Dyslexia

What is Dyslexia?

Dyslexia is a specific learning disability that is neurological in origin and characterized by difficulties with accurate or fluent word recognition and poor spelling and decoding abilities.  It typically results from a deficit in the phonological component of language.  It is unrelated to intelligence and is not a problem with vision.  The core issue involves understanding how the sounds in words are represented by letters. 

Dyslexia Screening

Triton Elementary School conducts annual dyslexia screening in compliance with Senate Enrolled Act 217.  All Indiana students in grades K, 1, and 2 are administered a universal screener by a trained educator, usually the classroom teacher.  TES uses DIBELS 8^th Edition which includes brief assessments in the following areas:

Phonemic awareness (hearing and segmenting individual sounds in words)

Sound symbol recognition (producing the sounds represented by individual letters)

Alphabet knowledge (naming the letters of the alphabet)

Decoding (sounding out words)

Encoding (spelling words)

Rapid naming (quickly name a series of familiar items)

Parents are notified of results after screening is completed.  Students who are identified as “at some risk” or “at risk” may be eligible for appropriate intervention.  If additional screening is needed to determine appropriate intervention, parent permission will be requested.  It is important to note that local screening does not diagnose a student with dyslexia.  Screening can, however, identify students who have deficits associated with dyslexia so that early intervention can occur.

Dyslexia Intervention

Students who may be at risk for dyslexia will be provided daily small group instruction using Fundations from Wilson Language Basics.  This program meets the state recommendations for effective dyslexia instruction. Click here to find out more about Fundations. 

Dyslexia Specialist

Mrs. Terri Large is a licensed teacher with substantial experience and training in reading instruction.  Mrs. Large has successfully completed the Orton-Gillingham Basic Language Course (a well-known approach to dyslexia instruction) which qualifies her as Triton’s authorized reading specialist trained in dyslexia.  She will assist with tasks such as assessment training, staff development, data analysis, and program selection as well as providing small-group instruction.