The Shame of Kansas: Dyslexia Ignored

Kansas psychologist Brian Stone:

"Kansas would be among the most resistant, or really the most provincial, because they often don't seem to know what's going on outside their borders. That ends up meaning a lot of bright kids think they're not bright,"

This is the one that made my jaw drop.

"I'm not sure how knowing a child is dyslexic would benefit you in tailoring the instructional needs for the child," says Patty Gray, the state's assistant director of special-education services.

Look at it this way:

"I'm not sure how knowing a child [has type B strep ] would benefit you in tailoring the [course of medical treatment, including choice of antibiotics] needs for the child," says Patty Gray, the state's assistant director of special-education services.

Uphill battle for Kansas' dyslexic students

BY JILLIAN COHAN The Wichita Eagle

Schools not required to recognize dyslexia

As a philosophy teacher, Terry Sader loves reading. To his dismay, his young daughters don't share that passion. While he'd choose to spend down time puzzling over a philosophical text, Sader says Caitlin, 9, and Sydney, 7, have struggled with the most basic books.

The girls have dyslexia, a learning disorder that means they struggle with reading. But give them a visual task, like the matching game Memory, and they excel.

"They can remember a card that was flipped over four or five moves back," says their father.

Kansas is one of a handful of states that doesn't require schools to recognize dyslexia. State and local officials say the disorder already is covered under federal disabilities and civil-rights laws, so they don't think it's necessary.

But after struggling with school administrators to get help for his daughters, Sader thinks the law should be changed.

He and other parents have formed a coalition to lobby for such changes. A legislative planning group will discuss the issue today in Topeka.

Difficult diagnosis

Dyslexia tends to run in families and ranges from mild to severe. As many as one in five people show symptoms, according to the International Dyslexia Association, but many children go undiagnosed.

Without help, dyslexics struggle in schools and in jobs, says Jeanine Phillips, director of Wichita's Fundamental Learning Center, which provides tutoring for people with learning disorders.

Yet people with dyslexia tend to be creative thinkers, says Gordon Sherman, science director of George Mason University's Center for the Study of Dyslexia and Talent.

Take David Holding. A tall, soft-spoken 43-year-old who holds a black belt in tae kwon do, Holding can make almost anything with his hands.

His mom, Angie, knew her son was smart, but when he was in second grade his teacher said he must be retarded, she told an audience of about 200 at a Wichita dyslexia seminar this month.

Angie had David's school books recorded. She made sure he listened to the tapes and insisted that his schools have his tests read to him. But when he graduated from high school, David tested at a second-grade reading level.

Advocates for dyslexics say not much has changed since then.

People with dyslexia tend to have strong spatial skills, but those aren't the skills that schools value most, says Brian Stone, a local psychologist with more than 20 years of experience with learning disorders.

"The push for legislation is because so many of these kids fall through the cracks," Stone says."... Often they'll almost be (testing) at grade level. The teacher will say 'They can do it if they want. I can tell they're smart; they must just be lazy.' "

States such as Massachusetts, California and Vermont do a better job of screening for dyslexia, he says.

"Kansas would be among the most resistant, or really the most provincial, because they often don't seem to know what's going on outside their borders. That ends up meaning a lot of bright kids think they're not bright," Stone says.

'Mystifying' approach

Kansas' approach to dyslexia mystifies some parents.

"It's almost like you have to have a law degree and an education degree -- and then they change the regulations," says Katherine Hall of Bel Aire.

Hall and her husband have three sons with dyslexia, but their youngest son's disorder is not severe enough to qualify for school-based services.

Three times a week, Hall takes him out of school for tutoring, which the family pays for. Hall says she thought the sessions were OK because she'd told her son's teacher. She also says she did the same for her older children, who attended the school under a previous principal.

The current principal says the school did not sign off on the absences. In late September, the Halls received a certified letter saying their youngest had been "inexcusably absent." He was considered truant, and could be reported to social services.

Terri Norgren, of the disabilities advocacy group Families Together, says she gets at least a dozen calls a year from parents statewide who've had similar experiences.

Wichita school officials say the Halls were sent the form letter they send to all families when a child appears to have an attendance problem.

"Ideally, we would like for this child to receive whatever services they need, but also to participate in the school day," says Greg Rasmussen, Wichita's assistant superintendent of elementary schools.

Otherwise, he asks, "what's to stop a parent who wants to take their child out to take environmental education or to learn about car engines?"

Wichita schools are concerned about their students' reading abilities regardless of whether a child has been identified as dyslexic, says Neil Guthrie, the district's special-education director.

He says the district, like others in the state, is moving toward a model where kids are screened for reading problems -- if not specifically dyslexia -- in the earliest grades.

Ideally, Guthrie and other special educators say, early intervention will identify all kids who have trouble reading. If so, a law targeting dyslexia wouldn't be needed.

"I'm not sure how knowing a child is dyslexic would benefit you in tailoring the instructional needs for the child," says Patty Gray, the state's assistant director of special-education services.

Private tutoring

To help his girls learn to read, Terry Sader enrolled them in after-school tutoring at a private company.

He's happy with the special-ed teacher at Caitlin's school, but worries that if the teacher changes she'll fall behind again.

On a recent afternoon, Sader's daughters bounce out of his pickup and into the tutoring center.

Their teachers take the lessons slowly, with lots of encouragement. The method they use is multisensory: See it, hear it, say it, write it.

Sydney -- an effervescent girl with shaggy blond bangs -- props chin in hand while tracing the suffix "-ly" on lined paper.

Down the hall, Caitlin sounds out consonants as she reads aloud: "Is it a bead or a beam which the bird on the beach holds in its beak?"

She draws codes on her paper to show when a vowel is short or long and when a letter is silent.

Outside, her dad reads in the car. One day, he hopes his daughters will get the same joy out of books that he does.

"They can sit down with a book and read it to me at night," he says. "I don't know if that would have happened if we had waited for the school system."

Sources

Wichita Star Editorial "Kansas has been truant in teaching these kids to read"

Wichita Star Article: Kansas dyslexic students have an uphill battle

 

Comments

[Maddy]

How remarkably startling! I'd love to know what her qualifications are [not]
Cheers

[Whitney Hoffman]

words fail me for the level of idiocy this shows and the lackof understanding of programs like Wilson reading. Gaaah!

Whitney Hoffman
The LD Podcast