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Teaching & Learning - Early Literacy Screening & Dyslexia

Early Literacy Screening & Dyslexia

K-2 Literacy Screening for Skills that MAY be associated with Dyslexia
 
In 2018, the Washington State Legislature passed E2SSB 6162 establishing a state definition of dyslexia and directing schools to develop and implement a plan for addressing the needs of students with dyslexia or reading challenges consistent with dyslexia.

Beginning in the 2021–22 school year, each school district in Washington state RCW 28A.320.26 will screen students in grades K–2 for weaknesses in literacy skill(s) development that may be associated with dyslexia. The intent of the K-2 screening mandate is to provide school districts with the opportunity to screen and intervene early, in order to provide targeted interventions to students, who display indications of, or areas of weakness associated with dyslexia.

A young boy stands in front of a wall with letters falling around him.

  • Pullman administers a Literacy Screener to all K-2 Students three times each year. A Literacy Screener is designed to answer the initial assessment question: Who might need extra help? Screeners do not diagnose dyslexia. Instead they help to determine the right instructional support in order for schools to be proactive in providing literacy instruction in areas students have not fully developed. Providing literacy support in the early years helps prevent reading delays that may arise in later years.

    Keep in mind there is no, one, single universally adopted assessment that can be used to definitely identify if a student has dyslexia (Odegard, 2019). We instead rely on a “pattern” or “cluster” of concerns.

    Pullman uses DIBELS as its literacy screener. Learn more about our literacy screener by clicking the following link: DIBELS Assessment

    The purpose of the DIBELS assessment is to quickly identify students that MAY have a difficulty in the area being assessed.

    Purpose: to quickly identify students that MAY have a significant difficulty in the area being assessed.

    The following areas are assessed:
    • DIBELS Phoneme Segmentation Fluency (measures how students hear sounds).
    • DIBELS Letter Naming Fluency (measures how efficiently students know letter names).
    • DIBELS Nonsense Word Fluency (measures if the student knows the letter sounds and if they can blend the sounds to make words).
    • DIBELS Oral Reading Fluency (measures how fluently a student reads words in a passage).
    • Rapid Automatized Naming (RAN): Quickly identifying a series of letters, familiar objects or colors
      • Per state mandate RAN is administered during the winter benchmark only
    DIBELS is a state approved assessment in compliance with E2SSB 6162.

  • It is important for educators and families to be able to talk about early literacy difficulties. Identifying learning needs and working together to support and intervene early is the best way to prevent problems from becoming more severe over time. OSPI has provided two guides to help families and teachers have these discussions during conferences or other meetings.

  • Dyslexia is a specific learning disorder that is neurological in origin and that is characterized by unexpected difficulties with accurate or fluent word recognition and by poor spelling and decoding abilities that are not consistent with the person's intelligence, motivation, and sensory capabilities. These difficulties typically result from a deficit in the phonological components of language that is often unexpected in relation to other cognitive abilities. Secondary consequences may include problems in reading comprehension and reduced reading experience that can impede growth of vocabulary and background knowledge. (E2SSB 6162)

    This definition of dyslexia is adopted by the 65th WA State Legislature, 2018 Regular Session.
    • A difference that makes processing speech sounds difficult, specifically the ability to hear, substitute, and change individual sounds in words.
    • Characterized by challenges with reading and spelling, particularly with the connections between letters and sounds.
    • Likely to lead to problems learning and remembering vocabulary, understanding what is read, getting thoughts on paper.
    • Not related to overall intelligence.
    • Not a visual problem or caused by a lack of motivation, interest, or exposure to rich literature, or ineffective classroom instruction

  • Multilingual learners in Pullman at all levels of English proficiency receive core instruction and assessment in the foundational skills of reading, in addition to literacy intervention as needed. All students, including multilingual learners, are screened using DIBELS as part of our K-2 literacy screener for skills that may be associated with dyslexia.

    Students with reading difficulties should be identified as early as possible, but it is important to not confuse language development with a reading disability. Multilingual learners may:

    • Exhibit reading behaviors and characteristics that look like native English speakers who have reading disabilities (but do not have learning disabilities).
    • Struggle with both language and reading, and students of any language can have dyslexia regardless of their linguistic background.

    To ensure educators are meeting student instructional needs, ALL multilingual learners are included in early literacy screening except during their first four months of U.S. schooling, per OSPI guidance. As a result, some multilingual learners may not be screened until the winter or spring assessment windows to ensure they have been enrolled for four months

  • Students who are homeschooled or attend a private school and live within district boundaries may request to have their child screened with the K-2 Literacy Skills Screener.
    Please contact instructionalprograms@psd267.org to set up an appointment.

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