Dyslexia News & Updates: Parents Call For Support On Dyslexic Students

Kaiden Reynolds, a nine-year old student of Indiana was struggling to learn to read. His mother, Lynna Reynolds tried to aid the shortcomings of her son by keeping him out of the classroom that pressures him to perform at the same level with the other kids so Kaiden spent his kindergarten through homeschooling which he felt like he doesn't even have dyslexia.

"If I had them in public school or private school, I don't know that they would have been identified, at least not as early as they have been identified." Mrs. Reynolds said, as cited in the article on The Star Press.

According to a report on INDY Star, Reynolds stated that dyslexia is not recognized in Indiana's educational system that downgrading the student who has one. Third graders are required to take the statewide standardized reading test to proceed to the fourth grade. If students with dyslexia will not be identified early, they will likely fail to advance to the next grade.

Experts estimated that dyslexia impacts 1 in 5 people nationwide. It was reported to be one of the most common learning disorder affecting brain processes causing the recognition of words difficult.

In Indiana, dyslexia is not qualified for the category of special education. Instead, it is widely accepted as specific learning disability thus special services were not given.

Recently, the law presented by the movement was passed in Missouri that requires screening to every public school students for dyslexia starting in the year 2018-2019. With that, the Indiana's branch of Decoding Dyslexia led by Mary Binnion and Nancy Perry, a local parent who also have two dyslexic sons in Muncie demand the Indiana's legislators for adoption of legal definition of dyslexia in 2015.

Perry cited that not everyone with dyslexia would be considered severe enough to need special education. Also Rosie Hickle, executive director for the Dyslexia Institute of Indiana said that many kids with dyslexia are bright and engaging, so teachers don't always notice when they start to fall behind.

Mrs. Reynolds' oldest son is also dyslexic,so she took both of them for an outside teaching, which led her to Binnion's tutoring services. There, they were taught with structured literacy, a learning method that focuses on using all the senses. Eventually, Binnion, Kaiden and his brother learn more about the English Language.

Ruth Jefferson, assistant special education professor at Ball State University uttered that elementary education students are encouraged to also earn a special education certificate but not required. She also said that this is to make sure that students are provided with what they need.

"I believe we would be remiss to identify one specific program to address the needs of one category of student," Janet McShurley, director of education for the Delaware-Blackford County special education cooperative said. She also added that she doesn't necessarily think it would be helpful to require a certain structured literacy program as part of a teacher license.

Advocates like Perry refused to accept the statement. She expressed her stand on the issue that since dyslexia is so common, implementing the method would not affect the approach in the general classroom instead of just use it for the students who have been identified with special needs.