Students who have both Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and dyslexia are uniquely at risk for a variety of negative educational and life consequences. Dr. Denton led a large scientific study of interventions for children who have both ADHD and word-level reading difficulties. The study examined the effects of ADHD intervention (a combination of medication and parent training) and intensive reading intervention for these students. In this presentation, Dr. Denton will describe our current scientific understanding of ADHD, including its definition, characteristics, and causes, as well as the unique characteristics of students who have both ADHD and reading disabilities. She will discuss the scientific evidence regarding intervention for these students and describe and demonstrate components of the intensive reading intervention provided in her study. She will conclude with practical advice to educators on adapting instruction to support the reading success of students with ADHD and reading difficulties.
Bilingual writing development is a complex process that requires the integration of both foundational and higher-order skills across both languages and is affected by multiple factors, including students’ language proficiency in each language and their exposure and opportunity to use each language. Among emergent bilingual students, spelling is a distinguishing feature of students with dyslexia. To understand the writing development of second-grade emergent bilingual students, we collected Spanish and English writing samples and scored them using accuracy and fluency indices, a word diversity index, and a holistic score. Using a series of analyses, we examined two areas. First, we modeled students’ writing profiles in Spanish and English and identified differences in writing growth based on ability levels. Next, we determined which of the indices used to score the writing samples were correlated within and across languages. Key findings demonstrate that brief English and Spanish writing samples showed variability, suggesting that they can efficiently differentiate the writing ability of emergent bilingual students. Findings related to language indicate that there is a relationship between high vocabulary diversity and the length of students’ writing. Implications for assessment and practice will be presented.
Students with dyslexia typically struggle at the word level, but it is imperative to not wait until they are skilled decoders to build comprehension skills. To support reading comprehension, students need a process for organizing and retaining information that is easily accessed and connected to their background knowledge. In this session, participants will learn how to help students strategically and regularly use the structure of connected text to support reading and listening comprehension while simultaneously integrating writing.
This session will focus on identifying students who display characteristics of dyslexia and related learning disorders. Both general evaluation procedures and specific assessment tools will be discussed.