Prior to viewing the module video, what were your assumptions about Dyslexia? How did the simulation activity change or contribute to your understanding of Dyslexia?
Prior to viewing the module, I have had some training on Dyslexia. As a former self-contained special education teacher, I had not worked with a student who was diagnosed with Dyslexia. Getting a refresher on Dyslexia and participating in the simulation activity reminded me of how truly difficult reading is for these learners. I was also reminded of why these students may exhibit some âdifficultâ behaviors. Keeping this in mind has a real impact on how I view these students and reminds me that each child really does need individual planning and many factors needs to go into their academic learning.
In your response, the one line, âand it doesnât help that there are a lack of resources to evaluate itâ caught my attention. I watched the resource from the National Center on Improving Literacy, âHow would someone evaluate for the presence of dyslexia in a student with visual impairment?â Marnee Loftin states that if youâre interested in finding books about the topic with different checklists, individual assessments that have been developed and accommodated for braille readers, she recommended two websites, APH and AFB. She does not give the names of these books/checklists. It would be helpful to have the actual names of these books/resources.
I love that you bring books when you meet families! I think it is so important that in your very first meeting with families you are tailoring your visit-making the families feel respected. While I have not been an early interventionist, I was fortunate enough to shadow an early interventionist while I was getting my masters degree. Such an important point of this is educating the families you work with, and it sounds like you are doing a great job of not only educating families, but including them as well! Great job!
I agree with your point that early identification and intervention is necessary! When we as teachers have this basic knowledge of what Dyslexia is, even if a student is not identified, we can begin tailoring our lessons and interventions in a way that can help. I think advocating for these students is the best way to spread more information about this topic, especially for students who have a visual impairment.
Dyslexia is characterized by problems with recognizing and differentiating between phonemes causing problems with letter recognition, sounding out and blending syllables, recognizing letters and reading words, thus resulting in problems with reading, writing, and spelling, which are all facets a literacy.
According to the Paths to Literacy article, the evaluation is a team effort and I couldnât agree more. The visual impairment would not make it impossible. With the proper tools and preparation, VI students can be evaluated for dyslexia as well as other reading disabilities.
âEvaluation of any student with a visual impairment should involve a collaborative model, with the TVI providing information about the functional vision of the student to the evaluator. By discussing the needs associated with the vision and the questions to be answered, the evaluator can choose the most appropriate instruments. The evaluator should have specific experience in evaluating for the presence of dyslexia as well as the willingness to participate in a collaborative model. This ensures that the best possible evaluation will provide information about the issues that are affecting the development of fluent reading skills.â- Understanding Dyslexia in Children with Visual Impairments â Paths to Literacy
It is so strange to hear an Administrator say, âI believe so-and-so has dyslexia,â yet do nothing to arrange to have the student assessed. And yes, this was a real comment made directly to me. The studentâs IEP team should have been made aware so that the evaluation process could begin. I am a big proponent of assessing students so that teachers have a baseline with which to begin instruction. A proper evaluation begins with the correct tools and simply transcribing a print test into braille is not the best way to do it. âOne of the major reasons is that the scope and sequence of instruction in braille is different from print. In this context it is impossible to determine the exact reason for the missed item. False conclusions can occur because of this.â
Children with visual impairments can be and should be assessed for dyslexia. As TVIs, we should be able to recognize the signs and make recommendations to the IEP team. Signs can occur in pre-readers and early readers, elementary school, teens, and even adults (which we also may work with). In order for teachers, and not just TVIs, to provide quality instruction, if dyslexia is suspected, a recommendation should be made and an evaluation conducted to that students can receive the level of instruction they need.
Prior to viewing the module, I wasnât sure if dyslexia could be diagnosed in people with VI. I now see that a visual impairment would not make it impossible to do so. With the proper tools and preparation, people with VI can be evaluated for dyslexia. I became extremely frustrated doing the simulation activity and it gave me a new perspective on the difficulty with which students with dyslexia read. I canât imagine the time it takes to get through the simplest passages. Allowing extra time is a reasonable accommodation for students with dyslexia.
As a child of the 70s, I had the best teachers! They had high expectations for us as students and I still carry those expectations with me today. Enunciate my words, think before I speak, read to become better, think critically, try to solve a problem before I ask for help, be kind, compassionate, and respectful to everyone no matter who they are or their station in life. I have those same expectations for my students and my Admins have appreciated that throughout my teaching career. I canât my elementary school teachers, some of whom were church members as well, for their impact and impartation in and over my life. As a matter of fact, I just said as much, via Facebook, to my 4th grade teacher, who turned 86 years old last week. I will forever be grateful to the teachers who cared enough to make sure I was a not only a well-rounded student, but a well-rounded person as well.
Reflecting on your own experiences as a student, how did teacher expectations influence your academic performance and motivation? How might you apply these insights to your own teaching practice?
I enjoyed reading the Fisher and Frey article regarding high expectations with in the classroom. It is an article that I think would be great to read on a regular basis to ensure I am keeping high expectations in my class and presenting an environment that students feel comfortable seeing high expectations for themselves through challenging assignments.
Reading my own education and my recall of my teachers expectations, for the most part I recall teachers having high expectations for the class in elementary and middle school. I can recall many real life experiences or scenarios that teachers used to connect back to instruction, which reinforced the purpose of learning. In high school I do feel like a few of my teachers had low expectations for the class. Reflecting on those teachers, I think they were not as confident or comfortable teaching the classes I was in. This shows the importance of being confident and having high expectations for yourself as an educator and also for your students.
Hello Matthew,
Cost is definitely a factor in acquiring educational materials like the ones you mentioned above. The first 3 years of teaching experience I had coming out of college were in an Early Intervention Program at an agency serving Visually Impaired people in our county. There are thankfully a lot of items we were able to provide to our many families. I am not sure if they were specific to our state of if they are available across the United States. I believe some of the resources we provided were from APH, Seedling, and our Division of Blind Services. We hosted play groups as well so that parents could meet each other and frequently they passed on materials that they had purchased or made that their child has out grown which also defrayed the cost.
You are so right! Parent expectations are equally important. I have had many parents share with their child that they donât have to get a job or donât need to do something if it is too hard. While it is hard to break through those expectations that they have heard the first 10-15 years of their life I always share that we are building skills so that they have them if they ever need them and always expose them to people who have similar disabilities and type of life they lead. Career Connect had great interviews throughout the year and there is a series of interviews on YouTube were Visually Impaired students interview visually impaired adults about here their jobs.
In my experience in working with younger children socioeconomic status has a large impact on the implementation of strategies to promote learning in general. When asking about a familyâs biggest concerns regarding their childâs learning and the impact on that learning due to being blind or partially sighted, the responses are often centered around mobility/safety, daily living, and concerns with delayed speech skills. Reading and literacy may be a concern, however at younger ages it hasnât always been at the top of the list of concerns, in my experience, until we start to discuss school-based services.
In addressing oral language concerns I think it is important to make the connection between oral language development and the impact on reading comprehension later. While I model and provide information and strategies for expanding language development, constantly talking to children about what is happening around them and providing details using descriptors I have not always explained how this may translate to reading skills later in the childâs life.
Socioeconomic status will definitely impact the ability of a family to implement recommended strategies to promote literacy. Having tactile books and materials that provide opportunities for children to engage with stories may be harder for a family with limited finances. Some families may have two parents who work long hours to support their family and may not have the ability to spend the time working with their child regularly, or a single parent household. I have worked with families with varying dynamics throughout my experience and there are a number of things that can have an impact on early literacy. Time constraints and financial instability are two factors that would seem to have the biggest impact on the ability of families to implement strategies within the home to promote emergent literacy. At times even finding times to schedule intervention visits can be challenging for families who work long hours, interventionists may see children in another setting, however this does not allow for modeling strategies for families making follow through more challenging.
Different cultures place varying emphasis on academics and learning, which may impact how we as professionals work within the family dynamics to provide materials and ideas to promote literacy for emergent learners.
I think the bottom line is that we need to meet families where they are at and provide the support, guidance and materials within our ability to make sure children are getting the exposure to early literacy skills at a young age.
The simulation activity really had an impact on my understanding of dyslexia and the frustration students feel when working on literacy skills. There were a few great resources provided that I intend to delve into more deeply, some really great tools to have on hand when working with students. I was reminded of some things I have noticed in students I have worked with while watching the module video as dyslexia and vision is an area I have not read a lot about in the past.
While I was reading this article there were moments of feeling overwhelmed, which I can imagine this is how an ELL might feel in some situations while in the school setting. My thoughts on this are that as a TVI we are often limited due to the number of students being served, time constraints and all of the things in between, which is why we have to be able to work with everyone on the team to meet the studentâs needs. As in week 1, the question of who is responsible for teaching this, we all have a part in it. It made me reflect on a student I had a few years ago who was taking Spanish I and II, while I provided materials in Braille and communicated with the Spanish teacher regularly to ensure the things she would need were accessible to her, she was ultimately responsible for teaching Spanish. I understand that this is not the same per say, however my belief has been that my role is to support the learning of the student by ensuring they have the materials needed accessible to them and that I am Pre-teaching and reinforcing things taught to students by the teacher in the classes they are in. By working closely with the ELL teacher to problem solve, discuss the strategies being used and how or where these strategies might need to be adjusted to meet student needs. In reality a majority of TVIâs I have worked with or talked to have an underlying commonality which is that there is not enough time to do it all, so we have to be able to work with others to support students as a whole team.
How might the cultural background or socioeconomic status of families impact their ability to implement the suggest strategies for promoting emergent literacy in toddlers with visual impairments?
The cultural and socioeconomic status can impact implementing strategies for promoting emergent literacy in different ways. One can be access to materials. A family may not have access to a lot of different materials other than what the TVI supplies them with. Another can be that both parents are working and the child is in daycare/preschool and the parents donât have the time to implement strategies. Another could be a language barrier and getting material in the familyâs language, or being able to explain strategies where they can understand. I am wondering what others are doing to remove these barriers?
Hello Shannon! Ditto to your response! Here in ND, it is the same. Dyslexia is recognized as a diagnosis and the student may or may not qualify for special education services under the category of specific learning disability. I too benefited most from the explanations of the different behaviors you may see in students at different ages. And that the early readers may have difficulty with rhyming. I did not know this as a sign for possible dyslexia.
Reflecting on your own experiences as a student, how did teacher expectations influence your academic performance and motivation? How might you apply these insights to your own teaching practice?
As a child I often felt that school was not for me and didnât have many friends. I didnât feel like I could achieve good grades. and reading was a challenge for me. I was often placed in the lowest groups and even attended summer school in third grade for reading. That year I came through summer school with a D in reading and was placed in title one groups to see if that would help. I also received a diagnosis of a fluctuating hearing problem in my right ear. However teacherâs still ignored my needs and often thought I was just lazy. In 7th grade I moved to a small school in rural Tennessee and met an amazing title one teacher. She believed in me and encouraged me to read books on my interest level and didnât give up on me, by the end of the year I went from a second grade reading level to a tenth grade reading level, just because I had a teacher that believed in me and provided just the right challenges and motivations on a daily basis. For eight grade math was another challenge, now that I could read, I needed instruction in the basic math concepts I missed in the younger grades as a struggling reader. This teacher handed me a math book for basic math and proceeded to teach the remaining class pre-algebra. When I questioned the concepts I was reading about in this book, she basically said I had to teach myself and didnât offer any assistance. Long story short I again did not reach my potential until the next year, when I got a teacher that went out of her way to make sure I understood the basic concepts, and the pre-algebra skills I needed for her class. This continued throughout my high school career and even into college. The teachers who refused to give up on me and sought to make me the best student I could me made me into who I am today. I often cringe when I hear others say things about working with students that canât learn (in their words not mine). My response to them is that every child can learn and it is up to us to find a way to teach them.
I completely agree. It takes a lot of research and understanding to really be involved in the culturally responsive teaching aspects of teaching when a studentâs native language and culture is so unfamiliar. I had a student this year who was Spanish speaking primarily and I could not have delivered the instruction I did without the 1:1 translator and my conversational knowledge of Spanish. Your words regarding other countries teaching their students english before arriving in the US is amazing. I have not experienced that yet!
Dyslexia is a hard category to diagnosis an serve with students that are VI. Convincing school psychologist and/or the general team to look into this as an issue for students with VI could take a year or two, because of the fidelity approach with aimsweb. However, it interest me to note that early skills did not require reading but verbal and auditory responses to simple rhymes and phoneme sounds. I also found it interesting that fluency practices in schools can cause students with dyslexia to full further and further behind in reading comprehension, because they are focused so much on just calling the words to get by in school. Screening early before reading should be a must in all students, then maybe students with VI would have a better chance at getting the full education they deserve.
I find this especially true in poverty stricken areas today. These kids often donât get the socialization or literacy skills required at an early age (before entering school) due to the parents having to work all the time to make ends meet. Another reason is often the parents themselves are illiterate and donât know how to get their kids assistances at an early age. Early Interventionist and TVIâs need to provide examples of how these families can access assistance in their communities and model ways for families to support their infants even when they themselves cannot read. Then there is the culture difference, students moving in from all aspects and walks of life. As a TVI we should be willing to learn about their lifestyle and work together with the team to create relaxing learning environments in their native language while teaching English.
Promoting Emergent Literacy Skills (JVIB, 2018, p. 542-550)
How might the cultural background or socioeconomic status of families impact their ability to implement the suggested strategies for promoting emergent literacy in toddlers with visual impairments?
Cultural background and socioeconomic status of families have a significant impact on ability to implement strategies for children with special needs in general and more so with children with visual impairments.
I am a person of color and growing up, I struggled with learning English in general since I was an ELL child. My mother did not have resources or access to resources to help me in my struggles to learning English. My mother did not speak English very well either and so there was a language barrier for her when she did talk to my teachers at school.
I can imagine the struggles for a family with a child with special needs or a child with visual impairments in accessing resources.
I love that Missouri employees teacher like me to give parents access to resources and education for their child with a visual impairment. The INSITE curriculum does a good job in providing resources and ideas to help parents.
I think the largest struggle for any parent and especially a parent with child with visual impairments is to implement the strategies and suggestions for their child. Depending on what level of needs their child has , impacts the amount of time a parent has to work on these emergent literacy skills. Of course, one of the best ways is to imbed these things into a regular daily routine that one has for a child. I do that is still hard for some parents to do since there are so many things that eat up their time.