What is Dyslexia? 

Definition:

Dyslexia is a specific learning disability that is neurological in origin. It is characterized by difficulties with accurate and/or fluent word recognition and by poor spelling and decoding abilities. These difficulties typically result from a deficit in the phonological component of language that is often unexpected in relation to other cognitive abilities and the provision of effective classroom instruction. Secondary consequences may include problems in reading comprehension and reduced reading experience that can impede growth of vocabulary and background knowledge. (Adopted by the IDA Board, November 2002)

Could my child or grandchild have Dyslexia?

   Common characteristics of dyslexia
Most of us have one or two of these characteristics. That does not mean that everyone has dyslexia. A person with dyslexia usually has several of these characteristics that persist over time and interfere with his or her learning.
  • Late learning to talk
  • Difficulty pronouncing words
  • Difficulty following directions
  • Confusion with before/after, right/left, and so on
  • Difficulty learning the alphabet, nursery rhymes, or songs
  • Difficulty distinguishing different sounds in words (phonological processing)
  • Difficulty in learning the sounds of letters (phonics)
  • Misreading or omitting common short words
  • “Stumbles” through longer words
  • Slow, laborious oral reading
  • Difficulty putting ideas on paper
  • Many spelling mistakes
  • Weak memory for lists, directions, or facts
  • Needs to see or hear concepts many times to learn them
  • Distracted by visual or auditory stimuli
• Downward trend in achievement test scores or school performance

If your child is having difficulties learning to read and you have noted several of these characteristics in your child, he or she may need to be evaluated for dyslexia or a related disorder.

 F.S.I.S.D. Dyslexia Program

The Fort Stockton School District Dyslexia Program is committed to the development and implementation of a program which addresses the mandates of the Texas Education code, Section 38.003, the Texas Administrative Code, Section 74.28, and the local board policies. It is our goal to test students identified to be at-risk for dyslexia and related disorders; to provide a therapeutic research based program that is specific to the needs of the dyslexic learner; to equip teachers with alternative teaching techniques, modifications, and strategies for students identified at-risk for dyslexia, and to provide support for dyslexic students and their families

The dyslexia program offered at F.S.I.S.D is Take Flight: A Comprehensive Intervention for Students with Dyslexia, a curriculum written by the staff of the Luke Waites Center for Dyslexia and Learning Disorders of Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children (TSRHC). This curriculum was designed for use by academic language therapists with children 7 years and older who have developmental dyslexia. It was developed to enable students with dyslexia to achieve and maintain better word recognition, reading fluency, reading comprehension and aid in the transition from a therapy setting to “real world” learning.

Take Flight contains the five components of effective reading instruction supported by the National Reading Panel research meta-analysis and mandated by the No Child Left Behind Act: Phonemic Awareness, Phonic Skills, Vocabulary, Fluency, and Reading Comprehension.

With Take Flight, students will learn all 44 phonemes of the English language, 96 grapheme-phoneme correspondence rules and 87 affixes. The students will also learn spelling rules for base words and derivatives. Practice opportunities are also provided that are designed to improve oral reading fluency. Finally, Take Flight introduces comprehension and vocabulary building strategies for both narrative and expository text in the context of oral reading exercises, preparing students for successful, independent reading.

Students struggling with some or all of the many facets of reading, writing and/or spelling are provided specialized assessment in order to determine if a student may be identified as a student with dyslexia. The difficulty of the child identified as having dyslexia is in reading, single-word decoding, reading fluency, reading comprehension, written composition, and spelling. Those students who are identified are provided with 45 minutes to 1 hour of dyslexia therapy 4 to 5 days a week.

 Did you know?  

Funny man Jay Leno is a talk show host and comedian, loved by millions of American viewers since his debut on the comedy circuit in the 1970s.

Leno rose to fame with cameo appearances in films and two hit talk shows:

 “The Jay Leno Show”, and “The Tonight Show With Jay Leno.” His face is universally recognized, and his controversial private life is constantly appearing in supermarket tabloids and on entertainment news. Yet unbeknownst by most, Leno has struggled with the learning disorder, dyslexia, since childhood.