Wisconsin Turns Up the Discussion on Dyslexia in Students

Tuesday, May 23rd, 2023 -- 12:00 PM

(By AnnMarie Hilton, Appleton Post-Crescent) As early as kindergarten, Robin Pierre started to notice that her daughter, Hattie, was falling behind.

According to AnnMarie Hilton with the Appleton Post-Crescent, she wasn’t able to read the books they were sending home, despite being in a charter school known for its focus on literacy. Hattie started working with a reading interventionist during kindergarten and throughout first grade.

But then her behavior started to escalate. She'd hide under desks and run out of the classroom. She was moved to another charter school for second grade, one focused on play-based learning and field trips in hopes that environment would better suit her.

All this time, Hattie’s trouble with reading persisted. Pierre asked to have her evaluated for special education. Hattie was assessed; but when Pierre asked questions about dyslexia, she said the school told her they don’t acknowledge dyslexia without a diagnosis, and that could only come from brain imaging.

"It was a fight at first," Pierre said. Dyslexia looks different for each person who has it. It’s a neurobiological learning disability that can make it difficult for people to decode words and read fluently.

People with dyslexia may struggle with spelling and reading comprehension as a result of their challenge matching letters to their corresponding sounds. The International Dyslexia Association estimates that as many as one in five people could have symptoms of dyslexia, ranging in severity.

Often, people assume that dyslexia is just mixing up letters such as "b" and "d." It can be that for some people, Pierre said Hattie experienced that, but it’s not the only symptom. For example, people with dyslexia might struggle with slow, choppy reading, memorization or even constantly confuse left and right. It ranges on a spectrum from mild to severe.

For Hattie, reading was "labor-intensive." She'd often read a sentence three times before she'd actually comprehend what it said. The first few reads were spent trying to identify the sounds for each letter and then trying to put them all together more smoothly, so she could get to the point of comprehension.

Currently, Wisconsin does not require students to be screened specifically for dyslexia, but the state passed legislation three years ago to create an informational guidebook on dyslexia and related conditions to be shared on the state Department of Public Instruction and all school district websites.

In the years since the guidebook was created, Wisconsin and the rest of the country has turned up the volume on a discussion about literacy after standardized test scores have shown significant declines in language arts during the pandemic.

But those conversations usually don’t include students with dyslexia. Families are often left on their own to get their children tested, diagnosed and supported through outside tutoring. And local tutoring agencies are feeling the burden of an increased need to support these students, who are now often even further behind because of the pandemic. 

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