[AAACE-NLA] Overcoming Dyslexia by Sally Shaywitz

[Thomas Sticht]

Given the recent postings regrding Sally Shaywitz' work I thought the
following book review that I first posted on the aaace-nla list last June
2003 might be worth a re-posting. Tom Sticht


Book Review

Overcoming Dyslexia: A New and Complete Science-Based Program for Reading
Problems at Any Level
by Sally Shaywitz

Currently the U. S. government has a policy of having programs for
children and adult reading instruction use scientific, evidence-based
methods of teaching reading.

Sally Shaywitz, M.D., was a member of the Reading Research Working Group
that helped pull together the information about scientific, evidence-based
adult reading instruction currently being disseminated on the National
Institute for Literacy (www.nifl.gov) Partnership For Reading web site.
She has just recently had published a new book entitled Overcoming
Dyslexia: A New and Complete Science-Based Program for Reading Problems at
Any Level (Alfred A. Knopf, 2003 - US$25.95). In the book she reviews the
history of dyslexia, she summarizes research on reading, including some of
the new research on magnetic resonance imaging that shows which parts of
the brain are most active during reading for both normal and dyslexic
readers, and she offers a considerable amount of advice about how to go
about helping dyslexics, both children and adults, overcome their reading
problems.

Repeatedly Shaywitz is careful to point out that her work and that of
others cited in the book about reading is based on scientific evidence,
and she is careful to acknowledge the support of the National Institute
for Child Health and Human Development over the years and she notes that
"For the past two decades I have been blessed by having G. Reid Lyon at my
side as my guide and companion. His leadership created the modern study of
reading and reading disability, and his uncommon vision forged the science
and public policy together as a seamless and natural whole. I am grateful
most of all for all his friendship and unfailing support; he has been like
a brother to me." This is an interesting acknowledgement of a long time
relationship with a government sponsor of research.

While I found the book chock full of interesting history and scientific
research on the brain and reading, and I would recommend it for that
alone, what has impressed me the most are the recommendations for
practice, that is, for teaching dyslexics to read and to overcome their
reading problems. Of most interest to me is that these recommendations now
have a history that are, for the most part more than 30, 40, 50 or more
years old and have little or nothing to do with the "modern study of
reading and reading disability" as defined above.

For instance, in reviewing programs suitable for dyslexic students
Shaywitz refers to programs referred to "
generically as Orton-Gillingham (after Dr. Samuel Orton and his associate,
Anna Gillingham, an approach developed as a tutorial program for
struggling readers."(p. 266). These programs have their origins in the
1920's and 30's. Among programs she reviews are the Wilson Reading System,
Spell Read P.A.T (Phonemic Analysis Training), Lindamood Phoneme
Sequencing Program (L:iPS), and similar programs that, like Orton
-Gillingham, are " highly structured and systematic, tries to engage all
the senses in learning about letters and
sounds , and typically is taught one-to-one or in small groups."

In short, there appears to me to be a considerable gap between the
scientific research on reading and dyslexia that Shaywitz reviews, and
which does help to better understand the processes and brain systems
involved in reading, and the instructional programs that are discussed to
help dyslexics overcome their problems. The latter approaches have been
known and used for decades by those trained well in the teaching of
reading. So rather than leading to innovations in the teaching of reading
for struggling readers, the contemporary research seems to be more
confirmatory of what has long been known as useful practice.

Shaywitz also recommends what reading specialists have previously referred
to as an "active reading strategy" and says, "I like to divide reading
comprehension activities into three parts: those you can do before opening
the book, those that are most helpful as the child reads, and those that
help him organize his thoughts and sum the events of the story after he
finishes reading." (p. 241) This is, of course, a modification of
Robinson's 1941 SQ3R study skills method in which before reading one
surveys the text and raises questions about what it may deal with (this
mobilizes prior knowledge), then reads and during reading recites in ones
own words what the meaning of what is being read is, and then reviews
afterwards to firmly set in mind what has been read.

Though the recommendations that Shaywitz gives for helping dyslexics read
are mostly based on earlier decades of research and study of the reading
process, they are tried and true methods of dealing with difficult reading
problems and she treats topics of vocabulary learning, fluency, and
comprehension very well, with a style of writing that relates to the
reader on a personal basis.  She also gives many good pointers for how
parents and adults can seek help for their own or their children's reading
difficulties.

While Shaywitz provides a very brief and misleading representation of
"whole language" in support of her approach to "scientific,
evidence-based" reading instruction (pp. 202-203), the book will
nonetheless return its cost for those who want to better understand
reading, reading difficulties, dyslexia, good instruction, and access to
help for struggling and /or dyslexic learners.


Tom Sticht
Tsticht at aznet.net