Could Dyslexic Reading Be Prevented?

Daniella De Winter, Israel

Daniella De Winter has been teaching English for many years and simultaneously running her own private English school. Having dedicated the first of her professional years to teaching adults, her educational perspective has largely differed from the mainstream, which led her to develop a special teaching method aimed at learners with language-based learning difficulties such as dyslexia. This working path also led her to develop an innovative and extremely successful pattern-based methodology for teaching the English language. These methods have since been incorporated into her own brand of books and games. E-mail: softenglishreadwriteplay@gmail.com; Website: www.englishsoftread.com/en/home

This article is based on 40 years of experience teaching English as a second language (L2) and almost 20 years of experience teaching English as L2 to students with LBLD (language-based learning difficulties). In addition to this, it is also based on long-standing experience in teaching reading and correct spelling to native English speakers.

In every learning process, reading plays a major role. The ability to read will determine the student´s achievements and success. Therefore, a student who is unable to read will see his learning ability as profoundly limited. For this reason, the formal education system should prioritize making all the necessary efforts to have as few non-readers as possible. The key is to teach reading and to improve students' reading proficiency, which, as a result, will lead to better reading comprehension and writing; better learning; and higher academic achievements.

When it comes to language acquisition, reading is crucial. It is a tool to acquire, practice, memorize and improve learning efficiency to obtain better results. Subsequently, non-readers tend to develop a negative approach to this process. They feel discouraged and, more often than not, experience a loss of faith both in general and, particularly, in learning a new language. We say that, based on our experience, people who cannot read feel as if they are blind to the language and the process of acquisition. They may be able to hear it, but they often cannot "see" it.

Moreover, whenever we think about improving teaching, we think about multi-sensory activities and techniques. It is largely understood that learning should appeal to the five basic senses to achieve a more comprehensive and integrative learning experience. Sight is, indeed, one of the basic senses. Taking it away from the learner lessens the effectiveness and makes language acquisition even harder on the student.

Reading should be developed as an automatic skill in order to free the mind to achieve better understanding. It should come as naturally as learning to drive a car or ride a bike. We don’t remind ourselves constantly to look at the mirrors while we drive, or to push the pedals of the bike in order to ride it. Once learned, these activities are done immediately, without thinking. In the same way, the more effort that is needed for reading “decoding,” the less the mind is free to understand the content. Understanding is an abstract process, while reading is highly technical. Every technical process is easier than an abstract one, as abstract is more intellect-dependent. Therefore, in order to free the mind, we need the highest possible proficiency of that technical activity, in this case reading decoding.

Question: what comes first, understanding the word or reading it? This will depend on whether English is the student’s first (L1) or second (L2) language. In the case of L1, students first know the word and are familiar with it. In the case of L2, students should first be able to read the word (the technical skill) in order to familiarize with it (abstract process), as well as to later practice and remember it.

When dealing with L2 students, it is very important not to introduce a new word together with its visual representation if there are unfamiliar letters or reading patterns. By reading patterns, we mean all the letter combinations and effects the letters have on their neighboring letters; for example, pronunciation of the G's, the C's and the letter combination “ture” (as in picture). We have assembled most of the patterns, turned them into rules and built a comprehensive practice program to train the reader to identify and attach sounds to each of them.

How about young children? How can we prevent dyslexic reading from a very early age?

Every parent knows that reading stories to their young child will have a great positive impact on the richness of their vocabulary. Bedtime storytelling is the best time of the day, but it can also have its disadvantages. That´s right, reading stories can have a downside, but we are going to offer a practical solution to this dilemma.

When stories are read to toddlers, they familiarize with the illustrations in the story, and later with the relevant words in the form of these illustrations. Both the illustrations and then the words, therefore, are captured as a whole, as a picture. However, this does not constitute reading.

Let’s pose the following question. If a toddler can identify the word “cow” in the story, would he/she also be able to recognize the same word in a different place, out of the story? Or in a different story and different context? Moreover, would it be possible for him/her to read new words like how or ten made from the letters appearing in cow, hen or cat? Probably not. The truth is, they cannot actually read. The toddler has not yet identified the different letters, has not analyzed nor synthesized them to form new words. The young child has identified the word as a whole, as if it was a single visual representation, no different from the picture of the animal itself.

This is what I call a “global reader”. Global readers do not see the letters that compose the words and the patterns. This, naturally, results later on in poor spelling skills and difficulties in reading long, "complicated" words. Whenever a global reader encounters a new, unfamiliar, long word, he/she immediately starts an inner negative dialogue, which builds up frustration and desperation: “Why is it so difficult?” “Why is there a G here we don’t pronounce?” “Why are there no rules?” Endless questions are posed, which leads to further frustration and slows decoding and understanding. We believe that fast decoding equals better reading comprehension. Decoding helps retain the meaning of what is read, which then is connected to one or more ideas. Poor and slow decoding causes interrupted and disconnected understanding.

Let us talk about painful “double losses”. These occur when the reader could have understood the word if they had read it properly. It happens when a reader, native or not, even if the meaning of the word is understood, is unable to identify and read a word and cannot resort to his previous knowledge to understand the meaning of it. For example, take the word biology. Although it may be written and pronounced differently in various languages, it sounds very similar in all of them. However, if the student is unable to read it, they will never be able to associate the sounds of an already familiar word, such as biology, not even in their own mother tongue.

To achieve fast decoding, we should first train the eye to see and identify the components of the word, i.e. each letter, individually. Only later can we introduce the patterns and the rules based on generalizations.

How do we do it in the SoftRead method? We have included a variety of activities, such as matching letters with pictures which represent their sounds; highlighting particular letters; circling letters with the previous or following letters; coloring; and copying and pasting. Even if the student is too young to connect the sounds and read them together, they are still learning the link between sounds and letters, and vice versa. Practicing with nonsense words is a good way of detaching the word from its meaning, making the act of reading purely technical. These pre-reading activities, even if the student cannot yet read, make them focus on and pay attention to what we want them to be aware of. In this way, we emphasize and train analysis and, later, also synthesis. Most importantly, we avoid the development of global reading and dyslexia from a very early age.

In general, dyslexia is defined as a difficulty, a disorder, a deficiency or impairment. This means that it can be remedied, trained and improved by using the right methodology and technique.

My long teaching experience has shown me that by using this methodology, we can not only improve the reading skills of any student, but also, and most importantly, prevent them from developing global reading technique and dyslexia. This is why my ultimate recommendation is to keep reading to our children and grandchildren but at the same time to introduce all the aforementioned activities, which will guarantee phonological awareness, analysis and synthesis in reading.

My vision is that parents and early childhood facilitators will build phonological awareness parallel to traditional storytelling.

Please check the Methodology and Language for Kindergarten course at Pilgrims website.
Please check the Methodology and Language for Primary course at Pilgrims website.