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About The nugget. (Sisters, Or.) 1994-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 14, 2016)
Wednesday, December 14, 2016 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon 9 Oregon law requires screening students for dyslexia By Kailey Fisicaro The Bulletin BEND (AP) — Legislation passed in Oregon is shining a new light on dyslexia, an often-misunder- stood learning disability. Senate Bill 612, which went into effect in July 2015, requires that every kinder- garten and first-grade public school student be screened for risk factors of dyslexia, a learning disability that can make it difficult to learn to read and write. Looking for signs a student may be likely to have dyslexia can allow for early intervention, some- thing that can make a huge difference in how it affects a child, according to dyslexia experts. Much of what the Senate bill mandates falls on the Oregon Department of Education to administer. The bill requires the education department to hire a dyslexia specialist to support school districts in their new role in screening for risk factors. Carrie Thomas-Beck, a former special education teacher from the Midwest who co-directed the Oregon Reading First Center, which sought to improve reading among elementary school children, became the state dyslexia specialist in January. She calls dyslexia a “learn- ing difference” for the chil- dren who have it. Dyslexia is genetic, she said. “So they are born with it,” Year-round FIREWOOD SALES said Thomas-Beck in a call from Portland. “Where chil- dren experience it has to do with early intervention.” Dyslexia isn’t a one-size- fits-all learning difference. It can be different for different children, Thomas-Beck said. “Dyslexia by defini- tion is not a difficulty with vision — they see print just like anybody else,” Thomas- Beck said. “It’s a language disability.” Although some might have believed dyslexic indi- viduals see letters reversed, that’s not the case, according to Thomas-Beck. Individuals with dyslexia have difficulty hearing and isolating sounds in spoken words, she said. “Listening comprehension is often a strength,” Thomas- Beck said. “Often they are quite articulate and have great vocabulary, but might have trouble with word-find- ing, or they’ll store a word inaccurately.” Thomas-Beck said aca- demics sometimes use this example: A student may want to share a thought about volcanoes, and know its meaning, but might say “tornadoes.” “It goes back to word- finding,” she said. Dyslexia is generally obvious in a person’s spell- ing and writing, according to Thomas-Beck. A person might also have trouble orga- nizing ideas, and lack punc- tuation, as well as connecting words. Open Christmas & New Year’s Day! — Kindling — — — SISTERS FOREST PRODUCTS 541-410-4509 SistersForestProducts.com Jump Start New Year’s Changes Behavioral/Habits Diet • Sleep Productivity WE CATER YOUR PARTY! 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Other estimates show about 85 percent of students with learning disabilities have a disability in reading and lan- guage processing, according to the International Dyslexia Association. A lot of times, kids with dyslexia don’t qualify for special education because they do so well in other areas. They might dedicate hours after school to assign- ments that may only take a half-hour for their peers to complete, Thomas-Beck explained. Through legislation, the state is building awareness, Thomas-Beck said. Another piece of legislation, House Bill 2412, which went into effect Jan. 1, addresses how teachers are trained for dys- lexia education. Decoding Dyslexia, a grass-roots parent organization, was the main group pushing for legislation in Oregon, Thomas-Beck said. Part of Senate Bill 612 requires that school districts have at least one teacher in each K-5 or K-8 school who has received training related to dyslexia by Jan. 1, 2018. That teacher will act as a resource who can help fellow teachers carry out the screen- ing of risk factors. Thomas-Beck worked with stakeholders, includ- ing the Oregon Education Association and Oregon School Boards Association, to draft a plan for universal screening. The drafting took about six months, and was submitted to the interim leg- islative committee on educa- tion by September. That com- mittee will decide whether to approve the plan. The draft plan names a few risk factors to screen for, Thomas-Beck said, including formological awareness, a student’s ability to hear and manipulate sounds in spoken language; letter-sound corre- spondences, a student’s abil- ity to map a sound to print; rapid naming; and any family history of difficulty learning to read. Rapid naming involves asking a child to look at a set of familiar items rapidly presented, such as numbers, letters or pictures of things like a boat or cat, and name them. Schools can find out about family difficulties with learning to read by asking for that information on an enroll- ment form. Most schools will con- tinue to use the same Response to Intervention method they already do, in which universal screening helps identify where students belong in multitiered instruc- tion. The tiered approach allows teachers to adapt See DYSLEXIA on page 24 What will you wish for this season? Art Studio? M Man-Cave? New Garage? N WE CAN HELP! — Manufactured in Oregon — 503-668-7211 www.wsbnw.com 855-668-7211 Sandy, Oregon