Overcoming Dyslexia

The e-Advocate 

Monthly 

…a Compilation of Works on: 

Overcoming 

Dyslexia 

Philippians 4:13 

Matthew 19:26 | John 9:2-7 

“Helping Individuals, Organizations & Communities 

Achieve Their Full Potential” 

Special Edition| October 2019

Turning the Improbable 

Into the Exceptional! 

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The Advocacy Foundation, Inc. 

Helping Individuals, Organizations & Communities 

Achieve Their Full Potential 

Since its founding in 2003, The Advocacy Foundation has become recognized as an effective 

provider of support to those who receive our services, having real impact within the communities 

we serve. We are currently engaged in community and faith-based collaborative initiatives, 

having the overall objective of eradicating all forms of youth violence and correcting injustices 

everywhere. In carrying-out these initiatives, we have adopted the evidence-based strategic 

framework developed and implemented by the Office of Juvenile Justice & Delinquency 

Prevention (OJJDP). 

The stated objectives are: 

1. Community Mobilization; 

2. Social Intervention; 

3. Provision of Opportunities; 

4. Organizational Change and Development; 

5. Suppression [of illegal activities]. 

Moreover, it is our most fundamental belief that in order to be effective, prevention and 

intervention strategies must be Community Specific, Culturally Relevant, Evidence-Based, and 

Collaborative. The Violence Prevention and Intervention programming we employ in 

implementing this community-enhancing framework include the programs further described 

throughout our publications, programs and special projects both domestically and 

internationally. 

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Dedication 

______ 

Every publication in our many series’ is dedicated to everyone, absolutely everyone, who by 

virtue of their calling and by Divine inspiration, direction and guidance, is on the battlefield dayafter-day 

striving to follow God’s will and purpose for their lives. And this is with particular affinity 

for those Spiritual warriors who are being transformed into excellence through daily academic, 

professional, familial, and other challenges. 

We pray that you will bear in mind: 

Matthew 19:26 (NIV) 

Jesus looked at them and said, "With man this is impossible, 

but with God all things are possible." (Emphasis added) 

To all of us who daily look past our circumstances, and naysayers, to what the Lord says we will 

accomplish: 

Blessings!! 

- The Advocacy Foundation, Inc. 

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The Transformative Justice Project 

Eradicating Juvenile Delinquency Requires a Multi-Disciplinary Approach 

The way we accomplish all this is a follows: 

The Juvenile Justice system is incredibly overloaded, and 

Solutions-Based programs are woefully underfunded. Our 

precious children, therefore, particularly young people of 

color, often get the “swift” version of justice whenever they 

come into contact with the law. 

Decisions to build prison facilities are often based on 

elementary school test results, and our country incarcerates 

more of its young than any other nation on earth. So we at 

The Foundation labor to pull our young people out of the 

“school to prison” pipeline, and we then coordinate the efforts 

of the legal, psychological, governmental and educational 

professionals needed to bring an end to delinquency. 

We also educate families, police, local businesses, elected 

officials, clergy, and schools and other stakeholders about 

transforming whole communities, and we labor to change 

their thinking about the causes of delinquency with the goal 

of helping them embrace the idea of restoration for the young 

people in our care who demonstrate repentance for their 

mistakes. 

1. We vigorously advocate for charges reductions, wherever possible, in the adjudicatory (court) 

process, with the ultimate goal of expungement or pardon, in order to maximize the chances for 

our clients to graduate high school and progress into college, military service or the workforce 

without the stigma of a criminal record; 

2. We then enroll each young person into an Evidence-Based, Data-Driven Restorative Justice 

program designed to facilitate their rehabilitation and subsequent reintegration back into the 

community; 

3. While those projects are operating, we conduct a wide variety of ComeUnity-ReEngineering 

seminars and workshops on topics ranging from Juvenile Justice to Parental Rights, to Domestic 

issues to Police friendly contacts, to CBO and FBO accountability and compliance; 

4. Throughout the process, we encourage and maintain frequent personal contact between all 

parties; 

5 Throughout the process we conduct a continuum of events and fundraisers designed to facilitate 

collaboration among professionals and community stakeholders; and finally 

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6. 1 We disseminate Quarterly publications, like our e-Advocate series Newsletter and our e-Advocate 

Quarterly electronic Magazine to all regular donors in order to facilitate a lifelong learning process 

on the ever-evolving developments in the Justice system. 

And in addition to the help we provide for our young clients and their families, we also facilitate 

Community Engagement through the Restorative Justice process, thereby balancing the interesrs 

of local businesses, schools, clergy, elected officials, police, and all interested stakeholders. Through 

these efforts, relationships are rebuilt & strengthened, local businesses and communities are enhanced & 

protected from victimization, young careers are developed, and our precious young people are kept out 

of the prison pipeline. 

This is a massive undertaking, and we need all the help and financial support you can give! We plan to 

help 75 young persons per quarter-year (aggregating to a total of 250 per year) in each jurisdiction we 

serve) at an average cost of under $2,500 per client, per year.* 

Thank you in advance for your support! 

* FYI: 

1. The national average cost to taxpayers for minimum-security youth incarceration, is around 

$43,000.00 per child, per year. 

2. The average annual cost to taxpayers for maximun-security youth incarceration is well over 

$148,000.00 per child, per year. 

- (US News and World Report, December 9, 2014); 

3. In every jurisdiction in the nation, the Plea Bargain rate is above 99%. 

The Judicial system engages in a tri-partite balancing task in every single one of these matters, seeking 

to balance Rehabilitative Justice with Community Protection and Judicial Economy, and, although 

the practitioners work very hard to achieve positive outcomes, the scales are nowhere near balanced 

where people of color are involved. 

We must reverse this trend, which is right now working very much against the best interests of our young. 

Our young people do not belong behind bars. 

- Jack Johnson 

1 

In addition to supporting our world-class programming and support services, all regular donors receive our Quarterly e-Newsletter 

(The e-Advocate), as well as The e-Advocate Quarterly Magazine. 

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The Advocacy Foundation, Inc. 

Helping Individuals, Organizations & Communities 

Achieve Their Full Potential 

…a collection of works on 



“Turning the Improbable Into the Exceptional” 

Atlanta 

Philadelphia 

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John C Johnson III 

Founder & CEO 

(878) 222-0450 

Voice | Data | SMS 

www.TheAdvocacy.Foundation 

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Biblical Authority 

______ 

Philippians 4:13 (NIV) 

13 

I can do all this through him who gives me strength. 

Matthew 19:26 

26 

Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things 

are possible.” 

John 9:2-7 

2 

His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born 

blind?” 3 “Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so 

that the works of God might be displayed in him. 4 As long as it is day, we must do the 

works of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work. 5 While I am in the 

world, I am the light of the world.” 

6 

After saying this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on 

the man’s eyes. 7 “Go,” he told him, “wash in the Pool of Siloam” (this word means 

“Sent”). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing. 

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Table of Contents 

…a compilation of works on 



Biblical Authority 

I. Introduction: Dyslexia……………………………………………….. 15 

II. The Reading Process……………………………………………….. 27 

III. Neurodiversity……………………………………………………….. 39 

IV. Dyslexia In Popular Culture………………………………………… 47 

V. Famous People with Dyslexia……………………………………… 53 

VI. Elkonin Boxes and Phonological Awareness……………………. 59 

VII. Additional Linguistic Disorders……………………….................. 65 

VIII. References………………………………………………………….. 67 

______ 

Attachments 

A. Common Characteristics of Dyslexia 

B. Dyslexia In The Classroom: 

What Every Teacher Needs to Know 

C. Ten Strategies for Overcoming Dyslexia 

Copyright © 2018 The Advocacy Foundation, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 

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I. Introduction 


Dyslexia, also known as reading disorder, is characterized by trouble with reading 

despite 

normal intelligence. Different people are affected to 

varying 

degrees. Problems may include difficulties in 

spelling words, reading quickly, writing words, 

"sounding out" words in the head, pronouncing 

words when reading aloud and understanding 

what one reads. Often these difficulties are 

first noticed at school. When someone who 

previously could read loses their ability, it is 

known as alexia. The difficulties are 

involuntary and people with this disorder have a 

normal desire to learn. 

Dyslexia is believed to be caused by both genetic and 

environmental factors. Some cases run in families. It often occurs 

in 

people with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and is 

associated with similar difficulties with numbers. It may begin in adulthood 

as the result of a traumatic brain injury, stroke, or dementia. The underlying 

mechanisms of dyslexia are problems within the brain's language processing. Dyslexia 

is diagnosed through a series of tests of memory, spelling, vision, and reading skills. 

Dyslexia is separate from reading difficulties caused by hearing or vision problems or by 

insufficient teaching. 

Treatment involves adjusting teaching methods to meet the person's needs. While not 

curing the underlying problem, it may decrease the degree of symptoms. Treatments 

targeting vision are not effective. Dyslexia is the most common learning disability and 

occurs in all areas of the world. It affects 3–7% of the population, however, up to 20% 

may have some degree of symptoms. While dyslexia is more often diagnosed in men, it 

has been suggested that it affects men and women equally. Some believe that dyslexia 

should be best considered as a different way of learning, with both benefits and 

downsides. 

Classification 

Dyslexia is thought to have two types of cause, one related to language processing and 

another to visual processing. It is considered a cognitive disorder, not a problem with 

intelligence. However, emotional problems often arise because of it. Some published 

definitions are purely descriptive, whereas others propose causes. The latter usually 

cover a variety of reading skills and deficits, and difficulties with distinct causes rather 

than a single condition. The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke 

definition describes dyslexia as "difficulty with phonological processing (the 

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manipulation of sounds), spelling, and/or rapid visual-verbal responding". The British 

Dyslexia Association definition describes dyslexia as "a learning difficulty that primarily 

affects the skills involved in accurate and fluent word reading and spelling" and is 

characterized by "difficulties in phonological awareness, verbal memory and verbal 

processing speed". 

Acquired dyslexia or alexia may be caused by brain damage due to stroke or 

atrophy. [18][19] Forms of alexia include pure alexia, surface dyslexia, semantic dyslexia, 

phonological dyslexia, and deep dyslexia. 

Definition 

There is some variability in the definition of dyslexia. Some sources, such as the U.S. 

National Institutes of Health, define it specifically as a learning disorder. Other sources, 

however, define it simply as an inability to read in the context of normal intelligence, and 

distinguish between developmental dyslexia (a learning disorder) and acquired dyslexia 

(loss of the ability to read caused by brain damage). ICD 10, the manual of medical 

diagnosis used in much of the world, includes separate diagnoses for "developmental 

dyslexia" (81.0) and for "dyslexia and alexia" (48.0). DSM 5, the manual of psychiatric 

diagnosis used in the United States, does not specifically define dyslexia, justifying this 

decision by stating that "the many definitions of dyslexia and dyscalculia meant those 

terms would not be useful as disorder names or in the diagnostic criteria". Instead it 

includes dyslexia in a category called specific learning disorders. 

Signs and Symptoms 

In early childhood, symptoms that correlate with a later diagnosis of dyslexia include 

delayed onset of speech and a lack of phonological awareness, as well as being easily 

distracted by background noise. A common myth closely associates dyslexia with mirror 

writing and reading letters or words backwards. These behaviors are seen in many 

children as they learn to read and write, and are not considered to be defining 

characteristics of dyslexia. 

School-age children with dyslexia may exhibit signs of difficulty in identifying or 

generating rhyming words, or counting the number of syllables in words – both of which 

depend on phonological awareness. They may also show difficulty in segmenting words 

into individual sounds or may blend sounds when producing words, indicating reduced 

phonemic awareness. Difficulties with word retrieval or naming things is also associated 

with dyslexia. :647 People with dyslexia are commonly poor spellers, a feature sometimes 

called dysorthographia or dysgraphia, which depends on orthographic coding. 

Problems persist into adolescence and adulthood and may accompany difficulties with 

summarizing stories, memorization, reading aloud, or learning foreign languages. Adults 

with dyslexia can often read with good comprehension, though they tend to read more 

slowly than others without a learning difficulty and perform worse in spelling tests or 

when reading nonsense words – a measure of phonological awareness. 

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Language 

The orthographic complexity of a language directly impacts how difficult learning to read 

the language is. English and French have comparatively "deep" phonemic 

orthographies within the Latin alphabet writing system, with complex structures 

employing spelling patterns on several levels: letter-sound correspondence, syllables, 

and morphemes. Languages such as Spanish, Italian and Finnish have mostly 

alphabetic orthographies, which primarily employ letter-sound correspondence – socalled 

shallow orthographies – which for dyslexics makes them easier to learn. 

Logographic writing systems, such as Chinese characters, have extensive symbol use, 

and pose problems for dyslexic learners. 

Associated Conditions 

Dyslexia is often 

accompanied by several 

learning disabilities, but it is 

unclear whether they share 

underlying neurological 

causes. These associated 

disabilities include: 

Dysgraphia – A 

disorder which 

primarily expresses 

itself through 

difficulties with writing 

or typing, but in some 

cases through 

difficulties associated with eye–hand coordination and direction or sequenceoriented 

processes such as tying knots or carrying out repetitive tasks. In 

dyslexia, dysgraphia is often multifactorial, due to impaired letter-writing 

automaticity, organizational and elaborative difficulties, and impaired visual word 

forming which makes it more difficult to retrieve the visual picture of words 

required for spelling. 

 

 

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) – A disorder characterized by 

problems paying attention, excessive activity, or taking action without 

forethought. Dyslexia and ADHD commonly occur together. Either 15% or 12– 

24% of people with dyslexia have ADHD. 35% of people with ADHD have 

dyslexia. 

Auditory processing disorder – A listening disability that affects the ability to 

process auditory information. This can lead to problems with auditory memory 

and auditory sequencing. Many people with dyslexia have auditory processing 

problems, and may develop their own logographic cues to compensate for this 

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type of deficit. Some research indicates that auditory processing skills could be 

the primary shortfall in dyslexia. 

 

Developmental coordination disorder – A neurological condition characterized by 

marked difficulty in carrying out routine tasks involving balance, fine-motor 

control, kinesthetic coordination, difficulty in the use of speech sounds, problems 

with short-term memory, and organization. 

Causes 

Researchers have been trying to find the neurobiological basis of dyslexia since the 

condition was first identified in 1881. For example, some have tried to associate the 

common problem among dyslexics of not being able to see letters clearly to abnormal 

development of their visual nerve cells. 

Neuroanatomy 

Modern neuroimaging techniques such as functional magnetic resonance imaging 

(fMRI) and positron emission tomography (PET) have shown a correlation between both 

functional and structural differences in the brains of children with reading difficulties. 

Some dyslexics show less electrical activation in parts of the left hemisphere of the 

brain involved with reading, such as the inferior frontal gyrus, inferior parietal lobule, and 

the middle and ventral temporal cortex. Over the past decade, brain activation studies 

using PET to study language have produced a breakthrough in the understanding of the 

neural basis of language. Neural bases for the visual lexicon and for auditory verbal 

short-term memory components have been proposed, with some implication that the 

observed neural manifestation of developmental dyslexia is task-specific (i.e. functional 

rather than structural). fMRIs in dyslexics have provided important data which point to 

the interactive role of the cerebellum and cerebral cortex as well as other brain 

structures. 

The cerebellar theory of dyslexia proposes that impairment of cerebellum-controlled 

muscle movement affects the formation of words by the tongue and facial muscles, 

resulting in the fluency problems that are characteristic of some dyslexics. The 

cerebellum is also involved in the automatization of some tasks, such as reading. The 

fact that some dyslexic children have motor task and balance impairments has been 

used as evidence for a cerebellar role in their reading difficulties. However, the 

cerebellar theory is not supported by controlled research studies. 

Genetics 

Research into potential genetic causes of dyslexia has its roots in post-autopsy 

examination of the brains of people with dyslexia. Observed anatomical differences in 

the language centers of such brains include microscopic cortical malformations known 

as ectopias, more rarely, vascular micro-malformations, and microgyrus. The previously 

cited studies and others suggest that abnormal cortical development presumed to occur 

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efore or during the sixth month of fetal brain development was the cause of the 

abnormalities. Abnormal cell formations in dyslexics have also been reported in nonlanguage 

cerebral and subcortical brain structures. Several genes have been 

associated with dyslexia, including DCDC2 and KIAA0319 on chromosome 6, and 

DYX1C1 on chromosome 15. 

Gene–Environment Interaction 

The contribution of gene–environment interaction to reading disability has been 

intensely studied using twin studies, which estimate the proportion of variance 

associated with a person's environment and the proportion associated with their genes. 

Studies examining the influence of environmental factors such as parental education 

and teacher quality have determined that genetics have greater influence in supportive, 

rather than less optimal, environments. However, more optimal conditions may just 

allow those genetic risk factors to account for more of the variance in outcome because 

the environmental risk factors have been minimized. 

As environment plays a large role in learning and memory, it is likely that epigenetic 

modifications play an important role in reading ability. Animal experiments and 

measures of gene expression and methylation in the human periphery are used to study 

epigenetic processes; however, both types of study have many limitations in the 

extrapolation of results for application to the human brain. 

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Mechanisms 

The dual-route theory of reading aloud was first described in the early 1970s. This 

theory suggests that two separate mental mechanisms, or cognitive routes, are involved 

in reading aloud. One mechanism is the lexical route, which is the process whereby 

skilled readers can recognize known words by sight alone, through a "dictionary" lookup 

procedure. The other mechanism is the nonlexical or sublexical route, which is the 

process whereby the reader can "sound out" a written word. This is done by identifying 

the word's constituent parts (letters, phonemes, graphemes) and applying knowledge of 

how these parts are associated with each other, for example, how a string of 

neighboring letters sound together. The dual-route system could explain the different 

rates of dyslexia occurrence between different languages (e.g. the Spanish language 

dependence on phonological rules accounts for the fact that Spanish-speaking children 

show a higher level of performance in non-word reading, when compared to Englishspeakers). 

Dyslexia disorder is not caused by mutation in one gene; in fact, it appears to involve 

the combined effects of several genes. Studying the cognitive problems associated with 

other disorders helps to better understand the genotype-phenotype link of dyslexia. 

Neurophysiological and imaging procedures are being used to ascertain phenotypic 

characteristics in dyslexics, thus identifying the effects of certain genes. 

Diagnosis 

There are tests that can indicate with high probability whether a person is a dyslexic. If 

diagnostic testing indicates that a person may be dyslexic, such tests are often followed 

up with a full diagnostic assessment to determine the extent and nature of the disorder. 

Tests can be administered by a teacher or computer. Some test results indicate how to 

carry out teaching strategies. 

Central Dyslexias 

Central dyslexias include surface dyslexia, semantic dyslexia, phonological dyslexia, 

and deep dyslexia. ICD-10 reclassified the previous distinction between dyslexia 

(315.02 in ICD-9) and alexia (315.01 in ICD-9) into a single classification as R48.0. The 

terms are applied to developmental dyslexia and inherited dyslexia along with 

developmental aphasia and inherited alexia, which are considered synonymous. 

Surface Dyslexia 

In surface dyslexia, words with regular pronunciations (highly consistent with their 

spelling, e.g. mint) are read more accurately than words with irregular pronunciation, 

such as colonel. Difficulty distinguishing homophones is a diagnostic used for some 

forms of surface dyslexia. This disorder is usually accompanied by surface agraphia 

and fluent aphasia. Acquired surface dyslexia arises when a previously literate person 

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experiences brain damage, which results in pronunciation errors that indicate 

impairment of the lexical route. 

Phonological Dyslexia 

In phonological dyslexia, sufferers can read familiar words but have difficulty with 

unfamiliar words, such as invented pseudo-words. Phonological dyslexia is associated 

with lesions in the parts of the brain supplied with blood by the middle cerebral artery. 

The superior temporal lobe is often also involved. Furthermore, dyslexics compensate 

by overusing a front-brain region called Broca's area, which is associated with aspects 

of language and speech. The Lindamood Phoneme Sequencing Program (LiPS) is used 

to treat phonological dyslexia. This system is based on a three-way sensory feedback 

process, using auditory, visual, and oral skills to learn to recognize words and word 

patterns. Case studies with a total of three patients found a significant improvement in 

spelling and reading ability after using LiPS. 

Deep Dyslexia 

Individuals with deep dyslexia experience both semantic paralexia (para-dyslexia) and 

phonological dyslexia, which causes the person to read a word and then say a related 

meaning instead of the denoted meaning. Deep alexia is associated with clear 

phonological processing impairments. Deep dyslexia is caused by widespread damage 

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to the brain that often includes the left hemisphere. The "continuum" hypothesis claims 

that deep dyslexia develops from phonological dyslexia. 

Peripheral Dyslexias 

Peripheral dyslexias have been described as affecting the visual analysis of letters as a 

result of brain injury. Hemianopsia, a visual field loss on the left/right side of the vertical 

midline, is associated with this condition. 

Pure Dyslexia 

Pure, or phonologically-based, dyslexia, also known as agnosic dyslexia, dyslexia 

without agraphia, and pure word blindness, is dyslexia due to difficulty in recognizing 

written sequences of letters (such as words), or sometimes even letters. It is considered 

'"pure" because it is not accompanied by other significant language-related 

impairments. Pure dyslexia does not affect speech, handwriting style, language or 

comprehension impairments. Pure dyslexia is caused by lesions on the visual word form 

area (VWFA). The VWFA is composed of the left lateral occipital sulcus and is activated 

during reading. A lesion in the VWFA stops transmission between the visual cortex and 

the left angular gyrus. It can also be caused by a lesion involving the left occipital lobe 

or the splenium. It is usually accompanied by a homonymous hemianopsia in the right 

side of the visual field. Multiple oral re-reading (MOR) is a treatment for pure dyslexia. It 

is considered a top-down processing technique in which affected individuals read and 

reread texts a predetermined number of times or until reading speed or accuracy 

improves a predetermined amount. 

Hemianopic Dyslexia 

Hemianopic dyslexia is commonly considered to derive from visual field loss due to 

damage to the primary visual cortex. Sufferers may complain of abnormally slow 

reading but are able to read individual words normally. This is the most common form of 

peripheral alexia, and the form with the best evidence of effective treatments. 

Neglect Dyslexia 

In neglect dyslexia, some letters, most commonly those at the beginning or left side of a 

word, are skipped or misread during reading. This alexia is associated with right parietal 

lesions. The use of prism glasses has been shown to substantially mitigate this 

condition. 

Attentional Dyslexia 

People with attentional dyslexia complain of letter-crowding or migration, sometimes 

blending elements of two words into one. Sufferers read better when words are 

presented in isolation rather than flanked by other words and letters. Using a large 

magnifying glass may help mitigate this condition by reducing the effects of flanking 

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from nearby words; however, no trials of this or indeed any other therapy for left parietal 

syndromes have been published as of 2014. 

Management 

Through the use of compensation strategies, therapy and educational support, dyslexic 

individuals can learn to read and write. There are techniques and technical aids which 

help to manage or conceal symptoms of the disorder. Removing stress and anxiety 

alone can sometimes improve written comprehension. For dyslexia intervention with 

alphabet-writing systems, the fundamental aim is to increase a child's awareness of 

correspondences between graphemes (letters) and phonemes (sounds), and to relate 

these to reading and spelling by teaching how sounds blend into words. It has been 

found that reinforced collateral training focused on reading and spelling yields longerlasting 

gains than oral phonological training alone. Early intervention that is done for 

children at a young age can be successful in reducing reading failure. 

There is some evidence that the use of specially-tailored fonts may help with dyslexia. 

These fonts, which include Dyslexie, OpenDyslexic, and Lexia Readable, were created 

based on the idea that many of the letters of the Latin alphabet are visually similar and 

may, therefore, confuse people with dyslexia. Dyslexie and OpenDyslexic both put 

emphasis on making each letter more distinctive in order to be more easily identified. 

The benefits, however, might simply be due to the added spacing between words. 

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There have been many studies conducted regarding intervention in dyslexia. Among 

these studies one meta-analysis found that there was functional activation as a result. 

There is no evidence demonstrating that the use of music education is effective in 

improving dyslexic adolescents' reading skills. 

Prognosis 

Dyslexic children require special instruction for word analysis and spelling from an early 

age. While there are fonts that may help people with dyslexia better understand writing, 

this might simply be due to the added spacing between words. The prognosis, generally 

speaking, is positive for individuals who are identified in childhood and receive support 

from friends and family. 

Epidemiology 

The percentage of people with dyslexia is unknown, but it has been estimated to be as 

low as 5% and as high as 17% of the population. While it is diagnosed more often in 

males, some believe that it affects males and females equally. 

There are different definitions of dyslexia used throughout the world, but despite 

significant differences in writing systems, dyslexia occurs in different populations. 

Dyslexia is not limited to difficulty in converting letters to sounds, and Chinese dyslexics 

may have difficulty converting Chinese characters into their meanings. The Chinese 

vocabulary uses logographic, monographic, non-alphabet writing where one character 

can represent an individual phoneme. 

The phonological-processing hypothesis attempts to explain why dyslexia occurs in a 

wide variety of languages. Furthermore, the relationship between phonological capacity 

and reading appears to be influenced by orthography. 

History 

Dyslexia was identified by Oswald Berkhan in 1881, but the term dyslexia was coined in 

1887 by Rudolf Berlin, an ophthalmologist in Stuttgart. He used the term to refer to the 

case of a young boy who had a severe impairment in learning to read and write, despite 

showing typical intelligence and physical abilities in all other respects. In 1896, W. 

Pringle Morgan, a British physician from Seaford, East Sussex, published a description 

of a reading-specific learning disorder in a report to the British Medical Journal titled 

"Congenital Word Blindness". 

The distinction between phonological and surface types of dyslexia is only descriptive, 

and without any etiological assumption as to the underlying brain mechanisms. 

However, studies have alluded to potential differences due to variation in performance. 

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Research and Society 

The majority of currently available dyslexia research relates to alphabetic writing 

systems, and especially to European languages. However, substantial research is also 

available regarding dyslexics who speak Arabic, Chinese, Hebrew, or other languages. 

As is the case with any disorder, society often makes an assessment based on 

incomplete information. Before the 1980s, dyslexia was thought to be a consequence of 

education, rather than a basic disability. As a result, society often misjudges those with 

the disorder. There is also sometimes a workplace stigma and negative attitude towards 

those with dyslexia. If a dyslexic's instructors lack the necessary training to support a 

child with the condition, there is often a negative effect on the student's learning 

participation. 

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II. The Reading Process 

Reading is a complex "cognitive process" of decoding symbols in order to construct 

or derive meaning (reading comprehension). Reading is a means of language 

acquisition, communication, and of sharing information and ideas. Like all languages, it 

is a complex interaction between the text and the reader which is shaped by the 

reader’s prior knowledge, experiences, attitude, and language community which is 

culturally and socially situated. The reading process requires continuous practice, 

development, and refinement. In addition, reading requires creativity and critical 

analysis. Consumers of literature make ventures with each piece, innately deviating 

from literal words to create images that make sense to them in the unfamiliar places the 

texts describe. Because reading is such a complex process, it cannot be controlled or 

restricted to one or two interpretations. There are no concrete laws in reading, but rather 

allows readers an escape to produce their own products introspectively. This promotes 

deep exploration of texts during interpretation. [1] Readers use a variety of reading 

strategies to assist with decoding (to translate symbols into sounds or visual 

representations of speech) and comprehension. Readers may use context clues to 

identify the meaning of unknown words. Readers integrate the words they have read 

into their existing framework of knowledge or schema (schemata theory). 

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Other types of reading are not speech based writing systems, such as music notation or 

pictograms. The common link is the interpretation of symbols to extract the meaning 

from the visual notations or tactile signals (as in the case of Braille). 

Overview 

Currently most reading is either of the printed word from ink or toner on paper, such as 

in a book, magazine, newspaper, leaflet, or notebook, or of electronic displays, such as 

computer displays, television, mobile phones or e-readers. Handwritten text may also 

be produced using a graphite pencil or a pen. Short texts may be written or painted on 

an object. 

Often the text relates to the object, such as an address on an envelope, product info on 

packaging, or text on a traffic or street sign. A slogan may be painted on a wall. A text 

may also be produced by arranging stones of a different color in a wall or road. Short 

texts like these are sometimes referred to as environmental print. 

Sometimes text or images are in relief, with or without using a color contrast. Words or 

images can be carved in stone, wood, or metal; instructions can be printed in relief on 

the plastic housing of a home appliance, or myriad other examples. 

A requirement for reading is a good contrast between letters and background 

(depending on colors of letters and background, any pattern or image in the 

background, and lighting) and a suitable font size. In the case of a computer screen, it is 

important to be able to see an entire line of text without scrolling. 

The field of visual word recognition studies how people read individual words. [2][3][4] A 

key technique in studying how individuals read text is eye tracking. This has revealed 

that reading is performed as a series of eye fixations with saccades between them. 

Humans also do not appear to fixate on every word in a text, but instead pause on some 

words mentally while their eyes are moving. This is possible because human languages 

show certain linguistic regularities. 

The process of recording information to be read later is writing. In the case of computer 

and microfiche storage there is the separate step of displaying the written text. For 

humans, reading is usually faster and easier than writing. 

Reading is typically an individual activity, although on occasion a person will read out 

loud for the benefit of other listeners. Reading aloud for one's own use, for better 

comprehension, is a form of intrapersonal communication: in the early 1970s has been 

proposed the dual-route hypothesis to reading aloud, accordingly to which there were 

two separate mental mechanisms, or cognitive routes, that are involved in this case, 

with output of both mechanisms contributing to the pronunciation of a written stimulus. 

Reading to young children is a recommended way to instill language and expression, 

and to promote comprehension of text. Personalised books for children are 

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ecommended to improve engagement in reading by featuring the child themselves in 

the story. 

Before the reintroduction of separated text in the late Middle Ages, the ability to read 

silently was considered rather remarkable. 

Reading Skills 

Literacy is the ability to use the symbols of a writing system. It is the ability to interpret 

what the information symbols represent, and to be able to re-create those same 

symbols so that others can derive the same meaning. Illiteracy is the inability to derive 

meaning from the symbols used in a writing system. Dyslexia refers to a cognitive 

difficulty with reading and writing. It is defined as brain-based type of learning disability 

that specifically impairs a person's ability to read. 

The term dyslexia can refer to two disorders: developmental dyslexia which is a learning 

disability; alexia (acquired dyslexia) refers to reading difficulties that occur following 

brain damage, stroke, or progressive illness. 

Major predictors of an individual's ability to read both alphabetic and nonalphabetic 

scripts are phonological awareness, rapid automatized naming and verbal IQ. Being 

taught to read at an early age (such as five years old) does not ultimately result in better 

reading skills, and if it replaces more developmentally appropriate activities, then it may 

cause other harms. 

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Reading Rate 

Reading speed requires a long time to reach adult levels. The table to the right shows 

how reading-rate varies with age, regardless of the period (1965 to 2005) and the 

language (English, French, German). The Taylor values probably are higher, for 

disregarding students who failed the comprehension test. The reading test by the 

French psychologist Pierre Lefavrais ("L'alouette", published in 1967) tested reading 

aloud, with a penalty for errors, and could, therefore, not be a rate greater than 150 

wpm. According to Carver (1990), children's reading speed increases throughout the 

school years. On average, from grade 2 to college, reading rate increases 14 standardlength 

words per minute each year (where one standard-length word is defined as six 

characters in text, including punctuation and spaces). Note that the data from Taylor 

(English) and Landerl (German) are based on texts of increasing difficulty; other data 

were obtained when all age groups were reading the same text. 

Rates of reading include reading for memorization (fewer than 100 words per minute 

[wpm]); reading for learning (100–200 wpm); reading for comprehension (200–400 

wpm); and skimming (400–700 wpm). Reading for comprehension is the essence of the 

daily reading of most people. Skimming is for superficially processing large quantities of 

text at a low level of comprehension (below 50%). 

Advice for choosing the appropriate reading-rate includes reading flexibly, slowing when 

concepts are closely presented and when the material is new, and increasing when the 

material is familiar and of thin concept. Speed reading courses and books often 

encourage the reader to continually accelerate; comprehension tests lead the reader to 

believe his or her comprehension is continually improving; yet, competence-in-reading 

requires knowing that skimming is dangerous, as a default habit. 

Scientific studies have demonstrated that reading—defined here as capturing and 

decoding all the words on every page—faster than 900 wpm is not feasible given the 

limits set by the anatomy of the eye. 

Reading speed has been used as a measure in research to determine the effect of 

interventions on human vision. A Cochrane Systematic Review used reading speed in 

words per minute as the primary outcome in comparing different reading aids for adults 

with low vision. 

Skill Development 

Both lexical and sub-lexical cognitive processes contribute to how we learn to read. 

Sub-lexical reading, involves teaching reading by associating characters or groups of 

characters with sounds or by using phonics or synthetic phonics learning and teaching 

methodology, sometimes argued to be in competition with whole language methods. 

Lexical reading involves acquiring words or phrases without attention to the characters 

or groups of characters that compose them or by using whole language learning and 

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teaching methodology. Sometimes argued to be in competition with phonics and 

synthetic phonics methods, and that the whole language approach tends to impair 

learning how to spell. 

Other methods of teaching and learning to read have developed, and become 

somewhat controversial. 

Learning to read in a second language, especially in adulthood, may be a different 

process than learning to read a native language in childhood. There are cases of very 

young children learning to read without having been taught. Such was the case with 

Truman Capote who reportedly taught himself to read and write at the age of five. There 

are also accounts of people who taught themselves to read by comparing street signs or 

Biblical passages to speech. The novelist Nicholas Delbanco taught himself to read at 

age six during a transatlantic crossing by studying a book about boats. 

Brain activity in young and older children can be used to predict future reading skill. 

Cross model mapping between the orthographic and phonologic areas in the brain are 

critical in reading. Thus, the amount of activation in the left dorsal inferior frontal gyrus 

while performing reading tasks can be used to predict later reading ability and 

advancement. Young children with higher phonological word characteristic processing 

have significantly better reading skills later on than older children who focus on wholeword 

orthographic representation. 

Methods of Reading 

Reading is an intensive process in which the eye quickly moves to assimilate text. Very 

little is actually seen accurately. It is necessary to understand visual perception and eye 

movement in order to understand the reading process. 

There are several types and methods of reading, with differing rates that can be 

attained for each, for different kinds of material and purposes: 

 

Subvocalized reading combines sight reading with internal sounding of the words 

as if spoken. Advocates of speed reading claim it can be a bad habit that slows 

reading and comprehension, but other studies indicate the reverse, particularly 

with difficult texts. 

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Speed reading is a collection of methods for increasing reading speed without an 

unacceptable reduction in comprehension or retention. Methods include 

skimming or the chunking of words in a body of text to increase the rate of 

reading. It is closely connected to speed learning. 

Incremental reading is a software-assisted reading method designed for longterm 

memorization. "Incremental reading" means "reading in portions": in each 

session, parts of several electronic articles are read inside a prioritized reading 

list. In the course of reading, important pieces of information are extracted and 

converted into flashcards which are then scheduled for review by a spaced 

repetition algorithm. 

Proofreading is a kind of reading for the purpose of detecting typographical 

errors. One can learn to do it rapidly, and professional proofreaders typically 

acquire the ability to do so at high rates, faster for some kinds of material than for 

others, while they may largely suspend comprehension while doing so, except 

when needed to select among several possible words that a suspected 

typographic error allows. 

Rereading is reading a book more than once. "One cannot read a book: one can 

only reread it," Vladimir Nabokov once said. A paper published in the Journal of 

Consumer Research (Cristel Antonia (2012)) found re-reading offers mental 

health benefits because it allows for a more profound emotional connection and 

self-reflection, versus the first reading which is more focused on the events and 

plot. 

Structure-proposition-evaluation (SPE) method, popularized by Mortimer Adler in 

How to Read a Book, mainly for non-fiction treatise, in which one reads a writing 

in three passes: (1) for the structure of the work, which might be represented by 

an outline; (2) for the logical propositions made, organized into chains of 

inference; and (3) for evaluation of the merits of the arguments and conclusions. 

This method involves suspended judgment of the work or its arguments until they 

are fully understood. 

Survey-question-read-recite-review (SQ3R) method, often taught in public 

schools, which involves reading toward being able to teach what is read, and 

would be appropriate for instructors preparing to teach material without having to 

refer to notes during the lecture. 

Multiple intelligences-based methods, which draw upon the reader's diverse 

ways of thinking and knowing to enrich his or her appreciation of the text. 

Reading is fundamentally a linguistic activity: one can basically comprehend a 

text without resorting to other intelligences, such as the visual (e.g., mentally 

"seeing" characters or events described), auditory (e.g., reading aloud or 

mentally "hearing" sounds described), or even the logical intelligence (e.g., 

considering "what if" scenarios or predicting how the text will unfold based on 

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context clues). However, most readers already use several intelligences while 

reading, and making a habit of doing so in a more disciplined manner—i.e., 

constantly, or after every paragraph—can result in more vivid, memorable 

experience. 

 

Rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) reading involves presenting the words in 

a sentence one word at a time at the same location on the display screen, at a 

specified eccentricity. RSVP eliminates inter-word saccades, limits intra-word 

saccades, and prevents reader control of fixation times (Legge, Mansfield, & 

Chung, 2001). RSVP controls for differences in reader eye movement, and 

consequently is often used to measure reading speed in experiments. 

Assessment 

Types of Tests 

 

Sight word reading: reading words of increasing difficulty until they become 

unable to read or understand the words presented to them. Difficulty is 

manipulated by using words that have more letters or syllables, are less common 

and have more complicated spelling–sound relationships. 

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Nonword reading: reading lists of pronounceable nonsense words out loud. The 

difficulty is increased by using longer words, and also by using words with more 

complex spelling or sound sequences. 

Reading comprehension: a passage is presented to the reader, which they must 

read either silently or out loud. Then a series of questions are presented that test 

the reader's comprehension of this passage. 

Reading fluency: the rate with which individuals can name words. 

Reading accuracy: the ability to correctly name a word on a page. 

Some tests incorporate several of the above components at once. For instance, the 

Nelson-Denny Reading Test scores readers both on the speed with which they can read 

a passage, and also their ability to accurately answer questions about this passage. 

Recent research has questioned the validity of the Nelson-Denny Reading Test, 

especially with regard to the identification of reading disabilities. 

Cognitive Benefits 

Reading books and writing are among brain-stimulating activities shown to slow down 

cognitive decline in old age, with people who participated in more mentally stimulating 

activities over their lifetimes having a slower rate of decline in memory and other mental 

capacities. Reading for pleasure has been linked to increased cognitive progress in 

vocabulary and mathematics during adolescence. Moreover, the cognitive benefits of 

reading continue into mid-life and old age. 

Effects 

Lighting 

Reading from paper and from some screens requires more lighting than many other 

activities. Therefore, the possibility of doing this comfortably in cafés, restaurants, 

buses, at bus stops or in parks greatly varies depending on available lighting and time 

of day. 

Reading from screens which produce their own light is less dependent on external light, 

except that this may be easier with little external light. For controlling what is on the 

screen (scrolling, turning the page, etc.), a touch screen or keyboard illumination further 

reduces the dependency on external light. 

History 

The history of reading dates back to the invention of writing during the 4th millennium 

BC. Although reading print text is now an important way for the general population to 

access information, this has not always been the case. With some exceptions, only a 

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small percentage of the population in many countries was considered literate before the 

Industrial Revolution. Some of the pre-modern societies with generally high literacy 

rates included classical Athens and the Islamic Caliphate. 

Scholars assume that reading aloud (Latin clare legere) was the more common practice 

in antiquity, and that reading silently (legere tacite or legere sibi) was unusual. In his 

Confessions, Saint Augustine remarks on Saint Ambrose's unusual habit of reading 

silently in the 4th century AD. 

During the Age of Enlightenment, elite individuals promoted passive reading, rather than 

creative interpretation. Reading has no concrete laws, but rather allows readers an 

escape to produce their own products introspectively, promoting deep exploration of 

texts during interpretation. Construction, or the creation of writing and producing a 

product, was believed to be a sign of initiative and active participation in society, while 

consumption or reading, was viewed as simply taking in what constructors made. Also 

during this era, writing was considered superior to reading in society. 

Readers during this time were considered passive citizens, simply because they did not 

produce a product. Michel de Certeau argued that the elites of the Age of Enlightenment 

were responsible for this general belief. Michel de Certeau believed that reading 

required venturing into an author's land, but taking away what the reader wanted 

specifically. Writing was viewed as a superior art to reading during this period, due to 

the hierarchical constraints the era initiated. 

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In 18th-century Europe, the then new practice of reading alone in bed was for some 

time considered dangerous and immoral. As reading became less of a communal, oral 

practice and more of a private, silent one, and as sleeping likewise more often took 

place in individual bedrooms rather than in communal sleeping areas, concerns were 

raised that reading in bed could give rise to various dangers, such as fires caused by 

bedside candles. Modern critics have argued, however, that these concerns were based 

on the fear that readers – especially women – could escape their familial and communal 

obligations and transgress moral boundaries by losing themselves in the private fantasy 

worlds that books made available. 

Gallery 

Miss Auras, by John Lavery, 

depicts a woman reading a book 

Youth reading, Persian miniature 

by Reza Abbasi (1625-6) 

Girl Reading (1889), by Fritz von Uhde. 

Oil paint on canvas 

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Reader, a painting by Honoré Daumier. 

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Page 38 of 100

III. Neurodiversity 

Neurodiversity is an approach to learning and disability that argues diverse 

neurological conditions are result of normal variations in the human genome. [1] This 

portmanteau of neurological and diversity originated in the late 1990s as a challenge to 

prevailing views of neurological diversity as inherently pathological, instead asserting 

that neurological differences should be recognized and respected as a social category 

on a par with gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or disability status. 

There is a neurodiversity movement, which is an international civil rights movement that 

has the autism rights 

movement as its most 

influential 

submovement. 

Sharing the Disability 

Rights 

slogan, 

"Nothing About Us 

Without Us", the movement 

promotes self- advocacy of its 

members. Neurodiversity advocates promote support 

systems (such as inclusion-focused services, accommodations, communication and 

assistive technologies, occupational training, and independent living support) that allow 

those who are "non-neurotypical" to live their lives as they are, rather than being 

coerced or forced to adopt uncritically accepted ideas of normality, or to conform to a 

clinical ideal. Challenging pervasive social norms and stigmas, it frames autism, 

ADHD/ADD, dyslexia, and other neurotypes as a natural human variation rather than a 

pathology or disorder, and rejects the idea that neurological differences need to be (or 

can be) cured, as they believe them to be authentic forms of human diversity, selfexpression, 

and being. 

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Terminology 

According to the 2011 National Symposium on Neurodiversity held at Syracuse 

University, neurodiversity is: 

... a concept where neurological differences are to be recognized and respected as any 

other human variation. These differences can include those labeled with Dyspraxia, 

Dyslexia, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Dyscalculia, Autistic Spectrum, 

Tourette Syndrome, and others. 

According to Pier Jaarsma in 2011, neurodiversity is a "controversial concept" that 

"regards atypical neurological development as a normal human difference". 

Nick Walker argued in 2012 that there is no such thing as a "neurodiverse individual", 

because the concept of neurodiversity encompasses all people of every neurological 

status, and that all people are neurodiverse. Walker instead proposes the term 

neurominority as "a good, non-pathologizing word for referring to all people who aren't 

neurotypical." He says that people with other neurological styles are "marginalized and 

poorly accommodated by the dominant culture". Walker proposes making a distinction 

between neurodiversity as an overarching concept, and the neurodiversity paradigm, or 

"the understanding of neurodiversity as a natural form of human diversity subject to the 

same societal dynamics as other forms of diversity", which is contrasted to the 

pathology paradigm of representing neurominorities as problematic and pathological 

solely due to their deviance from the neurotypical majority. 

Autism Rights Movement 

The autism rights movement (ARM) is a social movement within the neurodiversity 

movement that encourages autistic people, their caregivers and society to adopt a 

position of neurodiversity, accepting autism as a variation in functioning rather than a 

mental disorder to be cured. The ARM advocates a variety of goals including a greater 

acceptance of autistic behaviors; therapies that teach autistic individuals coping skills 

rather than therapies focused on imitating behaviors of neurotypical peers; the creation 

of social networks and events that allow autistic people to socialize on their own terms; 

and the recognition of the Autistic community as a minority group. 

Autism rights or neurodiversity advocates believe that the autism spectrum is genetic 

and should be accepted as a natural expression of the human genome. This 

perspective is distinct from two other likewise distinct views: the mainstream perspective 

that autism is caused by a genetic defect and should be addressed by targeting the 

genes that cause autism; and the perspective that autism is caused by environmental 

factors and could be cured by addressing environmental causes. 

Many autistic supporters of autism rights describe themselves through words that 

emphasize the condition as an intrinsic part of their identity, such as "autistic", or "aspie" 

for those with Asperger syndrome. This contrasts to a general recommendation by US 

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disability advocacy organizations for the use of person-first language when referring to a 

person with a medical or mental condition or disability, which emphasizes the person 

with the condition, who has, rather than is defined by it. There are accepted general 

arguments for the use of 'disabled person' similarly based on the social model of 

disability that are recognised in the UK and elsewhere. 

Acceptance Perspective 

Members of the various autism rights organizations view autism as a way of life rather 

than as a disease and thus advocate acceptance over a search for a cure. Some 

advocates believe that common therapies for the behavioral and language differences 

associated with autism, like applied behavior analysis, are not only misguided but also 

unethical. 

The "acceptance perspective" endorsed by the movement is a view that autism is not a 

disorder, but a normal occurrence—an alternate variation in brain wiring or a less 

common expression of the human genome. Advocates of this perspective believe that 

autism is a unique way of being that should be validated, supported and appreciated 

rather than shunned, discriminated against or eliminated. They believe quirks and 

uniqueness of autistic individuals should be tolerated as the differences of any minority 

group should be tolerated and that efforts to eliminate autism should not be compared, 

for example, to curing cancer but instead to the antiquated notion of curing lefthandedness. 

The ARM is a part of the larger disability rights movement, and as such 

acknowledges the social model of disability. Within the model, struggles faced by 

autistic people are viewed as discrimination rather than deficiencies. 

Advocacy 

According to Andrew Fenton and Tim Krahn, proponents of neurodiversity strive to 

reconceptualize autism and related conditions in society by the following measures: 

acknowledging that neurodiversity does not require a cure; changing the language from 

the current "condition, disease, disorder, or illness"-based nomenclature and 

"broaden[ing] the understanding of healthy or independent living"; acknowledging new 

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types of autonomy; and giving non-neurotypical individuals more control over their 

treatment, including the type, timing, and whether there should be treatment at all. 

A 2009 study by Edward Griffin and David Pollak separated 27 students (with autism, 

dyslexia, developmental coordination disorder, ADHD, and stroke), into two categories 

of self-view: "a 'difference' view—where neurodiversity was seen as a difference 

incorporating a set of strengths and weaknesses, or a 'medical/deficit' view—where 

neurodiversity was seen as a disadvantageous medical condition". They found that 

although all of the students reported uniformly difficult schooling careers involving 

exclusion, abuse, and bullying, those who viewed themselves from a difference view 

(41% of the study cohort) "indicated higher academic self-esteem and confidence in 

their abilities and many (73%) expressed considerable career ambitions with positive 

and clear goals". Many of these students reported gaining this view of themselves 

through contact with neurodiversity advocates in online support groups. 

A 2013 online survey said this: "Such a deficit-as-difference conception of autism 

suggests the importance of harnessing autistic traits in developmentally beneficial ways, 

transcending a false dichotomy between celebrating differences and ameliorating 

deficit". In 2013, German computer software giant SAP, seeking innovation that "comes 

from the edges", launched a recruitment drive for software testers specifically seeking 

autistic people. Freddie Mac, the U.S. home financing firm, aimed its hiring campaign's 

second round of paid internships at autistic students. 

History 

According to Jaarsma and Welin (2011), the "neurodiversity movement was developed 

in the 1990s by online groups of autistic persons. It is now associated with the struggle 

for the civil rights of all those diagnosed with neurological or neurodevelopmental 

disorders." The term neurodiversity also represents a move away from the "motherblaming" 

or refrigerator mother theories of the 20th century. 

The neurodiversity paradigm was initially embraced by individuals on the autism 

spectrum, but subsequent groups have applied the concept to other developmental 

conditions such as ADHD, developmental speech disorders, dyslexia, dyspraxia, 

dyscalculia, dysnomia and intellectual disability; mental health conditions such as 

bipolarity, schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, sociopathy, obsessive–compulsive 

disorder, and Tourette syndrome.; and the medical condition Parkinson's disease. 

The term is attributed to Judy Singer, an Australian social scientist on the autism 

spectrum, and it first appeared in print in an article by journalist Harvey Blume (which 

did not credit Singer) in The Atlantic on September 30, 1998: 

Neurodiversity may be every bit as crucial for the human race as biodiversity is for life in 

general. Who can say what form of wiring will prove best at any given moment? 

Cybernetics and computer culture, for example, may favor a somewhat autistic cast of 

mind. 

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In a New York Times piece on June 30, 1997, Blume did not use the term 

"neurodiversity", but he did describe the foundation of the idea in the phrase 

"neurological pluralism": 

"Yet, in trying to come to terms with an NT [neurotypical]-dominated world, autistics are 

neither willing nor able to give up their own customs. Instead, they are proposing a new 

social compact, one emphasizing neurological pluralism. ... The consensus emerging 

from the Internet forums and Web sites where autistics congregate [...] is that NT is only 

one of many neurological configurations -- the dominant one certainly, but not necessarily 

the best." 

Blume was an early advocate who predicted the role the Internet would play in fostering 

the international neurodiversity movement, writing: 

There is a political dimension to this bond with the Internet. A project called CyberSpace 

2000 is devoted to getting as many people as possible in the autistic spectrum hooked 

up by the year 2000, reason being that "the Internet is an essential means for autistic 

people to improve their lives, because it is often the only way they can communicate 

effectively. ... The challenge we will all be increasingly confronted with, on-line and off, 

is, to look at ourselves differently than we have before, that is, to accept neurological 

diversity. 

Some authors also credit the earlier work of autistic advocate Jim Sinclair, who was a 

principal early organizer of the international online autism community. Sinclair's 1993 

speech, "Don't Mourn For Us", mentioned that some parents considered their child's 

autism diagnosis as "the most traumatic thing that ever happened to them". Sinclair 

(who did not speak until the age of 12) addressed the communal grief parents felt by 

asking them to try to take the perspectives of autistic people themselves: 

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Non-autistic people see autism as a great tragedy, and parents experience continuing 

disappointment and grief at all stages of the child's and family's life cycle. But this grief 

does not stem from the child's autism in itself. It is grief over the loss of the normal child 

the parents had hoped and expected to have ... There's no normal child hidden behind 

the autism. Autism is a way of being. It is pervasive; it colors every experience, every 

sensation, perception, thought, emotion, and encounter, every aspect of existence. It is 

not possible to separate the autism from the person—and if it were possible, the person 

you'd have left would not be the same person you started with. This is important, so 

take a moment to consider it: Autism is a way of being. It is not possible to separate the 

person from the autism. 

Sinclair is also credited with coining the word "neurotypical" in the early 1990s, which 

was originally used to denote people with non-autistic brains, but has morphed in usage 

to denote neurologically typically developing people (or the culture that is built around 

such people). Both Singer and Sinclair created new ways to view and frame people with 

neurological differences – first in regard to the autism spectrum but eventually in regard 

to other conditions as well. 

The term "neurodiversity" has since been applied to other conditions and has taken on a 

more general meaning; for example, the Developmental Adult Neurodiversity 

Association (DANDA) in the UK encompasses developmental coordination disorder, 

ADHD, Asperger's syndrome and related conditions. [36] As advocates continue to frame, 

re-frame, define, and redefine Neurodiversity, it remains that neurodiversity opposes the 

idea that a "normal" brain exists. Instead, authors and educators such as Thomas 

Armstrong, argue neurodiversity had been and continues to be necessary for human 

progress; its historical contexts have shaped and reshaped perceptions of 

neurodiversity and disability. 

Criticism 

The concept of neurodiversity is controversial. Those supporting the medical model of 

disability identify the mental differences associated with these conditions as disorders, 

deficits, and dysfunctions, intrinsic differences in functioning which cause impairments 

in many areas of life. From this point of view, the mental states that are encompassed 

by neurodiversity are medical conditions that can and should be treated. Author David 

Pollak sees neurodiversity as an inclusive term for the equality of all possible mental 

states. Still others reject the word because they think it sounds too medical. 

The concept of neurodiversity as applied to autism is criticized for being skewed 

towards the "high-functioning" individuals of the autistic spectrum or those with milder 

forms of the condition. Those with "low-functioning" autism are often significantly 

impaired in their everyday functioning, and may not be able to function effectively with 

even the extensive use of advanced assistive technologies. Because many of these 

low-functioning individuals are unable to communicate effectively to express their 

opinions and wishes, controversy surrounds the issue of who represents them and what 

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epresents their interests. Sue Rubin, an autistic woman and author who was the 

subject of the documentary Autism is a World, favors a cure for the condition and 

asserts that while those with high-functioning autism tend to support the neurodiversity 

anti-cure position, those who have low functioning autism generally hold the opposite 

opinion. Jaarsma and Welin wrote in 2011 that the "broad version of the neurodiversity 

claim, covering low-functioning as well as high-functioning autism, is problematic. Only 

a narrow conception of neurodiversity, referring exclusively to high-functioning autists, is 

reasonable." They say that "higher functioning" individuals with autism may "not [be] 

benefited with such a psychiatric defect-based diagnosis ... some of them are being 

harmed by it, because of the disrespect the diagnosis displays for their natural way of 

being", but "think that it is still reasonable to include other 

categories of autism in the psychiatric diagnostics. The 

narrow conception of the 

neurodiversity claim should 

be accepted but the broader claim should 

not." 

Criticism has been 

levied against the 

"acceptance" position of 

neurodiversity 

advocates, with it 

being noted that even if the 

biomedical 

therapies that target 

the clinical features 

of, for 

example, autism and 

the 

conditions that may 

co-occur with it, do 

not amount to a complete cure, such 

treatments can still potentially significantly 

improve the everyday functioning and quality of 

life of those with these 

conditions. While such 

treatments require substantial 

investment and development 

and would not be available for 

application in the immediate future, they may provide greater 

benefit in the future and in the long- 

term. For many who view autism as 

a disabling developmental disease, the acceptance perspective of neurodiversity insults 

the suffering of its patients and their families. 

Jonathan Mitchell, an autistic author and blogger who is a vocal opponent of the 

neurodiversity movement and an advocate for research for a cure for autism, criticizes 

neurodiversity for providing "simplistic solutions to hard problems" and trivializing the 

disabling aspects of autism. He considers his condition to have negatively affected his 

life, describing autism as having "prevented me from making a living or ever having a 

girlfriend. It's given me bad fine motor coordination problems where I can hardly write. I 

have an impaired ability to relate to people. I can't concentrate or get things done." He 

describes neurodiversity as a "tempting escape valve" for many of the people who are 

on the autism spectrum, and commenting on the supposition of a general acceptance of 

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neurodiversity by those on the spectrum, says that "most persons with an autismspectrum 

disorder have never expressed their opinions on someone's blog and never 

will" and states that neurodiversity has no solution for low-functioning autistics. He also 

criticizes Temple Grandin for making generalizations about the condition and the 

experiences of those with it, saying that her generalizations trivialize his suffering. 

Mitchell is one of the most controversial voices in the autistic blogosphere, and has 

been highly criticized by many members of the neurodiversity movement. 

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IV. Dyslexia 

in Popular Culture 

This is a list of artistic depictions of dyslexia. 

Films (cinema and television) 

 

1981 American television movie, The Princess and the Cabbie tells the story of a 

wealthy young woman, Joanna (Valerie Bertinelli), who is sheltered by her 

father until a cab driver realizes that she is dyslexic and tries to help her. 

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1984 American ABC Afterschool Special, Backwards: The Riddle of Dyslexia tells 

the story of Brian (River Phoenix) who struggles in school until he is determined 

to be dyslexic. 

1985 American television movie, Love, Mary is based on the true story of Mary 

(Kristy McNichol) who is determined to be dyslexic by a counselor in an 

institution and who eventually becomes a doctor. 

1992 American television movie, The Secret tells the story of Mike (Kirk 

Douglas) who has hidden dyslexia his entire life until he realizes that his 

grandson Jesse faces the same difficulties. 

1997 British film, Shooting Fish: Dylan (Dan Futterman) Is a conman who 

attributes his lifestyle to his unemployable nature which he puts down to his 

dyslexia. 

1999 American television movie, Anya's Bell: Scott (Mason Gamble) 

2001 American film, Pearl Harbor: Captain Rafe McCawley (Ben Affleck) 

2004 American independent film, Mean Creek tells the story of a group of boys 

who must contend with the school bully, a dyslexic boy named George (Josh 

Peck). Eventually, as George's mask disintegrates, he becomes the victim of the 

group. 

2004 Canadian film, Wilby Wonderful: Duck MacDonald (Callum Keith 

Rennie)[1] 

2005 French film, La Cérémonie: Sophie (Sandrine Bonnaire) 

2005 American film, In Her Shoes: Maggie (Cameron Diaz). It is based upon 

Jennifer Weiner's 2002 novel, In Her Shoes. 

2006 British film, A Mind of Her Own tells the story of a dyslexic woman, Sophie, 

who is determined to become a doctor. 

2007 American independent film, bAd tells the story of John who is failing the 

fifth grade until it is determined that he is dyslexic. 

2007 Indian film, Taare Zameen Par, (reissued in 2010 as Like Stars on Earth 

for Disney's international DVD) tells the story of Ishaan (Darsheel Safary) who 

suffers greatly in school until an art teacher (Aamir Khan) determines that he is 

dyslexic. 

2009 American film, Dislecksia: The Movie, a documentary film. 

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2010 American film, Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, a film 

about Greek mythology existing in the 21st Century, based on the series by Rick 

Riordan, the main character, Percy Jackson is dyslexic. To Demigods, it is a 

learning disability and an advantage to them at the same time. It jumbles up the 

words needed for their schoolwork but it also allows them to translate ancient 

Greek as their brains are hardwired for it. 

Television Series with Dyslexic Characters 

 

 

 

1984 - 1992 American television series, The Cosby Show: Theodore Huxtable 

(Malcolm-Jamal Warner) 

1994 - 1995 American television series, My So Called Life: Jordan Catalano 

(Jared Leto) 

1994 - 1996 American television series, seaQuest DSV: Seaman Anthony 

Piccolo (Michael DeLuise) 

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1990 - 2000 American television series, Beverly Hills, 90210: Donna Martin 

(Tori Spelling) 

1991 - 1998 American television series, Step by Step: John Thomas "J.T." 

Lambert (Brandon Call) 

1996–present American television series, Arthur: George Lundgren 

2000-2004 American animated television series Static Shock: Rubber Band Man 

(voiced by Kadeem Hardison) 

2001–present Canadian television series, Degrassi: The Next Generation: The 

characters Joey Jeremiah and Anya MacPherson 

2002 - 2007 American television series, George Lopez (TV series): Max. George 

Lopez (fictional character on the series) is portrayed as having dyslexia, which he 

inherited from his father George. 

2005–present American television series, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia: 

Charlie Kelly 

2006–2010 American television series, Heroes: The telepathic character Matt 

Parkman (Greg Grunberg) 

2004–present American television series, Grey's Anatomy: Cristina Yang 

(Sandra Oh) 

2007–present Australian television series, The Librarians: Lachie Davis (Josh 

Lawson) 

2010–2013 American television series, Shake It Up: CeCe Jones (Bella Thorne) 

2010–present American television series, Glee: Ryder Lynn (Blake Jenner) 

2014-present British television series, Hank Zipzer: Hank Zipzer (Nick James) 

Literature 

 

 

 

Percy Jackson - Percy Jackson & the Olympians series of books 

Annabeth Chase - Percy Jackson & the Olympians series of books 

All of the Demigods - Percy Jackson & the Olympians and Heroes of Olympus 

series of books 

Page 50 of 100

Jackie Flowers, a detective and lawyer in a series of detective novels by 

mystery writer, Stephanie Kane, is dyslexic. 

Maggie in Jennifer Weiner's novel, In Her Shoes (2002) is dyslexic. The novel 

was adapted to film (In Her Shoes) in 2005. 

 

 

 

 

Hank Zipzer, the main character in the eponymous children's series by Henry 

Winkler, is dyslexic. 

Moose Mason in Archie Comics is dyslexic. 

Taki Matsuya, a mutant character from Marvel Comics, (1988–present), is 

dyslexic. 

Cassandra Cain, a previous version of the super-hero Batgirl, is dyslexic, sort of. 

From birth she is taught to read the world in movement, as a plan to make her an 

unstoppable martial artist. She has appeared in comic books published by DC 

Comics since 1999. 

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Will Trent, who is a Georgia Bureau of Investigation detective in Karin 

Slaughter's novels, is dyslexic. 

Maeve Kaplan-Taylor, one of the five main characters in the Beacon Street Girls 

series, is dyslexic. 

Bascule the Teller, a character from Iain M Banks' novel Feersum Endjinn, is 

dyslexic. Bascule's portion of the story is narrated in a semi-phonetic spelling that 

non-dyslexic readers may find difficult to parse, perhaps yielding insight into a 

dyslexic's world. 

Stella Penn, character from Mark Peter Hughes' 'Lemonade Mouth'. Found out 

she has Dyslexia at the end of the book. 

Mavis Elizabeth Betterly (May), the main character from Caroline Starr Rose's 

novel in verse May B, must leave school partly due to her dyslexia, which sets in 

motion the events of the story. May B is a 2013 ALA Notable Children's book. 

Page 52 of 100

V. Famous People 

with Dyslexia 

The following is a list of notable people who are listed or reported to be dyslexic, or who 

some people thought were dyslexic, or more generally whenever there is an urban 

legend or popular myth about their being dyslexic. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sam Allardyce, English footballer and football manager 

Anthony Andrews, English actor 

Jennifer Aniston, American actress 

Louise Arnold, English author 

Michael "Atters" Attree, English satirical writer and comedian 

Abhishek Bachchan, Indian Bollywood actor 

Geoff Barrow, English musician 

Princess Beatrice of York, member of the British Royal Family and seventh in line 

of succession to the British throne 

Alexander Graham Bell, American inventor and scientist 

Michael Bennet, American politician - United States Senator from Colorado 

Robert Benton, American screenwriter and film director 

Orlando Bloom, English actor 

David Boies, American attorney 

Roberto Bolaño, Chilean novelist and poet 

Jeremy Bonderman, American baseball player 

Chaz Bono, American advocate, writer, musician and actor (see reference for 

Cher below) 

Lara Flynn Boyle, American actress 

Richard Branson, English entrepreneur 

Chrisann Brennan, an American Artist and the author of The Bite in the Apple 

Marcus Brigstocke, English comedian and satirist 

Erin Brockovich, American legal clerk, socio-environmental activist 

Fred Brophy, Australian tent boxing promoter 

Max Brooks, American author and screenwriter - son of actress Anne Bancroft 

and director Mel Brooks. 

Neil Bush, American businessman and son of George H. W. Bush 

Octavia Butler, American science fiction author 

Celine Byrne, Irish soprano 

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Stephen J. Cannell, American creator of shows such as The A-Team 

Lewis Carroll, English writer and mathematician 

Heather Christian, Founder of the Jamaica Dyslexia Association 

Gary Cohn, American entrepreneur - COO of Goldman Sachs 

Charles "Pete" Conrad Jr., American astronaut and 3 rd man to walk on the moon 

Carl XVI Gustaf, king of Sweden 

Carl Philip of Sweden, prince of Sweden 

Dave Chalk, Canadian broadcaster and technology journalist 

John Chambers, American businessman - CEO of Cisco 

Cher, American singer and actress 

Amy Childs, English model and reality television personality 

Timothy Clifford, British art historian 

Jason Conley, American basketball player 

Anderson Cooper, American journalist 

Tom Cruise, American actor 

Pierre Curie, French scientist 

Leonardo da Vinci, Italian painter and polymath 

Clark Janell Davis, American model - Miss Kentucky 2015 

John de Lancie, American actor 

Samuel R. Delany, African American science fiction author and literary critic 

Paul Dewar, Canadian MP from 2006 - 2015. 

Patrick Dempsey, American actor 

Andrew Dornenburg, American award-winning author and chef 

Jacques Dubochet, Swiss biophysicist 

Michael Dudikoff, American actor 

Arjan Ederveen, Dutch actor and comedian 

Thomas Edison, American inventor 

Albert Einstein, German scientist 

Fae Ellington - OD, Jamaican media personality and lecturer 

Nelsan Ellis, African American actor 

Paloma Faith, English singer-songwriter and actress 

Alexander Faludy, English - youngest Cambridge undergraduate for 200 years 

Michael Faraday, English scientist 

Trevor Ferrell, American advocate for the homeless 

Noel Fielding, British comedian 

Steve Fielding, Australian politician 

Fannie Flagg, American comedian and author 

Ben Fogle, English television presenter 

Richard Ford, American author 

Paul Frappier, Canadian musician and hip hop MC 

Galileo Galilei, Italian scientist 

Noel Gallagher, English musician 

Karina Galvez, Ecuadorian-American poet, TV and radio personality 

Whoopi Goldberg, American actress, comedian, TV personality 

Alison Goldfrapp, English musician 

Terry Goodkind, American writer 

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Frank Gore, American football player 

Mike Gravel, American politician - former United States Senator from Alaska 

Olivia Gray, English actress 

Brian Grazer, American producer 

Susan Hampshire, English actress 

Salma Hayek, Mexican actress 

Mark Henry American professional wrestler 

John Hickenlooper, American politician - Governor of Colorado 

Tom Holland, English actor 

Jack Horner, American paleontologist 

Anthony Hopkins, English actor 

John Irving, American novelist 

Jony Ive, English designer - Chief Design Officer for Apple Inc. 

Caitlyn Jenner, American Olympic athlete 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Steve Jobs, American entrepreneur - co-founder of Apple Inc. 

Ingvar Kamprad, Swedish industrialist, founder of IKEA 

Dean Kamen, American inventor, Segway human transport, Luke arm, FIRST 

Lego League 

Rebecca Kamen, American artist and sculptor 

Paul Kanjorski, American politician - former Member of the U.S. House of 

Representatives from Pennsylvania 

Mollie King, English singer and songwriter 

Laura Kirkpatrick, American model 

Keira Knightley, English actress 

Willem Johan Kolff, Dutch physician 

Colin Jones (photographer), English photographer and ballet dancer 

Page 55 of 100

David Koresh, American leader of the Branch Davidians 

J. F. Lawton, American writer, producer and director 

Angie Le Mar, British comedian 

Peter Leitch, New Zealand businessman and philanthropist. 

Jay Leno, American talk show host and comedian 

Tom Lewis, English golfer 

Kenny Logan, Scottish rugby player 

Greg Louganis, American Olympic diver 

Louis of Luxembourg, prince of Luxembourg 

Dan Malloy, American politician - Governor of Connecticut 

James Clerk Maxwell, Scottish scientist 

Mireille Mathieu, French singer 

Steve McQueen, English artist and film director 

Kendrick Meek, American politician - former Member of the U.S. House of 

Representatives from Florida 

James William Middleton, English - brother of Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge 

Mika, Lebanese-born English singer-songwriter 

Alyssa Milano, American actress 

Lorin Morgan-Richards, American children's author and illustrator 

Dorrit Moussaieff, Israeli - First Lady of Iceland 

Shlomo Moussaieff, Israeli jewellery businessman and Bible expert 

Don Mullan, Irish author, producer and humanitarian 

Jaime Murray, English actress 

Róisín Murphy, Irish singer 

Steven Naismith, Scottish footballer 

Fred Newman, American actor, sound engineer, producer & author 

Gavin Newsom, American politician - Lt Governor of California 

Jace Norman, American Actor 

Mike Norris (businessman), English businessman 

Paul Oakenfold, English record producer and trance DJ 

Olav V of Norway, Norwegian king - 1957–1991 

Jamie Oliver, British chef and television host 

Paul Orfalea, American entrepreneur - founder of FedEx Kinko's 

Ozzy Osbourne, English musician 

Brendan O'Carroll, Irish actor 

Diamond Dallas Page, American professional wrestler, actor and author 

Theo Paphitis, Cypriot-born British businessman - panelist on Dragons' Den 

Tom Pellereau, English inventor 

Pablo Picasso, Spanish artist, sculptor 

Daniel Powter, Canadian singer and songwriter 

Hal Prewitt, American Artist, photographer, entrepreneur and racecar driver 

Scott Quinnell, English rugby player 

Bodo Ramelow, German politician - Minister-President of Thuringia 

Robert Rauschenberg, American artist 

Keanu Reeves, Canadian actor 

Nicolas Winding Refn, Danish film director 

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Iwan Rheon, Welsh actor and singer/songwriter 

Guy Ritchie, English film director 

David Rockefeller, American business executive and philanthropist 

Richard Rogers, British architect 

Louis Rosenberg, American Entrepreneur, author, screenwriter, inventor, and 

professor 

Lee Ryan, English singer and songwriter 

Rex Ryan, American head coach, Buffalo Bills 

Mark Schlereth, American football player 

Philip Schultz, American poet and founder/director of The Writers Studio 

Charles Schwab, American investor - founder of U.S. brokerage firm 

Tim Scott, English guitarist 

Jo Self, English artist 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Peter Shumlin, American politician - Governor of Vermont 

Bryan Singer, American film director 

John Skoyles, English neuroscientist and evolutionary psychologist 

Neil Smith, American football player 

Jackie Stewart, Scottish racing driver 

David Stirling, Scottish military - founder of the Special Air Service 

Joss Stone, English singer 

Channing Tatum, American actor and model 

Helen B. Taussig American cardiologist 

Tim Tebow, American football player 

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Nikola Tesla, Serbian-American scientist and engineer 

Bella Thorne, American actress 

Kara Tointon, English actress 

Jules Verne, French author 

Victoria, Crown Princess of Sweden, heir-apparent to the Swedish throne 

Lindsay Wagner, American actress 

Butch Walker, American singer and record producer 

Ben Way, English entrepreneur 

Bob Weir, American guitarist 

Mark Wilkinson, English furniture designer 

Toyah Willcox, English actress and singer 

Roger Ross Williams, American Oscar-winning director and producer 

Holly Willoughby, British television presenter 

Henry Winkler, American actor - spokesman for the Dyslexia Foundation 

Joshua Wong Chi-fung, Chinese activist and a protester from Hong Kong 

Lee Kuan Yew, Singaporean - first Prime Minister of Singapore 

Benjamin Zephaniah, British poet 

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VI. Elkonin Boxes 

and Phonological Awareness 

Elkonin Boxes are an instructional method used in the early elementary grades 

especially in children with reading difficulties and inadequate responders in order to 

build phonological awareness by segmenting words into individual sounds. They are 

named after D.B. Elkonin, the Russian psychologist who pioneered their use. The 

"boxes" are squares drawn on a piece of paper or a chalkboard, with one box for each 

sound or phoneme. To use Elkonin boxes, a child listens to a word and moves a token 

into a box for each sound or phoneme. In some cases different colored tokens may be 

used for consonants and vowels or just for each phoneme in the word. 

______ 

Phonological Awareness is an individual's awareness of the phonological 

structure, or sound structure, of words. Phonological awareness is an important and 

reliable predictor of later reading ability and has, therefore, been the focus of much 

research. 

Page 59 of 100

Overview 

Phonological awareness involves the detection and manipulation of sounds at three 

levels of sound structure: (1) syllables, (2) onsets and rimes, and (3) phonemes. 

Awareness of these sounds is demonstrated through a variety of tasks (see below). 

Available published tests of phonological awareness (for example PhAB2) are often 

used by teachers, psychologists and speech therapists to help understand difficulties in 

this aspect of language and literacy. Although the tasks vary, they share the basic 

requirement that some operation (e.g., identifying, comparing, separating, combining, 

generating) be performed on the sounds. It is assumed that the individual performing 

these tasks must have awareness of the units of sound in order to perform the 

operation. 

Phonological awareness is one component of a larger phonological processing system 

used for speaking and listening. Phonological awareness is different from other 

phonological abilities in that it is a metalinguistic skill, requiring conscious awareness 

and reflection on the structure of language. Other phonological abilities: such as 

attending to speech, discriminating between sounds, holding sounds in memory: can be 

performed without conscious reflection. However, these other phonological abilities are 

prerequisite to the development of phonological awareness. Therefore, general listening 

skills are often among those included in phonological awareness instruction. 

The terms phonemic awareness and phonics are often used interchangeably with 

phonological awareness. However, these terms have different meanings. Phonemic 

awareness is a subset of phonological awareness that focuses specifically on 

recognizing and manipulating phonemes, the smallest units of sound. Phonics requires 

students to know and match letters or letter patterns with sounds, learn the rules of 

spelling, and use this information to decode (read) and encode (write) words. Phonemic 

awareness relates only to speech sounds, not to alphabet letters or sound-spellings, so 

it is not necessary for students to have alphabet knowledge in order to develop a basic 

phonemic awareness of language. 

Phonological awareness tasks (adapted from Virginia Department of Education (1998): 

and Gillon (2004) 

Listening Skills 

The ability to attend to and distinguish environmental and speech sounds from one 

another 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Alertness: Awareness and localization of sounds 

Discrimination: Recognize same/different sounds 

Memory: Recollection of sounds and sound patterns 

Sequencing: Identify order of what was heard 

Figure-ground: Isolate one sound from background of other sounds 

Perception: Comprehension of sounds heard 

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Syllable-Structure Awareness Tasks 

 

 

 

 

Syllable segmentation: e.g., "How many syllables (or parts) are in the word 

coffee?" 

Syllable completion: e.g., "Here is a picture of a rabbit. I'll say the first part of the 

word. Can you finish the word ra_____?" 

Syllable identity: e.g., "Which part of complete and compare sound the same?" 

Syllable deletion: e.g., "Say finish. Now say it again without the fin" 

Onset-Rime Awareness Tasks 

 

 

 

 

Spoken word recognition: e.g., "Do these words rhyme: shell bell?" 

Spoken rhyme detection or rhyme oddity task: e.g., "Which word does not rhyme: 

fish, dish, hook?" 

Spoken rhyme generation: e.g., "Tell me words that rhyme with bell?" 

Onset-rime blending 

Phonemic Awareness 

Tasks 

Alliteration awareness 

(aka phoneme 

detection and sound 

or phoneme 

categorization): e.g., 

"Which word has a 

different first sound: 

bed, bus, chair, ball?" 

Phoneme matching: 

e.g., "Which word 

begins with the same 

sound as bat: horn, 

bed, cup?" 

Phoneme isolation: 

e.g., "Tell me the 

sound you hear at the 

beginning of the word 

food" 

Phoneme completion: 

e.g., "Here is a picture 

of a watch. Finish the 

word for me: wa_____ 

" 

Phoneme blending 

with words or non- 

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words: e.g., "What word do these sounds make: m...oo...n?" 

Phoneme deletion, also referred to as phoneme elision: e.g., "Say coat. Now say 

it again but don't say /k/" 

Phoneme segmentation with words or non-words: e.g., "How many sounds can 

you hear in the word it? 

Phoneme reversal: e.g., "Say na (as in nap). Now say na backwards" 

Phoneme manipulation: e.g., "Say dash. Now say it again, but instead of /æ/ say 

/I/" 

Spoonerism: e.g., felt made becomes melt fade 

Development 

Although some two-year-old children demonstrate phonological awareness, for most 

children, phonological awareness appears in the third year, with accelerating growth 

through the fourth and fifth years. Phonological awareness skills develop in a 

predictable pattern similar across languages progressing from larger to smaller units of 

sound (that is, from words to syllables to onsets and syllable rimes to phonemes). Tasks 

used to demonstrate awareness of these sounds have their own developmental 

sequence. For example, tasks involving the detection of similar or dissimilar sounds 

(e.g., oddity tasks) are mastered before tasks requiring the manipulation of sounds 

(e.g., deletion tasks), and blending tasks are mastered before segmenting tasks. It 

should be noted that the acquisition of phonological awareness skills does not progress 

in a linear sequence; rather, children continue to refine skills they have acquired while 

they learn new skills. 

The development of phonological awareness is closely tied to overall language and 

speech development. Vocabulary size, as well as other measures of receptive and 

expressive semantics, syntax, and morphology, are consistent concurrent and 

longitudinal predictors of phonological awareness. Consistent with this finding, children 

with communication disorders often have poor phonological awareness. 

Phonological development and articulatory accuracy is often correlated to phonological 

awareness skills, both for children with typical speech and those with disordered 

speech. In addition to milestones of speech and language development, speech and 

language processing abilities are also related to phonological awareness: both speech 

perception and verbal short-term memory have been concurrently and predicatively 

correlated with phonological awareness abilities. 

Phonological Awareness and Reading 

Phonological awareness is an important determiner of success in learning to read and 

spell. For most children, strong readers have strong phonological awareness, and poor 

readers have poor phonological awareness skills. Phonological awareness skills in the 

preschool and kindergarten years also strongly predict how well a child will read in the 

school years. In addition, interventions to improve phonological awareness abilities lead 

to significantly improved reading abilities. Phonological awareness instruction improves 

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eading and spelling skills, but the reverse is also true: literacy instruction improves 

phonological awareness skills. The relationship between phonological awareness and 

reading abilities changes over time. All levels of phonological awareness ability 

(syllable, onset-rhyme, and phoneme) contribute to reading abilities in the Kindergarten 

through second grade. However, beyond the second grade, phoneme-level abilities play 

a stronger role. 

Phonological awareness and literacy is often explained by decoding and encoding. In 

reading, decoding refers to the process of relating a word's written representation to its 

verbal representation. Especially in the early stages of reading, decoding involves 

mapping letters in the word to their corresponding sounds, and then combining those 

sounds to form a verbal word. Encoding: a process used in spelling: is similar, although 

the process goes in the opposite direction, with the word's verbal representation is 

encoded in a written form. Again, especially in the early stages of reading, encoding 

involves determining the sounds in a verbal word, and then mapping those sounds onto 

a letter sequence in order to spell out the written word. In both encoding and decoding, 

phonological awareness is needed because the child must know the sounds in the 

words in order to relate them to the letter sounds. 

Intervention 

Phonological awareness is an auditory skill that is developed through a variety of 

activities that expose students to the sound structure of the language and teach them to 

Page 63 of 100

ecognize, identify and manipulate it. Listening skills are an important foundation for the 

development of phonological awareness and they generally develop first. Therefore, the 

scope and sequence of instruction in early childhood literacy curriculum typically begins 

with a focus on listening, as teachers instruct children to attend to and distinguish 

sounds, including environmental sounds and the sounds of speech. Early phonological 

awareness instruction also involves the use of songs, nursery rhymes and games to 

help students to become alert to speech sounds and rhythms, rather than meanings, 

including rhyme, alliteration, onomatopoeia, and prosody. 

While exposure to different sound patterns in songs and rhymes is a start towards 

developing phonological awareness, exposure in itself is not enough, because the 

traditional actions that go along with songs and nursery rhymes typically focus on 

helping students to understand the meanings of words, not attend to the sounds. 

Therefore, different strategies must be implemented to aid students in becoming alert to 

sounds instead. Specific activities that involve students in attending to and 

demonstrating recognition of the sounds of language include waving hands when 

rhymes are heard, stomping feet along with alliterations, clapping the syllables in 

names, and slowly stretching out arms when segmenting words. Phonological 

awareness is technically only about sounds and students do not need to know the 

letters of the alphabet to be able to develop phonological awareness. 

Students in primary education sometimes learn phonological awareness in the context 

of literacy activities, particularly phonemic awareness. Some research demonstrates 

that, at least for older children, there may be utility to extending the development of 

phonological awareness skills in the context of activities that involve letters and spelling. 

A number of scholars have been working on this approach. 

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VII. Additional 

Linguistic Disorders 

List of Language Disorders 

Feature Absence Difficulty Problem 

Phonation Aphonia Dysphonia - 

Comprehension Receptive Aphasia - 

Speech 

Dysphasia, Schizophasia, Paraphasia 

Logorrhea 

Intonation Aprosodia Dysprosody - 

Poverty of 

Alogia - - 

speech 

Reading 

Alexia Dyslexia Paralexia 

(process) 

Written language Agraphia Dysgraphia, graphorrhea Paragraphia 

Spoken language Alalia Dyslalia, coprolalia, echolalia Palilalia 

Recalling names Anomia Dysnomia - 

Motor disorder Apraxia Dyspraxia - 

Orthophony - Dysphemia - 

Orthography - Dysorthography - 

Syntax Agrammatism - Paragrammatism 

Voice Aphonia Dysphonia - 

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VIII. References 

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dyslexia 

2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reading_(process) 

3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neurodiversity 

4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dyslexia_in_popular_culture 

5. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elkonin_boxes 

6. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phonological_awareness 

7. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_language_disorders 

8. https://theeye.eu/public/Books/For%20Dummies/Overcoming%20Dyslexia%20for%20Dummies%20%28I 

SBN%20-%200471752851%29.pdf 

9. https://dsf.net.au/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/characteristics_of_dyslexia.pdf 

10. http://www.aettraininghubs.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/5.8-What-is-dyslexia.pdf 

11. https://dyslexiaida.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/DITC-Handbook.pdf 

12. https://lsb-files.s3.amazonaws.com/downloads/10-strategies-dyslexia.pdf 

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Page 70 of 100

Attachment A 

Common Characteristics of Dyslexia 

Page 71 of 100

Mandy Nayton 

Executive Officer 

Dyslexia - SPELD Foundation 

LITERACY SERVICES DIRECT (08) 9217 2502 

COMMON CHARACTERISTICS OF DYSLEXIA 

ADULTS 

Does this describe you? 

• I find it difficult to read words accurately 

and quickly. 

• Reading is very tiring for me. 

• I read very slowly and may need to re-read 

paragraphs several times before I’m sure that I 

understand or remember what I have read. 

• I often make spelling mistakes. 

• My reading and writing skills are poor in 

comparison to other adults. 

• I have always struggled with reading 

and writing despite receiving remedial 

assistance. 

• I often lose my place or miss out sections of 

print when I am reading. 

• I have strengths in other academic, 

artistic or sporting areas. 

• I have trouble isolating the individual 

sounds in words. 

• Many of my difficulties get worse when I 

am under stress. 

• I often misspell familiar words or spell 

the same word in different ways. 

• At times I struggle to find the right word 

to say or to write. 

• I sometimes confuse complicated instructions. 

• I often need long messages (or phone 

numbers) repeated; and find I need to 

write them down immediately. 

• Other members of my family also 

experience reading and writing difficulties. 

• There are no other obvious reasons for my 

difficulty with reading and writing (such as 

missed schooling or a sensory deficit). 

• Some days I am able to read and spell more 

accurately than on other days. 

• When I read and write I will often c o n f u s e 

words that are similar. 

• I often make errors when copying things 

down. 

• When doing a written assignment I have 

diffculty organising what I want to say. 

CHILDREN 

Does the child... 

• ... have difficulty learning the relationship 

between sounds and letters? 

• ... appear to forget instructions easily? 

• ... frequently misread/misspell commonly 

occurring words? 

• ... have difficulty reading words quickly 

and accurately? 

• ... read a word accurately on one line and 

then fail to recognise it further down the 

page? 

• ... have difficulty remembering how to spell 

words over time? 

• ... have difficulty applying spelling rules? 

• ... experience literacy difficulties that are 

unexpected when compared to their 

strengths in other academic, artistic or 

sporting areas? 

• ... often substitute words that look similar 

when reading? 

• ... have difficulty comprehending what they 

read because of difficulties with word 

recognition? 

• ... tire easily and become distracted 

especially when expected to complete 

literacy tasks? 

• ... have a family member (or family members) 

with reading and writing difficulties? 

• ... read slowly and dysfluently? 

• ... experience difficulty in playing with the 

sounds in words when rhyming, counting 

syllables and removing individual sounds? 

• ... often leave literacy tasks unfinished? 

• ... struggle with reading and spelling 

particularly in comparison with their peers? 

• ... put in a great deal of effort but have little 

to show for it? 

• ... not progress at the expected rate despite 

extra assistance? 

• ... struggle for no apparent reason? 

(08) 9217 2500 support@dsf.com.au www.dsf.net.au 

DSF Literacy & Clinical Services

Page 72 of 100

Attachment B 

Dyslexia In The Classroom: 

What Every Teacher Needs to Know 

Page 73 of 100

TABLE OF CONTENTS 

Introduction 2 

About IDA 2 

What is Dyslexia? 3 

Signs and Symptoms of Dyslexia 4 

Social and Emotional Connection 5 

Classroom Strategies, Tips, and Tools 7 

Multisensory Structured Language Teaching 11 

Screening, Evaluation, and Diagnosis 12 

Additional Resources and Further Reading 14 

References 15 

© Copyright 2017, International Dyslexia Association (IDA). 

IDA encourages the reproduction and distribution of this resource kit. If portions of the text are cited, 

appropriate reference must be made. This may not be reprinted for the purpose of resale. 

40 York Road, 4th Floor • Baltimore, MD 21204 

Info@DyslexiaIDA.org 

www.DyslexiaIDA.org 

1

INTRODUCTION 

The degree of difficulty a child with dyslexia has with reading, spelling, and/or speaking varies from person to person 

due to inherited differences in brain development, as well as the type of teaching the person receives. The brain is 

normal, often very “intelligent,” but with strengths in areas other than the language area. 

This “difference” goes undetected until the person finds difficulty when learning to read and write. Each individual with 

dyslexia is unique, but the multisensory approach is flexible enough to serve a wide range of ages and learning 

differences. A multisensory approach can be valuable to many; to the dyslexic child it is essential. The expertise of the 

teacher is the key. 

The intent of this toolkit is to provide classroom teachers with basic information about dyslexia, dispel some of the 

myths and misconception surrounding it and be a resource that will increase their capacity to ensure the success of the 

diverse group of learners in their classrooms. 

ABOUT IDA 

The International Dyslexia Association (IDA) was founded in 1949 as The Orton Society to honor and further the work 

and passion of Dr. Samuel Torrey Orton. IDA serves individuals with dyslexia, their families, and professionals in the 

field. We have more than 9,000 members, 42 branches throughout the United States and Canada and have 27 global 

partners in 23 countries. Together we are working to help those with and affected by dyslexia. 

We believe that all individuals have the right to achieve their potential, that individual learning abilities can be 

strengthened, and that social, educational and barriers to language acquisition and use must be removed. 

IDA actively promotes effective teaching approaches and related clinical educational intervention strategies for 

individuals with dyslexia. We support and encourage interdisciplinary research. We facilitate the exploration of the 

causes and early identification of dyslexia and are committed to the responsible and wide dissemination of research 

and evidence based knowledge. 

The purpose of IDA is to pursue and provide the most comprehensive range of information and services that address 

the full scope of dyslexia and related difficulties in learning to read and write...in a way that creates hope, possibility, 

and partnership, so that every individual has the opportunity to lead a productive and fulfilling life, and society benefits 

from the resource that is liberated. 

2

WHAT IS DYSLEXIA? 

The formal definition of dyslexia is: 

Dyslexia is a specific learning disability that is neurological 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 the growth of vocabulary 

and background knowledge. 

But what does that mean exactly? 

Dyslexia is a language-based learning disability. Dyslexia refers to a cluster of symptoms, which result in people having 

difficulties with specific language skills, particularly reading. Students with dyslexia usually experience difficulties with 

other language skills, such as spelling, writing, and pronouncing words. Dyslexia affects individuals throughout their 

lives; however, its impact can change at different stages in a person’s life. It is referred to as a learning disability 

because dyslexia can make it very difficult for a student to succeed academically in the typical instructional 

environment, and in its more severe forms, will qualify a student for special education, special accommodations, and/ 

or extra support services. 

What causes dyslexia? 

The exact causes of dyslexia are still not completely clear, but anatomical and brain imagery studies show differences in 

the way the brain of a person with dyslexia develops and functions. Moreover, most people with dyslexia have been 

found to have problems with identifying the separate speech sounds within a word and/or learning how letters 

represent those sounds, a key factor in their reading difficulties. Dyslexia is not due to either lack of intelligence or 

desire to learn; with appropriate teaching methods, students with dyslexia can learn successfully. 

Dyslexia occurs in people of all backgrounds and intellectual levels. People with dyslexia can be very bright. They are 

often capable or even gifted in areas such as art, computer science, design, drama, electronics, math, mechanics, 

music, physics, sales, and sports. In addition, dyslexia runs in families; having a parent or sibling with dyslexia increases 

the probability that you will also have dyslexia. For some people, their dyslexia is identified early in their lives, but for 

others, their dyslexia goes unidentified until they get older. 

What are the effects of dyslexia? 

The impact that dyslexia has is different for each person and depends on the severity of the condition and the 

timeliness and effectiveness of instruction or remediation. The core difficulty involves word recognition and reading 

fluency, spelling, and writing. Some individuals with dyslexia manage to learn early reading and spelling tasks, 

especially with excellent instruction, but later experience their most debilitating problems when more complex 

language skills are required, such as grammar, understanding textbook material, and writing essays. 

People with dyslexia can also have problems with spoken language, even after they have been exposed to excellent 

language models in their homes and high quality language instruction in school. They may find it difficult to express 

3

themselves clearly, or to fully comprehend what others mean when they speak. Such language problems are often 

difficult to recognize, but they can lead to major problems in school, in the workplace, and in relating to other people. 

The effects of dyslexia reach well beyond the classroom. 

What misconceptions exist regarding dyslexia? 

It is equally important to understand what dyslexia isn’t. There are great misconceptions and myths about dyslexia 

which make it that much more difficult for someone with dyslexia to receive help and generally be understood. 

It is a myth that individuals with dyslexia “read backwards.” Their spelling can look quite jumbled at times not because 

they read or see words backwards, but because students have trouble remembering letter symbols for sounds and 

letter patterns in words. 

Dyslexia is not a disease and, therefore, there is no cure. With proper diagnosis, appropriate and timely instruction, 

hard work, and support from family, teachers, friends, and others, individuals who have dyslexia can succeed in school 

and later as adults. 

Individuals with dyslexia do not have a lower level of intelligence. In fact, more often than not, the complete opposite 

is true. 

SIGNS AND SYMPTOMS OF DYSLEXIA 

It is crucial to be able to recognize the signs of symptoms of dyslexia. The earlier a child is evaluated, the sooner he or 

she can obtain the appropriate instruction and accommodations he or she needs to succeed in school. 

General problems experienced by people with dyslexia include the following: 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Learning to speak 

Learning letters and their sounds 

Organizing written and spoken language 

Memorizing number facts 

Reading quickly enough to comprehend 

Keeping up with and comprehending longer reading assignments 

Spelling 

Learning a foreign language 

Correctly doing math operations 

Some specific signs for elementary aged children may include: 

 

 

 

 

Difficulty with remembering simple sequences such as counting to 20, naming the days of the week, or 

reciting the alphabet 

Difficulty understanding the rhyming of words, such as knowing that fat rhymes with cat 

Trouble recognizing words that begin with the same sound (for example, that bird, baby”, and big all start 

with b) 

Pronunciation difficulties 

4

Trouble easily clapping hands to the rhythm of a song 

Difficulty with word retrieval (frequently uses words like “stuff” and “that thing” rather than specific words 

to name objects) 

Trouble remembering names of places and people 

Difficulty remembering spoken directions 

It is important to note that not all students who have difficulties with these skills have dyslexia. Formal testing of 

reading, language, and writing skills is the only way to confirm a diagnosis of suspected dyslexia. 

An individual can have more than one learning or behavioral disability. For example, in various studies as many as 30% 

of those diagnosed with a learning or reading difference have also been diagnosed with ADHD. Although disabilities 

may co-occur, one is not the cause of the other. 

SOCIAL AND EMOTIONAL CONNECTION 

Samuel T. Orton, M.D., was one of the first researchers to describe the emotional aspects of dyslexia. According to his 

research, the majority of preschoolers who were later diagnosed as having dyslexia are happy and well adjusted. Their 

emotional problems begin to develop when early reading instruction does not match their learning needs. Over the 

years, the frustration mounts as classmates surpass the student with dyslexia in reading skills. 

Stress and Anxiety 

Jerome J. Schultz’s informative IDA fact sheet “The Dyslexia-Stress-Anxiety Connection” is a must read for those 

wanting guidance on understanding the relationship between dyslexia and emotional and social difficulties, as well as 

the implications for academic performance and social interactions. Dr. Schultz explains his DE-STRESS model in a stepby-step 

guide for addressing stress, anxiety, and dyslexia. 

Stress and anxiety increase when we’re in situations over which we have little or no control (e.g., a car going off 

the road, tripping on the stairs, reading in public). All people, young and old, can experience overwhelming 

stress and exhibit signs of anxiety, but children, adolescents, and adults with dyslexia are particularly 

vulnerable. That’s because many individuals do not fully understand the nature of their learning disability, and 

as a result, tend to blame themselves for their own difficulties. Years of self-doubt and self-recrimination may 

erode a person’s self-esteem, making them less able to tolerate the challenges of school, work, or social 

interactions and more stressed and anxious. 

Many individuals with dyslexia have experienced years of frustration and limited success, despite countless 

hours spent in special programs or working with specialists. Their progress may have been agonizingly slow and 

frustrating, rendering them emotionally fragile and vulnerable. Some have been subjected to excessive 

pressure to succeed (or excel) without the proper support or training. Others have been continuously 

compared to siblings, classmates, or co-workers, making them embarrassed, cautious, and defensive. 

Individuals with dyslexia may have learned that being in the company of others places them at risk for making 

public mistakes and the inevitable negative reactions that may ensue. It makes sense, then, that many people 

5

with dyslexia have become withdrawn, sought the company of younger people, or become social isolates. 

(Schultz, 2013, p. 2) 

This fact sheet can be found on the IDA website, www.DyslexiaIDA.org. 

Self-Image 

Dyslexia can also affect a person’s self-image. Students with dyslexia often end up feeling “dumb” and less capable 

than they actually are. After experiencing a great deal of stress due to academic problems, a student may become 

discouraged about continuing in school. 

If children succeed in school, they will develop positive feelings about themselves and believe that they can succeed in 

life. If children meet failure and frustration, they learn that they are inferior to others, and that their effort makes very 

little difference. Instead of feeling powerful and productive, they learn that their environment controls them. They feel 

powerless and incompetent. 

Researchers have learned that when typical learners succeed, they credit their own efforts for their success. When they 

fail, they tell themselves to try harder. However, when learners with dyslexia succeed, they are likely to attribute their 

success to luck. When they fail, they simply see themselves as stupid. 

Research also suggests that these feelings of inferiority develop by the age of 10. After this age, it becomes extremely 

difficult to help the child develop a positive self-image. This is a powerful argument for early intervention. 

Depression 

Depression is also a frequent complication in dyslexia. Depressed children and adolescents often have different 

symptoms than do depressed adults. The depressed child is unlikely to be lethargic or to talk about feeling sad. Instead 

he or she may become more active or misbehave to cover up the painful feelings. In the case of masked depression, 

the child may not seem obviously unhappy. However, both children and adults who are depressed tend to have three 

similar characteristics: 

 

 

 

They tend to have negative thoughts about themselves, that is, a negative self- image. 

They tend to view the world negatively. They are less likely to enjoy the positive experiences in life. This 

makes it difficult for them to have fun. 

Most depressed youngsters have great trouble imagining anything positive about the future. The 

depressed child with dyslexia not only experiences great pain in his present experiences, but also foresees 

a life of continuing failure. 

So how can you help? 

Children are more successful when early in their lives someone has been extremely supportive and encouraging, and 

when they have found an area in which they can succeed. Teachers can create an incredible support system by: 

 

 

Listening to children’s feelings. Anxiety, anger and depression can be daily companions for children with 

dyslexia. However, their language problems often make it difficult for them to express their feelings. 

Therefore, adults must help them learn to talk about their feelings. 

Rewarding effort, not just “the product.” For students with dyslexia, grades should be less important than 

progress. 

6

When confronting unacceptable behavior, do not inadvertently discourage the child with dyslexia. Words 

such as “lazy” or “incorrigible” can seriously damage the child’s self-image. 

Helping students set realistic goals for themselves. Many students with dyslexia set perfectionistic and 

unattainable goals. By helping the child set an attainable goal, teachers can change the cycle of failure. 

Above all, it is critical that school personnel, parents, and outside professionals working with the child with dyslexia 

communicate on an on-going basis to provide the support needed, so he or she can become a happy and successful 

student, and eventually, a happy and successful adult. 

CLASSROOM STRATEGIES, TIPS AND TOOLS 

Schools can implement academic accommodations and modifications to help students with dyslexia succeed. For 

example, a student with dyslexia can be given extra time to complete tasks, help with taking notes, and work 

assignments that are modified appropriately. Teachers can give taped tests or allow students with dyslexia to use 

alternative means of assessment. Students can benefit from listening to books on tape and using text reading and word 

processing computer programs. 

Teaching students with dyslexia across settings is challenging. Both general education and special education teachers 

seek accommodations that foster the learning and management of a class of heterogeneous learners. It is important to 

identify accommodations that are reasonable to ask of teachers in all classroom settings. The following 

accommodations provide a framework for helping students with learning problems achieve in general education and 

special education classrooms. They are organized according to accommodations involving materials, interactive 

instruction, and student performance. 

Accommodations Involving Materials 

Students spend a large portion of the school day interacting with materials. Most instructional materials give teachers 

few activities or directions for teaching a large class of students who learn at different rates and in various ways. This 

section provides material accommodations that enhance the learning of diverse students. Frequently, 

paraprofessionals, volunteers, and students can help develop and implement various accommodations. Material 

accommodations include the following: 

 

 

Clarify or simplify written directions. Some directions are written in paragraph form and contain many 

units of information. These can be overwhelming to some students. The teacher can help by underlining or 

highlighting the significant parts of the directions. Rewriting the directions is often helpful. 

Present a small amount of work. The teacher can tear pages from workbooks and materials to present 

small assignments to students who are anxious about the amount of work to be done. This technique 

prevents students from examining an entire workbook, text, or material and becoming discouraged by the 

amount of work. 

7

Block out extraneous stimuli. If a student is easily distracted by visual stimuli on a full worksheet or page, 

a blank sheet of paper can be used to cover sections of the page not being worked on at the time. Also, 

line markers can be used to aid reading, and windows can be used to display individual math problems. 

Additionally, using larger font sizes and increasing spacing can help separate sections. 

Highlight essential information. If an adolescent can read a regular textbook but has difficulty finding the 

essential information, the teacher can mark this information with a highlight pen. 

Use a placeholder in consumable material. In consumable materials in which students progress 

sequentially (such as workbooks), the student can make a diagonal cut across the lower right-hand corner 

of the pages as they are completed. With all the completed pages cut, the student and teacher can readily 

locate the next page that needs to be corrected or completed. 

Provide additional practice activities. Some materials do not provide enough practice activities for 

students with learning problems to acquire mastery on selected skills. Teachers then must supplement the 

material with practice activities. Recommended practice exercises include instructional games, peer 

teaching activities, self-correcting materials, computer software programs, and additional worksheets. 

Provide a glossary in content areas. Students often benefit from a glossary of content-related terms. 

Develop reading guides. A reading guide helps the reader understand the main ideas and sort out the 

numerous details related to the main ideas. A reading guide can be developed paragraph-by-paragraph, 

page-by-page, or section-by-section. 

Use an audio recording device. Directions, stories, and specific lessons can be recorded. The student can 

replay the tape to clarify understanding of directions or concepts. Also, to improve reading skills, the 

student can read the printed words silently as they are presented on tape. 

Use of assistive technology. Assistive technology products such as tablets, electronic readers/dictionaries/ 

spellers, text to speech programs, audio books, and more can be very useful tools. 

Accommodations Involving Interactive Instruction 

The task of gaining students’ attention and engaging them for a period of time requires many teaching and managing 

skills. Teaching and interactions should provide successful learning experiences for each student. Some 

accommodations to enhance successful interactive instructional activities are: 

 

 

Use explicit teaching procedures. Many commercial materials do not cue teachers to use explicit teaching 

procedures; thus, the teacher often must adapt a material to include these procedures. Teachers can 

include explicit teaching steps within their lessons (i.e., present an advanced organizer, demonstrate the 

skill, provide guided practice, offer corrective feedback, set up independent practice, monitor practice, and 

review). 

Repeat directions. Students who have difficulty following directions are often helped by asking them to 

repeat the directions in their own words. The student can repeat the directions to a peer when the teacher 

is unavailable. If directions contain several steps, break down the directions into subsets. Simplify 

directions by presenting only one portion at a time and by writing each portion on the chalkboard as well 

8

as stating it orally. When using written directions, be sure that students are able to read and understand 

the words as well as comprehend the meaning of sentences. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Maintain daily routines. Many students with learning problems need the structure of daily routines to 

know and do what is expected. 

Provide a copy of lesson notes. The teacher can give a copy of lesson notes to students who have difficulty 

taking notes during presentations. 

Provide students with a graphic organizer. An outline, chart, or blank web can be given to students to fill 

in during presentations. This helps students listen for key information and see the relationships among 

concepts and related information. 

Use step-by-step instruction. New or difficult information can be presented in small sequential steps. This 

helps learners with limited prior knowledge who need explicit or part-to-whole instruction. 

Simultaneously combine verbal and visual information. Verbal information can be provided with visual 

displays (e.g., on an overhead or handout). 

Write key points or words on the chalkboard/whiteboard. Prior to a presentation, the teacher can write 

new vocabulary words and key points on the chalkboard/whiteboard. 

Use balanced presentations and activities. An effort should be made to balance oral presentations with 

visual information and participatory activities. Also, there should be a balance between large group, small 

group, and individual activities. 

Use mnemonic instruction. Mnemonic devices can be used to help students remember key information or 

steps in a learning strategy. 

Emphasize daily review. Daily review of previous learning or lessons can help students connect new 

information with prior knowledge. 

Accommodations Involving Student Performance 

Students vary significantly in their ability to respond in different modes. For example, students vary in their ability to 

give oral presentations; participate in discussions; write letters and numbers; write paragraphs; draw objects; spell; 

work in noisy or cluttered settings; and read, write, or speak at a fast pace. Moreover, students vary in their ability to 

process information presented in visual or auditory formats. The following accommodation involving mode of 

reception and expression can be used to enhance students’ performance: 

 

 

Change response mode. For students who have difficulty with fine motor responses (such as handwriting), 

the response mode can be changed to underlining, selecting from multiple choices, sorting, or marking. 

Students with fine motor problems can be given extra space for writing answers on worksheets or can be 

allowed to respond on individual chalkboards/whiteboards. 

Provide an outline of the lesson. An outline enables some students to follow the lesson successfully and 

make appropriate notes. Moreover, an outline helps students to see the organization of the material and 

ask timely questions. 

9

Encourage use of graphic organizers. A graphic organizer involves organizing material into a visual format. 

To develop a graphic organizer, the student can list the topic on the first line, collect and divide information 

into major headings, list all information relating to major headings on index cards, organize information 

into major areas, place information under appropriate subheadings, and place information into the 

organizer format. 

Place students close to the teacher. Students with attention problems can be seated close to the teacher, 

chalkboard/whiteboard, or work area and away from distracting sounds, materials, or objects. 

Encourage use of assignment books or calendars. Students can use calendars to record assignment due 

dates, list school related activities, record test dates, and schedule timelines for schoolwork. Students 

should set aside a special section in an assignment book or calendar for recording homework assignments. 

Have students turn lined paper vertically for math. Lined paper can be turned vertically to help students 

keep numbers in appropriate columns while computing math problems. 

Use cues to denote important items. Asterisks or bullets can denote questions or activities that count 

heavily in evaluation. This helps students spend time appropriately during tests or assignments. 

Design hierarchical worksheets. The teacher can design worksheets with problems arranged from easiest 

to hardest. Early success helps students begin to work. 

Allow use of instructional aids. Students can be provided with letter and number strips to help them write 

correctly. Number lines, counters, calculators, and other assistive technology can help students compute 

once they understand the mathematical operations. 

Display work samples. Samples of completed assignments can be displayed to help students realize 

expectations and plan accordingly. 

Use peer-mediated learning. The teacher can pair peers of different ability levels to review their notes, 

study for a test, read aloud to each other, write stories, or conduct laboratory experiments. Also, a partner 

can read math problems for students with reading problems to solve. 

Use flexible work times. Students who work slowly can be given additional time to complete written 

assignments. 

Provide additional practice. Students require different amounts of practice to master skills or content. 

Many students with learning problems need additional practice to learn at a fluency level. 

Use assignment substitutions or adjustments. Students can be allowed to complete projects instead of 

oral reports or vice versa. Also, tests can be given in oral or written format. 

10

EFFECTIVE READING INSTRUCTION 

Early identification and treatment is the key to helping individuals with dyslexia achieve in school and in life. Most 

people with dyslexia need help from a teacher, tutor, or therapist specially trained in a structured literacy approach. 

Many individuals with dyslexia need one-on-one help so that they can move forward at their own pace. In addition, 

students with dyslexia often need a great deal of structured practice and immediate, corrective feedback to develop 

automatic word recognition skills. For students with dyslexia, it is helpful if their outside academic therapists work 

closely with classroom teachers. 

What is a Structured Literacy approach? 

Structured Literacy instruction is marked by several elements: 

Phonology. Phonology is the study of sound structure of spoken words and is a critical element of Structured 

Language instruction. Phonological awareness includes rhyming, counting words in spoken sentence, and clapping 

syllables in spoken words. An important aspect of phonological awareness is phonemic awareness or the ability to 

segment words into their component sounds, which are called phonemes. A phoneme is the smallest unit of sound in a 

given language that can be recognized as being distinct from other sounds in the language. For example, the 

word cap has three phonemes (/k/, /ă/, /p/), and the word clasp has five phonemes (/k/, /l/, /ă/, /s/, /p/). 

Sound-Symbol Association. Once students have developed the awareness of phonemes of spoken language, they must 

learn how to map the phonemes to symbols or printed letters. Sound-symbol association must be taught and mastered 

in two directions: visual to auditory (reading) and auditory to visual (spelling). Additionally, students must master the 

blending of sounds and letters into words as well as the segmenting of whole words into the individual sounds. The 

instruction of sound-symbol associations is often referred to as phonics. Although phonics is a component of Structured 

Literacy, it is embedded within a rich and deep language context. 

Syllable Instruction. A syllable is a unit of oral or written language with one vowel sound. Instruction includes teaching 

of the six basic syllable types in the English language: closed, vowel-consonant-e, open, consonant-le, r-controlled, and 

vowel pair. Knowledge of syllable types is an important organizing idea. By knowing the syllable type, the reader can 

better determine the sound of the vowel in the syllable. Syllable division rules heighten the reader’s awareness of 

where a long, unfamiliar word may be divided for great accuracy in reading the word. 

Morphology. A morpheme is the smallest unit of meaning in the language. The Structured Literacy curriculum includes 

the study of base words, roots, prefixes, and suffixes. The word instructor, for example, is contains the root struct, 

which means to build, the prefix in, which means in or into, and the suffix or, which means one who. An instructor is 

one who builds knowledge in his or her students. 

Syntax. Syntax is the set of principles that dictate the sequence and function of words in a sentence in order to convey 

meaning. This includes grammar, sentence variation, and the mechanics of language. 

Semantics. Semantics is that aspect of language concerned with meaning. The curriculum (from the beginning) must 

include instruction in the comprehension of written language. 

Structured Literacy is distinctive in the principles that guide how critical elements are taught: 

Systematic and Cumulative. Structured Literacy instruction is systematic and cumulative. Systematic means that the 

organization of material follows the logical order of the language. The sequence must begin with the easiest and most 

basic concepts and elements and progress methodically to more difficult concepts and elements. Cumulative means 

each step must be based on concepts previously learned. 

11

Explicit Instruction. Structured Literacy instruction requires the deliberate teaching of all concepts with continuous 

student-teacher interaction. It is not assumed that students will naturally deduce these concepts on their own. 

Diagnostic Teaching. The teacher must be adept at individualized instruction. That is instruction that meets a student’s 

needs. The instruction is based on careful and continuous assessment, both informally (for example, observation) and 

formally (for example, with standardized measures. The content presented must be mastered to the degree of 

automaticity. Automaticity is critical to freeing all the student’s attention and cognitive resources for comprehension 

and expression. 

SCREENING, EVALUATION, AND DIAGNOSIS 

Early identification and intervention with students who show the warning signs of dyslexia are critically important for 

better outcomes later on. Researchers have identified the specific skill weaknesses that predict later reading 

difficulties, making early testing, identification, and remediation possible. For most children, problems can be 

remediated with programs at the kindergarten and first-grade levels that take about 30-45 minutes per day. 

Before second grade, it is more important to focus an evaluation on the precursors of reading development. Measures 

of language skills, phonological awareness, memory, and rapid naming are more suggestive of being at-risk for dyslexia 

among young children than are measures of word reading, decoding, and spelling. Therefore, measures of phonological 

awareness, memory, and rapid naming are typically included in Kindergarten and beginning first grade screening tests 

that can identify children who need targeted intervention to improve these critical skills so these children can meet 

grade- level benchmarks. 

How is dyslexia diagnosed? 

A comprehensive evaluation typically includes intellectual and academic achievement testing, as well as an assessment 

of the critical underlying language skills that are closely linked to dyslexia. These include receptive (listening) and 

expressive language skills, phonological skills including phonemic awareness, and also a student’s ability to rapidly 

name letters and names. A student’s ability to read lists of words in isolation, as well as words in context, should also 

be assessed. If a profile emerges that is characteristic of readers with dyslexia, an individualized intervention plan 

should be developed, which should include appropriate accommodations, such as extended time. The testing can be 

conducted by trained school or outside specialists. 

Why is evaluation important? 

An evaluation is the process of gathering information to identify the factors contributing to a student’s difficulty with 

learning to read and spell. First, information is gathered from parents and teachers to understand development and 

the educational opportunities that have been provided. Then, tests are given to identify strengths and weaknesses that 

lead to a diagnosis and a tentative road map for intervention. Conclusions and recommendations are developed and 

reported. 

When should a child be evaluated? 

It is possible to identify potential reading problems in young children even before the problems turn into reading 

failure. Screenings should be used with all children in a school, beginning in kindergarten, to locate those students who 

12

are “at risk” for reading difficulty. Preventive intervention should begin immediately, even if dyslexia is suspected. How 

the child responds to supplementary instruction will help determine if special education services are justified and 

necessary. 

There are numerous types of screeners; one simple one we recommend is the Colorado Learning Disabilities 

Questionnaire – Reading Subscale (CLDQ-R) School Age Screener. If the risk factors are present, teachers should follow 

the protocols set-up within their school’s policies to meet with parents regarding further evaluation. 

The Colorado Learning Disabilities Questionnaire – Reading Subscale (CLDQ-R) is a screening tool designed to measure 

risk of reading disability (i.e. dyslexia) in school-age children (Willcutt et al., 2011). Normative scores for this 

questionnaire were developed based on parent-reports of their 6-to-18- year- old children, as well as actual reading 

testing of these children. Willcutt, et al. (2011) found that the CLDQ-R is reliable and valid. It is important to note that 

the CLDQ-R is only a screener and does not constitute a formal evaluation or diagnosis. 

School Age Dyslexia Screener – CLDQ-R 

Please read each statement and decide how well it describes the child. Mark your answer by circling the appropriate 

number. Please do not leave any statement unmarked. 

Scoring Instructions: 

Add up the circled numbers and record that as the Total Score _______________ 

The following cutoffs apply: 

Never/ 

not at all 

Rarely/ 

a little 

Sometimes 

Frequently/ 

quite a bit 

Always/ 

a great deal 

1. Has difficulty with spelling 1 2 3 4 5 

2. Has/had difficulty learning letter names 1 2 3 4 5 

3. 

Has/had difficulty learning phonics 

(sounding out words) 

1 2 3 4 5 

4. Reads slowly 1 2 3 4 5 

5. Reads below grade level 1 2 3 4 5 

6. 

Requires extra help in school because of 

problems in reading and spelling 

1 2 3 4 5 

 

 

 

Total Score 21 = Significant Risk 

See below for details for each Risk Group. 

Minimal Risk: The score indicates that there is little in the child’s developmental history to indicate that he/she is at 

risk for a reading disability (dyslexia). However, if there are concerns about the child’s reading progress, an evaluation 

with the school or a licensed child psychologist is recommended to examine the nature of these difficulties. 

13

Moderate Risk: The score indicates that there are features of the child’s developmental history (e.g. difficulty learning 

letters, required extra reading help) that may be consistent with a reading disability (dyslexia). Reading disability 

constitutes a very common learning disability, affecting approximately 5% of the United States population. Reading 

disability is characterized by slow or effortful reading, difficulty sounding out new words, and problems with spelling. If 

there are concerns about the child’s reading progress, an evaluation with the school or a licensed child psychologist is 

recommended to examine the nature of these difficulties. 

Significant Risk: The score indicates that there are several features of your child’s developmental history (e.g. difficulty 

learning letters, required extra reading help) that are consistent with a reading disability (dyslexia). Reading disability 

constitutes a very common learning disability, affecting approximately 5-10% of the United States population. Reading 

disability is characterized by slow or effortful reading, difficulty sounding out new words, and problems with spelling. 

The results of this questionnaire indicate that your child may be experiencing some or all of those symptoms. A formal 

evaluation with the school or a licensed child psychologist is strongly recommended, so that your child can get the 

reading support he/she needs, if appropriate. 

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES AND FURTHER INFORMATION 

There are a great many resources available for a deeper understanding of dyslexia, co-morbidities, treatments as well 

as specific topics including neuroscience, comprehension, fluency, other learning disabilities, response to intervention 

and much more. 

We encourage you to go to our website, www.DyslexiaIDA.org and explore a variety of information including: 

 

 

 

 

IDA Fact Sheets 

FAQs 

IDA Provider Directory 

IDA Knowledge and Practice Standards for Teachers of Reading 

There are numerous publications and books available, including those listed in the Recommended Reading for Professionals 

Fact Sheet, but here are some useful resources to get you started: 

Moats, L., & Dakin, K. (2008). Basic facts about dyslexia and other reading problems. Baltimore, MD: International 

Dyslexia Association. 

Moats, L., Dakin, K., & Joshi. R. M. (2012). Expert perspectives on interventions for reading. A collection of bestpractice 

articles from the International Dyslexia Association. Baltimore, MD: International Dyslexia Association. 

Tridas, E. (2007). From ABC to ADHD: what parents should know about dyslexia and attention problems. Baltimore, 

MD: International Dyslexia Association. 

Further, there are extraordinary workshops, conferences, and trainings available all over the United States and Canada 

hosted by IDA branches; conferences all over the world hosted by our Global Partners; and the Annual IDA Conference 

hosted by IDA Headquarters. Please go to www.DyslexiaIDA.org to find the next event near you! 

14

REFERENCES 

FAQs: is there a cure for dyslexia? (n.d.). Retrieved October 1, 2013, from IDA website, www.DyslexiaIDA.org. 

FAQs: what are the signs of dyslexia? (n.d.). Retrieved October 1, 2013, from IDA website, www.DyslexiaIDA.org. 

FAQs: are attention– deficit disorder (ADD) and attention deficit hyperactive disorder (ADHD) learning 

disabilities? (n.d.). Retrieved October 1, 2013, from IDA website, www.DyslexiaIDA.org. 

Mercer, C. (2004). Accommodating students with dyslexia in all classroom settings. 

Moats, L., & Dakin, K. (2008). Moats, L., & Dakin, K. (2008). Dyslexia basics, 1-3. Retrieved October 1, 2013, from IDA 

website, www.DyslexiaIDA.org. 

Moats, L., & Dakin, K. (2008). Basic facts about dyslexia and other reading problems. Baltimore, MD: International 

Dyslexia Association. 

School age dyslexia screener (2013, October) Retrieved October 1, 2013, from IDA website, http:www.DyslexiaIDA.org 

Shultz, J. (2013). The dyslexia-stress-anxiety connection, 1-4. Retrieved October 1, 2013, from IDA website, 

www.DyslexiaIDA.org. 

15

Page 74 of 100

Attachment C 

Ten Strategies for 

Overcoming Dyslexia 

Page 75 of 100

10 Strategies for Overcoming Dyslexia 

Would you like to have an easy to follow method for helping a child or adult overcome 

dyslexia? 

Navigating the challenges of dyslexia can be difficult for both the child and the parent. It's 

frustrating for both. 

I've seen too many lives affected by it. People who weren't able to live up to their potential. 

I've also seen many overcome it. Because it is such a life changing thing I'd like to share with 

you a simple outline for overcoming it. 

Following these simple rules will get you and your child back on track and on the path to 

overcoming dyslexia: 

1. Build Self Esteem - I mention this one first for a reason. Most people want to skip over 

this. I urge you not to. 

Depending on how long the problem has gone on the child's self esteem will have been 

damaged in some way. It's hard to gauge how much. Building self esteem during this process 

is critical. Here's why. 

A child who's self esteem has been damaged will start to undergo stress. If left unchecked 

this stress will cause all tactics to fail. The stress simply will not allow them to learn. Trying to 

push them harder will make it worse. More school work will make it worse. Dealing with this 

stress must be a part of your overall strategy. 

Here's how to do it: 

Set them up for success. Do this by working at tasks that challenge slightly but not so much 

they get frustrated. Learning should be fun.

• Frame mistakes as a part of the learning process. They are not their mistakes. 

Mistakes are simply how we learn. Nothing to be ashamed of. 

• Break exercises down into small manageable chunks. Small successes build on 

each other and build self esteem. 

• Be careful of how you praise. Improper praise can backfire. In general you want to 

praise the effort. Praising a good test score can be beneficial for some but for those 

that are already stressed it can cause more stress. This is because they now worry 

about being able to do it again. 

It's important to look at self esteem building as a part of the process. Learn how to properly 

praise, frame mistakes, setup for success, and segment work into manageable chunks. 

2. Remember that you are the parent and you know your child best. Remember you have 

the final say when it comes to your child. Here are a few pitfalls to consider: 

• Not all experts have your child's best interest in mind. Schools often have financial 

incentives to put a child on an IEP. Other experts may also have financial incentives. 

• Many experts want to argue the curability of dyslexia. They go on endless debates 

about neuroscience. Debates don't help. Doing something about it does. There are lots 

of tactics that have been shown to help. Do them and let the experts sort out why they 

work later. Don't get caught up in the debate. The truth is that despite scientific 

advances neuroscience is still in it's infancy. It is making great strides and we've 

discovered many wonderful things. But there is still much to learn. What's important is 

that you do what works. Get advice from experts for sure. Just remember you have the 

final say. 

• Remediation is not always best. Remediation can be good or bad. In general you 

want to look at remediation as an intermediate step not a permanent crutch. Use your 

judgment. 

• Some Programs are based on outdated science. Brain science has come a long 

ways in the last few years. Many popular programs are based on outdated science. 

3. Remember that a diagnosis of dyslexia is a blanket diagnosis. It does not tell you 

specifics. Every dyslexic is different. Dyslexia is a breakdown in one ore more of the building 

blocks of learning. You'll need to narrow it down to which. 

You can get a complete list of these fundamental learning skills here: 

http://www.learningsuccessblog.com/basic-skills-needed-learning

To overcome dyslexia you strengthen these fundamentals of learning. Until you start working 

on them you won't know which ones are the problem. 

To get started on understanding where the problems are you can use our dyslexia test. That 

will get you started. Once you do that you'll want to dive deeper into the problem by doing 

exercises that develop each of these foundational learning skills. You'll know when you have 

hit a problem area. You can download the test here: 

http://www.learningsuccessblog.com/dyslexia-test-0 

4. Start with the eye muscles. One of the most common and easiest things to fix is visual 

tracking. This problem is often caused by weak eye muscles. There are plenty of easy eye 

exercises that help fix this. 

5. Build up learning capacity. As you do exercises to build the fundamental learning skills 

you'll also want to build the students learning capacity. You do this through what is called 

neuroplasticity. 

Neuroplasticity is the brains ability to grow new neurons. This only happens under certain 

conditions. Neuroplasticity occurs when a child learns to coordinate their body in new ways 

while doing physical exercise. The combination of exercise, and the processing needed to 

learn new ways of moving, cause new neurons to grow. This increases the capacity to learn. 

The best exercise we know of for causing this is a martial art called Shou' Shu'. You can find 

online children's Shou' Shu' classes here: 

http://www.learnmartialartsathome.com/ 

6. Balance the brain hemispheres. Most children with dyslexia are cross dominant. They 

are also very typically right brain dominant. Both of these situations can be remedied by 

exercises that cross the midline. There are many many exercises which do this in different 

ways. All are helpful in balancing the hemispheres. Shou' Shu' is also very effective for 

balancing and connecting the hemispheres. 

7. Don't forget physical fitness. There is a strong correlation between core body strength, 

cardiovascular fitness, and learning. Science doesn't know all of the reasons why, but the 

correlation is too strong to ignore. So don't forget physical fitness. 

8. Make sure to vary the exercises. Science has recently found that doing brain exercises 

only helps if you mix them up. If you don't mix them up the skills get compartmentalized. If you 

mix them up the skills get generalized and are applied to other types of learning. So make 

sure to do lots of different exercises. Mix it up. 

9. Don't forget handwriting. Cursive writing is becoming a lost skill. Schools are dropping it 

from their curriculum. This is a mistake. The flowing motion of cursive handwriting is very 

effective for connecting the eyes, brain, and hand. These are critical skills. Tactile learning is 

essential. Many successful people will tell you that when they brainstorm or plan they have to 

"go analog". Handwriting is important for learning and thinking. 

10. Don't forget Auditory skills. Just a few years ago science discovered that there is a 

huge auditory component to dyslexia. Most dyslexics will be weak in fundamental skills such

as auditory discrimination or auditory memory. This will affect reading and reading 

comprehension. Work the auditory skills. 

Keep these 10 things in mind as you work your way through overcoming dyslexia. If you 

would like a complete system that includes all of these tactics in a step by step easy to do at 

home program you can get it here: 

http://www.learningsuccessblog.com/dyslexia-learning-success-course 

I hope this helps you and your child get on the path to overcoming dyslexia and living up to 

their full potential. 

Liz Weaver 

Learning Success 

www.learningsuccessblog.com

Page 76 of 100


Page 77 of 100


The e-Advocate Quarterly 

Page 78 of 100

Issue Title Quarterly 

Vol. I 2015 The Fundamentals 

I 

The ComeUnity ReEngineering 

Project Initiative 

Q-1 2015 

II The Adolescent Law Group Q-2 2015 

III 

Landmark Cases in US 

Juvenile Justice (PA) 

Q-3 2015 

IV The First Amendment Project Q-4 2015 

Vol. II 2016 Strategic Development 

V The Fourth Amendment Project Q-1 2016 

VI 


Juvenile Justice (NJ) 

Q-2 2016 

VII Youth Court Q-3 2016 

VIII 

The Economic Consequences of Legal 

Decision-Making 

Q-4 2016 

Vol. III 2017 Sustainability 

IX The Sixth Amendment Project Q-1 2017 

X 

The Theological Foundations of 

US Law & Government 

Q-2 2017 

XI The Eighth Amendment Project Q-3 2017 

XII 

The EB-5 Investor 

Immigration Project* 

Q-4 2017 

Vol. IV 2018 Collaboration 

XIII Strategic Planning Q-1 2018 

XIV 

The Juvenile Justice 

Legislative Reform Initiative 

Q-2 2018 

XV The Advocacy Foundation Coalition Q-3 2018 

Page 79 of 100

XVI 

for Drug-Free Communities 


Juvenile Justice (GA) 

Q-4 2018 

Page 80 of 100


Vol. V 2019 Organizational Development 

XVII The Board of Directors Q-1 2019 

XVIII The Inner Circle Q-2 2019 

XIX Staff & Management Q-3 2019 

XX Succession Planning Q-4 2019 

XXI The Budget* Bonus #1 

XXII Data-Driven Resource Allocation* Bonus #2 

Vol. VI 2020 Missions 

XXIII Critical Thinking Q-1 2020 

XXIV 

The Advocacy Foundation 

Endowments Initiative Project 

Q-2 2020 

XXV International Labor Relations Q-3 2020 

XXVI Immigration Q-4 2020 

Vol. VII 2021 Community Engagement 

XXVII 

The 21 st Century Charter Schools 

Initiative 

Q-1 2021 

XXVIII The All-Sports Ministry @ ... Q-2 2021 

XXIX Lobbying for Nonprofits Q-3 2021 

XXX 

XXXI 

Advocacy Foundation Missions - 

Domestic 

Advocacy Foundation Missions - 

International 

Q-4 2021 

Bonus 

Page 81 of 100

Vol. VIII 

2022 ComeUnity ReEngineering 

XXXII 

The Creative & Fine Arts Ministry 

@ The Foundation 

Q-1 2022 

XXXIII The Advisory Council & Committees Q-2 2022 

XXXIV 

The Theological Origins 

of Contemporary Judicial Process 

Q-3 2022 

XXXV The Second Chance Ministry @ ... Q-4 2022 

Vol. IX 2023 Legal Reformation 

XXXVI The Fifth Amendment Project Q-1 2023 

XXXVII The Judicial Re-Engineering Initiative Q-2 2023 

XXXVIII 

The Inner-Cities Strategic 

Revitalization Initiative 

Q-3 2023 

XXXVIX Habeas Corpus Q-4 2023 

Vol. X 2024 ComeUnity Development 

XXXVX 

The Inner-City Strategic 

Revitalization Plan 

Q-1 2024 

XXXVXI The Mentoring Initiative Q-2 2024 

XXXVXII The Violence Prevention Framework Q-3 2024 

XXXVXIII The Fatherhood Initiative Q-4 2024 

Vol. XI 2025 Public Interest 

XXXVXIV Public Interest Law Q-1 2025 

L (50) Spiritual Resource Development Q-2 2025 

Page 82 of 100

LI 

Nonprofit Confidentiality 

In The Age of Big Data 

Q-3 2025 

LII Interpreting The Facts Q-4 2025 

Vol. XII 2026 Poverty In America 

LIII 

American Poverty 

In The New Millennium 

Q-1 2026 

LIV Outcome-Based Thinking Q-2 2026 

LV Transformational Social Leadership Q-3 2026 

LVI The Cycle of Poverty Q-4 2026 

Vol. XIII 2027 Raising Awareness 

LVII ReEngineering Juvenile Justice Q-1 2027 

LVIII Corporations Q-2 2027 

LVIX The Prison Industrial Complex Q-3 2027 

LX Restoration of Rights Q-4 2027 

Vol. XIV 2028 Culturally Relevant Programming 

LXI Community Culture Q-1 2028 

LXII Corporate Culture Q-2 2028 

LXIII Strategic Cultural Planning Q-3 2028 

LXIV 

The Cross-Sector/ Coordinated 

Service Approach to Delinquency 

Prevention 

Q-4 2028 

Page 83 of 100

Vol. XV 2029 Inner-Cities Revitalization 

LXIV 

LXV 

LXVI 

Part I – Strategic Housing 

Revitalization 

(The Twenty Percent Profit Margin) 

Part II – Jobs Training, Educational 

Redevelopment 

and Economic Empowerment 

Part III - Financial Literacy 

and Sustainability 

Q-1 2029 

Q-2 2029 

Q-3 2029 

LXVII Part IV – Solutions for Homelessness Q-4 2029 

LXVIII 

The Strategic Home Mortgage 

Initiative 

Bonus 

Vol. XVI 2030 Sustainability 

LXVIII Social Program Sustainability Q-1 2030 

LXIX 

The Advocacy Foundation 

Endowments Initiative 

Q-2 2030 

LXX Capital Gains Q-3 2030 

LXXI Sustainability Investments Q-4 2030 

Vol. XVII 2031 The Justice Series 

LXXII Distributive Justice Q-1 2031 

LXXIII Retributive Justice Q-2 2031 

LXXIV Procedural Justice Q-3 2031 

LXXV (75) Restorative Justice Q-4 2031 

LXXVI Unjust Legal Reasoning Bonus 

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Vol. XVIII 2032 Public Policy 

LXXVII Public Interest Law Q-1 2032 

LXXVIII Reforming Public Policy Q-2 2032 

LXXVIX ... Q-3 2032 

LXXVX ... Q-4 2032 

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The e-Advocate Monthly Review 

2018 

Transformational Problem Solving January 2018 

The Advocacy Foundation February 2018 

Opioid Initiative 

Native-American Youth March 2018 

In the Juvenile Justice System 

Barriers to Reducing Confinement April 2018 

Latino and Hispanic Youth May 2018 


Social Entrepreneurship June 2018 

African-American Youth July 2018 


Gang Deconstruction August 2018 

Social Impact Investing September 2018 

Opportunity Youth: October 2018 

Disenfranchised Young People 

The Economic Impact of Social November 2018 

of Social Programs Development 

Gun Control December 2018 

2019 

The U.S. Stock Market January 2019 

Prison-Based Gerrymandering February 2019 

Literacy-Based Prison Construction March 2019 

Children of Incarcerated Parents April 2019 

African-American Youth in The May 2019 

Juvenile Justice System 

Page 86 of 100

Racial Profiling June 2019 

Mass Collaboration July 2019 

Concentrated Poverty August 2019 

De-Industrialization September 2019 

Overcoming Dyslexia October 2019 

Page 87 of 100

The e-Advocate Quarterly 

Special Editions 

Crowdfunding Winter-Spring 2017 

Social Media for Nonprofits October 2017 

Mass Media for Nonprofits November 2017 

The Opioid Crisis in America: January 2018 

Issues in Pain Management 

The Opioid Crisis in America: February 2018 

The Drug Culture in the U.S. 

The Opioid Crisis in America: March 2018 

Drug Abuse Among Veterans 

The Opioid Crisis in America: April 2018 

Drug Abuse Among America’s 

Teens 

The Opioid Crisis in America: May 2018 

Alcoholism 

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The e-Advocate Journal 

of Theological Jurisprudence 

Vol. I - 2017 

The Theological Origins of Contemporary Judicial Process 

Scriptural Application to The Model Criminal Code 

Scriptural Application for Tort Reform 

Scriptural Application to Juvenile Justice Reformation 

Vol. II - 2018 

Scriptural Application for The Canons of Ethics 

Scriptural Application to Contracts Reform 

& The Uniform Commercial Code 

Scriptural Application to The Law of Property 

Scriptural Application to The Law of Evidence 

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Legal Missions International 

Page 90 of 100


Vol. I 2015 

I 

II 

God’s Will and The 21 st Century 

Democratic Process 

The Community 

Engagement Strategy 

Q-1 2015 

Q-2 2015 

III Foreign Policy Q-3 2015 

IV 

Public Interest Law 

in The New Millennium 

Q-4 2015 

Vol. II 2016 

V Ethiopia Q-1 2016 

VI Zimbabwe Q-2 2016 

VII Jamaica Q-3 2016 

VIII Brazil Q-4 2016 

Vol. III 2017 

IX India Q-1 2017 

X Suriname Q-2 2017 

XI The Caribbean Q-3 2017 

XII United States/ Estados Unidos Q-4 2017 

Vol. IV 2018 

XIII Cuba Q-1 2018 

XIV Guinea Q-2 2018 

XV Indonesia Q-3 2018 

XVI Sri Lanka Q-4 2018 

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Vol. V 2019 

XVII Russia Q-1 2019 

XVIII Australia Q-2 2019 

XIV South Korea Q-3 2019 

XV Puerto Rico Q-4 2019 


Vol. VI 2020 

XVI Trinidad & Tobago Q-1 2020 

XVII Egypt Q-2 2020 

XVIII Sierra Leone Q-3 2020 

XIX South Africa Q-4 2020 

XX Israel Bonus 

Vol. VII 2021 

XXI Haiti Q-1 2021 

XXII Peru Q-2 2021 

XXIII Costa Rica Q-3 2021 

XXIV China Q-4 2021 

XXV Japan Bonus 

Vol VIII 2022 

XXVI Chile Q-1 2022 

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The e-Advocate Juvenile Justice Report 

______ 

Vol. I – Juvenile Delinquency in The US 

Vol. II. – The Prison Industrial Complex 

Vol. III – Restorative/ Transformative Justice 

Vol. IV – The Sixth Amendment Right to The Effective Assistance of Counsel 

Vol. V – The Theological Foundations of Juvenile Justice 

Vol. VI – Collaborating to Eradicate Juvenile Delinquency 

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The e-Advocate Newsletter 

Genesis of The Problem 

Family Structure 

Societal Influences 

Evidence-Based Programming 

Strengthening Assets v. Eliminating Deficits 

2012 - Juvenile Delinquency in The US 

Introduction/Ideology/Key Values 

Philosophy/Application & Practice 

Expungement & Pardons 

Pardons & Clemency 

Examples/Best Practices 

2013 - Restorative Justice in The US 

2014 - The Prison Industrial Complex 

25% of the World's Inmates Are In the US 

The Economics of Prison Enterprise 

The Federal Bureau of Prisons 

The After-Effects of Incarceration/Individual/Societal 

The Fourth Amendment Project 

The Sixth Amendment Project 

The Eighth Amendment Project 

The Adolescent Law Group 

2015 - US Constitutional Issues In The New Millennium 

Page 94 of 100

2018 - The Theological Law Firm Academy 

The Theological Foundations of US Law & Government 

The Economic Consequences of Legal Decision-Making 

The Juvenile Justice Legislative Reform Initiative 

The EB-5 International Investors Initiative 

2017 - Organizational Development 

The Board of Directors 

The Inner Circle 

Staff & Management 

Succession Planning 

Bonus #1 The Budget 

Bonus #2 Data-Driven Resource Allocation 

2018 - Sustainability 

The Data-Driven Resource Allocation Process 

The Quality Assurance Initiative 

The Advocacy Foundation Endowments Initiative 

The Community Engagement Strategy 

2019 - Collaboration 

Critical Thinking for Transformative Justice 

International Labor Relations 

Immigration 

God's Will & The 21st Century Democratic Process 

The Community Engagement Strategy 

The 21st Century Charter Schools Initiative 

2020 - Community Engagement 

Page 95 of 100

Extras 

The Nonprofit Advisors Group Newsletters 

The 501(c)(3) Acquisition Process 

The Board of Directors 

The Gladiator Mentality 

Strategic Planning 

Fundraising 

501(c)(3) Reinstatements 

The Collaborative US/ International Newsletters 

How You Think Is Everything 

The Reciprocal Nature of Business Relationships 

Accelerate Your Professional Development 

The Competitive Nature of Grant Writing 

Assessing The Risks 

Page 96 of 100

Page 97 of 100

About The Author 

John C (Jack) Johnson III 

Founder & CEO 

Jack was educated at Temple University, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Rutgers 

Law School, in Camden, New Jersey. In 1999, he moved to Atlanta, Georgia to pursue 

greater opportunities to provide Advocacy and Preventive Programmatic services for atrisk/ 

at-promise young persons, their families, and Justice Professionals embedded in the 

Juvenile Justice process in order to help facilitate its transcendence into the 21 st Century. 

There, along with a small group of community and faith-based professionals, “The Advocacy Foundation, Inc." was conceived 

and developed over roughly a thirteen year period, originally chartered as a Juvenile Delinquency Prevention and Educational 

Support Services organization consisting of Mentoring, Tutoring, Counseling, Character Development, Community Change 

Management, Practitioner Re-Education & Training, and a host of related components. 

The Foundation’s Overarching Mission is “To help Individuals, Organizations, & Communities Achieve Their Full Potential”, by 

implementing a wide array of evidence-based proactive multi-disciplinary "Restorative & Transformative Justice" programs & 

projects currently throughout the northeast, southeast, and western international-waters regions, providing prevention and support 

services to at-risk/ at-promise youth, to young adults, to their families, and to Social Service, Justice and Mental 

Health professionals” everywhere. The Foundation has since relocated its headquarters to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and been 

expanded to include a three-tier mission. 

In addition to his work with the Foundation, Jack also served as an Adjunct Professor of Law & Business at National-Louis 

University of Atlanta (where he taught Political Science, Business & Legal Ethics, Labor & Employment Relations, and Critical 

Thinking courses to undergraduate and graduate level students). Jack has also served as Board President for a host of wellestablished 

and up & coming nonprofit organizations throughout the region, including “Visions Unlimited Community 

Development Systems, Inc.”, a multi-million dollar, award-winning, Violence Prevention and Gang Intervention Social Service 

organization in Atlanta, as well as Vice-Chair of the Georgia/ Metropolitan Atlanta Violence Prevention Partnership, a state-wide 

300 organizational member, violence prevention group led by the Morehouse School of Medicine, Emory University and The 

Original, Atlanta-Based, Martin Luther King Center. 

Attorney Johnson’s prior accomplishments include a wide-array of Professional Legal practice areas, including Private Firm, 

Corporate and Government postings, just about all of which yielded significant professional awards & accolades, the history and 

chronology of which are available for review online. Throughout his career, Jack has served a wide variety of for-profit 

corporations, law firms, and nonprofit organizations as Board Chairman, Secretary, Associate, and General Counsel since 1990. 

www.TheAdvocacyFoundation.org 

Clayton County Youth Services Partnership, Inc. – Chair; Georgia Violence Prevention Partnership, Inc – Vice Chair; Fayette 

County NAACP - Legal Redress Committee Chairman; Clayton County Fatherhood Initiative Partnership – Principal 

Investigator; Morehouse School of Medicine School of Community Health Feasibility Study - Steering Committee; Atlanta 

Violence Prevention Capacity Building Project – Project Partner; Clayton County Minister’s Conference, President 2006-2007; 

Liberty In Life Ministries, Inc. – Board Secretary; Young Adults Talk, Inc. – Board of Directors; ROYAL, Inc - Board of 

Directors; Temple University Alumni Association; Rutgers Law School Alumni Association; Sertoma International; Our 

Common Welfare Board of Directors – President)2003-2005; River’s Edge Elementary School PTA (Co-President); Summerhill 

Community Ministries; Outstanding Young Men of America; Employee of the Year; Academic All-American - Basketball; 

Church Trustee. 

Page 98 of 100

www.TheAdvocacyFoundation.org 

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