According to Lovett et al [6], “Two decades of research have indicated that there was a small set of core deficits in speech and language development and in more global processing abilities that characterized most of the children with reading disabilities.”
They describe the two core deficits as follows:
- Phonological awareness and phonological processing: This affects students’ ability to work with the sounds of spoken language.
- Word identification: When students are not able automatically break words into smaller letter groupings, they struggle with decoding and accurate, fluent word identification.
Dyslexia
Dyslexia is a term that educators may encounter in professional reading. It is an example of a specific learning disability in the area of reading.
Explore more: Dyslexia: When Hidden Talents are Awakened.
Struggling Readers
Some students struggle with reading skills even if they have not been formally identified with a learning disability. This can affect multiple aspects of literacy, including:
- Spelling
- Word recognition
- Vocabulary development
- Comprehension.
Click here to view and download the What Does A Struggling Reader Look Like?
The Good News: Most Reading Difficulties Can Be Prevented.
Struggling readers typically experience challenges in one or more of the following areas:
- Word recognition
- Language comprehension or
- Both word recognition and language comprehension.
These skills can be taught through explicit, systematic instruction—an approach that is essential for struggling readers and beneficial for all students.
Early screening plays a critical role in identifying students who are at risk for reading difficulties. This makes it possible to provide timely intervention in word recognition and/or language comprehension.
A prevention model, where students are supported before they experience failure, requires less time, effort, and cost than a wait-to-fail model [7].
Whether a student is identified as a struggling reader or has a formally diagnosed learning disability, all students learn to read by developing the same foundational skills.
When reading instruction is science-based, systematic, explicit, and systematic, approximately 95% of students can learn to read [8].
Without evidence-based intervention strategies, reading challenges may worsen, and the gaps between struggling students and their peers can continue to grow.
Using the tiered approach to reading instruction helps educators create a more inclusive and supportive learning environment for all students.