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Planning for Dyslexic Students

DYS 5043

Article Review: Planning for Dyslexic Students

Joshua L. Broadway

Arkansas Tech University

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Planning for Dyslexic Students

Sight Words and Phonics

I chose the article, Sight Words and Phonics Training in Children with Dyslexia.

The reason I selected this particular title was because of my desire to provide effectively

planned environment for dyslexic students in the future. For me research whether it is

personal or not is essential to developing planning. The research in this study is practical

and I need examples as a basis. I like to know what other people have figured out that I can

explicitly use to improve the way I can teach. I think of it more of as using the resources

available to me. I try to incorporate as many good practices as I can to weed out bad habits.

In addition I try to have knowledge on planning so I can understand how I’ve learned in

comparison to what is practically effective.

To the best of my knowledge, learning English for me was primarily done through

phonics reading route first. However, on words that did not follow a basic phonics rules I

used sight words route. For example, Yacht is a word that does not follow basic phonics

rules because the “ch” is silent. The reason I like this article is that it reinforces to a degree

how I remember learning with intermittent words that the sight words route was used on.

In the study from the article they wanted to prove whether or not sight words would

provide larger gains than phonics training in reading. The study was over two year with 4

independent tests. During the periods in between the tests, training was conducted. The

training consisted of three types of groups: sight, phonics, and a mix between the two.

Each test consisted of 40 irregular, non-words, and regular words. From the results, it was

concluded that individual training overall was not much different between sight words and
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Planning for Dyslexic Students

phonics training. Although dyslexic students that did phonics training first outperformed

those that did sight words first. However, despite phonics reading outperforming sight

words; it should be noted that the effect of sight words along with phonics reading is far

more substantial than either one alone.

I know phonetics training first is slightly better but one idea stuck out from this

study, “there appears no general disadvantage or advantage for training phonics and sight

words simultaneously in children with dyslexia” (McArthur, 2015, pg. 404). I believe this

is important for future planning because I should never disregard using either sight words

or phonics simultaneously. I should do training in phonics then sight words to maximize

efficiency, although a mixed approach with training is not much different.

No teacher wants disadvantages for students. As the quote above implies, a mixed

version does not really produce different results from other methods. In my classroom, I

will look to provide an advantage for students but at the same time try to limit any potential

disadvantages. In order to do this both sight words and phonic reading are essential to

improve dyslexic reading because of their inherent differences. My learning personally is

mostly consistent with the conclusion of the study despite the study being more equal

between training. When I learned in lower grade school it was mostly a mixed approach

focused primarily on phonics first. Similarly, the course material in DYS 5043 does not

completely focus on one idea in reading but rather multiple areas with mixed approaches

because students have different strengths and weaknesses. In planning, understanding

individual techniques, mixed techniques, and overall task is essential.

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Planning for Dyslexic Students

References

Mcarthur, G., Castles, A., Kohnen, S., Larsen, L., Jones, K., Anandakumar, T., &
Banales, E. (2015). Sight Word and Phonics Training in Children With Dyslexia. Journal of
Learning Disabilities, 48(4), 391-407.