Letter Report To Senate

To:

Senate Committee on Health and Human Services

From:

Abigail Marshall

Fax: 650-355-0398

Phone: 650-296-4173 or 650-355-3193 Email: [email protected] Re: HB 461 (OPPOSE) I am the author of The Everything Parent's Guide to Children with Dyslexia (2004) and When your child has …. Dyslexia (2007), published by Adams Media. I am writing to express my dismay at the provisions HB 461, the “Dyslexia Practitioners and Therapists Title Recognition Act, which seem shortsighted and ill-informed to the extent that it assigns a state-sanctioned title using the generic term “dyslexia” to apply to individuals trained in only one basic method. This bill will hurt Texas schoolchildren and their families by providing state support and recognition for only one form of dyslexia remediation, when in fact there are many different approaches to dyslexia instruction, remediation, and therapy. It would be a disservice to families and lead to confusion for the state of Texas to label one form of instruction (“Academic Language” and “multisensory structured language education”) as “dyslexia practitioners” and “dyslexia therapists” -- ignoring other well-established methods and therapies. And it will stand in the way of research and development of more effective teaching strategies and therapies, frustrating the efforts of educators and brain researchers who are working to develop new methods grounded in strong scientific research. “Multisensory structured language education” is a respected and well-established, form of instruction. It is also the oldest and most traditional approach, but for many students it is only a partial solution, and for some the approach does not help at all. As researchers learn more about cognition and differing types of dyslexia, newer methods are increasingly being used either in place of or in addition to the traditional tutoring method. HB 461 codifies the standards adopted by the Academic Language Therapy Association for its own members, who are trained in “multisensory structured language education” – but those standards are geared to only one approach to dyslexia. The training does not include exploration of alternative theories and approaches, nor does such training qualify the Academic Language tutors to diagnose dyslexia or recommend the best individualized treatment plan. Thus the title “dyslexia practitioner” is misleading, as it implies a broad level of expertise for persons whose training has focused narrowly on a single approach. These individuals can help some, but not all, students with dyslexia. I am also concerned because the bill creates criminal penalties but does not provide any means for teachers or tutors with many years of experience to gain recognition without the coursework and examination requirements of the law, even if their experience is in the very methods covered. These teaching methods have been around since the 1930’s, but the Academic Language Therapy Association was not founded until 1987, and they have promulgated their own set of standards which is different than the training that other, older practitioners may have received. Patterns of symptoms and learning barriers with dyslexia are extremely variable. Although multisensory structured language teaching is widely used, there is no one-size-fits all approach to dyslexia. The Learning Disabilities Association of America recommends that

practitioners receive training in at least three different methods – but the standards proposed by ALTA and HB 461 would be based on a single method, and would shut out well qualified and experienced professionals who happen to have received their training in different approaches. Federal law requires that public schools provide students diagnosed with learning disabilities with an Individualized Education Plan, tailored to their specific needs – and in many cases this will require help from different approaches. Some of the other approaches to dyslexia that are currently well-established and used in Texas are: •

Lindamood Bell Learning Processes (See: www.lindamoodbell.com)

•

Davis Dyslexia Correction (See: www.dyslexia.com )

•

Fast ForWord Language (See: www.scilearn.com )

•

Phono-Graphix (See: www.readamerica.net )

In addition to providing services to private clients and to schools, the organizations above also regularly provide training workshops for teachers and tutors, as well as to homeschooling parents. An example of a promising newer program, based on emerging scientific research, is a fluency training program called RAVE-O. This is computer-assisted tutoring approach being developed at Tufts University under the supervision of Dr. Maryanne Wolf, one of the country's leading dyslexia researchers. See: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15493098 “Dyslexia” is an umbrella term used to cover all children with reading disabilities, but the individual patterns of symptoms and learning characteristics are extremely variable. Dyslexia often overlaps with sensory and perceptual issues, so dyslexic children often benefit from intervention such as auditory integration therapy or vision therapy. Because each child is unique, it is best that an individualized approach to remediation be followed. When one approach does not seem to be effective, it is reasonable to look for alternatives. I would also add that this legislation could prove quite costly to the state of Texas, if parents argued that they were entitled to state-funding services from “registered dyslexia practitioners” as part of an IEP plan, under the federal IDEA law. The current version of HB 461 does not require the public schools to hire “registered” practitioners or therapists; but the practical result may be that schools would be forced to either hire such personnel to work with all students or subsidize private lessons or placement in private schools. This could prove particularly costly because there are many other instructional approaches which are supported by research and may be more cost-effective for schools to implement. Rather than create a legislative endorsement of only one of the many approaches to reading instruction and therapy for students with dyslexia, the regulatory purpose of the bill can be equally well served by simply eliminating the word “dyslexia” from Part I of this bill. As the proposed standards apply only to the Academic Language approach, it is a simply matter of “truth-in-labeling” to apply only the more specific label to the teachers who have been trained in this method. I have prepared some charts and attached them to this letter, to provide a sense of the scope of the issues involved.

I believe that the State of Texas is to be commended for its approach to dyslexia, and I certainly support the early intervention goals set forth in part II of HB 461, which do not seem tied to any single form or remediation. I just feel that it is inappropriate for the state to adopt a set of standards without a fully exploring the various different approaches that are already well-established in Texas, and the standards of training that apply to each. Abigail Marshall Author & Parent of Dyslexic Son Attachments: Chart 1: Alternatives to Multisensory Structured Language / Academic Language Teaching Chart 2:

Non-Instructional Therapies and Approaches to Dyslexia

Chart 1: Alternative Instructional Approaches to Multisensory Structured Language / Academic Language Teaching: List of Recommended Interventions for Beginning Reading from US Department of Education “What Works Clearinghouse” See: http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/reports/topic.aspx?tid=01 This is a complete list of interventions that have research support showing at least a positive or potentially positive effects in areas of alphabetics, comprehension, fluency, or general reading achievement for beginning readers, as of May 10, 2009. •

Accelerated Reader

•

Classwide Peer Tutoring©

•

Corrective Reading

•

Cooperative Integrated Reading

•

Daisy Quest

•

Early Intervention in Reading®

•

Earobics®

•

Failure Free Reading

•

Fast ForWord®

•

Fluency Formula™

•

Kaplan SpellRead

•

Ladders to Literacy

•

Lindamood Phonemic Sequencing (LIPS)®

•

Little Books

•

Peer-Assisted Learning Strategies©

•

Read, Write & Type™

•

Reading Recovery®

•

Start Making a Reader Today® (SMART®)

•

Stepping Stones to Literacy

•

Success for All

•

Voyager Universal Literacy System®

•

Waterford Early Reading Program

•

Wilson Reading

Chart 2: Non-Instructional Therapies and Approaches to Dyslexia Problems Commonly Associated with Dyslexia: Dyslexia is more than just a problem with reading; dyslexic children and adults often have difficulties in some or all of the following areas: • • • • • • •

Auditory Processing (difficulty hearing, responding, and understanding to language) Attention Focus (difficulty focusing and sustaining attention) Balance & Coordination Difficulties (vestibular and cerebellar function) Cognitive Skills, such as short-term memory, sequential processing Language processing (such as word retrieval, rapid automatic naming) Phonological awareness Visual-Perceptual Confusion

Some programs that are commonly used to address such problems are: Auditory Processing • • • •

Berard Auditory Integration Training Davis Dyslexia Correction (auditory orientation training) Interactive Metronome Tomatis Method

Attention Focus (difficulty focusing and sustaining attention) • •

Biofeedback Davis Dyslexia Correction (orientation counseling)

Balance & Coordination Difficulties (vestibular and cerebellar function) • • • • • •

Brain Gym Davis Dyslexia Correction (koosh ball exercises) Interactive Metronome Learning Breakthrough Occupational Therapy Sensory Integration Therapy

Cognitive Skill Enhancement •

Audiblox

(Cognitive Skill Building)

• •

Davis Dyslexia Correction (Concept Mastery) PACE (Processing and Cognitive Enhancement)

Language processing • •

Davis Dyslexia Correction (Symbol Mastery) Visualizing and Verbalizing or Language Comprehension and Thinking® (V/V®)

Phonological awareness • • •

Earobics FastforWord Lindamood Phoneme Sequencing Program for Reading, Spelling and Speech (LiPS®)

Visual-Perceptual Confusion • • •

Irlen Lenses Seeing Stars Symbol Imagery for Phonemic Awareness, Sight Words and Spelling Vision Therapy

Internet Resources A Framework for Understanding Dyslexia: Approaches and programmes used by specialists http://www.excellencegateway.org.uk/page.aspx?o=124856 Children of the Code: The Code and the Challenge of Learning to Read It (Interviews) http://www.childrenofthecode.org/interviews/ dysTalk – Helping your child learn better http://www.dystalk.com Florida Center for Reading Research http://www.fcrr.org Literature Review: An International Perspective on Dyslexia http://www.tki.org.nz/r/literacy_numeracy/pdf/literature-review.pdf Literature Review of Current Approaches to the Provision of Education for Children with Dyslexia http://www.hmie.gov.uk/documents/publication/lrcapecd-02.html What Works Clearinghouse – US Department of Education http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc