Five Suggested Scaffolds for Students with Reading Disabilities
By Scott B. Freiberger
As a literacy coach, I often encountered students who struggled with phonics, phonemic awareness, and reading comprehension skills. The pandemic has exacerbated pre-existing achievement gaps for students with special needs, and as a consequence, learning loss has been particularly significant for students with disabilities. What are some sensible ways to support struggling readers? What technology could be infused across classrooms? Here are five suggested scaffolds for students with reading disabilities.
1. Organize and Prioritize
First, organize relevant information, prioritize key concepts, and frontload vital vocabulary. Keep it simple. The objective is not to overwhelm, but to make learning manageable. Be sure to suggest simple, step-by-step directions and refer to them periodically to ensure trying students are staying on task. To better serve students, the New York State Education Department offers a terrific template to understand the various service provider roles in the special education field with a glossary of related terms, along with an outstanding outline for Specially Designed Instruction (SDI).
2. Chunk It to Slam Dunk It!
Next, educators may want to assign one or two pages (at most) per reading lesson so students remain motivated about accomplishing small tasks, one at a time. Carefully chunking assignments can support students with special needs to organize their thoughts, plan an outline, and strategize their selective approach to academic tasks. This helps build executive function, the ability to intellectually structure and plan a series of behaviors, like writing a paper, or completing a complex assignment. Reviewing a relevant rubric prior to the start of a lesson may also be an effective visual aid (and effective motivator) to guide students as they begin their work.
3. Try Novel Technology Now
Third, the field of education has evolved, and so have the high-tech tools to tweak transitions and elevate learning, especially for students struggling with reading comprehension. The Reader Pen, for instance, has the ability to read scanned text aloud, which could support students with dyslexia, dyscalculia, and dysgrahia. These three disabilities may overlap, leading to difficulties in communication. After recognizing text, The Reader Pen can transfer it to a computer, assist with editing, and even translate it, providing greater student understanding.
Immersive Reader is an innovative tool by Microsoft that enables students to listen to text read aloud or adjust how it appears in written form, and it may also be modified by spacing or color. Natural Reader is another free text-to-speech online application that converts text to audio. The 57-voice choices may be selected based on listener preference, and the app works with myriad file types, which provides ease and convenience in terms of listening location.
Although low-tech, other tools may also enhance the learning process for students with disabilities, especially as it pertains to reading and writing. There are now several types of pencil grips to improve eye-hand coordination, pencil control, fine motor skills, and hand strength. The use of a slant board has also been found to produce positive benefits for students with disabilities in terms of comfort, ergonomics, and muscle control. For students with dyslexia, the letters remain consistent throughout the page[,] thus allowing [the] brain to decode only one set of symbols. For educators on a budget, a hard-cover binder turned sideways could become a usable slant board.
4. Highlight Bright to Read Text Right
Fourth, highlighting important information inherently helps students to focus on finding facts and vital vocabulary. According to one recent study, students with dyslexia were able to read more seamlessly with synchronized audio coupled with text highlighting. The study suggested that students with developmental dyslexia who were presented with visual information for reading with a text highlighter read more easily.
The use of a finger-focus highlighter is another terrific tool to track text. For Harry Potter fans, think Hermione Granger, as students wear a radiant ring and colored “wands” to make text magically appear to stand out. Educators may also want to infuse multisensory instructional techniques, which have been proven to be effective for students with dyslexia and other learning disabilities.
Got Nothing to Lose? Try Donor’s Choose!
During these trying times, Donor’s Choose is a practical way to provide teachers with supplies and technology to touch up teaching and uplift learning, with the ultimate goal of benefiting all students. Projects might include creating a comfortable, cozy reading nook to infusing essential educational technology, especially timely for English Learners (ELs) and special needs students.
5. Yearning for Learning? Try Dictation Station
Finally, dyslexic people [may] find it difficult to take notes while listening during meetings or lessons. Using a tape recorder may thus help students to later recall foremost facts and important information. For example, directions, stories, or lessons can be recorded for students to listen to prior to, during, or after a lesson to improve recall and enhance understanding. Other relevant tools include LiveScribe Smartpen, which boasts an embedded computer and digital audio recorder, dictaphones, which have the capacity to transcribe a recording into text, and the AudioNote recording app.
Never Stop New Schooling Suggestions
Dyslexia, dyscalculia, and dysgrahia do not make students “less intelligent;” in fact, one study found that in children with dyslexia, IQ and reading are not linked over time and do notinfluence one another. This explains why a dyslexic can be both bright and not read well. Unfortunately, these disabilities may be incorrectly identified or not specifically named in students’ Individualized Education Plans (IEPs). Having a disability also does not dictate one’s future. For example, many well-known professionals have dyslexia, including Jennifer Anniston, Orlando Bloom, Anderson Cooper, Tom Cruise, Bill Gates, Whoopi Goldberg, Keira Knightley, Henry Winkler, Jay Leno, and Steven Spielberg.
For additional information, expert literacy blogs can be found here and there, and you can check for signs of dyslexia via this checklist. There is also a free screener available for educators (and parents) to use with children who may be exhibiting signs of dyslexia. In spite of unforeseen obstacles, keep striving always. In the words of Steven Spielberg, “[Dyslexia] is more common than you can imagine. You are not alone. And while you will have this [for] the rest of your life, you can dart between the raindrops to get where you want to go and it will not hold you back.”
Photo note: Theodore Roosevelt had severe asthma as a youth, was near-sighed, and became blind in one eye prior to becoming the 26th President of the United States.
This article also appears here.BIO
Scott Freiberger is an attentive administrator and a passionate pedagogue who advocates for ELLs/MLLs and students with special needs. Follow him on Twitter: @scottfreiberger
