Date Approved

8-3-2023

Graduate Degree Type

Project

Degree Name

Education-Literacy Studies: Reading (M.Ed.)

Degree Program

College of Education

First Advisor

Elizabeth Stolle

Academic Year

2022/2023

Abstract

With dyslexia affecting 1-2 students in every classroom, it is important, now more than ever, that teachers are receiving current professional development to understand what dyslexia is, how to identify it and how to best support students in their classrooms. Dyslexia is a specific reading disorder that is neurobiological in origin and causes challenges with phonological processing, word recall, automaticity and fluency. It is critical that students are receiving the best and most effective reading interventions as early as possible to ensure that they can head down a path of reading success. Without this early intervention, reading difficulties can lead to both emotional and behavioral problems for students. However, dyslexia is a complex disorder that falls on a large spectrum and can co-occur with many other learning difficulties. These two added obstacles make identification of dyslexia more difficult and lead to a gap in understanding of what to look out for in the classroom. Continually, this has led to many misconceptions, such as dyslexia being a visual processing disorder that causes reversal of letters and numbers, being at the forefront of understanding for educators. The continuation of these misconceptions leads to both over and underdiagnosis of the disability. In order to disrupt this, it is important that educators receive quality training that effectively exposes these misconceptions and also provides information on what to screen for, assess and use as interventions to best support students with dyslexia in their classrooms. By doing so, educators can effectively move forward confidently with a full understanding of best practices and a clear understanding of what dyslexia is, ultimately leading to more successful and confident students as well.

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