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<\/a>\u2018Dyslexia\u2019 is a huge group, almost 10,000 members sharing and promoting ideas that are exactly polar opposite to the Community Reading Project.<\/p>\nIn their universe, dyslexia is an incurable medical or genetic disorder affecting 20% of kids.\u00a0 Dyslexics are encouraged to use different strategies to cope.\u00a0 Reading instruction remains the school\u2019s job, even if the school lacks resources, even if the child is failing.\u00a0 Dyslexics have special gifts and abilities, lack normal organizational skills, and learn in different ways.<\/p>\n
The moms of \u2018Dyslexia\u2019 (always mom) are embroiled in epic battles for securing school accommodations and special services from heartless and feckless schools.\u00a0 The arcane language of 504\u2019s and IEP meetings is dissected and shared.\u00a0 Moms swap advice on obtaining and updating evidence of officially-recognized disabilities, and how to get their child formally labelled with learning disabilities like dyslexia (reading), dysgraphia (writing), and dyscalculia (counting).\u00a0 They debate whether to wait years for a free school evaluation or pay an outside psychologist. \u00a0They know the laws that protect their child, and the cases that made it to court.<\/p>\n
Strangely, they understand that their school has no resources, interest, or skills for helping their child become a strong reader and catch up with their peers. \u00a0The idea of \u201chelping the child become a strong reader\u201d is almost missing from \u2018Dyslexia\u2019.\u00a0 No one asks ‘How do we fix this?’ \u00a0\u2018What works?\u2019\u00a0 What worked for your child?\u00a0 Who succeeded and how?\u00a0 How many hours, which lessons, what cost? What does the research say?<\/p>\n
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My offense was disputing with a mom about the effectiveness of Orton-Gillingham (O-G).\u00a0 After three years of \u2018intensive\u2019 interventions, her dyslexic daughter still struggled to read and write, still required accommodations and special treatment at school.\u00a0 I suggested it was time to try something else.<\/p>\n
O-G has a cult following on Facebook, in spite of teaching phonics \u2018rules\u2019 that are obviously wrong, and syllable-types without basis in the English spelling system.\u00a0 It is beloved for using \u2018multi-sensory\u2019 techniques unsupported by any cognitive theory or research.\u00a0 O-G programs run the gamut of wildly different quality, including a notorious one that avoids phonological processing completely. \u00a0Some of these ideas are harmless, and good tutors ignore them or find other ways to help the child. \u00a0But others can quickly turn a poor reader into a disabled reader.<\/p>\n
I had pointed the ‘Dyslexia’ mom to a meta-study of 12 intervention studies (read it here<\/a>) that found small-to-zero effect sizes for O-G, in spite of tutors and students on their best ‘being watched’ behaviors, and in spite of numerous methodological concerns (read: thumbs on the scale).\u00a0 The authors basically threw up their hands in disgust.<\/p>\n I\u2019ll take a closer look at O-G in a future blog post. \u00a0But ‘Dyslexia’ is a massive echo chamber. \u00a0It isn\u2019t the place to point out what the research really says, and even though I did it gently, this mom was incensed. Like many of the militant \u2018Dyslexia\u2019 moms, she was fully invested in dyslexia, in demanding services and accommodations, and in protecting her disabled vulnerable child from every conceivable form of bullying and embarrassment. She had informed herself about dyslexia, was generously sharing her knowledge on Facebook, and anyone who disagreed with her was not just wrong, but hateful and offensive.<\/p>\n And out I was booted.\u00a0 Quite correctly, I shouldn\u2019t have been there in the first place.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Still, I\u2019m going to miss the daily drama of \u2018Dyslexia\u2019.\u00a0 Especially the moms asking for advice.\u00a0 How to sue the teachers, sue the school, sue the district, sue the state.\u00a0 Whether health insurance covers dyslexia assessments. \u00a0Whether the school has to accept a private assessment. \u00a0What to do about kids too tired for homework following after-school football practice.\u00a0 And the shocked moms of teenagers who suddenly discover that their almost-adult child can\u2019t read, looking for where to turn for advice (hint: not Facebook).<\/p>\n I\u2019m going to miss the rants about teachers.\u00a0 Everything is their fault, both by law and by measures of common decency. They must prepare daily individualized (read: simplified) workplans for the dyslexic child, but are vilified when that child falls behind the rest of the class.\u00a0 They are castigated for calling on the child in class or not calling on the child, for sending homework, for not sending homework, for allowing the child to be bullied, or stigmatizing him by isolation.\u00a0 They can\u2019t do anything right.<\/p>\n I\u2019m going to miss the snake oil treatments.\u00a0 Coloured filters that help a dyslexic child read better (but somehow are never quite the exact shade).\u00a0 Special fonts that help a child understand text that he can\u2019t decode. \u00a0Modelling words in clay. \u00a0Tossing balls on a balance board. \u00a0Headphones with filtered classical music.\u00a0 Exercises designed for astronauts.\u00a0 Brain foods that fight dyslexia.<\/p>\n