Decoding Dyslexia MD, Southern MD Meting Schedule, 2014
Evening Meetings:  Monday,  Nov. 17 and Dec. 15
Parent Support Meeting: 7-8pm
DD-MD Business Meeting: 8-9pm (all are welcome to attend)
Patuxent Presbyterian Church, 2341 Kingston Creek Road, California, Md 20619
Laura Schultz 

Daytime Meetings: Friday Nov. 21
DD-MD Business Meeting, 10am-12:00
Leonardtown Library Meeting Room

Please join us to learn more about dyslexia, pick up pamphlets and flyers and learn about websites and resources to help your student do well in school and life.  

Students with dyslexia are creative, intelligent, big picture thinkers and, even though they struggle to read and write the way public schools teach, they will do well if the adults in their life focus on their strengths.

October is Dyslexia Awareness Month! 

Decoding Dyslexia MD would like to join together with our parents and educators during October to celebrate our community.  In an effort to increase dyslexia awareness in Maryland we are asking you to consider hosting a Dyslexia Support Group during the month of October. Big or Small each gathering will make a difference to our community.

Below is a step by step how to guide to host your support group meeting, to include printable sheets, flyers and topic suggestions.  The Support Guide is courtesy of our friends at DD-VA -- when we join together we accomplish so much more.  There is nothing better than hearing the words “Me Too” from someone on a similar journey.

How-to-Guide: Organizing a Dyslexia Support Meeting

 Commit to holding a support meeting

1. Pick a date and time
2. Choose a venue
   1. Library
   2. Schools
   3. Community Centers
   4. Churches
   5. Starbucks, Panera or coffee shop
   6. Homes 
   7. Contact DD-MD asap with your event details, we will share and publicize on our social media platforms
3. Advertise
   1. Local distribution lists
   2. Produce a paper flyer (optional) Template
   3. Word of mouth
   4. School PTAs
   5. Your personal social media pages
4. Create a topic focus
   1. Start a discussion based on a specific IDA fact sheet
   2. Discuss getting involved at a local/state/federal level
   3. IEPs or 504 Accommodations, “what works”
   4. Assistive technology (demonstration)
   5. Invite a professional in the field of dyslexia to share their expertise (optional)
   6. Watch Embracing Dyslexia or another related film
5. Planning & Implementation:

• Bring refreshments or not (it’s been done successfully both ways)
  
• Gather resources: DD-VA Resources and DD-MD Resources and What You Can Do Resources
• Set up a Resource table -- distribute IDA Fact Sheets or printouts from the above resources
  
• Borrow resources from your county library or friends to display
• Use a sign in sheet (check this link to see what info. DD-MD needs you to include on a sign in sheet) to have attendees entered into our database for future communication
  
• Have name tags and pens available (optional)
  
• DD-MD mission statement and goals one pager available to introduce the grassroots movement
  
• A "Who We are Fact Sheet"
• Highlight the support meetings as a place to build community and lend support to each other
  
• Introduce discussion topic
  
• Facilitate questions and conversations
  
• Steer discussion into solution driven areas if one or more of your attendees gets ‘unnecessarily’ negative for an extended time
  
• Close with appreciation for parents taking the time to join DD-MD
  
• Take pictures for DD-MD to post on social media platforms
  

6.  After the Meeting

• Follow up on questions posed during your group meeting
  
• Send photos to DD-MD
• Send sign up sheet to Laura Schultz to be entered into our DD-MD database
  

My daughter Catherine has dyslexia which means that reading and writing are hard for her. On June 25 and 26, Catherine and I will join parents and students from across the country on Capitol Hill to advocate for students with dyslexia who attend public schools.  We will also hear from successful people with dyslexia like Ben Foss with Headstrong Nation, who will inspire the kids to use their strengths to succeed in life.

Research shows that 95% of kids who read below grade level can learn to read well and avoid the special education system if they are: 

• Identified early (K-2 grade)
• Receive evidence-based reading interventions EARLY (K-2nd grade)
• Instructed with fidelity using a well trained teacher in a 1:1 or very small group environment
  

Catherine was not identified with dyslexia until 4th grade and even with a dyslexia diagnosis, public schools in Virginia and Maryland did not provide evidence based interventions provided by well trained teachers as recommended by the International Dyslexia Association’s “Knowledge & Practice Standards for Teachers of Reading.” Early intervention is KEY and so is pre and post service teacher training on dyslexia and multi-sensory methods of instruction.

Although the public school system in Maryland has programs available to teach students with language learning disabilities like dyslexia, parents must know to ask for these programs and learn how to access them through the special education process.  Parents with time and money can research and purchase the necessary interventions for their children.  Parents without time and money don’t often have the luxury to supplement their child’s public school education to provide interventions that their children need to learn.

Maryland does not recognize dyslexia even though it is a well-researched disability under Specific Learning Disability in Federal law and in State Education Code.  Maryland public schools are legally bound to provide students with a free and appropriate public education.  Over the years we’ve paid more than $40,000 out of pocket to provide tutoring for Catherine to help her keep up with grade level demands.  If she had been identified with dyslexia early and been provided the appropriate multi-sensory, structured language intervention she needed, we might not be telling this story now.  When interventions are delayed until 3rd grade and beyond, approximately 74% of students will continue to have difficulties learning to read through high school (American Academy of Pediatrics, 2011).

In the fall Catherine will be freshman in high school – she’s received special education services since Kindergarten and yet still struggles to read and write. Catherine and others like her spin their wheels in a special education system that cannot close the learning gap and continues to throw good money after bad.  Catherine has many strengths on which she will rely including math, big picture thinking, common sense, good humor, friendliness and swimming.  She loves to read and write and uses technology to meet the demands of school.  

Decoding Dyslexia Maryland (DD-MD)

Lisa Blottenberger, Mary Ann Tomasic and I (Laura Schultz) organized Decoding Dyslexia Maryland because we were concerned with the limited access to educational interventions for dyslexia and other language based learning disabilities within our public schools.  We also were inspired by Decoding Dyslexia New Jersey and their successes in New Jersey.

Our goals, like the 45 other Decoding Dyslexia states, is to raise dyslexia awareness, empower families to support their children and inform policy-makers on best practices to identify, educate and support students in MD public schools. We hear from parents daily who are frustrated by their student’s lack of progress in public school – they are looking for answers and solutions. Parent stories are almost identical no matter where they reside in the state.

Kids with dyslexia often “drop out” of the public school system and either home school, find a private school or find private tutors to teach their children to read and write. This is not free, it’s not appropriate and it’s not right; especially for families who cannot afford these measures and for military families who cannot afford the time and effort to re-educate educators in state after state.

Decoding Dyslexia MD has 5 policy goals that many other Decoding Dyslexia states have successfully enacted.  Most recently, New Jersey, Connecticut, Illinois and Pennsylvania adopted dyslexia laws. 

Decoding Dyslexia: Five Steps to Literacy

1.     Identify dyslexia early in public schools

2.     Provide appropriate evidence based interventions know to work for students with dyslexia

3.     Define dyslexia in education code and in federal I.D.E.A. statutes

4.     Provide appropriate accommodations and assistive technologies and, most importantly,

5.     Require pre-and-post-service teacher education that meets the International Dyslexia Association’s Knowledge & Practice Standards for Teachers of Reading.

How You Can Help Change Public Education in Maryland

If you or a family member, or a friend, has dyslexia, please let them know they can join DD-MD and help change our state laws:  JOIN DD-MD .  If you don't live in Maryland and would like to help out, check the national Decoding Dyslexia website and find your state and join their efforts!  DD-USA

Another way to help is to contact Members of Congress in Maryland and ask that they co-sponsor House Resolution 456. “The House of Representatives calls on schools and State and local educational agencies to recognize that dyslexia has significant educational implications that must be addressed.”

Catherine and I, and all of DD-MD, will take the opportunity this week to ask our Maryland elected officials in Washington to support this resolution. 

Please help DD-MD spread the word so we can help students with dyslexia learn to read and write! 

Thank you,

DD-MD Parent Leaders
Laura Schultz, St. Mary’s Co.
Mary Ann Tomasic, St. Mary’s
Lisa Blottenberger, St. Mary’s, Calvert
Michelle Nebel, Charles Co.
Jaclyn Paris, Harford, Cecil, Baltimore Co., Eastern Shore
Edith Boteler, Prince Georges Co.
Melody Friend,  Garrett, Allegheny Co., Western Maryland
Rachael Aiello, Howard Co.
Carrie Levine & Tiffany Audas, Montgomery Co.

DecodingDyslexiaMD@gmail.com

It's all over the place--what I call failure thinking: Failure is good; stand on your failures and look to your future; those who never fail never succeed, and so on.  But not all failure is created equally.

Take a look at the numbers--in Maryland, touted as a National BEST-- there are still thousands of students who graduate illiterate or drop out (see table "Look at the State Numbers").

The table shows the number of students who performed at or below basic on the MSA reading assessment in 2012-13 school year.  At or below basic is a failure to read.  It is illiteracy.  In Maryland, there are policy makers who apply failure thinking to reading and learning--a student who fails will learn a lesson; perhaps this failure will make him or her stronger.  Like the lady holding an injured dog that had been hit by a car who said: "well I guess he learned his lesson and won't be running out in the street again."  

Teachers nod their heads in agreement when you ask about the kids who can't read; the kids on their way to failure.  "You can tell in Kindergarten who will struggle"; and "We know which kids are in danger of failure, both academically and personally by first grade."  

In St. Mary's County, if you struggle with reading, behavior, etc., by high school, you might have the option of the Fairlead Academies, which offer a smaller student to teacher ratio and specialized help.  You have to fail to get in but at least it's an option other than failure.  

Go sit at the County Courthouse and observe one day -- reading failure is now coupled with drug abuse and violence.  Even if drug abuse is treated successfully, offenders are still illiterate.  Maryland jails and juvenile facilities are filled with illiterate inmates, many of whom have a learning disability that could have been identified early, before failure was a FACT.

How to Prevent Reading Failure

Let's go back to the teachers -- the most important link in the literacy success chain.  Teachers know which kids need interventions and want to help at risk students learn to read.  Let's give teachers the tools and the opportunity to help students succeed by taking these 5 actions in Maryland:

1. Screen all students for reading and language learning difficulties like dyslexia
2. Require early intervention programs that are proven to work for children with language learning disabilities like dyslexia.  These programs must be structured, explicit, systematic, intensive, and cumulative instruction provided by a well trained teacher in a small group setting.
3. Require in-service and pre-service teachers are trained to teach students with dyslexia how to read, write and spell.  
4. Define Dyslexia in state education code
5. Ensure access to assistive technology and accommodations for students with dyslexia

Decoding Dyslexia parent groups are changing state laws across the country to ensure that all students learn to read on grade level.  At risk students who receive appropriate reading interventions before third grade can learn to read, write and spell.  If Maryland provides these interventions as a matter of FACT to struggling students, we can prevent catastrophic FAILURE later.  Together, parents, teachers and educators can change the paradigm about who learns from reading failure: and (hint, hint) it's not the students!  

#DDChange14 #DDMD #DDSM14

Model Legislation & Resources

IDA's Knowledge and Practice Standards for Teachers of Reading 
Literate Nation's Model Legislation

Additional Resources on Juvenile Justice & Literacy

Read or Go To Jail
Project of Hope / Juvenile Justice Literacy
NICHD Research

1 in 5 people have dyslexia -- whether they are Irish, Italian, African, Indian, European, South American, North American, Asian, Australian or otherwise, language learning differences like dyslexia do not discriminate.  Dyslexia is an equal opportunity difference!

#DDChange14 #DDMD #DDSM14