What You Can Do
Support NJ Students with Dyslexia
ACTION ALERT for NJ Families: go to our NJ Legislation page for pressing action alerts where you can participate and make a difference. Only takes a few minutes to make a phone call or send an email. Click here for our latest action alert today!
Find your local legislators at http://www.njleg.state.nj.us/members/legsearch.asp
WHAT CAN I DO RIGHT THIS MINUTE?
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- Familiarize yourself with the new NJ dyslexia laws. Go to our Legislation page.
- Learn about current bills focused on dyslexia.
• Assembly bill A1292
• Find the bills at http://www.njleg.state.nj.us/ - Send a letter and/or email to your local NJ legislators, share your personal story and ask that they support these bills. Find your legislators
• Tips for writing your family story can be found at www.pacer.org/parent/php/PHP-c121.pdf. - Make an appointment to meet with your local legislators using DD-NJ’s helpful literature packet. (download DDNJ_InfoPacket2)
- Encourage your US Representative to join the Bipartisan Congressional Dyslexia Caucus.
- Contact Your U.S. Congressional Rep. and urge him to Support House Resolution on Dyslexia, #456 (click here to see copy of resolution). Find your representative here: http://www.house.gov/representatives/find/ .
- Host a DD-NJ dyslexia roundtable discussion in your NJ county. Email INFO@DecodingDyslexiaNJ.org for details.
- Share this information with 3 others and ask that they get involved in this movement also!
WHAT ELSE CAN I DO?
- Join the NJ Branch of The International Dyslexia Association.
- Get involved at a local level:
- Inquire about your school district’s state mandated “Special Education Parent Advisory Group” and join. If they don’t have one yet, start your own. Technical Assistance is available for free through the START Project.
- Get involved in your local PTA and help plan literacy events and/or fundraisers.
- Go to school board meetings and consider becoming a school board member.
- Join a variety of district committees, talk to other parents at local events, and discuss dyslexia with educators. Become a resource for others!
- Get educated about Dyslexia
- Read literature about dyslexia. Books, such as Overcoming Dyslexia by Dr.
Sally Shaywitz, have been crucial for many parents in understanding our children’s
needs. Check out our Resource webpage for more good books and websites. - Check out IDA and NJ IDA websites and literature.
- Take a parent training course in reading intervention so that you can help your
child at home. - Familiarize yourself with the NJ Administrative Code on Special Education.
- Take a parent advocacy course through a group such as SPAN to understand your child’s rights.
- Get second opinions through private testing by a university, learning center, educational consultant, speech pathologist, developmental pediatrician, occupational therapist, physical therapist and/or other specialists.
- Speak to advocates, educators in private practice, and special education attorneys.
- Attend seminars, get on mailing lists, and network with others from support groups and LD organizations in your area.
- Read literature about dyslexia. Books, such as Overcoming Dyslexia by Dr.
DD-NJ members traveled to D.C. on 6/19/12 to meet with NJ Congressmen to talk about Dyslexia and get them sign the Bipartisan Congressional Dyslexia Caucus
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LDANJ Spring Conference!
Life in High School and Beyond Conference & Resource Expo
Sunday, March 22, 2020
Registration: www.LDANJspring2020.eventbrite.com
Full Conference Brochure: www.ldanj.org/wp-content/uploads/LDANJ-March-2020-Full-Conference-Brochure.pdf
Questions? 732-645-2738 or info@LDANJ.org
$1000 Scholarship Opportunity -- Deadline March 6:
The Learning Disabilities Association of New Jersey Inc. (LDANJ), will be giving the Dr. Rosa Hagin Scholarship Award to several New Jersey students with learning and/or attention issues who will continue their education beyond high school. This scholarship is for students moving on to ANY post-secondary program. Click the link for application and all information.
www.ldanj.org/wp-content/uploads/2020-Scholarship-letter-and-application.pdf
Without appropriate reading instruction, the problems at the top of the iceberg give way to what lies beneath. Often those problems are bigger and even harder to remediate.
Workshop information from ReallyGreatReading:
"Decoding and the Struggling Reader” is being offered in NJ on the following dates:
5/6: Paramus, NJ
5/7: Edison, NJ
5/8: Mt. Laurel, NJ
REGISTER: www.reallygreatreading.com/workshops
Complimentary seats are available with the code: WORKSHOP
This article is specific to NYC, but other themes are universal: Why are public schools so unprepared to meet the needs of dyslexic students (and more broadly, those who struggle with learning to read not due to a disability)? Why are students who need specialized reading instruction placed in classes with students who have intellectual or behavioral disabilities? Should learning to read be this dependent on family resources? #saydyslexia #equity
www.usatoday.com/in-depth/news/education/2020/02/09/disability-special-education-dyslexia-doe-nyc...
www.usatoday.com
Two boys with learning disabilities grew up just blocks apart in New York City. Public schools couldn't teach them. So their parents battled to place them in private schools, on the taxpayers' dime."Calkins’s approach “is a slow, unreliable way to read words and an inefficient way to develop word recognition skill,” Mark S. Seidenberg, a psychologist at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, said in a blog post. “Dr. Calkins treats word recognition as a reasoning problem — like solving a puzzle. She is dedicated to the educational precept that children learn best by discovering how systems work rather than being told. ...skilled reading “is fast, automatic, almost like a reflex — not deliberative.”
www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/read-all-about-it-the-reading-wars-are-back-in-americas-ed...
Perspective | Read all about it: The ‘reading wars’ are back in America’s education salons
www.washingtonpost.com
Should phonics be emphasized? What about whole language learning?Educators and Parents: "Calkins' Units of Study is the third most widely used set of core materials to teach reading, according to a survey by Education Week. But, as APM Reports has shown, the Units of Study lessons and materials frequently assert an idea about how people read that has been proven wrong by cognitive scientists. The idea, known as three cueing, encourages children to look at pictures and use contextual clues to identify words as they are reading. Scientific research shows that skilled readers do not use cues to read words and that instructing children to use these cues teaches them the habits of struggling readers."
www.apmreports.org/story/2020/01/27/lucy-calkins-reading-materials-review
Experts say widely used reading curriculum is failing kids
www.apmreports.org
A first of its kind review finds Lucy Calkins' materials don't align with the science of reading.Always a good time when DDNJ folks get together to reflect on our work and brainstorm future efforts!
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