{"id":280,"date":"2020-04-23T15:41:52","date_gmt":"2020-04-23T15:41:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.learningtoolsfordyslexia.com\/?p=280"},"modified":"2020-04-23T16:08:35","modified_gmt":"2020-04-23T16:08:35","slug":"when-phonics-doesnt-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.learningtoolsfordyslexia.com\/when-phonics-doesnt-work\/","title":{"rendered":"When Phonics Doesn\u2019t Work"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Traditional tutoring for dyslexia relies on intensive instruction in phonemic awareness and the phonetic code. But such teaching is an arduous process for many students.<\/strong> Often progress is slow, relying heavily on repetition and \u201coverlearning.\u201d While basic decoding skills may improve, students may continue to lag far behind grade level, and remain hesitant and halting readers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These students have the potential to become confident and capable readers, but they do not think or learn in the same way as typically-developing readers. When provided with strategies geared to their dominant learning style, progress can be surprisingly rapid. Davis providers have documented reading improvement of six grade levels or more, within the course of a one week program \u2014 all without attempting to teach phonetic decoding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why Dyslexic Students Struggle with Phonics<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Most teachers agree that difficulty with phonetic decoding is a hallmark characteristic of dyslexia. That is the reason that most dyslexia remediation is focused so heavily on phonics. It seems to make sense to intensify instruction in the area where the student seems to struggle the most.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This teaching strategy will often work well for students whose reading delays stem from poor preparation or inadequate exposure to reading before entering school. But children with dyslexia are often labeled as treatment \u201cresisters,\u201d as they do not seem to progress with even the most intensive and careful instruction. Researchers report that that 30-50% of children with learning disabilities fit this category.2<\/sup><\/a> 3<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The failure to respond to traditional intervention is so common among dyslexic students that it is now accepted as a valid alternative to formal diagnostic testing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course, these children are not willfully \u201cresisting\u201d anything. They struggle with phonetic strategies because their brains are wired differently. They simply are not able to categorize the sounds of language or connect sound to meaning in the same way as other students. Researchers now know that this difference is probably inborn and can be detected in early infancy.5<\/sup><\/a> 6<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Additionally, research suggests that about 15% of children with dyslexia do not have the characteristic difficulties with phonics. Rather, if tested and diagnosed, they will be found to have a different subtype of dyslexia. They do well on tests of phonetic decoding, but have difficulty with irregular words, indicating a visual or surface type dyslexia. Phonics-based teaching won\u2019t help that group because their reading barriers lie elsewhere. Almost two-thirds of children seem to have a mix of both types of dyslexia; for them, at best, phonetic instruction is only a partial solution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How Dyslexic Students Can Become Confident Readers<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Despite early difficulties with reading, some dyslexic children become proficient readers as teenagers or young adults. Brain scientists who have studied these late-blooming readers have found a surprising but consistent pattern. The dyslexic students who become good readers develop alternative mental strategies, relying more heavily on right hemisphere and frontal regions of their brains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One long-term study of teenagers found that development of such \u201ccompensatory\u201d brain pathways was the only distinguishing characteristic that could accurately predict which students would later become capable readers.10<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In short, dyslexic students become good readers when they learn to use mental strategies other than phonetic decoding to gain reading proficiency. These strategies build upon the natural abilities of the students, teaching them to harness their strengths and use them to become accurate and efficient readers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How the Davis Program Works<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The Davis approach does not explicitly teach phonetic decoding strategies, but it provides intensive, short-term guidance and practice in just about every other area that may create barriers for dyslexic students. These strategies include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n