The International Dyslexia Association defines dyslexia as a neurological disorder that causes difficulties with reading, writing, spelling, handwriting and sometimes arithmetic. Persons with dyslexia experience difficulty learning to read and write. Dyslexic persons are chiefly diagnosed by their inability read at levels commensurate with their intelligence and educational opportunities. Some individuals experience letter reversals, some have trouble with eye-hand coordination, and some decode words with ease but fail to comprehend text. Several commercial programs are available to remediate the problem.
Characteristics of a Sound Remedial Program
According to Dr. G. Reid Lyon, successful remedial reading programs for dyslexic students include several components. Systematic and explicit instruction in phonemic awareness and phonics skills is vital. Students also need frequent opportunities to complete repeated oral reading tasks to build fluency. They need direct instruction in comprehension strategies and vocabulary.
Orton-Gillingham Method
The Orton-Gillingham Method is the oldest of the multisensory teaching techniques frequently used to help dyslexic students master reading. It provides auditory, visual and kinesthetic activities during each lesson, teaches phonics and other reading skills in small, sequential steps, offers immediate feedback and frequent assessment of learning to demonstrate mastery. Students read and write, manipulate letter cards and employ other movement-based actions to help them remember reading skills.
Lindamood-Bell System
Lindamood-Bell offers a number of reading programs designed to help dyslexic students and other struggling readers. The LiPS Program focuses on phonemic awareness and kinesthetic awareness of the movements of the lips, tongue and jaw when forming sounds correctly. The Visualizing and Verbalizing Program concentrates on development of language comprehension which is foundational for reading comprehension. The primary activities for this program are designed to help students create visual images from language cues. The Seeing Stars Program helps students to build decoding and spelling fluency.
Wilson Reading System
The Wilson Reading System uses systematic lessons to teach phonemic awareness and phonics concepts through multisensory techniques such as manipulating color-coded letter cards. Students are taught to see syllable patterns with the color system and learn to identify these patterns in text that is not color-coded. The Wilson System employs incremental steps to teach phonics concepts directly to students, a tactile system to separate and blend phonemes, and controlled vocabulary text for reading practice.
Barton Reading
The Barton Reading System offers yet another variation on the Orton-Gillingham technique. The program is designed for use by trained tutors in one-to-one settings and strives to guide students through 10 levels of reading proficiency, culminating at the ninth-grade level. There is systematic teaching of phonemic awareness and phonics skills. The program also includes frequent reviews and opportunities to read single words, phrases, sentences and short decodable stories. The program offers supplemental reading materials as well.
References
- Bright Solutions for Dyslexia
- Florida Center for Reading Research: Barton Reading and Spelling System
- "How to Reach and Teach Children and Teens with Dyslexia"; Cynthia M. Stowe; 2000
- Orton-Gillingham: Methodology
- Willson Language Training
- Lindamood-Bell Learning Processes: Learning Centers
