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Connecticut
Longitudinal Study Started
in 1983 at the Yale University School of Medicine, the Connecticut Longitudinal Study identified
445 children entering kindergarten in various Connecticut public schools
and tracked their progress for mor e
than 20 years. Ninety percent of the study's
original participants are still
involved in ongoing research to study reading disabilities in adults. The initial results of this study were published
in
the December
1999 edition of the Pediatrics journal of the American Academy of
Pediatrics.
In 2003, Dr. Sally Shaywitz,
the study's director, published her groundbreaking book Overcoming Dyslexia:
A New and Complete Science-Based Program for Reading Problems at Any Level
in which she provides a very readable, yet detailed summary of
dyslexia: its history, its neurological origins, and how to successful
diagnosis and address the disorder. While the book focuses primarily on
the phonological reading aspect of dyslexia, it is by far the most important writing to
date on this pervasive disorder.
While
the Overcoming Dyslexia provides a great amount of information, the
following points should be of great interest to the average person:
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Approximately
1 out of 5 people have dyslexia to some degree, and thus may impact
their ability to become quick, accurate, fluent readers.
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Dyslexia
can be SEEN in brain scan images using functional MRIs.
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Only
1/3 of children with reading disabilities are identified as such by
public schools.
-
Traditional
special education interventions that do not include the essential
elements needed to teach a dyslexic to read, fail to close the gap
between a dyslexic and their peers. This gap is commonly referred to
as the Matthew
Effect.
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Very
few cases of dyslexia-like reading disorders can be traced to
inadequate introduction to reading skills at an early age.
and finally:
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Research-based
programs that implement the following essential elements have been shown to provide
substantial and long-term growth in a student's ability to achieve
reading success:
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Focus
on reading fluency , not just mastery
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Focus
on phonemic awareness
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Small
Group Instruction
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Consistency
& Repetition
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For
school age children, integration with school services.
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