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HPISD Dyslexia Parent Meeting General Session

Added Nov 02, 2021 •

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good morning everyone we're so glad that you are joining us this morning this is our Holland Park ISD dyslexia team meeting or hpisd parents of students with dyslexia we're glad you're here with us. we have planned a meeting for a full hour this morning and we have several speakers for you most importantly you're just like see a therapist and hbisd they are going to wind up this meeting today with presentations for elementary students Intermediate Middle School students and for high school did it but we're also going to be joined by Nancy distrelec who is our region said dyslexia consultants and dr. Laurie gagne who is director of special programs in Howell Park ISD is also here so this morning I want to start out by introducing our dyslexia team because we're a growing team and we have new people on our team and so I'd like for when I mention your name just like your therapist if you would please turn on your microphone and say hello and that way your picture will come up every wannabe sure to see you start with the elementary therapist and start with Armstrong because they're at and then and now just like the services we always do things about medical order their hello and with Nancy this morning is Kelly Lipscomb and Kelly is also at Armstrong with Nancy and I'm really going to mention Kelly twice because she's also at Bradfield with us this year so we're glad that they are there and then at Abu Elementary we have Mason Burkett good morning there you are and at Bradfield also Kelly's with Nicole part of the time to andaz higher we have estimates Hutchins Ashley's not with us today she is still on maternity leave she'll be returning on Friday we're really excited to have Ashley come back and join us on we're glad she's had this maternity leave time we have had a call out who has been trying to take flight who has been her substitute while she's been out on maternity leave at University Park rates for welcoming to our team Aaron Gonzalez Erin Erin good as she's at University Park Elementary we're glad she's joined our team to at McCullough Intermediate School we have Graham Campbell are there stairs Ram and at the middle school we have Megan Mitchell flu there's Meagan Good there she is and we're thrilled to have rejoined our team and a on a part-time basis it's your state the show and Stacy are you all up leave you are this here this morning too are Stacy and then at the high school we have stair rails and Sarah's are dyslexia therapist as well as the 504 coordinator for students with dyslexia good morning everybody. Did everyone see dr. He is earlier and we know she's there good morning this is the month of October we're almost through with the month of October and October is dyslexia awareness month and I just want to make you aware some of the things they've been going on at each campus during dyslexia Awareness Month our pact of our of Dyslexia therapist make a presentation to their faculty members at their campus each fall and some of them did this in August Timber others waited and did it for Maximum Impact during just like the awareness month but all of our therapists and out a handout a fact sheet to The Faculty from International dyslexia Association which was basic facts about dyslexia so that they all receive that as well as lots of presentations from The Faculty from the therapist also at each teacher workroom we put Staybridge Inn are the teachers have a little treat and then we have a little spine there that that teachers can be Lifesavers for students with dyslexia and we want to remind the classroom teachers are important they are for our students with just like one campus had a readout day for dyslexia to let the campus presentation and then I just like to see a therapist all during the month of October have been talking with their take flight classes about famous people have dyslexia and that's brought up some interesting conversations and we've all found some new people that we did know that just likes to her very famous and very successful that's going to positive reinforcement and then today we're having our parents and I know you as parents and students with just like that just like teachers of students with dyslexia or we're dyslexia all year long but October is the month of emphasis where we try to spread the word other people what are the things that I wind up having to do at the meeting with the year is talk about some of the essential elements that are in the dyslexia handbook and one of them a list of things that we need to go over with parent a few years ago we spent a whole hour talking about this and it was probably the most boring presentation we ever did and we vowed never to bore you to death with that again so we have it on a handout we will put it on our web page but I'm going to go over just a few of the high points on it today very quickly one of the things that the TA just like the handbook says that we must go over the definition of Dyslexia and we like to use that internet just like the association definition of Dyslexia which says dyslexia is a specific learning disability that is or in origin in other words if the way their brain functions with the way they're born right by difficulty with accurate and or fluid word recognition and my poor spelling and decoding skills these difficulties typically result from a deficit in the phonological component of language that is often expected in relation to other cognitive abilities and the provision of effective classroom instruction and it goes on into a little bit more detail but it also talks about the difficulty students have reading words in isolation unfamiliar words difficulty with fluency difficulty with spelling and sometimes but not always difficulty with comprehension and written expression this Essential Elements also talks about the fact that our instruction must include for logical awareness symbol Association syllabication orthography morphology which is word meaning send text reading comprehension and fluency an hour take flight program that we use encompasses all of those is simultaneous multi-sensory systematic cumulative and explicit it also points out that when we diagnose the student with dyslexia we need to make a Nations for them and we know that those accommodations are based on the individual student they are not one-size-fits-all. Does accommodations are made by the Arts committee or the 504 committee and also said that you need to know how contact the person who is ultimately in charge of Dyslexia in our district and that would be dr. gagne and all this information and even a little bit more is on a handout that we're going to post on our website and we are encourage you to take time to look at that when you get a chance it's my pleasure today to introduce to you nephew just to let who is our region can't just Lexi a consult it Nancy is a very busy person. Only making a lot of presentations at Region 10 but throughout the area and all over the state infect I think she's coming from us to us from our conference in Austin today and we're glad that she can join us and she's going to talk that's about social and emotional aspects of Dyslexia and how you as a parent can help at home so Nancy disbelief we welcome you back to Highland Park we've always enjoyed having you come and meet with our team and today with our parents from happy we hope you're on there when I didn't y'all hear me yes and I'm just so happy that you guys gave me the opportunity to I want to let you know that when Nancy first said that she has the is it boring I used to tell my students if it's boring and beneficial it's okay so I always ask. It's great to hear that definition it's great to have that information my background for those of you who don't know me I have dyslexia but I was not identified tell my own children were struggling and they finally got identified and then we also found out that I had the ability and so I have learned so much in the process of becoming a cow out what it's like to be dyslexic from the emotional perspective and we do know that you do not connect research has supported at that you do not connect until your brain understands the why and so are dyslexia students before we want to start this wonderful research-based Fidelity which is the left hemisphere and we're rewiring a Pathways we got to work right here with the doll of our kids and say why am I here what do I what is this mean in until you make the emotional connection for your kids the academic progress doesn't do at the rate that we'd hope because it's you that doesn't really know what's happening though a doctor David's Tuesday is my favorite book that's where this research comes from and he talks about how when duden feel overwhelmed or anxious they will have higher levels of cortisol when you have higher levels of cortisol your long-term it's blocked and so information getting in and being utilized as less the win my students have mindfulness executive function and an understanding of what they need and how to control their own emotions then I can get you have less cortisol more endorphins those receptors in long-term memory open up and then more is happening academically for them and so when people when I and I do like three hours trains on Death in Paradise on and I'm putting it in the nut the bottom line is when your child is talking about what dyslexia means to them when you have parent night where they talk about other people that have it how they're successful with it then identifying specifically had this like the affect them the most important things I have done for my kids because I've had kids in my class and the like but I'm not that kid I'm not that kid and so we talked about with them in their sessions of how specifically where they are with her and see where they are at with their decoding where they at in motion Ali and dr. Sally shaywitz will tell us that dyslexia is not just a decoding and encoding disability it's a language processing disability and affect students with dyslexia other weight me personally I'm directionally challenged I have a difficult time left and right direction and so that wasn't reading that's not feeling that's not the codeine affect the other parts of my life and so if we just address one section and not all of this Lexie than your kids will be frustrated we have difficulty sometimes taking a test and it's not just the time frame is reading and not question one of these is not the right answer novice then I got to think opposite of what I'm wanting to think my anxiety goes up I produce cortisol I can't access my long-term memory and so is the emotion that is blocking an inner handbook about anxiety and and lack of motivation those things are key and we have to dress that just as much as the Fidelity and the left hemisphere so how do we do that we have great training I will tell you guys I was the keynote speaker today at CVS yesterday and I highlighted Highland Park I got to show your gear up and I was like this is what you do in the district this is how we feed our family this is how we feed our kids you trained teachers and accommodations you trying parents and accommodation can you train students in accommodations that is their Lifeline so they can build Independence and confidence while they interacted print I will tell you as a grown woman it's embarrassing and Nancy Johnson is be well enough that I will have to ask for I have to ask for reading support or what did the time even today I was like Nancy make sure I've got the right lane like a mi on it correctly because I could do it backwards so I could get it wrong well actually what I've learned over the years it was more my emotional fear it was actually my intellectual ability and I've learned how to calm myself down walk through things and break it down into Parts which is another key thing with dyslexia or big picture thinkers we can see that picture but to take it into part and it's overwhelming so what do we do their accommodation for you cover overlays these highlighters would teach them how to break their assignments and depart what I've learned the skills to navigate print not just with the also accommodation or how to break things in a part and how to self-soothe my emotions now I'm more ready to grow academically I do better on Star I do better on I do better in life and I'll tell you that when the other things is like if your child support or if they're in order if they're in theater directions can have a key on them they've got to read their play or they got to read the strategies for you know whatever the team is telling you I need you to run do right and if they are overwhelmed sorry I'm at my conference two people are walking by and I tried to get a private room the social and emotional aspect is teaching them how to identify what they need who they are as a student with dyslexia and how to Advocate and speak up for themselves but that empowerment build their confidence Independence lowers our code of cortisol and we grow academically and emotionally I kind of did that in a nutshell for you I don't know if I can get the fastest I've ever explained that that parents would I want you to know is it is not telling your child that they're fantastic and great it feels confident it's currently supporting your child and them accurately knowing who they are and what they need and so work with your dyslexia therapist and I had kids that were in high school reading at a third-grade level and that's where I met him where they were I also built for the kids I encourage you to do this if you find your children off at add or ADHD processing is one of their struggles and so I Empower them back and I'll say you know I noticed that you're really good at getting out your paper your getting your Simon started that you're struggling to finish it what can I do to support you with that what do you think you will need and have them start verbalizing out loud what they need emotionally to achieve thing and think of him the skills and strategies how to build a planet but a lot of times these kids but just like they don't even know what they are struggling with and so they just shut down back is it too loud are you guys okay can you hear the other people okay I know I'm talking really fast are y'all still okay not even so when my kid actually understand face need to verbalize what they need in their they are more supported the other thing that I've done for my kids respond I did all the way through high school if I had them start doing speech to text the reason why this is such a powerful tool in my opinion is because once I get to middle school and high school they shut down sometimes I don't even want to write if they've learned had at least get their ideas on paper we've already started somewhere then you can learn to type it you can learn to ride at you build up from there you build their Star skills and it gets them at least a starting spot in a lot of our kids just shut down just be text teaching new technologies and that gear up those things are available teeth can't they were learning what was available and how they can support themselves so maybe I have more than you know I have more than I can say by think I better than I ever had do you want me to take a few. is there something you want me to address you keep you keep right on going you're you're fine I don't think we have time for questions but if you have more you want to go through we love to hear from you the bottom line is when you have a student identified with dyslexia make sure that you accurately talk to them about what that is how to learn how to verbalize if I've got Elementary babies and here he respond to things that I've done with my elementary baby I actually got a piece of paper with a paragraph from a book that I know they could read and I made the font bigger and spaced it out and I asked him I said can you just walk through this page and tell me how you feel we may not like what if I had to read that dress for our baby is in 3 places they're going to fill it in their head their muscles are in their tummy and I have my kids over to verbalize when they come to reading like oh you know when they have a different book and they're looking at the books are not wanting to read and like okay what's happening like I don't know my tummy hurts and like okay your tummy hurts does your body's way of letting you know you dress and with that dress what are some things that we can do and that's how I walked in through accommodations would we have liked read to it would you like me to be with you and a lot of people say I'm I'm teaching enabling and I will tell you I am not teaching enabling I am teaching empowerment and this is why the training I just said when you have a fireman Iron Man do not yell with a blow horn outside or the megaphone and say you've got this your smart drop and roll more to the left what you do when your environment is you are equipped and you go in and you meet them where they're at and a lot of these kids are disabilities in reading and we're just those of you that are strong reader to like you can do it well that's like me asking some of you can you do a standing backflip you might be able to describe a backflip you understand it back be physically may not be able to do without a spawning you putting you in a harness you might not be able to do it I have a disability in my left hemisphere when I look at print it's very jumbled it take me a long time and I have anxiousness with it on a teacher meet me where I'm at and asked me how I feel and ask me what are my stressors all of a sudden I have a safe space to build upon that and now I'm comfortable and I can be vulnerable the other thing these kids if they're stability is high they are they recognized that they should be able to read I know I should be able to do stuff and that's the part that makes me so frustrated I'm like I wish I could get through email faster than C Johnson I'll tell you that one email is that a hard thing me I just cannot stay on top of it it takes me so long to read so I've built in the strategies I recognize what I need so going back to that print paper that I want to make sure you all know it's empowering and not enabling so you meet these kids where they're at you know they are your accurate I have a sheet of paper and I have the kids come up to me like at the beginning of the year middle do you know just like this walk through this what word on this page would you never ever want to read that one that one and that one has ever asked him that you know they have a really ask them how they feel about reading them like why would you not want to read it right by just circling my don't make them read it and then I'm like okay what were some do you think you just know don't read them what where do you think you just now those are some sight words and my thanks for letting me know how you feel about reading is it feed a bit like yeah I start there and start working with my kids and I start getting comfortable to come over and tell me missy thatsheart and then I get them to the place we talked about being confidently uncomfortable when you come to word then you start feeling your tummy hurt he don't feel good at all I want to do is think of some of those strategies and we're going to do that or misses he can support you Morgan talked about accommodate I put emotion into the reading because it is emotional when I shut down its emotional what are the kids say when they're not doing well in the class but those days the teacher hates me that wasn't my teacher doesn't know how to support me or my accommodations are I understand the teacher hates me that's an emotional response and now I know hey let's talk about accommodations talk about what you might need in their let's talk about how you can connect that teacher so I'm very need to tell you I asked the emotion first because I do believe that's where I got the most progress and dr. David Seuss's book will tell you that once you have endorphins being released receptors open up we get more academic growth as what is the place to start and example I gave today is ladies dieting hello losing weight is like one of the hardest things and I don't know a woman is not always trying a new diet or trying to do something new and you know what motivates is a reunions a wedding something motivates us to or a doctor's appointment that says it's not it's time but without that motivation is very hard to do something that's difficult well reading a difficult for me and I'm off and not motivated to get through it and if I have an emoji an emotion and engagement and I can get through it so I thank you for having me talk about that today I think it's one of the most important things and you will see academic progress with your kids when you start allowing them the face of verbalize that reading it's hard or how they feel as a dyslexic sarcasm is often hard for kids with dyslexia know they understand how to do it they may not receive it at first and Italian art nothing to do with decoding and encoding right and no one's ever talked to me about that emotion about how hard that is to be me my brain the way I think no I am Fired Up Pump about what the Everest you guys are making in your District you are an example to other districts of how to support our kids and our families and dyslexia so thank you for having me and this opportunity to share the importance of the social and emotional impact of having a disability leave with print in a print environment thank you Nancy we always appreciate your comments I know they're always heartfelt and always spot-on and and I know you have to get to a 10 meeting I think that we would we appreciate you working has into your busy schedule this morning Nancy mention gear up and I I do want to mention a little bit too because I know a lot of your children were there at our gear up this summer and you're going to see something when you breakout sessions with the elementary middle school and high school people you're going to see something that came from gear out the one that Nancy's I've been with our permission has been using at her conference in Austin I just wish it was developed by Amy wood and her technology staff here in Holland Park where they put in a lot of programs extension and apps that can be used and if there's a little tutorial on there and so when you get to your breakout session in just a few moments you'll be able to to see that particular tasks are that Nancy was talking about but he had other things besides that technology piece which was really a very very important part of it but it was get acquainted with other students with dyslexia so that they could see there are other kids just like me at other campuses are on my auntie and put it there was a big egg Southeast section so that they know you knew how to become an advocate for themselves and there was the reflection piece where we had a middle school teacher as well as a Highland Park graduate who now. spell NFL. Just last week hasn't gotten her dream job now too so that was a really important piece for a student so I would appreciate your work with us Nancy and I just want everyone to know that when they see that later this that was part of the the fruits of that Gear Up program that we did appreciate you doing that thank you Nancy thank you again for having me y'all enjoy today okay bye bye I also want to give some time to doctor gagne because she's going to bring it up today on things that are happening in the dyslexia world that we want to give her an opportunity to speak before we go into our breakout groups dr. Yay thank you Nancy good morning I'm thrilled to be here with you today I did ask for just a few moments to highlight some changes to our state dyslexia handbook that passed through legislation that passed legislative session. I won't take too much of your time and keep you from the meat of the meeting today but I did want to just highlight for you a few changes that happened the first change was that this turn are required to offer a full individual evaluation special education evaluation to start the dyslexia identification procedures previously the handbook said you could parents could choose the special education route or the 504 route now we're putting a step before that that says the district must offer an f i e full individual evaluation and then the parents can either formally declined the f i e and end of the 504 route or they can accept the FYE so those that has been kind of a change for us but hasn't been dramatically different cuz parents have always have the right to request an FYE in Highland Park we've honored that for at least for the last five years we've been honoring that so but we are making a making a point to make sure to offer the FIA when we suspect a disability of Dyslexia or a parent request to be evaluated for dyslexia be offered the f i e the second change that was made was really kind of a clarification and the handbook is more in alignment with the individuals with Disabilities Act Haitian Act and the language is kind of more aligned in terms of a student with dyslexia can be served their special education or 250 for and so that was really never short up in the in the sky handbook and so it makes it much clearer now that that is a possibility either either route a student with a disability specifically the disability of Dyslexia can be served through either of those are out the Third change has to do with the screening we do at Kinder and first some of you may have children that weren't we weren't even doing the screening at the time the screening has been around green and cleaners and first-graders been around for years and we think this might be our fourth year roughly so they have some changes in the requirements of pieces that had to be screened for students we used to park screener and Highland Park we use a product called stay with and we also use screening in called m-class the both of those pieces are part of our screening process with the both of those pieces we we have all the components covered that we need to be screaming but we're still confident that we met handbook requirements there the other 4th change had to do specifically with Commissioners list of early reading instruments that you that all students kind of our stuff with and because we is M class. That program is aligned with the commissioner early reading list but we really didn't have anything we had to change their but that M Class piece kind of covers that and is aligned with the Commissioners reading list and then lastly V this change has to do with what's called response to intervention and that's really how districts and schools respond when a student is not making 6s and that every student regardless of having a disability regardless being a student with dyslexia have to have access to individual responses to intervention when they're not being successful in the classroom so the good news there is that we had a push the summer we trained every administrator in the district on response to intervention specifically for reading and have rolled that out this year's that we feel like we had a ride in alignment with that change as well and we've got the brakes having access to those interventions as well so I'm confident that the changes that were made are good for our kids and that we're able to implement all those changes and make sure rooster be interested large we want to go to to the Breakout I do get to go and let me talk through that I'm going to put in the chat three different lengths that are marked one is for elementary all the elementaries go to one is for intermediate and middle school students parents and one is for high school I'll know I don't want you to feel like you have to go to wear your student is if you happen to have an 8th grader and you're interested in what it looks like at the high school or what the high school if they feel free to go to the high school or vice versa you know if you want to want to look at what what's happened here in elementary and you want to look at them is you can do that as well so really fit click the link that fits your best needs and be able to be able to attend that session we are going to ask I want as a reminder our presenters I'm going to ask you to record when you get into your session so that we have those available and then we will not come back to as a group so I just wanted to thank you for coming today in joining us and I'm sure Nancy does too and absolutely love that you will see there's one session for Highland Park High School and there is another for intermediate and middle school and there's another one for all elementary schools do you want to click the one that you want to go to and then we will not be coming back to the group meeting when you are through with that meeting but we're so glad you came today and we will post the recording the on the website so it may be a day or two before we get there but we will get it posted on the website so you can can find it there

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HPISD Dyslexia Parent Meeting General Session

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