The bottom line: does O-G work?   Does it work when other approaches fail?
YES!  As the old adage puts it, "the proof is in the pudding."   There are
sound reasons for its success, now being established scientifically.   I
have been helping struggling learners since 1986.  I know I am not alone in
my conviction that O-G works when other tools miss the mark.

A new book to look at:  PROUST AND THE SQUID, Maryanne Wolf.   This may help
to illuminate the subject.

Lucille Cuttler

-----Original Message-----
From: learningdisabilities-bounces at nifl.gov
[mailto:learningdisabilities-bounces at nifl.gov]On Behalf Of
tsticht at znet.com
Sent: Saturday, March 01, 2008 12:01 PM
To: learningdisabilities at nifl.gov
Subject: [LearningDisabilities 1762] Overcoming Dyslexia Book Review


Colleagues: Following is a book review I did a few years back when the book
first came out. The review may still be of interest to members of the
Learning Disabilities discussion list.
Tom Sticht

March 1, 2008

Overcoming Dyslexia

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. In
2003 she 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.

Thomas G. Sticht
International Consultant in Adult Education
2062 Valley View Blvd.
El Cajon, CA 92019-2059
Tel/fax: (619) 444-9133
Email: tsticht at aznet.net
 

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