A ninth grade student Diagnosed with Dyslexia in the fifth grade: Now that you have assessed Lacey, how long will it take my daughter to catch up to her peers?

The WIST (Word Identification and Spelling Test) provides a Fundamental Literacy Index that provides insights into a students knowledge of symbol and sound relationships, and her ability to read and spell regular and irregular words. Reading words, sound-symbol connections and spelling are gate openers for higher reading and writing skills. Without these skills reading fluency, reading comprehension and writing are significantly impacted; although, the WIST does not measure reading fluency or comprehension. Lacey’s Fundamental Literacy Ability Index is in the 9th percentile, or a grade equivalent of 5th grade.  The Fundamental Literacy Ability Index is composed of two components, and they are Word Identification and Spelling. Lacey’s score on the Word Identification component is in the 21st percentile and her score on the Spelling component is in the 7th percentile. Her ability to spell words, 7th percentile, lags behind her ability to read words, 21st percentile, because students with Dyslexia are typically more resistant to spelling remediation than to word identification. Lacey’s Sound-Symbol knowledge is in the 35th percentile.

In conclusion, if Lacey improved her Fundamental Literacy Ability Index at a rate of 2 grade levels per year it would take her approximately two and half years to catch up to her peers. Her score on her Woodcock Johnson Achievement test, given by the school psychologist, indicates that Lacey’s listening comprehension is at the 10th grade level, and her reading comprehension level is at 6th grade level. It is a reasonable assumption that Lacey’s limited decoding ability impacts her reading comprehension level, and as Lacey’s reading comprehension improves, her ability to accurately decode text will improve. Thus, as Lacey’s decoding skills improve her reading comprehension will also improve.  In addition,with the Wilson Intensive Reading Invention program, Lacey will receive explicit instruction in reading comprehension that includes practice with the different types of expository text that she will encounter in high school.