Chapter 5: Could Abby have Dyslexia?: A Long Journey to Confidence

One October afternoon at a university-based reading clinic, graduate clinicians and a reading specialist were asking themselves, “Abby’s poor decoding and spelling are really difficult to remediate. Could she have dyslexia?” Abby, an energetic and outgoing fifth-grade student had already received tutoring for 1½ years. During that time she made little growth in reading despite extra tutoring by school-based teacher assistants and in university-based after school reading clinics. Let us explore her history and needs.

Abby first began attending the reading clinic when her third-grade teacher noted that she wasn’t meeting grade-level benchmarks. Abby’s initial assessments showed that she was reading at an early first-grade level, with particular difficulty decoding words. Abby’s spelling and writing also reflected her lack of phonics understanding; she was assessed as a mid Letter-Name speller (Bear, Invernizzi, Templeton, & Johnston, 2011). Given Abby’s code-based difficulties, her listening comprehension and vocabulary were assessed and were commensurate with her age and experience.