Frances Shefter is an Education Attorney and Advocate who is committed to helping her clients have a Stress-Free IEP experience. In each podcast, Frances interviews inspiring people to share information, educate you, empower you and help you get the knowledge you need.
In this episode of Stress-Free IEP™:
Frances speaks with Laurie Moloney, an academic language therapist. Laurie has been working primarily with children with specific learning disabilities for over 25 years.
VOICEOVER (⏱ 00:00:00): Welcome to Stress-Free IEP™ You do not need to do it all alone with your host Frances Shefter, Principal of Shefter Law. She streams this show live on facebook on the last Tuesday of every month at Noon Eastern. Get more details and catch prior episodes at www.ShefterLaw.com. The Stress-Free IEP™ Video Podcast is also posted on YouTube and Linkedin and you can listen to episodes through Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher and more. Now here’s the host of Stress-Free IEP™ Frances Shefter.
FRANCES SHEFTER (⏱ 00:00:44): Hi everyone welcome to the show. I am so excited to have our next guest, Laurie Maloney. Um Laurie, introduce yourself, tell us who you are and what you do.
LAURIE MOLONEY (⏱ 00:00:55): Um My name is Laurie Moloney. I’m an academic language therapist. I’ve been practicing in the D. C. Metro area for Gosh over 25 years and I work primarily with Children with specific learning disabilities ADHD, Um Executive dysfunction that sort of thing. And I work one on one. Um I go into schools or meet students at home or they come to my office and um that’s primarily what I do. I’m the former president of the DC Capital area branch of the International Dyslexia Association. I was president for Gosh five years Mm five years I believe. Um and then on the board prior to that I teach summer program on behalf of as deck for middle and high school students. I’m also co founder of decoding dyslexia DC And we were able to work with the council to get a bill drafted past and fully funded and that bill is being implemented as we speak. So I’ve been committed to literacy for my whole career and it is a tremendous source of satisfaction for me. It’s a cause that I greatly believe in
FRANCES SHEFTER (⏱ 00:02:17): that is so awesome. I didn’t realize it had gotten fully funded. Um I knew you were working on the bill, but that is so great because it’s gonna be in so much more dyslexia, Such a hot topic right now because schools are only just now recognizing it and what are, you know, so many struggle. So many students struggle to learn how to read. Why is that, what’s happening?
LAURIE MOLONEY (⏱ 00:02:38): I think you could take about 100 year view uh to to really fully appreciate what’s happened. Um you know, for hundreds of years from the time that books were printed until about the mid 18 hundreds. Um Teachers did a very good job of teaching Children to read because they taught students the code and they really focused on learning those letter sound patterns. Um um cursive handwriting was stressed, basic grammar was stressed and Children had a good command of the of the foundational skills before they went into what we would think of as middle school. Um In about the late 18 hundreds, the the whole concept of teaching reading radically shifted um to a process whereby students would look at words and through repeated readings, commit those words to memory. And so that was the the birth of the whole language movement which started at the University of Chicago and then spread to Columbia University. Um That’s when we started to see the first basil readers. And then um from there on out teachers really were trained to teach Children to read by looking at words and memorizing words and and counting on pictures as visual cues and that persisted. Um it persists today. Um and so in the 1920s that’s when the reading disabilities cottage industry was born, because now a lot of people were struggling to learn to read using those methods. Um um Dr. Samuel Orton and the researchers around him developed a teaching protocol that we now think of as Orton Gillingham. And um and so while he was interested in the brain of dyslexics, what what educators found out was that when you use these procedures, these approaches with neuro typical readers they’re going to do better. So what what we’ve been doing um people in the disabilities, you know, the the specific language learning disabilities field have been using techniques that were developed during the 19 thirties and are able to teach students with dyslexia as well as other struggling readers, how to read using what is really basic um good practical, effective teaching techniques
FRANCES SHEFTER (⏱ 00:05:31): that so you know I hear about O-G. All the time Orton Gillingham and everybody’s calling it the new method but it’s not new right? what interventions did they use? Like why is that program such a good program? And what what constitutes like good interventions?
LAURIE MOLONEY (⏱ 00:05:51): So Doctor Orton was responsible for understanding what was happening, neurologically with people who couldn’t read. But it was his wife, June Orton and his assistants. Um Anna Gillingham and Bessie Stillman who really developed a teaching protocol. These were people coming in who were otherwise intelligent, capable people who were simply having trouble reading. So, Anna Gillingham and Bessie Stillman wrote the book, wrote the manual on how to address these problems. And um they refer to it as a kind of a multisensory intervention. So you use your eyes, your ears, your mouth, and your motor system, your arm, your hand and you learn the sound symbol correspondences using all of your senses. And um you know, the language is is is really a finite body of knowledge that teachers must must know that 26 letters of the alphabet, there are 45 unique English speech sounds, six types of syllables, about 100 ways in total to spell those sounds. And um they’re about about 10 or so patterns for dividing words into syllables. Um And so they created a framework for teaching students, these these facts basically um using these multisensory methods and the people who studied with with ANna Gillingham and Bessie Stillman then went off to their training centers or their teaching hospitals or wherever and they created programs around these teaching principles. So really when you think of Orton Gillingham, you should be thinking about a set of instructional principles. That is, the instruction should be uh explicit. You make no assumptions about what a person knows. It’s explicit, it’s direct, it’s multisensory, it’s cumulative and it follows a logical scope and sequence. There just happened to be these letters that we know in these speech sounds that we know. And so you teach those according to these general teaching principles. So those folks who trained with Anna Gillingham and and Bessie Stillman then went off and created their own programs. So you have alphabetic phonics in the texas area, you’ve got the slang Ireland method in the pacific northwest, you’ve got Patricia lindamood, developing her materials and then you know, generation after generation other people creating programs based on Orton Gillingham’s um original manual. Now um when someone says my child is getting OG. What that really means is my child is getting some kind of instruction that’s based on multisensory language instruction. Um So there is no program out there that’s called O. G. There are many, many programs that are somehow rooted in the principles that that Gillingham and Stillman’s uh put forth uh having said that there’s a great deal of difference between and among these O-G programs and um if you were to to set the scope and sequence of all these programs side by side you would find extraordinary variation and um that may not be such a good thing because there are there there is a certain logic by which you have to teach reading and spelling to a child. And um you have to also take into consideration the degree of dis of, of severity of the dyslexic. So you can have students that are very mildly involved to students who are very severely impacted and one program may be appropriate and effective for the mildly impacted student whereas the severely impacted student might need a very different and much more intense uh intervention that moves at a different pace, which
FRANCES SHEFTER (⏱ 00:10:35): makes sense, which totally makes sense because everybody learns differently and it’s you know it’s I’m so glad you clarified this because often I’ll get clients or people saying well the teachers not O. G. Trained, is there any such thing as O-G trained?
LAURIE MOLONEY (⏱ 00:10:52): Technically it’s such a ball of thorns, you know. Um what does it mean to be OG. Trained? You know somebody can take a 30 hour course and they can say that they’re O. G. Trained. You know I took a three year course and went through a 700 hours uh practicum supervised by a master teacher and I sat for a national registration exam that I studied for for months. Um uh so training, you know it’s it’s hard to say what constitutes, you know O. G training there. I will say that there is so much to know about the English language. It’s um it’s a complex language. Uh There is so much to know about the the manifestations of dyslexia in in Children. Um There’s a lot to know about dyslexia itself. About the co-morbidities like ADHD. And dyscalculia and dysgraphia. Um um So you know I’m committed to learning lifelong about this you know about dyslexia about the research that is ongoing. Um But in terms of practice I think at a minimum one would need to know very very very deeply the structure of the english language and to have a toolbox of methods and materials that are appropriate for teaching. Um Students with severe dyslexia. So to me that to me is is O. G. Being O. G. Trained
FRANCES SHEFTER (⏱ 00:12:47): which makes sense. Which makes… its a special training because dyslexic Children definitely learn different and it’s knowing how to teach them to reach that part of the brain to make it work. Um So if parents you know are confused or they’re you know they get a new diagnosis and stuff where can they find like how can they find out more about dyslexia and reading difficulties and what might be going on with their child.
LAURIE MOLONEY (⏱ 00:13:13): Yeah well there are a lot of resources available. Um um You know the international dyslexia association has a website that has tabs just for parents that provides a lot of information. Um the decoding dyslexia state networks have tremendous um sources of information. This is sort of a parent driven group. Uh There are families who participate who are somewhere along the line in their journey from diagnosis to remediation. And so this is a wonderful place to post your questions and get you know kind of crowdsource their responses. Um The diagnosing psychologist should be a good source of information that can come in the form of a list of recommendations for for the parents for the teachers and so forth. Um There are wonderful books about dyslexia. Some are better than others but there are quite a few. The IDEA Website has a list of um resources books that are considered valid and useful and recommended for parents to read. So there’s a lot of really good information. There’s some Youtube videos that are that are great and ones that are good for the Children to watch themselves about about being dyslexic and how um it isn’t well that they’re in good company you know that there are a lot of successful people who have dyslexia and have done wonderful things with their lives
FRANCES SHEFTER (⏱ 00:14:58): and that’s so important. I know for the Children to identify with because I know I’ve seen it way too many times where it’s gone undiagnosed or another. You know that schools aren’t identifying dyslexia and they’re not giving IEPs. They’re not doing the evaluations and we have to fight the schools for it. And the Children think they’re dumb because they’re just not getting it and it’s such a challenge. Um So what what are steps? So I know like you were saying there’s lots of researchers out there to learn about it. What can parents do? Like what are some good steps to get? You know I do special education law and and onto the IEPs. Like what are some good things that parents might be able to do to help their child or to help the school help their child
LAURIE MOLONEY (⏱ 00:15:41): Well 1st and foremost um The child should be read to so if the child cannot read or if the reading is so burdensome that it’s not enjoyable. Um The child should either be red too or listen to books on tape and and follow along so you know audible or um or learning Ally you can get a Learning Ally subscription with your with your uh diagnosed you know your documentation from the psychologist. Um I can help people get accounts with learning allies. So students should be listening to literature, they should be listening to language that is at the level of their interest. Not necessarily the reading level because that exposure to print is very very important. They’re exposed to vocabulary, They’re exposed to different kinds of text structures. They’re developing their background knowledge they’re learning to love reading even though it’s still difficult. So listening to books, Hearing books read is a bridge between not being able to read and one day being able to read hopefully with assistance from a good reading instructor. Um so that’s critically important. A lot of my students come to me, they’ve not been reading since first grade, they may be in seventh or eighth grade, they have not been reading. And so part of the problem that they’re having when they do learn to read is that they don’t know the meanings of a lot of words because they’ve simply not experienced them in in print. And so uh now we have the whole comprehension piece to work on and that usually involves vocabulary, so exposing Children to books early and often is one of the best things that parents can do um and to make it a priority because it’s easy to, it’s easy to um to tell a child that they don’t have to read or listen to books because they don’t like to um or other fun things that they would prefer doing, but it’s too important not to not to do.
FRANCES SHEFTER (⏱ 00:18:00): It’s, you know, it’s funny you say that because a very good friend of mine is a reading specialist and when my daughter was six months old, she babysat and she was reading to her and I’m like, she’s only six months old and my friends, like it doesn’t matter, start reading early read every night. So yeah, which makes sense because, you know, we say it all the time is that with Children, the more exposure they get their such sponges at that age that they can, you know, absorb so much more?
LAURIE MOLONEY (⏱ 00:18:28): That’s right. Yeah. It’s actually important to start reading to Children from the time they’re six months because the more words that they hear by the time they start preschool, uh the better able they are to learn to read and spell. That’s been proven scientifically for you know, 60 years. So just hearing language, taking turns speaking, it’s it’s very important.
FRANCES SHEFTER (⏱ 00:18:58): Which makes sense because I like it’s just reminding me of like the deaf community who doesn’t hear language and how they’re reading struggles can be so different. Yeah. Yeah. And then what else? Like what else can I mean, we have accommodations. What about goals? Like do you have any recommendations of what goals should look like for Children with dyslexia or reading difficulties?
LAURIE MOLONEY (⏱ 00:19:20): Like for example, IEP Goals?
FRANCES SHEFTER (⏱ 00:19:22): Yeah. Like for IEP. Goals general,
LAURIE MOLONEY (⏱ 00:19:25): I would say my first recommendation is that the goals much must be more granular. They’re not granular and they need to be granular. What I mean by that is um a there are so many sub skills embedded in a particular goal. For example, we want, you know, we want Johnny to be able to read, you know, 20 CVC words at 90% accuracy after so many tries, right? That’s a standard goal. What’s embedded in that goal? Oh my goodness. There are so many sub skills, for example. Uh can the student accurately pronounce all of those letters? Does the student have accurate uh pure vowel sounds? Um Can the student blend letters letter sounds? So we have to do a much better job of understanding the specific nature of the, of the reading difficulty itself and then build goals around those difficulties. So, I mean, a lot of students come to me even in high school who who don’t have pure vowel sounds, they see the letter E and they say ah and that’s not the sound of short E. How does it happen that a, you know, a 15 year old confuses all of his vowel sounds? Well, they were never explicitly taught. So we have to break things down in our screening and find out specifically what are the problems? Is it a blending problem? You know, or is it that the student um doesn’t recognize the closed syllable in a word I give my students? Um I put the word, I’ll show you that I do this all the time with my older students. So when they come and there during the intake, I’ll say, What’s this, let’s see what’s this word? And nine times out of 10, the student will say biped pipped, they’ll look and they’ll say, okay, this is the Suffolk C. D. E. This word is beep. Well, there’s no such word as been dipped. The problem is that they were never taught how to divide long words into syllables. And if they’d been taught, they would know that The first pattern is to divide between two consonants but we don’t have to consents. So the rule is divide after the first vow. Now they’ve never been taught syllable types. So they don’t recognize this B. I. As an open syllable. That’s one of the six types. So this is by and this is closed syllable, pad by pad by pat is any any creature that walks on two ft. Um So you ski, you know just by not knowing syllable types that’s going to wreck their comprehension when they’re reading their science text. So we understand what is the nature of the reading difficulty itself where where are the breakdowns then we can build goals around those difficulties. So the student must be able to identify syllable types in a group of 20 words. That’s a much better goal because if this recognize syllable types, um much better chance of being able to decode the work. There are six types of syllables in the english language and letters are a lot like numerals in that letters have placed value to. So where a letter shows up in a syllable will often dictate its sound. Most people don’t know this, but the letter Y represents four sounds and where that Y shows up in words like yes, jim, fly and baby initial position. Media and final position. The letter, the letter sound will change. So a lot of O-G programs don’t necessarily focus on syllable type. I personally have a problem with that for the, for the reasons I just stated. But if you, if you teach a child, the syllable types and how these letter sounds can change based on their position, then you’re giving the child a fighting chance at being able to decode unfamiliar words. This is right.
LAURIE MOLONEY (⏱ 00:24:22): And this is why a 30 hour training in OG may be inadequate because there is so much to know about this language. It has what’s called a deep Orthography meaning that because the letters represent more than one sound. Many of them do. Um, we have a tremendous uh, dictionary of over a million words. So we have to know how letters are sounded in different kinds of syllables, but also how sounds are spelled Because take the letter a, the letter a represents five sounds and the sound a can be spelled 12 different ways.
FRANCES SHEFTER (⏱ 00:25:13): No,that’s amazing. And so how do you like, I mean, I’ve seen, I mean thousands upon thousands of evaluations. It’s a school do and they definitely don’t go that deep is their assessments that you do separate for your students to figure out the granular issues.
LAURIE MOLONEY (⏱ 00:25:31): Yes, I do. I do. I do a variety of things to kind of peg where the student is um, from, can they, can they sequence the alphabet and make no assumptions about the older student being able to sequence the alphabet. I have them write a paragraph. I’m looking at their grip, their spelling, their word choice punctuation, how much they can write or what they think a paragraph means in terms of number of sentences. Do they have a topic, sentence of concluding sentences, A few details. Um Does it seem to be the does it seem to be as sophisticated as it should be for their grade level? Um Then I asked them to name all the letters of the alphabet and produce the sounds that those letters represent. Um I have them read nonsense words, real words, multi syllable words, words with suffixes, endings, phrases and sentences. Um I have them read a passage that um about a first grade level and I look for deletions of words, uh substitution additions or just you know, miss misread words. Then I have them read a passage that would be on grade level and I’m looking for the same kinds of issues and so based on all of that I look for patterns and I see patterns and and um and then I can tell exactly what we need to what we need to work on. I sort of re teach them the structure of the english language, how to spell, how to decode. Um And we fix their handwriting at the same time. I’m interested in in improvements in handwriting spelling, decoding and comprehension at the same time. So a lot of O-G programs don’t prioritize handwriting and spelling as much as other programs do. And so you’ll see students who learn to decode and they can read chapter books beautifully, but if you look at their written work it looks like they’ve had no intervention at all. That’s unfortunate. That’s avoidable. So we want to address all aspects of of literacy simultaneously,
FRANCES SHEFTER (⏱ 00:27:57): which sounds, it sounds to me that, you know, as much as the schools can do if there’s true going on that the parents have to do outside, would you say? Most of the time you see that,
LAURIE MOLONEY (⏱ 00:28:11): you know, it really differs, it’s hard to make a blanket statement. I mean, there are, you know, there are plenty of teachers out there who have uh taking training to to do better than their other teachers who are really limited in what they can do because the school follows a curriculum. Um all I’ll say is that we, as a society underestimate grossly underestimate uh the the the depth of the training involved in adequately preparing pre service teachers to come into classrooms and we um you know, we we underestimate how difficult it is for human beings to learn to read. We’re not we’re not wired to to be readers, we have to learn to read. And um and we really underestimate, you know, what it what it takes, how much time it takes to teach Children to read. So, you know, 100 years ago, much of the day was spent on these foundational skills. Now it’s, you know, a couple of hours and that makes a difference. I’ve also taught groups of Children, I’ve been running a saturday literacy program at a Title one school this past year on Saturdays and all of the Children were identified as being behind their classmates and and this was not the first time I’ve done this, this is the second cohort. And what I have found is that even among the Children who struggle, there’s great variation in the nature of their difficulties and the time that it takes them to come up to speed. So, uh You know, when I think about the typical early educator in a class of 25 Children, a couple of whom are going to be truly dyslexic, and then there’s gonna be another 50% who will end up reading below grade level or reading less proficiently than they should. About a third to a quarter of the class will have no difficulty learning to read. I think about what a tremendous, tremendous job that that teacher has, and I don’t know that it’s, you know, I think it’s just a herculean job, you know, to teach everyone to be reading on the same level we really do, like I said, we really do, You know, underestimate the complexity of teaching reading and and how Children learn and what they need. I mean, in an ideal world, you know, that 60% of Children in the classroom at least the 30% of of the Children who will really struggle. They almost should be taught one on one by a skilled teacher because their needs are so great. Yeah
FRANCES SHEFTER (⏱ 00:31:17): I know because that’s I mean when I taught I taught kindergarten and then for a year I was a reading tutor within the classroom. So we you know, I pulled kids out one on one um with the reading program to help learn. It’s just I mean I remember I had 38 kids and one para professional like yeah you know like okay and then I remember, you know it’s funny because that I was just early childhood originally and then I went back and got special education training and I remember my special education classes going why don’t they teach this for regular education teachers? Like all of the techniques we learned as special educators everybody would benefit from.
LAURIE MOLONEY (⏱ 00:31:58): That’s exactly right. That’s exactly right. Just amazes me. I mean teachers today and going through Covid, I don’t know how they do it. I love them. They’re great. I always say, you know I just like to help the teachers like what can we do to get a good IEP Together to help the Children get to where they need to be. And sometimes the schools can and sometimes parents have to go on the outside.
LAURIE MOLONEY (⏱ 00:32:25): There’s a wonderful website and I I’ll send you the link but it’s a woman on youtube who just presents the pure speech sounds. It’s really worth looking at particularly if you’re an early educator because a lot of my students come to me and their sounds are not 100% uh correct. So the first thing teachers can do is correct their own speech sounds. Uh
FRANCES SHEFTER (⏱ 00:32:54): Yeah.
LAURIE MOLONEY (⏱ 00:32:55): Yeah they tend to add that sound like yeah and uh and we want them to clip that we want nice crisp pure sounds. Um They got rid of cursive but I only teach cursive and um it’s a wonderful language input device. So when we teach the properties of a letter we teach the cursive shape in the gross motor system and in the graphomotor system. And so um I hope that you know that it comes back and stays the other missed opportunity uh That that affects the classroom is when teachers teach the name of the letter when they’re telling the students how to write the letter but they’re not teaching the sound simultaneously. So what we wanna do is link that you know, you’ve been in countless I. E. P. meetings where where faculty will say well we don’t teach spelling here or we don’t teach spelling. Um as though that were a point of pride right?
LAURIE MOLONEY (⏱ 00:34:05): Can teach spelling and in fact you should you must be teaching spelling. It’s not that hard. So when you teach to a first grader, second grader the letter sounds. You should be teaching the letter shapes as well and you should link the shape of the letter with the sound that is spelling, that is spelling. So then you can teach connected letters, you can teach students to utter the sounds when they’re writing those letters. Then you can teach students to spell on a syllable by syllable sound by sound basis.
FRANCES SHEFTER (⏱ 00:34:41): That makes so much sense and that makes so much sense because who cares what the name of the letter is if you don’t know the sound of the letter and we teach the name of the letter all the time and
LAURIE MOLONEY (⏱ 00:34:50): there’s no reason where you and this is oh this is pure OG letter name, letter sound and the key word that goes with it. T. Table “t” while you write the letter in the air. T. Table. So you’re bringing all the properties of the letter together. More importantly you’re linking the brain regions, you know the temporal parietal, the occipital, the motor, you know, you’re linking all of those, you’re doing that with a lot of repetition. So you’re making superhighways, you’re increasing the speed, the automaticity that’s what we want. We want students to be able to write letters and spell little words below the level of their consciousness. And so you do that through repeated practice. But you’ve got to get the arm going, you’ve got to get the eyes looking at the letters and hearing, you know?
FRANCES SHEFTER (⏱ 00:35:43): Yeah. So you mentioned I know you’ve mentioned High School a lot. Is there a specific age group you work with? Or do you work with all age groups?
LAURIE MOLONEY (⏱ 00:35:50): All age groups from first grade I, you know, last year I worked with, um, to college freshman who, who were really learning to read. I mean, they, they, they were disfluent readers. They’re having trouble keeping up with the, with the curriculum in college, which is, you know, is mostly reading and paper writing. Um, and they just didn’t have the speed and accuracy. So at, you know, 19 years old, they’re in their dorm room, tea, table. But it helps. And so I work with people of all ages, wherever they are, what at whatever stage of, you know, of, of, of difficulty.
FRANCES SHEFTER (⏱ 00:36:38): Yeah, that makes sense. That is awesome. And how can people reach you?
FRANCES SHEFTER (⏱ 00:36:48): And that will be added in the show notes. Um, and is there anything else, like is there any other pointers you have for parents that have Children that have dyslexia dysgraphia. Reading issues of like how they can advocate for their Children?
LAURIE MOLONEY (⏱ 00:37:02): hmm. I would say um, understand their rights. That’s where you come in. That’s very, very important that they understand, uh, what it is that they can legally expect schools to provide their child. Um, they need to have a good understanding of what constitutes a good intervention. So there are websites like understood. Some of the some of the sites like uh International Dyslexia Association’s website has a link to a document called the Knowledge and practice standards for teachers of Reading. But that’s good for parents to know about as well. So when parents are educated about what they understand constitutes a good reading intervention then they can ask for those things and the more that parents ask uh the the chances go up that schools will respond. Now schools are aware that they need to change the way that that their teachers are teaching reading. You may know that New York City now just threw out all the balanced literacy curricula and bringing in um structured literacy or you know programs based on the science of reading. That’s what we want everywhere. That’s what our bill is gonna bring in D. C. Right now. Schools are choosing the screening tools that they’re going to be using to identify Children with reading difficulties in in kindergarten 1st, 2nd grade, the following year that teachers will be trained on on new curriculum that are based on the science of reading. So this is happening in some states around the country like Mississippi. So parents need to be aware of the legislation and the changes that are occurring in other states so that they can advocate for for the similar kinds of changes in in in the state that they live in. It’s very much going to be a parent powered um process to, to, to, um, to turn this titanic, you know, on a dime, it’s gonna take a lot of people involved in just advocating for, you know, better teacher prep and better methods and materials in the classroom. Um, what else can I suggest to parents, um, talk to other parents who have gone through this process, get as much advice as they can. Um, but I’ll just come back to reading, you know, listen to books, look at books that are being read to you. There’s all sorts of, of sources. If you go to the internet and just type in free sources of audio books, you’ll come up with dozens, dozens of free sources and you can download them to your computer or your phone. Um,
FRANCES SHEFTER (⏱ 00:40:06): and I know there was a bunch of them that the stars were reading the stories because especially during Covid, yeah. You know,
LAURIE MOLONEY (⏱ 00:40:06): yeah. You know, parents make time for soccer, they make time for ballet and they make time, you know, taekwondo, um, reading and writing are skills that are necessary for a lifetime. So parents really need to prioritize this, it’s way too important. The other thing is don’t put off, don’t put off investigating what’s going on with your child. So if there’s any concern about their progress, um, they can go to their local public school and ask for a screening meeting and get the ball rolling. Um,
FRANCES SHEFTER (⏱ 00:40:47): and don’t take, I say it all the time, don’t take no for an answer because a lot of times, I mean I’ve had clients all the time come back and the school is like your child’s doing fine. We’re not evaluating, no, that’s not acceptable. Trust. I would say trust your parents intuition. That’s exactly, that’s right.
LAURIE MOLONEY (⏱ 00:41:04): That’s right. So I’ll say that it’s never too late to intervene because as I said, I’ve worked with students of all ages and they’ve made progress. Um, but the trajectory is going to be much higher if you intervene when the child is young. I mean, that’s just, that just stands to reason. Their brains are very plastic and they, they pick up the concepts very quickly. Um, and they, you know, the, the low self esteem and those issues haven’t set in. So, um, definitely if there are any concerns, if there’s a family history of reading difficulties, that’s a cue that you know, because it’s so heritable, You know, deal with it early. Get it checked out early.
FRANCES SHEFTER (⏱ 00:41:48): I didn’t even think about that. The hereditary factors. That makes sense. But that makes sense. Why not our brains work the way our parents’ brains.
FRANCES SHEFTER (⏱ 00:41:57): That is so awesome. Thank you so much Laurie it has been great, I like I learned so much even with all of my training and stuff that you don’t realize. I mean, there is, it’s, it’s reading. Reading is hard. Um, thank you so much for coming on the show. It’s been awesome having you and for those, our listeners watching my information and Laurie’s information will be below in the show notes that you can reach either one of us. If you have any questions,
LAURIE MOLONEY (⏱ 00:42:24): thank you so much for having me.
VOICEOVER (⏱ 00:42:28): You’ve been listening to Stress-Free IEP™ with your host Frances Shefter. Remember you do not need to do it all alone. You can reach Frances through Shefter law dot com. Where prior episodes are also posted. Thank you for your positive reviews, comments and sharing the show with others through Youtube, LinkedIn, Apple Podcast, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher and more.
Stress-Free IEP™ with Frances Shefter and Laurie Moloney (video podcast)
Stress-Free IEP™:
Frances Shefter is an Education Attorney and Advocate who is committed to helping her clients have a Stress-Free IEP experience. In each podcast, Frances interviews inspiring people to share information, educate you, empower you and help you get the knowledge you need.
In this episode of Stress-Free IEP™:
Frances speaks with Laurie Moloney, an academic language therapist. Laurie has been working primarily with children with specific learning disabilities for over 25 years.
Connect with and learn more from Laurie Moloney:
lmsmoloney@gmail.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/laurie-moloney-calt-cdt-700ba219
301-906-1630
https://www.lmsmoloney.com/
Watch more episodes of Stress-Free IEP™:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCff0foIeCETrWbtsQSDwckQ
Connect and learn more from your host, Frances Shefter:
shefterlaw.com/#contact-me
Shefterlaw.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/francesshefter/
Read the full transcription of this episode:
VOICEOVER (⏱ 00:00:00): Welcome to Stress-Free IEP™ You do not need to do it all alone with your host Frances Shefter, Principal of Shefter Law. She streams this show live on facebook on the last Tuesday of every month at Noon Eastern. Get more details and catch prior episodes at www.ShefterLaw.com. The Stress-Free IEP™ Video Podcast is also posted on YouTube and Linkedin and you can listen to episodes through Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher and more. Now here’s the host of Stress-Free IEP™ Frances Shefter.
FRANCES SHEFTER (⏱ 00:00:44): Hi everyone welcome to the show. I am so excited to have our next guest, Laurie Maloney. Um Laurie, introduce yourself, tell us who you are and what you do.
LAURIE MOLONEY (⏱ 00:00:55): Um My name is Laurie Moloney. I’m an academic language therapist. I’ve been practicing in the D. C. Metro area for Gosh over 25 years and I work primarily with Children with specific learning disabilities ADHD, Um Executive dysfunction that sort of thing. And I work one on one. Um I go into schools or meet students at home or they come to my office and um that’s primarily what I do. I’m the former president of the DC Capital area branch of the International Dyslexia Association. I was president for Gosh five years Mm five years I believe. Um and then on the board prior to that I teach summer program on behalf of as deck for middle and high school students. I’m also co founder of decoding dyslexia DC And we were able to work with the council to get a bill drafted past and fully funded and that bill is being implemented as we speak. So I’ve been committed to literacy for my whole career and it is a tremendous source of satisfaction for me. It’s a cause that I greatly believe in
FRANCES SHEFTER (⏱ 00:02:17): that is so awesome. I didn’t realize it had gotten fully funded. Um I knew you were working on the bill, but that is so great because it’s gonna be in so much more dyslexia, Such a hot topic right now because schools are only just now recognizing it and what are, you know, so many struggle. So many students struggle to learn how to read. Why is that, what’s happening?
LAURIE MOLONEY (⏱ 00:02:38): I think you could take about 100 year view uh to to really fully appreciate what’s happened. Um you know, for hundreds of years from the time that books were printed until about the mid 18 hundreds. Um Teachers did a very good job of teaching Children to read because they taught students the code and they really focused on learning those letter sound patterns. Um um cursive handwriting was stressed, basic grammar was stressed and Children had a good command of the of the foundational skills before they went into what we would think of as middle school. Um In about the late 18 hundreds, the the whole concept of teaching reading radically shifted um to a process whereby students would look at words and through repeated readings, commit those words to memory. And so that was the the birth of the whole language movement which started at the University of Chicago and then spread to Columbia University. Um That’s when we started to see the first basil readers. And then um from there on out teachers really were trained to teach Children to read by looking at words and memorizing words and and counting on pictures as visual cues and that persisted. Um it persists today. Um and so in the 1920s that’s when the reading disabilities cottage industry was born, because now a lot of people were struggling to learn to read using those methods. Um um Dr. Samuel Orton and the researchers around him developed a teaching protocol that we now think of as Orton Gillingham. And um and so while he was interested in the brain of dyslexics, what what educators found out was that when you use these procedures, these approaches with neuro typical readers they’re going to do better. So what what we’ve been doing um people in the disabilities, you know, the the specific language learning disabilities field have been using techniques that were developed during the 19 thirties and are able to teach students with dyslexia as well as other struggling readers, how to read using what is really basic um good practical, effective teaching techniques
FRANCES SHEFTER (⏱ 00:05:31): that so you know I hear about O-G. All the time Orton Gillingham and everybody’s calling it the new method but it’s not new right? what interventions did they use? Like why is that program such a good program? And what what constitutes like good interventions?
LAURIE MOLONEY (⏱ 00:05:51): So Doctor Orton was responsible for understanding what was happening, neurologically with people who couldn’t read. But it was his wife, June Orton and his assistants. Um Anna Gillingham and Bessie Stillman who really developed a teaching protocol. These were people coming in who were otherwise intelligent, capable people who were simply having trouble reading. So, Anna Gillingham and Bessie Stillman wrote the book, wrote the manual on how to address these problems. And um they refer to it as a kind of a multisensory intervention. So you use your eyes, your ears, your mouth, and your motor system, your arm, your hand and you learn the sound symbol correspondences using all of your senses. And um you know, the language is is is really a finite body of knowledge that teachers must must know that 26 letters of the alphabet, there are 45 unique English speech sounds, six types of syllables, about 100 ways in total to spell those sounds. And um they’re about about 10 or so patterns for dividing words into syllables. Um And so they created a framework for teaching students, these these facts basically um using these multisensory methods and the people who studied with with ANna Gillingham and Bessie Stillman then went off to their training centers or their teaching hospitals or wherever and they created programs around these teaching principles. So really when you think of Orton Gillingham, you should be thinking about a set of instructional principles. That is, the instruction should be uh explicit. You make no assumptions about what a person knows. It’s explicit, it’s direct, it’s multisensory, it’s cumulative and it follows a logical scope and sequence. There just happened to be these letters that we know in these speech sounds that we know. And so you teach those according to these general teaching principles. So those folks who trained with Anna Gillingham and and Bessie Stillman then went off and created their own programs. So you have alphabetic phonics in the texas area, you’ve got the slang Ireland method in the pacific northwest, you’ve got Patricia lindamood, developing her materials and then you know, generation after generation other people creating programs based on Orton Gillingham’s um original manual. Now um when someone says my child is getting OG. What that really means is my child is getting some kind of instruction that’s based on multisensory language instruction. Um So there is no program out there that’s called O. G. There are many, many programs that are somehow rooted in the principles that that Gillingham and Stillman’s uh put forth uh having said that there’s a great deal of difference between and among these O-G programs and um if you were to to set the scope and sequence of all these programs side by side you would find extraordinary variation and um that may not be such a good thing because there are there there is a certain logic by which you have to teach reading and spelling to a child. And um you have to also take into consideration the degree of dis of, of severity of the dyslexic. So you can have students that are very mildly involved to students who are very severely impacted and one program may be appropriate and effective for the mildly impacted student whereas the severely impacted student might need a very different and much more intense uh intervention that moves at a different pace, which
FRANCES SHEFTER (⏱ 00:10:35): makes sense, which totally makes sense because everybody learns differently and it’s you know it’s I’m so glad you clarified this because often I’ll get clients or people saying well the teachers not O. G. Trained, is there any such thing as O-G trained?
LAURIE MOLONEY (⏱ 00:10:52): Technically it’s such a ball of thorns, you know. Um what does it mean to be OG. Trained? You know somebody can take a 30 hour course and they can say that they’re O. G. Trained. You know I took a three year course and went through a 700 hours uh practicum supervised by a master teacher and I sat for a national registration exam that I studied for for months. Um uh so training, you know it’s it’s hard to say what constitutes, you know O. G training there. I will say that there is so much to know about the English language. It’s um it’s a complex language. Uh There is so much to know about the the manifestations of dyslexia in in Children. Um There’s a lot to know about dyslexia itself. About the co-morbidities like ADHD. And dyscalculia and dysgraphia. Um um So you know I’m committed to learning lifelong about this you know about dyslexia about the research that is ongoing. Um But in terms of practice I think at a minimum one would need to know very very very deeply the structure of the english language and to have a toolbox of methods and materials that are appropriate for teaching. Um Students with severe dyslexia. So to me that to me is is O. G. Being O. G. Trained
FRANCES SHEFTER (⏱ 00:12:47): which makes sense. Which makes… its a special training because dyslexic Children definitely learn different and it’s knowing how to teach them to reach that part of the brain to make it work. Um So if parents you know are confused or they’re you know they get a new diagnosis and stuff where can they find like how can they find out more about dyslexia and reading difficulties and what might be going on with their child.
LAURIE MOLONEY (⏱ 00:13:13): Yeah well there are a lot of resources available. Um um You know the international dyslexia association has a website that has tabs just for parents that provides a lot of information. Um the decoding dyslexia state networks have tremendous um sources of information. This is sort of a parent driven group. Uh There are families who participate who are somewhere along the line in their journey from diagnosis to remediation. And so this is a wonderful place to post your questions and get you know kind of crowdsource their responses. Um The diagnosing psychologist should be a good source of information that can come in the form of a list of recommendations for for the parents for the teachers and so forth. Um There are wonderful books about dyslexia. Some are better than others but there are quite a few. The IDEA Website has a list of um resources books that are considered valid and useful and recommended for parents to read. So there’s a lot of really good information. There’s some Youtube videos that are that are great and ones that are good for the Children to watch themselves about about being dyslexic and how um it isn’t well that they’re in good company you know that there are a lot of successful people who have dyslexia and have done wonderful things with their lives
FRANCES SHEFTER (⏱ 00:14:58): and that’s so important. I know for the Children to identify with because I know I’ve seen it way too many times where it’s gone undiagnosed or another. You know that schools aren’t identifying dyslexia and they’re not giving IEPs. They’re not doing the evaluations and we have to fight the schools for it. And the Children think they’re dumb because they’re just not getting it and it’s such a challenge. Um So what what are steps? So I know like you were saying there’s lots of researchers out there to learn about it. What can parents do? Like what are some good steps to get? You know I do special education law and and onto the IEPs. Like what are some good things that parents might be able to do to help their child or to help the school help their child
LAURIE MOLONEY (⏱ 00:15:41): Well 1st and foremost um The child should be read to so if the child cannot read or if the reading is so burdensome that it’s not enjoyable. Um The child should either be red too or listen to books on tape and and follow along so you know audible or um or learning Ally you can get a Learning Ally subscription with your with your uh diagnosed you know your documentation from the psychologist. Um I can help people get accounts with learning allies. So students should be listening to literature, they should be listening to language that is at the level of their interest. Not necessarily the reading level because that exposure to print is very very important. They’re exposed to vocabulary, They’re exposed to different kinds of text structures. They’re developing their background knowledge they’re learning to love reading even though it’s still difficult. So listening to books, Hearing books read is a bridge between not being able to read and one day being able to read hopefully with assistance from a good reading instructor. Um so that’s critically important. A lot of my students come to me, they’ve not been reading since first grade, they may be in seventh or eighth grade, they have not been reading. And so part of the problem that they’re having when they do learn to read is that they don’t know the meanings of a lot of words because they’ve simply not experienced them in in print. And so uh now we have the whole comprehension piece to work on and that usually involves vocabulary, so exposing Children to books early and often is one of the best things that parents can do um and to make it a priority because it’s easy to, it’s easy to um to tell a child that they don’t have to read or listen to books because they don’t like to um or other fun things that they would prefer doing, but it’s too important not to not to do.
FRANCES SHEFTER (⏱ 00:18:00): It’s, you know, it’s funny you say that because a very good friend of mine is a reading specialist and when my daughter was six months old, she babysat and she was reading to her and I’m like, she’s only six months old and my friends, like it doesn’t matter, start reading early read every night. So yeah, which makes sense because, you know, we say it all the time is that with Children, the more exposure they get their such sponges at that age that they can, you know, absorb so much more?
LAURIE MOLONEY (⏱ 00:18:28): That’s right. Yeah. It’s actually important to start reading to Children from the time they’re six months because the more words that they hear by the time they start preschool, uh the better able they are to learn to read and spell. That’s been proven scientifically for you know, 60 years. So just hearing language, taking turns speaking, it’s it’s very important.
FRANCES SHEFTER (⏱ 00:18:58): Which makes sense because I like it’s just reminding me of like the deaf community who doesn’t hear language and how they’re reading struggles can be so different. Yeah. Yeah. And then what else? Like what else can I mean, we have accommodations. What about goals? Like do you have any recommendations of what goals should look like for Children with dyslexia or reading difficulties?
LAURIE MOLONEY (⏱ 00:19:20): Like for example, IEP Goals?
FRANCES SHEFTER (⏱ 00:19:22): Yeah. Like for IEP. Goals general,
LAURIE MOLONEY (⏱ 00:19:25): I would say my first recommendation is that the goals much must be more granular. They’re not granular and they need to be granular. What I mean by that is um a there are so many sub skills embedded in a particular goal. For example, we want, you know, we want Johnny to be able to read, you know, 20 CVC words at 90% accuracy after so many tries, right? That’s a standard goal. What’s embedded in that goal? Oh my goodness. There are so many sub skills, for example. Uh can the student accurately pronounce all of those letters? Does the student have accurate uh pure vowel sounds? Um Can the student blend letters letter sounds? So we have to do a much better job of understanding the specific nature of the, of the reading difficulty itself and then build goals around those difficulties. So, I mean, a lot of students come to me even in high school who who don’t have pure vowel sounds, they see the letter E and they say ah and that’s not the sound of short E. How does it happen that a, you know, a 15 year old confuses all of his vowel sounds? Well, they were never explicitly taught. So we have to break things down in our screening and find out specifically what are the problems? Is it a blending problem? You know, or is it that the student um doesn’t recognize the closed syllable in a word I give my students? Um I put the word, I’ll show you that I do this all the time with my older students. So when they come and there during the intake, I’ll say, What’s this, let’s see what’s this word? And nine times out of 10, the student will say biped pipped, they’ll look and they’ll say, okay, this is the Suffolk C. D. E. This word is beep. Well, there’s no such word as been dipped. The problem is that they were never taught how to divide long words into syllables. And if they’d been taught, they would know that The first pattern is to divide between two consonants but we don’t have to consents. So the rule is divide after the first vow. Now they’ve never been taught syllable types. So they don’t recognize this B. I. As an open syllable. That’s one of the six types. So this is by and this is closed syllable, pad by pad by pat is any any creature that walks on two ft. Um So you ski, you know just by not knowing syllable types that’s going to wreck their comprehension when they’re reading their science text. So we understand what is the nature of the reading difficulty itself where where are the breakdowns then we can build goals around those difficulties. So the student must be able to identify syllable types in a group of 20 words. That’s a much better goal because if this recognize syllable types, um much better chance of being able to decode the work. There are six types of syllables in the english language and letters are a lot like numerals in that letters have placed value to. So where a letter shows up in a syllable will often dictate its sound. Most people don’t know this, but the letter Y represents four sounds and where that Y shows up in words like yes, jim, fly and baby initial position. Media and final position. The letter, the letter sound will change. So a lot of O-G programs don’t necessarily focus on syllable type. I personally have a problem with that for the, for the reasons I just stated. But if you, if you teach a child, the syllable types and how these letter sounds can change based on their position, then you’re giving the child a fighting chance at being able to decode unfamiliar words. This is right.
LAURIE MOLONEY (⏱ 00:24:22): And this is why a 30 hour training in OG may be inadequate because there is so much to know about this language. It has what’s called a deep Orthography meaning that because the letters represent more than one sound. Many of them do. Um, we have a tremendous uh, dictionary of over a million words. So we have to know how letters are sounded in different kinds of syllables, but also how sounds are spelled Because take the letter a, the letter a represents five sounds and the sound a can be spelled 12 different ways.
FRANCES SHEFTER (⏱ 00:25:13): No,that’s amazing. And so how do you like, I mean, I’ve seen, I mean thousands upon thousands of evaluations. It’s a school do and they definitely don’t go that deep is their assessments that you do separate for your students to figure out the granular issues.
LAURIE MOLONEY (⏱ 00:25:31): Yes, I do. I do. I do a variety of things to kind of peg where the student is um, from, can they, can they sequence the alphabet and make no assumptions about the older student being able to sequence the alphabet. I have them write a paragraph. I’m looking at their grip, their spelling, their word choice punctuation, how much they can write or what they think a paragraph means in terms of number of sentences. Do they have a topic, sentence of concluding sentences, A few details. Um Does it seem to be the does it seem to be as sophisticated as it should be for their grade level? Um Then I asked them to name all the letters of the alphabet and produce the sounds that those letters represent. Um I have them read nonsense words, real words, multi syllable words, words with suffixes, endings, phrases and sentences. Um I have them read a passage that um about a first grade level and I look for deletions of words, uh substitution additions or just you know, miss misread words. Then I have them read a passage that would be on grade level and I’m looking for the same kinds of issues and so based on all of that I look for patterns and I see patterns and and um and then I can tell exactly what we need to what we need to work on. I sort of re teach them the structure of the english language, how to spell, how to decode. Um And we fix their handwriting at the same time. I’m interested in in improvements in handwriting spelling, decoding and comprehension at the same time. So a lot of O-G programs don’t prioritize handwriting and spelling as much as other programs do. And so you’ll see students who learn to decode and they can read chapter books beautifully, but if you look at their written work it looks like they’ve had no intervention at all. That’s unfortunate. That’s avoidable. So we want to address all aspects of of literacy simultaneously,
FRANCES SHEFTER (⏱ 00:27:57): which sounds, it sounds to me that, you know, as much as the schools can do if there’s true going on that the parents have to do outside, would you say? Most of the time you see that,
LAURIE MOLONEY (⏱ 00:28:11): you know, it really differs, it’s hard to make a blanket statement. I mean, there are, you know, there are plenty of teachers out there who have uh taking training to to do better than their other teachers who are really limited in what they can do because the school follows a curriculum. Um all I’ll say is that we, as a society underestimate grossly underestimate uh the the the depth of the training involved in adequately preparing pre service teachers to come into classrooms and we um you know, we we underestimate how difficult it is for human beings to learn to read. We’re not we’re not wired to to be readers, we have to learn to read. And um and we really underestimate, you know, what it what it takes, how much time it takes to teach Children to read. So, you know, 100 years ago, much of the day was spent on these foundational skills. Now it’s, you know, a couple of hours and that makes a difference. I’ve also taught groups of Children, I’ve been running a saturday literacy program at a Title one school this past year on Saturdays and all of the Children were identified as being behind their classmates and and this was not the first time I’ve done this, this is the second cohort. And what I have found is that even among the Children who struggle, there’s great variation in the nature of their difficulties and the time that it takes them to come up to speed. So, uh You know, when I think about the typical early educator in a class of 25 Children, a couple of whom are going to be truly dyslexic, and then there’s gonna be another 50% who will end up reading below grade level or reading less proficiently than they should. About a third to a quarter of the class will have no difficulty learning to read. I think about what a tremendous, tremendous job that that teacher has, and I don’t know that it’s, you know, I think it’s just a herculean job, you know, to teach everyone to be reading on the same level we really do, like I said, we really do, You know, underestimate the complexity of teaching reading and and how Children learn and what they need. I mean, in an ideal world, you know, that 60% of Children in the classroom at least the 30% of of the Children who will really struggle. They almost should be taught one on one by a skilled teacher because their needs are so great. Yeah
FRANCES SHEFTER (⏱ 00:31:17): I know because that’s I mean when I taught I taught kindergarten and then for a year I was a reading tutor within the classroom. So we you know, I pulled kids out one on one um with the reading program to help learn. It’s just I mean I remember I had 38 kids and one para professional like yeah you know like okay and then I remember, you know it’s funny because that I was just early childhood originally and then I went back and got special education training and I remember my special education classes going why don’t they teach this for regular education teachers? Like all of the techniques we learned as special educators everybody would benefit from.
LAURIE MOLONEY (⏱ 00:31:58): That’s exactly right. That’s exactly right. Just amazes me. I mean teachers today and going through Covid, I don’t know how they do it. I love them. They’re great. I always say, you know I just like to help the teachers like what can we do to get a good IEP Together to help the Children get to where they need to be. And sometimes the schools can and sometimes parents have to go on the outside.
LAURIE MOLONEY (⏱ 00:32:25): There’s a wonderful website and I I’ll send you the link but it’s a woman on youtube who just presents the pure speech sounds. It’s really worth looking at particularly if you’re an early educator because a lot of my students come to me and their sounds are not 100% uh correct. So the first thing teachers can do is correct their own speech sounds. Uh
FRANCES SHEFTER (⏱ 00:32:54): Yeah.
LAURIE MOLONEY (⏱ 00:32:55): Yeah they tend to add that sound like yeah and uh and we want them to clip that we want nice crisp pure sounds. Um They got rid of cursive but I only teach cursive and um it’s a wonderful language input device. So when we teach the properties of a letter we teach the cursive shape in the gross motor system and in the graphomotor system. And so um I hope that you know that it comes back and stays the other missed opportunity uh That that affects the classroom is when teachers teach the name of the letter when they’re telling the students how to write the letter but they’re not teaching the sound simultaneously. So what we wanna do is link that you know, you’ve been in countless I. E. P. meetings where where faculty will say well we don’t teach spelling here or we don’t teach spelling. Um as though that were a point of pride right?
LAURIE MOLONEY (⏱ 00:34:05): Can teach spelling and in fact you should you must be teaching spelling. It’s not that hard. So when you teach to a first grader, second grader the letter sounds. You should be teaching the letter shapes as well and you should link the shape of the letter with the sound that is spelling, that is spelling. So then you can teach connected letters, you can teach students to utter the sounds when they’re writing those letters. Then you can teach students to spell on a syllable by syllable sound by sound basis.
FRANCES SHEFTER (⏱ 00:34:41): That makes so much sense and that makes so much sense because who cares what the name of the letter is if you don’t know the sound of the letter and we teach the name of the letter all the time and
LAURIE MOLONEY (⏱ 00:34:50): there’s no reason where you and this is oh this is pure OG letter name, letter sound and the key word that goes with it. T. Table “t” while you write the letter in the air. T. Table. So you’re bringing all the properties of the letter together. More importantly you’re linking the brain regions, you know the temporal parietal, the occipital, the motor, you know, you’re linking all of those, you’re doing that with a lot of repetition. So you’re making superhighways, you’re increasing the speed, the automaticity that’s what we want. We want students to be able to write letters and spell little words below the level of their consciousness. And so you do that through repeated practice. But you’ve got to get the arm going, you’ve got to get the eyes looking at the letters and hearing, you know?
FRANCES SHEFTER (⏱ 00:35:43): Yeah. So you mentioned I know you’ve mentioned High School a lot. Is there a specific age group you work with? Or do you work with all age groups?
LAURIE MOLONEY (⏱ 00:35:50): All age groups from first grade I, you know, last year I worked with, um, to college freshman who, who were really learning to read. I mean, they, they, they were disfluent readers. They’re having trouble keeping up with the, with the curriculum in college, which is, you know, is mostly reading and paper writing. Um, and they just didn’t have the speed and accuracy. So at, you know, 19 years old, they’re in their dorm room, tea, table. But it helps. And so I work with people of all ages, wherever they are, what at whatever stage of, you know, of, of, of difficulty.
FRANCES SHEFTER (⏱ 00:36:38): Yeah, that makes sense. That is awesome. And how can people reach you?
LAURIE MOLONEY (⏱ 00:36:42): I have a website.
FRANCES SHEFTER (⏱ 00:36:43): Okay.
LAURIE MOLONEY (⏱ 00:36:44): LMSmoloney.com. Great.
FRANCES SHEFTER (⏱ 00:36:48): And that will be added in the show notes. Um, and is there anything else, like is there any other pointers you have for parents that have Children that have dyslexia dysgraphia. Reading issues of like how they can advocate for their Children?
LAURIE MOLONEY (⏱ 00:37:02): hmm. I would say um, understand their rights. That’s where you come in. That’s very, very important that they understand, uh, what it is that they can legally expect schools to provide their child. Um, they need to have a good understanding of what constitutes a good intervention. So there are websites like understood. Some of the some of the sites like uh International Dyslexia Association’s website has a link to a document called the Knowledge and practice standards for teachers of Reading. But that’s good for parents to know about as well. So when parents are educated about what they understand constitutes a good reading intervention then they can ask for those things and the more that parents ask uh the the chances go up that schools will respond. Now schools are aware that they need to change the way that that their teachers are teaching reading. You may know that New York City now just threw out all the balanced literacy curricula and bringing in um structured literacy or you know programs based on the science of reading. That’s what we want everywhere. That’s what our bill is gonna bring in D. C. Right now. Schools are choosing the screening tools that they’re going to be using to identify Children with reading difficulties in in kindergarten 1st, 2nd grade, the following year that teachers will be trained on on new curriculum that are based on the science of reading. So this is happening in some states around the country like Mississippi. So parents need to be aware of the legislation and the changes that are occurring in other states so that they can advocate for for the similar kinds of changes in in in the state that they live in. It’s very much going to be a parent powered um process to, to, to, um, to turn this titanic, you know, on a dime, it’s gonna take a lot of people involved in just advocating for, you know, better teacher prep and better methods and materials in the classroom. Um, what else can I suggest to parents, um, talk to other parents who have gone through this process, get as much advice as they can. Um, but I’ll just come back to reading, you know, listen to books, look at books that are being read to you. There’s all sorts of, of sources. If you go to the internet and just type in free sources of audio books, you’ll come up with dozens, dozens of free sources and you can download them to your computer or your phone. Um,
FRANCES SHEFTER (⏱ 00:40:06): and I know there was a bunch of them that the stars were reading the stories because especially during Covid, yeah. You know,
LAURIE MOLONEY (⏱ 00:40:06): yeah. You know, parents make time for soccer, they make time for ballet and they make time, you know, taekwondo, um, reading and writing are skills that are necessary for a lifetime. So parents really need to prioritize this, it’s way too important. The other thing is don’t put off, don’t put off investigating what’s going on with your child. So if there’s any concern about their progress, um, they can go to their local public school and ask for a screening meeting and get the ball rolling. Um,
FRANCES SHEFTER (⏱ 00:40:47): and don’t take, I say it all the time, don’t take no for an answer because a lot of times, I mean I’ve had clients all the time come back and the school is like your child’s doing fine. We’re not evaluating, no, that’s not acceptable. Trust. I would say trust your parents intuition. That’s exactly, that’s right.
LAURIE MOLONEY (⏱ 00:41:04): That’s right. So I’ll say that it’s never too late to intervene because as I said, I’ve worked with students of all ages and they’ve made progress. Um, but the trajectory is going to be much higher if you intervene when the child is young. I mean, that’s just, that just stands to reason. Their brains are very plastic and they, they pick up the concepts very quickly. Um, and they, you know, the, the low self esteem and those issues haven’t set in. So, um, definitely if there are any concerns, if there’s a family history of reading difficulties, that’s a cue that you know, because it’s so heritable, You know, deal with it early. Get it checked out early.
FRANCES SHEFTER (⏱ 00:41:48): I didn’t even think about that. The hereditary factors. That makes sense. But that makes sense. Why not our brains work the way our parents’ brains.
FRANCES SHEFTER (⏱ 00:41:57): That is so awesome. Thank you so much Laurie it has been great, I like I learned so much even with all of my training and stuff that you don’t realize. I mean, there is, it’s, it’s reading. Reading is hard. Um, thank you so much for coming on the show. It’s been awesome having you and for those, our listeners watching my information and Laurie’s information will be below in the show notes that you can reach either one of us. If you have any questions,
LAURIE MOLONEY (⏱ 00:42:24): thank you so much for having me.
VOICEOVER (⏱ 00:42:28): You’ve been listening to Stress-Free IEP™ with your host Frances Shefter. Remember you do not need to do it all alone. You can reach Frances through Shefter law dot com. Where prior episodes are also posted. Thank you for your positive reviews, comments and sharing the show with others through Youtube, LinkedIn, Apple Podcast, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher and more.
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