It's time to address dyslexia
Dyslexia, also known as specific reading difficulty, is the most common form of learning
difficulty with a prevalence of 10-15 percent or more among all students and adults.
Over the last several decades tremendous scientific advances have been made in understanding the causes and symptoms of dyslexia. However, across the nation and here in Minnesota, education schools and educators have been in abject denial: We have not been identifying students with dyslexia; we failed to apply known techniques to address dyslexia. Sadly, most parents don’t even discover that their children have dyslexia until years of struggles, trials and tribulations, and many never do.
The International Dyslexia Association explains: “… many students with dyslexia remain undiagnosed throughout their school careers. They face the misery of failure early in their lives. Their motivation to learn is quickly snuffed out as they are deprived of self-esteem and, far from being encouraged in their abilities, are labeled as lazy or disruptive by teachers who know little about how to adapt their teaching to meet these learners’ needs ... The long-term effects of unaddressed dyslexia on young adults include school failure, depression, increased risk of suicide, delinquency and reoffending.”
Yet, if dyslexia is addressed appropriately, these students can overcome their disability and can become super-star learners. In the St. Cloud district, about 1,000 of our learners will be laboring to learn to read with undiagnosed dyslexia. In Sauk Rapids 450 or more of their learners have dyslexia. With a few years of special and appropriate help, these students can thrive. Regrettably, for decades, school districts have rationalized neglect of these students. Most students who discover that they have dyslexia must pay for private screening and diagnosis and several years of private tutoring to overcome dyslexia.
After years of national neglect, advocates for students with dyslexia joined forces and convinced the legislature to require school districts to identify and then properly address dyslexia. The new legislation requires school districts to screen, to identify and then to provide appropriate instruction. But still, school districts are looking for excuses to ignore even the law. They have asked lawyers to write opinions claiming that the statute doesn’t actually require them to do anything different. They have discovered a million excuses to delay.
During my time on the board, hundreds of thousands of Minnesota students have graduated (or failed to graduate) never realizing that there is a straightforward instructional solution that would unlock the key to high level reading. Most districts still don’t screen, still don’t inform parents and still don’t provide appropriate instruction, despite bipartisan legislation requiring them to do so.
In St. Cloud, a board committee composed of myself, Shannon Haws and Bruce Mohs has recommended that our district take dramatic steps right now. The committee urged that the district “should begin at once to implement a robust screening program. Before the next school year begins, all students who meet the characteristic signs of dyslexia should be identified. Their parents should be notified that their child may have dyslexia, and should receive advice on what modern research advocates as a solution.”
We can no longer hide from parents that their children are struggling to read because of dyslexia. Too many children go to school believing that they are stupid: too many are labelled as slow learners or lazy and uncooperative. With a short screening test, and some background information from parent and teacher, we can glean enough information to determine whether a child is likely to benefit from the right kind of instruction.
Unfortunately, there is a movement amongst many educators and educational leaders — and even some school lawyers — to undermine and distort the laws passed to protect students with dyslexia. For decades, these children have been thrown off the education island to save the costs associated with meeting their needs. What these educators and lawyers are failing to consider is the major costs to the children and to society when hundreds of thousands of young people fail to achieve reading power that is within their reach, if only they receive appropriate instruction.
This is the opinion of Jerry Von Korff, a St. Cloud attorney and St. Cloud school board member.