Dyslexia in Education

Major breakthroughs are helping, but there is a long way to go

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Dyslexia can severely limit student success both in the short-term, in school, but also in the long-term throughout life. One man in England who struggled with it turned his life around after discovering a video on YouTube.

One of the keys to helping kids with dyslexia is early identification and follow-up special education. A recent investigation found that “across the country, public schools are denying children proper treatment and often failing to identify them with dyslexia in the first place.”

There is a disconnect between what educators know about dyslexia and how it is treated. While more schools and districts are adding specialists to diagnose and treat affected kids, there is still a pervasive “wait and see” attitude in education.

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Kids with dyslexia used to be called slow learners and the solution to their reading problems were just to wait and see if they eventually “get it.” A lot of progress has been made in the past few decades in the research and treatment of dyslexia, but there is still a long way to go.

One aspect of the problem that is often ignored is gender. Gender inequalities are still rampant in education. Grades do not align with test scores, according to a new study. “Girls in every racial category outperform boys on reading tests, while boys score at least as well on math and science tests as girls. However, boys in all racial categories across all subject areas are not represented in grade distributions where their test scores would predict. Boys who perform equally as well as girls on reading, math and science tests are graded less favorably by their teachers, but this less favorable treatment essentially vanishes when non-cognitive skills are taken into account.”

Gender is not the only factor to consider when treating kids with reading and writing disorders, but the differences are there and can’t be ignored.

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