Supporting Children with Dyslexia

Course overview

Supporting Children with Dyslexia is a 6-hour online (text-based) continuing education (CE) course that discusses the signs, types, and causes of dyslexia, offering practical strategies for supporting children with literacy skills. Most experts agree that dyslexia is characterized by, "marked difficulties with work reading, decoding, and spelling as evidenced by low accuracy and/or fluency on standardized assessments. There is also a general agreement that these difficulties should be inconsistent with or "unexpected" in consideration of other aspects of development, including general intellectual abilities" (Adlof & Hogan, 2018, p. 762). There is now abundant evidence indicating that dyslexia is a localized weakness within a specific component of the language system: the phonologic mode (Shaywitz & Shaywitz, 2000). However, dyslexia does not only affect reading, but that which is connected to reading: both spelling and writing. Furthermore, and of significant importance, it is not connected to intelligence (Adlof & Hogan, 2018). We begin the course by briefly reviewing the history of dyslexia. We then discuss the signs, types, and causes of dyslexia, highlighting the importance of working memory and executive functioning skills. We consider phonological awareness, including phonemic awareness, as the foundation for all literacy skills. Reading, spelling, and writing are discussed in separate sections, enabling the reader to focus on the necessary skills and remediation strategies for each. It is important to note that there is overlap of skills needed to read, spell, and write, and therefore, information on phonics and other phonologic skills may be echoed throughout the course. Practical accommodations, teaching strategies, and activities for supporting children's academic and social emotional development are provided. A short review of assistive technological aids is also included. Finally, we explore strategies for supporting parents and caregivers as role models and advocates for their children. Course #61-05 | 2022 | 117 pages | 35 posttest questions