While all students in the Currey Ingram Academy Upper School have an Individualized Learning Plan (ILP), executive functioning training, emotional intelligence skill development, and small-group classes, those with dyslexia and/or broad language difficulties may need additional interventions tailored to meet their needs. These interventions are determined based on the student’s psychoeducational assessment and ongoing classroom interactions and performance.
If a student with dyslexia has the decoding and comprehension skills at least within the average range, the student may only need accommodations to be successful in regular and/or honors classes. Some accommodations provided in the Upper School to students with dyslexia include:
- Audio books
- Extended time
- Scaffolded notes
- Speech to Text/Text to Speech
- Tests read orally
- Spell Check
On the other hand, adolescents with dyslexia and/or language difficulties who continue to have deficits in reading will need explicit, systematic structured literacy instruction in addition to accommodations. Because the task demands in the higher grades require that students be successful with complex comprehension tasks and complex writing tasks, a Structured Literacy™ approach, as recommended by the International Dyslexia Association (IDA), is needed. In the Upper School, this approach contains the following features:
- Explicit instruction in the foundational skills, such as phonology, decoding and spelling, as well as the higher-level skills of syntax, morphology, text composition, and reading comprehension.
- Cumulative and systematic instruction
- Written Language explicit instruction using Self-Regulated Strategy Development (SRSD)
- Lessons that include language and comprehension support (sometimes taught by a speech-language pathologist)
- Continuous progress monitoring
- Corrective feedback
- Small-group instruction
While there is no “one” program recommended by the IDA, there are a number of programs that have evidence to support intervention for adolescents with dyslexia and language difficulties. Based on the needs of our current students and the intervention some have previously received, Language! Live,developed by Louisa Moats, was selected.
At Currey Ingram, we recognize that just because a student with dyslexia is in high school, it doesn’t mean that the student no longer needs remediation or special help. As Dr. Jensen stated in her book, The Teenage Brain, we view adolescence as the second critical time for remediation, and significant gains can be made during this time (Jensen, pg. 79).
References:
- International Dyslexia Association (2019).
- Educators Training Initiative Brief Structured Literacy™An introductory guide. Baltimore, MD: Author. Retrieved from:
- https://app.box.com/s/mvuvhel6qaj8tghvu1nl75i0ndnlp0yz
- Jensen, F. E. (2015). The Teenage Brain. New York: Harper.
