Dyslexia is a learning disability that can cause difficulty in reading, writing, spelling, and speaking. It affects a person’s ability to read at a normal pace and causes the brain to have trouble processing letters and sounds. There are different kinds of dyslexia including, but not limited to, the following: phonological, surface, rapid naming deficit, and double deficit. Phonological dyslexia is where students have trouble breaking words into sounds and decoding words. Surface dyslexia is where students struggle with sight words and words with tricky spellings. It is common for students to have a combination of both surface and phonological dyslexia. Rapid naming deficit is where students cannot name numbers and letters quickly when they see them and affects a person’s processing and reading speeds, while double deficit is where students struggle with phonological awareness as well as naming letters quickly when seeing them. This is considered a more severe form of dyslexia.

How Can You Spot Signs of Dyslexia in the Classroom?

According to Understood.org, signs of dyslexia are a bit different in various grade levels. In preschool, signs of dyslexia can include students using “baby talk” often, struggling to tell stories in a logical order, saying words like “beddy tear” instead of “teddy bear”, inability to understand basic rhyming patterns with words such as bat and cat, difficulty in recognizing the letters in their own name and learning/remembering the letters of the alphabet, and trouble with basic nursery rhymes.

In grades K-2, students struggle with letter names and the sounds they make, sight words unless there is a visual along with it, substituting words when reading out loud, confusion of letters that look or sound similar, and remembering how words are spelled, especially when they need to be applied to writing.

In grades 3-5, students struggle with remembering key details from a story, letter reversals, sounding out new words, skipping over small words such as “for” and “of” when reading out loud, spelling including writing the same word correctly and incorrectly in the same piece of writing, and avoidance. Avoidance is when students will avoid reading whenever possible and can get overwhelmed, frustrated, and upset when reading.

In grades 6-12 and in adults, struggles include remembering common abbreviations, spending long amounts of time completing reading assignments, understanding jokes or puns, and searching for words or using substitutes (such as using “gate” instead of “fence”). It is generally easier to answer questions about text when it is read out loud.

How Does Dyslexia Impact Student Learning Long Term?

First and foremost, students that suffer from dyslexia oftentimes have low self-esteem, anxiety, depression, and behavior problems. These students won’t want to try again and fear making mistakes. It can affect their ability to “interact with peers in a typical way”. Frustration at the inability to read is common, and students don’t always feel good about themselves when they compare themselves to others.

Many of these impacts are seen at the middle school level and beyond. This is age where students can recognize that it is taking them longer to learn than the others around them. They can see the deficits within themselves and it can be extremely difficult to cope with. This is how behavior problems and anxiety issues can arise.

As students continue to get older, it can cause them to withdraw from friends and adults and can create many issues as adults including the inability to reach one’s full potential. The social and emotional issues created from dyslexia can be just as hindering as the dyslexia itself.

Students that do not receive support earlier on tend to struggle academically and be unable to “catch up”. The older students are when dyslexia is identified and interventions are put in place may continue to struggle and have more difficulty learning the skills needed to read well.

Different Supports/Help to Provide these Students

There is no “treatment” for dyslexia, but there are many different ways to provide educational support. According to the Mayo Clinic, many factors are considered in the diagnosis of dyslexia including a child’s development, educational issues, and medical history, home life, questionnaires answered by the child, parent, and teacher, vision, hearing, and neurological tests, psychological testing, and academic testing.

The earlier that the interventions begin, the better! Individualized education plans (IEPs) can be put in place and will provide a plan that is structured and focuses on the specific child’s need and how the school will help this child to succeed. This is a legal document and must be followed by the school district. Supports that are often used focus on learning to recognize and use the sounds that make up words (phonetic awareness), understanding the letters that make up the words, reading comprehension, reading fluency, and building up vocabulary.

Parental support and involvement are also important. The Mayo Clinic website gives many ways for parents to support students with dyslexia to succeed including addressing the problem early, reading out loud at home with their child, working hand in hand with their child’s school and teachers, and simply encouraging reading. Parents and schools working together will help the child to receive the support necessary to overcome the difficulties of dyslexia.

Wrap-Up

As much as dyslexia affects the academic performance of children, it can have many social-emotional and psychological effects as well. Early intervention is always best, but it is never too late to put supports in place. There are many successful people that have dyslexia including Whoopi Goldberg, Tim Tebow, Anderson Cooper, and Steven Spielberg. Although dyslexia can present many challenges throughout life, people can lead successful lives.

As Richard Branson stated, “Being dyslexic can actually help in the outside world. I see some things clearer than other people do because I have to simplify things to help me and that has helped others.” Sometimes disabilities can present opportunities to be embraced by those who experience them, and, in turn, those people can help others around them in different kinds of ways. People with dyslexia need to remember that they are not alone, and although it can impact learning at various stages of their life, there is nothing that they cannot achieve.

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Types of Learning Disabilities

Students with learning disabilities can possess an array of strengths and weaknesses. A learning disability can affect a student’s comprehension and performance in one way or a combination of ways. Admittedly, these truths can make learning disabilities seem incomprehensible and unconquerable, but they are neither. Below are some common learning disabilities that you may encounter in the classroom.

Dyslexia

Dyslexia is widely known yet grossly misunderstood. Dyslexia affects a student’s ability to read and write due to one or more of a number of symptoms. These symptoms can include mixing up letters and words when reading, consistently incorrect spelling and grammar, and being unable to read or write on level yet presenting high or average intelligence otherwise.

Dyscalculia

This disability affects a student’s ability to comprehend numbers. Dyscalculia typically makes learning math facts and interpreting mathematical symbols difficult, thus diminishing a student’s chances of building a strong math foundation. Dyscalculia can also affect a student’s ability to tell time or count.

Dysgraphia

This disability affects a student’s fine motor skills, particularly writing. These students may have illegible handwriting. Students with dysgraphia may also present difficulties with spacing words and letters or spelling. These students may also have trouble producing and expressing ideas in writing.

Processing Deficits

Students with processing deficits demonstrate difficulty with interpreting data. Processing deficits are typically visual or auditory and can impact students in all subject areas. A student with an auditory processing deficit, for example, will have trouble executing auditory instructions. A student with a visual processing deficit, on the other hand, may find learning from visual aids such as anchor charts difficult.

Myths About Learning Disabilities

Although common, learning disabilities carry a cloud of myths that can be detrimental to the education of students who face these disabilities. Even parents are often navigating uncharted territory when their children have a disability. As educators, it is our job to demystify these disabilities. We must understand what is true and untrue about the disabilities that plague our students in the classroom. Below are some common misconceptions about learning disabilities that you may encounter.

Learning Disabilities Stem from Low Intelligence

While students with learning disabilities will have weaknesses, they will also have strengths. Students with learning disabilities are not intellectually disabled. In fact, students who demonstrate lower than average overall intelligence on psychological testing will qualify for a special education category that is not LD.

ADHD is a Learning Disability

ADHD is a disorder that affects the learning of many students, but it is not a learning disability. These students still need support in the classroom in order to be successful, however.

Learning Disabilities are a Sign of Bad Parenting

Unfortunately, some individuals opine that learning disabilities are a result of harmful or neglectful parenting. While childhood trauma can absolutely affect a student’s learning, students with learning disabilities have a documented weakness that can stem from several factors.

Learning Disabilities are a New Phenomenon

If I had a dime for each “back in my day” speech I have endured surrounding the prevalence of learning disabilities in classrooms today, I would surely be wealthy. More students are diagnosed today because special education has transformed into a more thorough and inclusive sector of education that better understands these disabilities and can better recognize them.

Learning Disabilities Disappear in Adulthood

Students with learning disabilities can learn to cope and compensate, but these challenges do not disappear upon the inception of adulthood.

Accommodations for Learning Disabilities Give Students an Unfair Advantage

When a student’s disability affects his or her academic performance, that student enters the classroom each day with a disadvantage. Accommodations and modifications are implemented to level the playing field for all students. Also, keep in mind that students with IEPs and 504 Plans have annual meetings to evaluate the support they receive. This is your chance to speak up about accommodations that may not be a good fit.

Students with Learning Disabilities can’t be Gifted

Students with learning disabilities can absolutely be gifted. They are often capable of taking advanced classes and participating in talented and gifted programs. We must make a conscious effort not to limit these students.

Struggles Students Face and How Teachers can Help

The effects of a learning disability can be far reaching for students. Unfortunately, these students risk being labeled lazy or unmotivated due to their deficits. On the contrary, constantly battling deficits can make these students become unmotivated. When students don’t yet have the maturity and emotional intelligence to cope with a learning disability, they can develop behavioral or emotional issues. This can manifest as classroom disruption, defiance, elopement, or a host of other issues that can lead to disciplinary consequences.

Furthermore, the learning disabilities obviously impact students’ academic performance. These students often spend much of their academic journey trying to keep their heads above water and fighting through academic rigor with one hand behind their backs. Unable to build foundational skills, they often have learning gaps that can make academics more difficult as time progresses. Just like a house, an education needs a firm foundation in order to remain standing. As the coursework becomes more rigorous and students with learning disabilities are still trying to catch up from years prior, they are at risk of falling further and further behind.

At the risk of inundating teachers with a task that truly requires a village, I will say that it is up to teachers to seek understanding for each student’s disability. It is important for teachers to understand strengths and weaknesses alike in order to properly serve these students. Become familiar with the student’s IEP or 504 plan and implement it with fidelity. Using parents and former teachers as resources when available can provide valuable insight.

Finally, many students with learning disabilities are undiagnosed. When you notice that a student is struggling to a degree that may indicate a learning disability, initiate the process to have that student monitored and evaluated. As challenging as serving students with learning disabilities can be for teachers, we must always remember that these students face challenges that transcend beyond the classroom daily.

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