FAQs
What are common signs that may be associated with dyslexia?
Students with dyslexia typically experience primary difficulties in phonological awareness, including phonemic awareness and manipulation, single-word reading, reading fluency, and spelling. Consequences may include difficulties in reading comprehension and/or written expression. These difficulties in phonological awareness are unexpected for the students’ age and educational level and are not primarily the result of language difference factors. Additionally, there is often a family history or similar difficulties.
Pre-School
- Talks later than most children
- Has difficulty with rhyming
- Has difficulty pronouncing words (i.e., busgetti for spaghetti, mawn lower for lawn mower)
- Has poor auditory memory for nursery rhymes and chants
- Is slow to add new vocabulary words
- Is unable to recall the right word
- Has trouble learning numbers, days, colors, shapes and how to spell/write his or her name
K-3rd Grade
- Fails to understand that words come apart (e.g., “snowman” can be pulled apart into “snow” and “man” and “man” can be broken down into individual letters with sounds)
- Has difficulty learning the letter names and corresponding sounds
- Has difficulty decoding single words (reading single words in isolation)—lacks a strategy
- Has difficulty spelling phonetically
- Reads dysfluently (choppy and labored)
- Relies on context to recognize a word (Dyslexia Handbook, 2007, 2010)
4th Grade – High School
- Has a history of reading and spelling difficulties
- Avoids reading aloud
- Reads most materials slowly, with oral reading labored
- Avoids reading for pleasure
- Has inadequate vocabulary
- Has difficulty spelling and may resort to using less complicated, easy-to-spell words in writing
What are dyslexia classes?
Dyslexia classes are classes offered for students identified with dyslexia, either through special education or through Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. Instruction at the elementary/middle school levels is done through pull-outs.
Instruction at the junior high/high school levels is taken as an elective reading course. The dyslexia instructional program uses individualized, intensive, multisensory methods that contain reading, writing and spelling components. (Dyslexia Handbook, 2021 update)
What dyslexia program is used in RISD?
RISD utilizes two Orton-Gillingham based intervention programs:
MTA (Multisensory Teaching Approach) a program that consists of 7 kits. Students develop decoding, spelling and handwriting skills as they progress through the program. Progress through the program requires meeting mastery at the end of each kit.
Take Flight: A Comprehensive Intervention for Students with Dyslexia: a curriculum written by the staff of the Luke Waites Center for Dyslexia and Learning. This program consists of 7 books where students develop word recognition, reading fluency and reading comprehension skills as they progress through each book.