Here is a handout that offers a look at some of the most common myths surrounding dyslexia. Please feel free to download it, share it, or disseminate it on your blog, website, or social media pages.

Easy ways to help your child go to the head of the class
​(BPT) - The education children receive today will help them throughout their lives. School is the fundamental component of the learning process, but education doesn't stop when kids arrive back home at the end of the day.
"Education and family go hand in hand," says Ellen Marks, curriculum director of Bricks 4 Kidz, an award-winning summer camp and after-school program. "Parents who take an active role by supporting classroom learning will not only see their kids' education blossom, but their relationship with them, too."
The start of the new year is the ideal time to evaluate what you're doing right and where you could improve in regards to supporting your child's education. Marks offers these smart ideas guaranteed to help you keep this resolution in 2017 and beyond:

Connections to real life: One of the best ways to help kids understand classroom lessons is to connect the material to everyday experiences. Practice fractions while cooking. Chat about biology as birds fly by the window. Learning moments are all around, you just have to point them out.

​Daily conversations: With a fun, no-pressure approach, go over what your children learned in school. If they don't want to talk right after school, wait until later. During or after dinner may allow enough transition time so you'll find they'll open up more.

Positive attitude: Kids will mirror your attitude toward your work as well as how you view their school, homework and teachers. Stay positive, respectful and model resilience during difficult times; you'll find they'll do the same.

Enriching activities: Select fun after-school activities that emphasize cognitive development while building self-esteem. For example, Bricks 4 Kidz uses relatable tools like LEGO Bricks to teach science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) skills. Learn more at www.bricks4kidz.com and sign up for an After School class.

The parent-teacher relationship: Sending check-in emails, attending conferences and volunteering are ways to build strong relationships with teachers. Be proactive about asking where your child excels and what areas they may need additional help.

Homework help: Good study habits are essential to excelling at school. Create a comfortable homework space with adequate supplies and few distractions. What's more, be an active partner in your child's homework and assist when needed with gentle guidance and encouragement.

​Reading buddies: Reading together can instill a lifelong love of literature. Try reading the same books your child is assigned in school so you can foster a good discussion about characters and storylines. When you both finish the book, rent the film version and plan a movie night.

Active learning opportunities: Reading, writing and solving math problems are passive learning activities. At home, encourage active learning where your child builds models, creates art projects and can ask questions. It's amazing to watch their minds work and see what they create.

Health and wellness: A child must first be well before they can effectively learn. Make sure kids stay fueled with a variety of healthy foods. Next, ensure they get a good night's sleep. Full, well-rested kids are always ready and eager to learn.

There was a post circulating around social media after the tragic shootings that occurred over the last two weeks. One video was a radio host asking why cops are the only profession who won't recognize that all cops aren't all good cops. It got me thinking about the same notion when it came to the teaching profession. Then this past week, I joined a group on Facebook that was created about a specific leveled literacy program that was just unveiled by a prominent duo in the literacy field. It was quickly apparent that the majority of people, mostly teachers, were highly misguided when it came to dyslexia. These are the exact people who road block real learning for our kids. I felt compelled to comment. 

I posted responses and posed questions to the teachers and in true childlike fashion, they complained to the moderate, who publicly complained to me. Very childish, but not surprising. They offered zero in the way of research. They just kept showing how ignorant they were and that they didn't want to have to justify that the were doing their jobs well.

Here is the truth, during all my advocacy experiences, I find that reading teachers don't like to be questioned or challenged on their expertise...EVER.  If they got a degree, they are an expert. Point settled. I can't recall how many stunned literacy instructions have sat fuming in a meeting, when questioned about their understanding of dyslexia, their certifications, and their ability to teach a child with something other than a textbook that cost $30. 

This post is designed to answer some questions that often come up around reading. They are based on my experience and on my opinions. I know how often we hear about the "great" teachers, underpaid teachers, those who stay late and come in early, but honestly, after reading through that FB group I mentioned above, I am starting to realize that they are in the same boat as cops, no one wants to call another teacher, bad, even if they are pretty shitty at their job. Let's be real, every teacher, in every school, can't be good, it is statistically impossible. 

Anyway, here is what the original intent of this post is all about...

1. What is Leveled Literacy?
According to Fountas and Pinnell, "small group, supplementary literacy intervention designed for students who find reading and writing difficult. These students are the lowest achievers in literacy at their grade level and are not receiving another literacy intervention." Here is where the issues begin. 
Let's say you are the parent of a struggling reader. He or she just can't seem to "get it" when it comes to reading. First, lets back up and remember, Reading is not a skill we are born with, it must be taught and taught in the way in which our individual brain learns.  Ok, so now that we remember it is a skill that must be learned and won't come automatically to ever child, lets get back to your struggling reader. Undoubtedly the school has asked you to increase at home practices, they have led you down a path that ends at the garden of blame, a pretty garden, filled with beautiful flowers the teacher has cultivated, but when you try to touch them, they try to bite off your finger. Why? Because this isn't the garden for kids with dyslexia, it is for struggling readers, who will benefit from small group literacy. Run as fast as you can from that garden and refuse to go back. 

2. What is Whole Language and Guided Reading?
See the description above, our friends over at Fountas and Pinnell also call leveled literacy, guided reading, a wolf by any other name...Your student with dyslexia will never benefit from this type of intervention. They need a "language-based, multi sensory, structured, sequential, cumulative, cognitive, and flexible", provided by an Orton Gillingham certified instructor, or a certified Wilson Language or Barton Reading teacher. 

3. Our schools reading teacher is certified?
This is what I like to refer to as, "a truth wrapped in a lie". They are right, the teacher has obtained a degree in reading, which is different than a certification in one of the methods I mentioned above. Furthermore, a teacher may have gone and take a weekend course, but that, according to the experts in these methods doesn't make them anywhere near qualified to teach. 

4. The Reading Specialist says my child just needs more time?
More time for what? To develop a skill that they weren't born with. No what they mean is, "We need more time to push this crappy program and hopefully your child will eventually turn into a behavior problem and we can focus on that instead." The waiting game is an incredibly stupid idea, and if you've waited, now feel guilty, I am sorry, but I am not going to sugar coat this in the hopes it lessens those feelings. You feel guilty, suck it up, move on, and demand the right program to make up for all that lost time. 

5. Dyslexia is a blanket term. 
This is seriously the stupidest thing I have every heard. Dyslexia is blanket term to those who either 1. Don't know the real definition, 2. Are flat out liars who are trying to pull the wool over parents eyes, or 3. Both.

Here is the International Dyslexia Association definition:

"Dyslexia is a specific learning disability that is neurobiological in origin. It is characterized by difficulties with accurate and/or fluent word recognition and by poor spelling and decoding abilities. These difficulties typically result from a deficit in the phonological component of language that is often unexpected in relation to other cognitive abilities and the provision of effective classroom instruction. Secondary consequences may include problems in reading comprehension and reduced reading experience that can impede growth of vocabulary and background knowledge.”

Here is the real deal:
If a school puts the word, DYSLEXIA, in your child's IEP and then whips out the F&P leveled literacy books, when you end up at due process or court (learn about a new court case that could change the way we handle litigation) the school is going to have "sum splainin' to do." They are on the hook for a lot more...money. That is the bottom line, your kid with dyslexia is a cash black hole.
They don't want to have to spend big money on your kid or worse have other parents find out that they spent big money on your son or daughter, because other parents will want it to. So they make up some cockamamie reasoning behind using all these other programs, which for all intents and purposes are whole language, redesigned. 

What can I do? 

• Start by not blaming your child for their inability to read and stop allowing others to do it too! When you are at a meeting and they start prying around about what happens at home, shut that shit down. It is none of their business what you do in your own house, you are there to talk about what they are going to do for the 180+ days they have your child in their classroom.
• Become an expert on dyslexia. Read everything you can, reach out to experts, take workshops, whatever is necessary to know everything you possibly can about reading and dyslexia. That way, when the monkeys start throwing their poo in your direction, you are already geared up in your protective gear. 
• Refuse to take no from someone who wasn't authorized to give you a yes in the first place. The school is going to fight you and put many, many obstacles in your way. Don't be deterred. If the teacher says no, go to the special education director, if they say no, go to the superintendent, if you get a no again, go to the school board. Done all that and still getting stonewalled, it is time for an attorney and a civil rights case. 

Final Thoughts...
Books put out by groups like Fountas and Pinnell are shiny and pretty. They offer teachers the flavor of kool aid they like to drink. The kind that makes the world rose colored and doesn't hold them accountable to the 1 in 5 students in their class with dyslexia. Maybe there is some child, somewhere who has benefited from whole language, but it is never going to be a child with dyslexia. 
<3,
​DW

Let's tackle accommodations. IDEA, which is the Individuals with Disabilities does not specify that accommodations must be included in an IEP. However, they do talk about making changes, For example, did you know that you can make changes, such as adding accommodations without convening a meeting,

• "300.324 "Agreement. (i) In making changes to a child's IEP after the annual IEP Team meeting for a school year, the parent of a child with a disability and the public agency may agree not to convene an IEP Team meeting for the purposes of making those changes, and instead may develop a written document to amend or modify the child's current IEP." Link Here

Schools often try to tell you the opposite. Here is the game plan for accommodations. 

1. Sit with your son and daughter and talk about which accommodations they want, know they will use, and want to try to implement. 
2. Put together those accommodations, in writing, via email or in a word document. 
3. Create a letter to the IEP chairperson (or whoever is usually in charge)
4. Email or hand deliver the letter about the accommodations. Be prepared for push back.
5. DO NOT BACK DOWN. If you son or daughter had indicated these are the types accommodations or modifications, it is your job to get them implemented. 
6. If the school really wants to fight, which they may want to, tell them you are willing to try them on a trial basis, so long as the teacher keeps a log of when they are or aren't used. It will be your job to keep a log as well. 
7. When the are written into the IEP or temporarily done (which must be in writing with a specific start and end date) make sure they do not contain the words, as needed or when the students asks, they must be always available and some may even be the responsibility of the teacher. 
   1. ​For example, on a vocab test, the teacher can put small marks next to every other word for the students. That way he or she knows to only attempt those questions, rather than announcing to everyone the test is modified.
8. You must also have a way to monitor yourself how the accommodations/modification plan is working. 
   1. ​If you need to keep a log, make a quick and dirty excel spreadsheet. 
   2. Make top columns; date, accommodations or modification, teachers name, student asked/teacher volunteered. 
   3. Print it down 
   4. Every day when your student comes home from school, ask them what if they used them and write it down. 

Now you have a way to compare. This may seem like a lot of work, but you can guaranty that the teachers are going to have a chart that looks vastly different than yours. It is going to show that the student never asked to use them. 

I know this seems like a lot. I know that some days you just want to send your kid off to school and let it be the teachers job. Sadly, teachers are trained to work with most disabilities. In fact, research has shown that most teachers gravitate towards the kind of students who mimick the type of student they were. That is why you occasionally get a really empathetic teacher, it is because they had a tough time in school or they have a child of their own who is struggling. The rest of the time you have a teacher who thinks they are trying their hardest, when they are throwing teaspoons of water at a raging inferno. 

I thought this may be a good place to pop in a video about teaching self-advocacy, until I searched for one. I realized right quick, they are horrible! Sorry to anyone or organization who has created one, but they just don't do the topic much justice. While I get the OTA team to work on creating a video series for self-advocacy, here are some tips to help you get started:

• Don't sugar coat what is going on. I don't think you should create a hostile enviroment, but explaining that not everyone your son or daughter comes in contact with is going to understand his or her disability, is reasonable. 
• Make a list of everything your child kicks ass at doing, even if it is emptying the dishwashers, stack that strengths side hard. 
• Make it o.k. to ask for help. Model for them times when you have had to ask for help or look for opportunities to ask someone to help you.
• When your son or daughter indicates they have asked for help, praise them for it. You don't have to go all sappy, but make sure it is acknowledge.
• Teach them about IDEA and your state regulations. 
• When you see them struggling, ask them what you can do to help or if there is a resource you can find that will help them. Don't let them think they are going it alone. 
• You may need to create an IEP goal that helps them at school learn to self-advocate. 
• Don't always be ready to spring from the springboard when there is a problem. See if your child can come up with a solution on his or her own. 
• Finally, don't let a teacher, or any other adult, bully your child. They should never be allowed to put your child on the spot or call them out in front of their peers. This is public school, not prison. Sorry if that is blunt or you are offended that I just compared public school to prison, but teachers are publicly funded personnel who do not have the right to cause harm to your child. I don't care what they call it. 

Side note: Self Advocacy doesn't happen overnight. That IEP goal or the list above could take years to happen. Don't beat yourself up about it because you need to remember something really important, we are talking about a child! Children need love, kindness, empathy, compassion, and a coach in their corner. Our babies aren't fully developed until they are 25. So don't expect them to be outspoken disabilities advocates overnight. 
I'd love to hear in the comments, what has worked for you, what battles you seem to be always be facing, and what help you feel like you could use. 

<3,
DW