Assessment & Diagnosis: Dyslexia
(Written Language)
STEPS OF ASSESSMENT ** areas of written language
Case History/Parent Interview assessed are the same as
current/past Dx those written In to oral
developmental Hx, family Hx, medical Hx, etc. language section
info from other professionals (AuD, PT, OT, etc.)
Oral Motor Mechanism Exam
assess structure/function for speech
**even though assessing for written language, still important to assess
Standardized/Non-Standardized Assessments
STANDARDIZED assessments (formal) provide standard procedures for administration
and scoring. Allows clinicians to compare the child to a normative sample
accomplished so that bias/other Influences do not affect outcomes
NON-STANDARDIZED assessments (informal) are used to gather info about a child’s
abilities In a less formal context and enables clinicians to evaluate more functional
aspects of language
often requires more creativity
i.e. ethnographic Interviewing, observations, language sampling, etc.
ASSESSMENTS
OWLS-II (Oral and Written Language Scales)
for ages 3-21: can be used to identify learning disabilities, language disorders, and related
difficulties in accordance with IDEA requirements
does not report sensitivity and specificity
TILLS (Test of Integrated Language & Literacy Skills)
ages 6-18: comprehensive language and literacy assessment
sensitivity ranges: 81-97% / specificity ranges: 81-100% (depending on age)
CTOPP-2 (Comprehensive Test of Phonological Processing)
ages 4-24: a standardized assessment that evaluates phonological processing skills, which
are important for reading and language development; often used to diagnose dyslexia and
related disorders
sensitivity and specificity NOT reported In manual (but < 7% of children in the normative
sample presented with a disability
Interventions: Dyslexia
(Written Language)
PRINCIPLES OF INTERVENTION:
-Research based vs. Evidence based.
-Explicit, Systematic, Intensive, Multi-sensory
-Supports learner's needs
-Includes frequent monitoring of a
student's progress.
-(should include considerable teacher knowledge, phonemic
awareness, alphabet knowledge, knowledge of grapheme-
phoneme correspondences, decoding and encoding skills, and
oral reading fluency).
[Link]
instruction-for-students-with-dyslexia-and-related-reading-
STRUCTURED LITERACY difficulties/
-”Structured literacy (SL) teaching is the most effective approach
for students who experience unusual difficulty learning to read and
spell printed words. The term refers to both the content and
methods or principles of instruction.”
-Dyslexia (and most reading disorders) originate with language
processing weaknesses. The content of SL Instruction is analysis &
production of language at all levels:
phoneme awareness, phoneme-grapheme correspondences,
orthography, morphology, syntax, and semantics
[Link]
and-the-science-of-reading/
SCIENCE OF READING
-The science of reading combines several disciplines to provide a
more thorough understanding of what processes are involved in
reading, where challenges generally occur, and what preventative or
remedial instruction can be implemented.
Narrative
Interventions
A narrative is...
a style of discourse that aims to entertain, inform, or convey messages through the
telling of a sequence of events
includes characters, a setting, plot, and themes
can be personal, a script, recounts, etc.
Why use narrative interventions?
helps develop inferential thinking
discoure
comparing/contrasting
cause/effect
context clues for unfamiliar
vocabulary
understanding morphological
structures and inferring new
words based on familiar
morphemes
telling stories is the bridge between
spoken and written language
Vocabulary Interventions
-a study found that students who were provided with explicit
vocabulary instruction had a positive, significant effect on NOT
ONLY vocabulary skills, but reading comprehension as well. (Beck
et al. 1982)
-3 important recommendations for vocabulary instruction:
(1) explicit instruction of words and (2) word meaning
(3) frequent exposures to new words
-Tiers of Vocabulary Words
Tier One (come, see, happy)
Tier Two (hilarious, arrange, compare)
Tier Three (molecule, sedimentary)
-there is NO list of words that children should know at any given
age
A Common Vocab Instructional Activity
Semantic Feature Analysis
research shows that it leads to significant improvement in
word retrieval for nouns practiced
powerful strategy that mimics the way the brain organizes
info
enables learner to recognize: (1) semantic relatedness
between words
very helpful in 2nd language acquisition
Importance of Literacy Instruction
for Students with
High Intensity Needs
EMERGENT LITERACY
-EL explains how even the children with the most significant
disabilities can learn to read
EL is ALWAYS appropriate, regardless of the cog. functioning
of the child from the moment they are born
-Comprehensive EL is more involved and necessary to teach
literacy to children with high intensity needs
-Four yes answers? Child is likely
to be successful with
comprehensive conventioanl
literacy instruction
-1 > no answers? Child will likely
need comprehensive emergent
literacy instruction
Eval/Treatment of Students
with High Intensity Needs
LEAST DANGEROUS FOUR BLOCKS
ASSUMPTION OF LITERACY
-Principle that one should
-Guided Reading
(in the absence of evidence
-Working with Words
to the contrary) PRESUME
-Structured Writing
COMPETENCE, rather than
-Self Selected Reading
non-competence
