Brenda Garrett – Literary Review

Jennifer Lindstrom uses the article “Dyslexia in the School,” (2019) to inform the reader

that the most well-known type of reading disorder is known as dyslexia. Dyslexia is the inability

of the brain to decode words, oftentimes seeing the letters rearranged. When it comes to

eligibility for special education services regarding dyslexia, not all students qualify. Students

who have been diagnosed with dyslexia but show progress academically may not be eligible for

services provided by the school. However, if a student is not responding to interventions that

student would qualify for special education services. How does an interventionist determine

eligibility for special education in students who have shown signs of dyslexia?

During the process of determining eligibility for dyslexia, there is usually a team of

school-based staff that are referred to as the eligibility team. That team is commonly made up of

teachers, principals, speech-language pathologists, and other applicable specialists. Often, RTI is

administered as early intervention, but that may be harmful to the student as RTI does not

determine or diagnose dyslexia. There is a five-step process designed to aid in the eligibility

process. This five-step process uses specific data collection, assessment of reading performance,

considerations in the assessment of cognitive processing abilities, and evidence, among other

things, to help determine the qualification status of the student assumed to have dyslexia.

When a student is thought to have dyslexia there are categories of insufficiencies in

performance. These categories include letter-sound knowledge, word decoding, reading fluency,

spelling (encoding), and reading comprehension. Letter-sound knowledge simply means that the

individuals know individual letters and sounds. This is used to determine letter fluency. A

student may be assessed by taking a time test to determine knowledge, either written or spoken,

and what sound the letter makes. Word reading, also known as decoding, assesses accuracy and
fluency in either timed or untimed tests. This assesses both sensical and nonsensical words.

Assessment of reading fluency can also be tested orally or in written form. The main focus of

this is to determine the automaticity of words in speed and fluency. This is simply a student

reading a passage quickly and observing for sense and nonsense words. The next category of

insufficiency in learners with dyslexia is spelling. Oftentimes, a student’s regular spelling test

can be used to document the pattern of misspelled words on a regular basis. Students may also be

given additional spelling tests, with sensical and nonsensical words, to aid in the diagnosis of

dyslexia and the determination of services provided. The last category of reading performance

assessment is comprehension. Reading comprehension assessments are given in a variety of

ways: cloze, question answering, and retellings. Cloze reading assessment requires students to

fill in a blank. Question answering requires the student to answer, usually multiple-choice,

questions about a given passage. Retelling is when a student reads a passage and then orally re-

tells the passage. This area is step two in the five-step process of determining eligibility for

special education services.

Step three is when the team made up of teachers and specialists who are determining

eligibility must make sure that a reading deficiency is not caused by other factors. Those factors

include visual, hearing, or motor disability, intellectual disability, emotional disturbance, cultural

factors, lack of instruction, English language deficiency, or environmental or economic

disadvantage.

Step four deals with the category of cognitive processing. Cognitive processing is broken

down into the areas of phonological awareness, phonological memory, orthographic awareness,

rapid naming, processing speed, and working memory. Students assumed to have dyslexia would
have an insufficiency in their ability to process information with cognition in the areas related to

their weakness.

In the procession to step five the team that determines eligibility must determine that two

of the criteria laid out in step two were met. This means that there is a significant impact on

learning caused by dyslexia. Therefore, a student with dyslexia would be eligible for special

education services. Early identification of dyslexia is essential to the learning process of the

student. This will aid in the student’s well-being both academically in reading and all other

learning areas.

In reflection, I can apply this to my own teaching by observing students who display

factors of dyslexia by using the Dyslexia Assessment Worksheet, five-step determination

process, and reading performance assessments to aid in special education eligibility. The

examples of tests given will allow my eligibility team to determine whether special education

services are appropriate for the educational needs of specific students.

 Reference

Lindstrom, J. H. (2019). Dyslexia in the Schools: Assessment and Identification. TEACHING

Exceptional Children, 51(3), 189–200.