As NYC Mayor Eric Adams has shared publicly, he struggled with undiagnosed dyslexia until he was in college. He was the “D for dumb” student whose mother encouraged his efforts but had no idea of the nature of his struggles.
Now, as Mayor, Mr. Adams has championed dyslexia screening for nearly all NYC students. The mayor’s plan calls for all district reading instruction in grades K-2 to be phonics-based, explicitly teaching the 44 unique sounds in the English language known as phonemes. It also calls for providing additional reading instruction to any students identified in the screening as having a reading disability. Other states, such as Mississipi and Tennessee, have already moved to require phonics instruction. See more about Mayor Adams’ story in this New York Times article: How Eric Adams’s Struggle with Dyslexia is Shaping His Mayoralty.
The movement to teach ALL students with a phonics-based approach is one of equity. Why not use the approach that we know is effective for 95% of children rather than let up to half of our students fall behind in reading by Grade 3, as in New York?
Please join a local movement such as your state chapter of the International Dyslexia Association to make your voice heard. And if your child has fallen behind in reading, don’t wait to catch them up! Contact me for more information about private tutoring, which has been shown to improve students’ reading by one grade level (or more) in 12 weeks. Click the link below now!
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