Anna's Short Story

My son’s reading disability story is long, but I’ll try to be brief. 

I was concerned about my son’s reading instruction starting in Kindergarten because his teacher told us that the class would study letters as they came up organically. 

When he was struggling in first grade his teacher gave me a list of 200 common words that she wanted him to memorize. I knew this wasn’t how kids learn to read, but we tried it anyway. The school did NOT provide him with extra help. They told us that he would catch up, he was fine, and one day it would just click. 

When I told his second-grade teacher that I was concerned about his reading, she said he was doing fine and would catch up. Since the school wasn’t concerned we decided to have him assessed privately for a disability. 

My son was diagnosed with suspected dyslexia. He started the 3rd grade reading 18 words a minute with 80 being the goal. He didn’t understand that you write letters from left to right on the same line to form words. He was in the THIRD grade. Recommended tips for reading unknown words? look at the picture, guess from the first letter, or figure it out based on context. These practices are known to confuse kids and make learning to read harder.  Actually sounding out the letters in the word was not recommended.

We finally got IEP Services but he still did not receive evidence-based instruction. He's learned to read because I shell out thousands of dollars a year to have him tutored with explicit, systematic instruction. 

I’ve worked with reading researchers at the U of O for almost 20 years. I KNOW what good instruction looks like but I couldn’t get my son the support he needed. What happens to families who can’t pay for private evaluations or tutors or who don’t have time to advocate - because it’s nearly a full-time job? 

This is a question of equity. Students with invisible disabilities should be part of the equity conversation.

There has to be systematic statewide change because my son’s story is NOT unique.

While I don’t believe that this bill will fix all of our problems, It is a place to start. It has many of the pieces that have been successful in other states. We need to pass this bill and make sure districts are on board so we can give all kids the chance that my son never had.