Now That We Know Better, What Do We Do?

By Stacey Masliansky

Over the past three posts, I have shared a lot about what I used to believe about dyslexia, what I have learned since then, and how those lessons have changed the way I look at struggling readers.

I’ve shared students who taught me to look beyond the obvious. I’ve talked about the importance of looking at word reading and spelling, not simply whether a student can understand a text. I’ve talked about persistence and why we need to pay attention to how a student is responding to instruction rather than focusing on a single score or moment in time.

But ultimately, awareness isn’t enough.

Once we recognize that a student is struggling, what do we do?

We Start With the Words

One of the biggest shifts in my thinking has been learning to look more carefully at what is happening at the word level.

A student may have strong oral language, a large vocabulary, excellent background knowledge, and sophisticated ideas. They may be able to discuss a novel beautifully when someone reads it aloud. But if reading the words on the page is difficult, that difficulty matters.

We need to know whether the student can accurately and efficiently read familiar words. We need to know what happens when they encounter an unfamiliar word. Are they using the letters and sounds in the word, or are they relying on guessing, context, or memory?

And we need to look at spelling, too.

Reading and spelling are deeply connected. When we look carefully at a student’s spelling, we can learn a great deal about what they understand about sounds, letters, and word structures. This is why I no longer think of spelling as something that happens after reading instruction.

Spelling is part of literacy instruction.

We Teach What the Student Needs to Learn

If a student is struggling with word reading and spelling, the answer isn’t simply to give them more reading. They need instruction that addresses the skills they are struggling to develop.

For students with dyslexia and others who have difficulty learning to read and spell, structured literacy provides an explicit and systematic approach to teaching the written language system. Students need to understand the relationships among sounds, letters, syllables, morphemes, and words. They need opportunities to practice reading and spelling words, and new learning needs to build on what has already been taught.

They also need meaningful feedback when they make errors so they can learn from those errors rather than simply moving past them.

In other words, we don’t lower the expectations for students who struggle. We increase the precision of our instruction.

We Use Assessment to Guide Instruction

This is another lesson that has fundamentally changed my teaching.

Assessment shouldn’t simply tell us how far behind a student is. It should help us understand what the student knows, what the student doesn’t yet know, and what we need to teach next.

A score can tell us that a student is struggling. A closer look at the student’s reading and spelling can begin to tell us why.

Can the student identify the sounds in spoken words? Can they connect those sounds to letters and letter combinations? Can they blend those sounds to read an unfamiliar word? Can they spell words using the patterns they have been taught? Can they read familiar words automatically, or does every word require effort?

These questions help us move from simply identifying a problem to making an instructional decision.

We Don’t Wait for a Label to Provide Good Instruction

One of the things I wish I had understood much earlier in my career is that we don’t have to know whether a child has dyslexia before we provide instruction that supports skilled reading and spelling.

If a student is struggling with decoding, we can provide explicit instruction in decoding. If spelling is difficult, we can provide explicit instruction in encoding. If word recognition is slow and effortful, we can provide opportunities to develop greater accuracy and automaticity.

And if a student isn’t making the progress we expect, we can look at the instruction, examine the data, and determine what needs to change.

A diagnosis can provide important information and can help students and families access appropriate services and support. But good instruction should not have to wait for a diagnosis.

We Change the Questions We Ask

Perhaps the biggest change isn’t a particular instructional technique. It’s the questions we ask.

Instead of asking, Why isn’t this child trying harder? We can ask, What is making this difficult?

Instead of saying, But she can read, we can ask, How is she reading?

Instead of saying, He understands everything when I read it to him, we can ask, What happens when he has to read the words himself?

Instead of thinking, Maybe he’ll catch up, we can ask, What does the data tell us about his growth, and what does he need next?

And instead of starting with, Does this student have dyslexia? we can begin with, What does this student need to become a skilled reader and speller?

Those questions lead us in a very different direction.

Seeing Students Differently

When I think about the students and families I’ve described throughout this series, I realize that each one taught me something different.

The high school student from Part 1 taught me that a student can struggle in ways we completely miss when we don’t understand what dyslexia looks like.

The sixth grader from Part 2 taught me that being able to read familiar words doesn’t necessarily tell us everything about a student’s word-reading ability, and that spelling can provide an important window into what is happening beneath the surface.

And the first grader from Part 3 taught me to look at trajectory, not just a snapshot. Her story reminded me that a student can make meaningful progress and still need significant support.

Each of those experiences changed the questions I ask.

And that, perhaps more than anything else, is what I hope teachers and parents take away from this series. We don’t have to become experts at identifying dyslexia overnight. But we can learn to look more carefully. We can pay attention to word reading and spelling, use assessment to understand what a student knows and needs next, provide explicit and systematic instruction, and monitor progress when a student isn’t learning as expected.

Most importantly, we can stop assuming that a student who struggles simply needs to try harder, read more, or wait until they catch up.

But good instruction should not have to wait for a diagnosis.

When We Know Better, We Do Better

When I think back to the beginning of my career, I sometimes wish I could go back and teach those students again.

I wish I had recognized the signs. I wish I had understood the impact word-level reading could have on comprehension. I wish I had known what their spelling was telling me. I wish I had understood that avoidance could be a response to difficulty rather than a sign of disinterest.

But I can’t go back.

What I can do is use what I know now.

I can look at today’s students differently. I can ask better questions. I can help other educators recognize what I wish I had recognized earlier. And I can continue to advocate for instruction that gives every student the opportunity to become an accurate, automatic, confident reader and writer.

For me, that is what dyslexia awareness is really about.

Not simply recognizing dyslexia, but recognizing the student.

And when we know better, we can do better.