Parent, advocates say dyslexic students falling through cracks

Christine Inglet knew something was wrong when her daughter was in first grade and had difficulty keeping up with her class work. By second grade, the child was frequently writing letters and numbers backward, complained of headaches while trying to read and increasingly felt dejected about her studies. It wasn't until this year, however, as the girl entered third grade, that she was able to get special assistance with her education.

According to her mother, it has been too little, too late. For the past three years, Inglet says, she has been fighting to get help for her daughter's dyslexia. Inglet recently took her concerns to the Mat-Su Borough School Board where she urged the district to not only offer special classes for students suffering from dyslexia, but to also simply acknowledge dyslexia as a treatable disorder.

"Don't let these kids fall through the cracks," she told the board.

School district officials don't believe these children are falling through the cracks, however. They say it is true that they don't talk about "dyslexia" per se, calling it a layman's term that is not used in the special education field, but they argue that numerous federal requirements and district programs are designed to provide a net to catch children with a variety of reading and learning disorders.

Based on the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, the Mat-Su school district works to identify children who are suspected of having disabilities and then get them the help they need through what is called an "individualized education program" or IEP.

"Usually we want to try everything else first … We feel that is the most humanistic manner of treating children -- the least restrictive program," said Mike Melear, director of support services for the district. When efforts in the regular classroom, remedial classes or Title I programs aren't enough, however, students are then referred to a special education program where their IEPs are developed through a cooperative effort between teachers, the student and parents.

The IEP looks closely at the student's unique needs and provides an educational program designed to guide the special education services and help the student be involved in, and progress in, the general curriculum.

Last week, Inglet's daughter went through this process and now has her own IEP, which includes some of the multi-sensory teaching methods Inglet had been seeking for her daughter. But Inglet said the two years it took to get this far were two years of education lost. During that time, Inglet said, her daughter could have been keeping up with her studies if the district would have acknowledged her dyslexia and had a program such as Slingerland to target her specific problem.

Slingerland is a teaching technique designed specifically for dyslexia that includes using touch as well as hearing and seeing as a part of learning. The Slingerland approach starts with the smallest unit of sight, sound and feel -- a single letter. Expanding upon that single unit, students are taught through an approach designed to strengthen inter-sensory associations. The Anchorage School District, Inglet points out, has Slingerland classes set up specifically for children suffering from dyslexia.

"Why are the Valley children being discriminated against?" Inglet asked the Mat-Su school board earlier this month.

But according to Sen. Lyda Green, R-Mat-Su, the resistance Inglet encountered is nothing new. For more than a decade Green has had concerns about the lack of assistance for students with dyslexia in the Valley, and for many years before becoming a legislator she worked as a tutor trained in the Slingerland program.

"Legally if a district recognizes something, they have to work with it … they have to confront it," Green said. "And they definitely should be doing that. Dyslexia is one of those things that if you have the proper classroom and proper instructor and methods, you can see incredible progress."

According to dyslexia advocacy groups and teacher training programs, dyslexia is characterized by a disparity between a student's intelligence and their actual achievement in school.

"If a pupil appears to speak and listen normally, yet they are unable to read and spell, then there may be more to check out," according to the Web site for Dyslexia Teacher. "Some of the well-known symptoms of dyslexia are: confusion over the direction letters face (b/d, p/9, p/q); difficulties with left and right; difficulties with keeping organized; difficulties with spelling; difficulties with directions (e.g. east and west) …"

While a cause has not been specifically identified, places such as the Dyslexia Institute say there are strong genetic indicators, with the disorder running in families.

Once it is identified, advocates say, dyslexia cannot be cured but can be treated by using specific teaching techniques such as Slingerland.

District officials, however, say Slingerland is just one of many instruction methods and dyslexia is just one way to talk about learning disorders.

"It's basically a label, just one label, used to identify kids that have difficulty with reading or language-related academic problems," Melear said.

Instead of talking about dyslexia, Melear said, teachers and special education specialists are trained to recognize reading and other learning disabilities in students at an early age. And while some teachers may have taken classes in Slingerland or Lindamood-Bell, another teaching method, district officials say all teachers should be equipped to help students such as Inglet's daughter.

"Not all teachers have that specific knowledge, but all teachers are trained to seek out intervention strategies that will help their children," said Patricia Truman, a former Alaska Teacher of the Year who now works as a professional development coordinator for the Mat-Su school district. She said she was trained in the Slingerland method and found its multi-sensory focus to be effective, but said the true goal is to help children learn whatever way they best can.

Green and Inglet, however, say they feel the Slingerland method is the best way to address the needs of children with dyslexia and they would one day like to see the district offer such a program. While Mat-Su at one time may have been too small of a district to support a full-fledged, separate Slingerland program, Green said she doubts that is the case now.

In the meantime, Inglet said she will continue to advocate for her daughter's education within the district and is also considering hiring a private tutor with Slingerland training.