, for every student, the way that dyslexia is going to present is going to be quite different.
[00:06:14] So what I do say to that fan, like, if they really do have a specific student in mind that they are actually asking about, I will go through and look at, okay, what are these students strengths?
[00:06:30] What are the ways that we can use those Strengths? Is the student very creative? Do they like to come up with stories? Do they like to, you know, are they interested in art? Are they interested in music? How do we pull in reading materials that have to do with that subject matter?
[00:06:52] So I really encourage them to approach it like they would, honestly, any student. Let's take a look at where this kid thrives, and let's use that to target what's kind of missing or where the pieces are that don't fit.
[00:07:10] Obviously, this is alongside. Right. If I'm talking to a classroom teacher, that's the track I'm taking. If I'm talking to a special educator teacher or a reading specialist, then my answer is a little bit different. Right now I'm talking to a person who really can remediate dyslexia. And so I'm talking about.
[00:07:32] Here are the patterns that appear to be missing. This is where you need to start.
[00:07:38] So seems like such a simple question, but there are kind of like multiple structures, strands of answers to that question.
[00:07:50] Right.
[00:07:51] So the next question is, what should I look for in my classroom to identify a student with dyslexia?
[00:07:59] I think we all know that that depends on the age. Right.
[00:08:03] And kind of a little bit of.
[00:08:07] It's really hard to answer that question also.
[00:08:10] Yeah, it is. It depends on the age of the student. I usually will kind of.
[00:08:18] I mean, we generally know that if we're talking to a specific teacher. Right. They'll tell us what grade they're teaching. Yeah.
[00:08:26] You know, some things that I always do point them to. We have a red flags list on our website, actually, that will help look at those kinds of things by age and stage. Right. I. I think we can kind of answer this for our listeners by age and stage in some very general terms.
[00:08:47] If this is a preschool or kindergarten teacher, I am looking for things like delayed speech, trouble with simple nursery rhymes, trouble with nursing, with rhyming in general.
[00:09:03] Either not interpreting the rhyme or not being able to produce rhymes is a red flag.
[00:09:13] Not being able to easily learn Alphabet. Yes. On the same rate, maybe as peers. Yep.
[00:09:22] And then connecting, you know, it's the letter names and also being able to connect those letter names to a sound. Right.
[00:09:32] And being able to sequence things or following simple directions.
[00:09:38] If there's like more than one step and a student is getting lost on step two or three, that would give me pause. That would be something to further investigate.
[00:09:55] If they're a little bit older, like maybe that early elementary grade one and two, struggling with blending.
[00:10:04] If they can't blend individual sounds into a word, especially when we get to that three sounds. Right. When they're looking at the word dog and it's.
[00:10:16] And they have to blend something like that together. And they're really tricky. That's really tricky for. For them, that is a red flag, not knowing left from right still.
[00:10:27] Oh, yes. Definitely.
[00:10:30] Yes. Because there is a motor component to dyslexia.
[00:10:34] Guessing. Guessing at words based on the first letter, not really being able to sign them out. Right. Or maybe telling you the story based on a picture that's in the book instead of what's actually in the book. Yep. Absolutely.
[00:10:48] Forgetting the common high frequency or sight words that they have been taught that we've assumed have been orthographically mapped and they're not.
[00:10:59] So not recognizing them in print in grades. And two, that would one and two.
[00:11:06] My antenna would go up if they can't recognize it in print. Less so if they're not spelling it correctly. Correct. My answer is going to change on that as they get older. Right. But at first my antenna goes up when they can't recognize them. Yes.
[00:11:25] You know, or reading sends them into emotional distress.
[00:11:30] You know, when it's like when you start seeing behaviors because of reading. Exactly.
[00:11:34] You know, that's. We're going to start probably seeing that in grades one and two. All of a sudden that's becoming more and more uncomfortable for them. And it will continue into the later elementary grades too. Exactly. They might. Like in the later elementary grades, they might not want to read out loud in front of their peers or.
[00:11:57] Which, by the way, is terrible classroom practice anyway. We should not be having kids read individually out loud in front of their peers unless it is true, truly their choice to do so.
[00:12:10] Also, like mixing up syllables and words. Like as they get older, you know, you have more syllables in words.
[00:12:20] Not being able to break down new words. Yes. As you're, you know, after, you know, second grade, you should be able to decode them. Yes. Once we've pushed up into this third grade and beyond that very slow and choppy labored reading.
[00:12:40] That is when truly, developmentally speaking, after the end of second grade, that's when we do want to pay a lot of attention to the prosody.
[00:12:52] How are they reading? Not just what they're reading, but how are they writing or how are they reading except, excuse me, if they're flipping numbers and letters at this point too. Oh, yes, that's a red flag.
[00:13:07] Developmentally appropriate at the end of first grade into second grade, but after that, they really should have those letter formations Down. Absolutely.
[00:13:18] And the inconsistent spelling errors.
[00:13:21] So often those older students, they'll spell something correct correctly and then incorrectly right after it.
[00:13:30] Like on the same page in the same assignment. Yep, absolutely. Those are some things to really look out for, you know, and while this is normal for any human being able to understand something verbally, if you have read a story out loud and that student can retell it, they comprehend the whole thing.
[00:13:58] They're really, they are understanding that passage. But then you have to, then they have to read it and they don't like, they cannot comprehend after reading text.
[00:14:11] That really, that shows a pretty strong discrepancy between their ability to listen, listening comprehension, and then reading comprehension being very far apart.
[00:14:26] And also these students usually have been introduced to suffixes. And so if they're like forgetting them and it makes the content inaccurate, that's also a sign. Yep. Skipping those little prepositions and suffixes when they're reading out loud to you, that is a red flag. We are not truly moving through the word and we are changing the meaning of those sentences and those passages. So those are kind of the general ones as far as classroom is concerned. Those are the ones a classroom teacher who is paying a lot of attention to their students and the ones that we have conversations with. That is the case.
[00:15:11] Right. If they're calling us, it's because they want to know they're trying to support somebody in their classroom.
[00:15:20] And those are kind of the ones that I really want to make sure they know.
[00:15:28] So the next question is, how do I learn more about dyslexia? Yeah, you can go to our webpage. Yes, this is always kind of a fun one to answer. Right.
[00:15:39] And a lot of times there's a. There's a lot to unpack with dyslexia. So I like to start small.
[00:15:48] I like them, I like them to go to our website. Obviously, I do send them to the International Dyslexia Association's website.
[00:15:59] And I also really.
[00:16:01] There are a few podcasts. It's a few years out now, but an excellent podcast by Emily Hanford called Sold a Story.
[00:16:11] Many of our listeners are probably very familiar with that podcast. And then there was actually a follow up podcast as well that Emily Hanford did like a year out.
[00:16:25] Both those were really great as well.
[00:16:28] Natalie Wexler. Wexler is another good resource. I like teachers because her. Her website is called Mind the Gap and that is a very, very good resource for teachers. I like to point them to resources that are simple, but they are written for educators. So they are Written, they are going to talk about phonological and phonemic awareness. They're going to define those terms. They're going to talk. Talk like teachers.
[00:17:00] They're going to use the acronyms, they're going to do all that kind of stuff that teachers do have the base knowledge to jump off of.
[00:17:09] They're slightly different than the parent resources that I usually start with just because I do understand their training and background and where they're coming from.
[00:17:21] You know, then I always plug our company. Right. I mean, honestly, if I'm being honest, we. We do also train teachers in structured literacy and what we do. And so I point them to ourselves as a resource and also who is our training partner.
[00:17:41] Because if they really want to dive in more deeply, that's where I really want them to get their knowledge from.
[00:17:47] Do you have any other resources that you share with teachers above and beyond that?
[00:17:53] Sometimes I do.
[00:17:55] If they're really interested, send them to Reading Rockets. Just because that website also talks about it more in depth about the structured literacy and it gives a history of it too, which I think is also really good for teachers to know. I think so too. And I think a lot of teachers, I like Reading Rockets a lot. It's a great free resource, free to everybody to access. And I think their modules and their quizzes are actually really helpful. Yep. And most teachers I know, I don't know, it's like a teacher thing. They actually really like the quiz aspect and they're like, I got 100, I did it.
[00:18:43] And you can retake those as many times, as many times as you want to. Go ahead and give yourself that gold star. Teachers, you go for it.
[00:18:51] You don't get that many. Honestly, I do send them to Understood.org? because the resources there are more tailored to parents. But if the teacher needs to explain something to a parent, it's really well written there. Yes. It's a good interpretation. Correct. So, and so sometimes, I mean, just to give them more resources to give to parents, I will send them there. Yeah.
[00:19:16] Yeah. I think it is interesting. I feel like these are definitely the most common questions we get.
[00:19:26] You know, I think the other very common question we get is about accommodations. Correct. You know, and again, even teachers who are excellent teachers, I still will kind of back up and really explain the difference between an accommodation and a modification.
[00:19:50] You know, remember that an accommodation is something we do within the general ed environment.
[00:19:56] It is not changing the commitment content that is given or what we are expecting that student to give us.
[00:20:06] We might break things down we might provide extended time, we might change their seat.
[00:20:13] We might do things that within the function of the gen ed classroom that we can do.
[00:20:20] Modifications are different. That is when we're changing either the material itself that we're giving them or expecting something different from a student.
[00:20:34] Most of the time, modifications truly need to be handled through special education.
[00:20:43] That is really when that special ed track needs to decide what are we doing. As soon as we're changing anything in regular ed, we've put that different. We've put but that kid in a different category.
[00:20:56] We have changed things significantly.
[00:20:59] Often our students with dyslexia actually need both and right around with that. They need the accommodations and modifications often, but they also need the very specific instruction. They need structured literacy and they beat it.
[00:21:20] Generally, the students with dyslexia do need that one on one or in a very small group where the group is at the same level and that is a very skilled practitioner.
[00:21:39] So, Maggie, what's happening beyond dyslexia? Oh, goodness.
[00:21:43] Oh, just all the things, Nicole.
[00:21:47] My very standard answer. Yeah, this was.
[00:21:53] As we record this, it is the first week in September, so officially the kids are back to school.
[00:22:01] So we are experiencing all of the back to school things.
[00:22:09] Re establishing bedtime and trying to make the bus. My kids had to run to catch the bus today because it came way earlier than its posted time, so they almost missed it. So hopefully they recovered and had a good rest of their day.
[00:22:27] Oh, my goodness. What about you, Nicole?
[00:22:29] Well, I would say the same.
[00:22:32] You know, first weeks of school are always a challenge, but this year we decided three different schools for three different kids. So that has complicated our lives quite a bit. You know, different times, different places, different people, different everything.
[00:22:53] So, yeah, we're trying to get through that too. And I think we're okay.
[00:23:05] I think that's the best we can do in the first week in September. Like, yep, we are here. We are functioning. We are recording this for all of you.
[00:23:17] But thank you everybody for listening.
[00:23:20] Please follow us on social media and reach out if you have any questions or you would like us to discuss a topic. If you do like our show, be sure to follow us and give us a rating on your favorite podcast player. That is how we reach more listeners and then we get to help more families. Thank you, everybody. Thank you.
