ATTN: Special Ed Teachers: Dyslexic Adult, How would you

imasinger

Sat, Feb 13 2010, 6:46 pm

I taught a dyslexic adult (didn't have ADD, though) to read Hebrew once. It just took extra patience and time. She was very happy to have someone who was willing to help her learn without giving her a hard time.

For the ADHD piece, maybe try a variety of media, sensory experiences, etc. I find those with ADHD to be more creative, and both willing to try, and willing to learn from, some things that others might find too childish.

↑ amother ↓

Sat, Feb 13 2010, 6:56 pm

Thank you Imasinger and Marina.

Marina- they don't read backwards but have a very difficult time reading. By the time the school caught onto the problen there was more of an effort to catch them up in reading and writing english and other remedial work that hebrew was put on the backburner. Any sort of reading takes a tremendous amount of effort and by the time they figure out what the sentence says they have to read it again to try and understand it.

↑ amother ↓

Sat, Feb 13 2010, 7:08 pm

marina wrote:

Ok. So she doesn't see things backwards, that's good. She, btw, or he?
Have you started yet? How exactly does the person read? Does she forget the first syllable by the time she reads the 2nd one? Does she confuse similar looking letters? I would imagine those would be some of the challenges. What else? The particular tips have to be geared to the specific problems.

Its a she. And no they haven't started yet. They are scared to try because its so frustrating for them. Basically, they read a syllable at a time slowly sounding it out, then they go back and say the whole word. And this happens with each word. Then when they reach the end of a sentence or thought they get confused "what did I just read?" And so they read the sentence again. Its a very long painful process for them. And yes they do mix up the similar looking letters. They read words from the wrong lines. Lose their place a lot.
And of course the ADHD kicks in and they need to take breaks, fidgety, losing focus.

seeker ↓

Sat, Feb 13 2010, 7:09 pm

Two points here:

1. I would teach an adult with dyslexia pretty much exactly the same as I would teach a child with dyslexia, with perhaps the exception that I might not use as many games and shticks because one would hope they'd be more intrinsically motivated to stay with the program. I would also use more sophisticated vocabulary words for practice because the adult can probably comprehend more. So, basically, a systematic, phonics-based program with multisensory learning activities and tons of varied practice.

2. Please stop perpetuating the myth that people with dyslexia see backwards/upside-down. That would be a vision disorder (which does exist), and would be treated by an optometrist and vision therapist, not a reading disorder to be treated by a teacher. Dyslexia mainly is a problem processing words -- breaking them into letters/sounds and putting them back together to make sense.

↑ seeker

Sat, Feb 13 2010, 7:16 pm

amother wrote:

marina wrote:

(wrote previous post before this one was up)
I would not consider the going back at the end of the sentence to be a problem at this stage because clearly she is not reading fluently enough to figure out if that is a problem. She is working so hard at sounding out each word that she can't also process the meaning of the sentence.

Reading from the wrong lines is both a visual/spatial as well as reading comprehension issue. I would probably (can't say for sure because I don't know this individual fully) just compensate for the issue by using bigger, numbered lines and putting another sheet of paper under the line as she reads to help keep track. Once there is serious reading going on would be a more appropriate time to address this; as above, it isn't really relevant as long as most of the effort is goign into word-level decoding.

Considering that you're talking about a motivated adult, you haven't said how often the ADHD "kicks in" but if it's to an extent that she can't stay focused long enough to learn anything I would strongly consider medication (or a change of medication, as the case may be).

Regarding the frustration and fear that's keeping her from starting, this is a reason to start very, very slowly -- build up successes and do not encourage her to read things using letters/materials that she hasn't mastered yet.

↑ marina ↓

Sat, Feb 13 2010, 7:22 pm

Quote:

2. Please stop perpetuating the myth that people with dyslexia see backwards/upside-down. That would be a vision disorder (which does exist),

Was this directed at me? Because I wasn't perpetuating anything, just trying to figure out what OP's situation was. When non-special-ed people use the term dyslexia, it is easier to ask them what they mean than explain the whole there-is-no-such-thing-as-dyslexia bit.

↑ amother ↓

Sat, Feb 13 2010, 7:26 pm

Thank you Seeker!

In regards to the ADHD, she has a very short attention span and anything longer than 5-10 minutes in unbearable. If you keep going, you're losing her. She needs either a break or something very hands on to keep her interested and moving around.

Can medication for ADHD be taken safely while nursing or pregnant?

Also because of her fear and frustration she's too scared to even start because she thinks she can't do it and since its so difficult, she claims she would rather not read hebrew than deal with the pain of her dyslexia.

↑ amother ↓

Sat, Feb 13 2010, 7:28 pm

marina wrote:

Quote:

2. Please stop perpetuating the myth that people with dyslexia see backwards/upside-down. That would be a vision disorder (which does exist),

What do you mean there is no such thing as dyslexia?! This person has been diagnosed repeatedly by specialists.

↑ marina ↓

Sat, Feb 13 2010, 7:35 pm

Dyslexia is a general term. It just means trouble reading. You don't really need a specialist to tell you you have trouble reading. You know it yourself. Dyslexias are all different- depending on the specific problem. The type of dyslexia that most people think about- reading things backwards- is very rare and is usually, like seeker said, a vision issue more than a reading problem.

With regard to your student, I would first spend a lot of time on the basic single letter/single vowel combo. So, teach aleph & bet and then each one of those with kamatz, patach, etc. But do no more than 1 type of activity ( aleph kamatz- one lesson, bais kamatz- second lesson) per lesson and make sure to have some fun activity tied in with it too, like maybe cake & coffee or something like that.

↑ amother ↓

Sat, Feb 13 2010, 7:57 pm

Aha, ok. What I don't understand is how a school can just not notice that a student cannot read until the 10th or 11th grade???? With the person I'm referring to, she was going to the resource room in her BY for math because she was so behind. When they got up to word problems the tutor realized she couldn't even read!!! And so they started on reading and then writing. But by the time she was proficient in that, she was finishing 12th grade and they couldn't do hebrew. So she never mentioned it to anyone.

↑ amother

Sat, Feb 13 2010, 8:52 pm

marina wrote:

Quote:

What I don't understand is how a school can just not notice that a student cannot read until the 10th or 11th grade????

Too many students, not enough teachers, limited special ed resources, etc, etc. Probably the student learned how to compensate and appear as if she was functioning.

This actually happened in a very small school. Shame on them for letting it pass by without acting. I'm sure they noticed and chose not to act!

Sherri

Sun, Feb 14 2010, 1:49 am

amother wrote:

marina wrote:

Quote:

What I don't understand is how a school can just not notice that a student cannot read until the 10th or 11th grade????

Too many students, not enough teachers, limited special ed resources, etc, etc. Probably the student learned how to compensate and appear as if she was functioning.

This actually happened in a very small school. Shame on them for letting it pass by without acting. I'm sure they noticed and chose not to act!

I don't know that you can be so sure and blame the school for noticing and not acting. Yes, you can probably blame them for not noticing (and the reasons for that may be the reasons Marina listed above- especially the compensation part!), but I don't think that you should assume that once they noticed they would just ignore it.