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Advocates Recommend Oklahoma Lawmakers Take More Steps to Help Those with Dyslexia

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Dyslexia experts told Oklahoma lawmakers in an interim study on Monday they’re off to a good start in helping struggling readers, but there’s more work to do.

Screenings for all students through third grade will start in the 2022–23 school year, but Decoding Dyslexia Oklahoma founder Michelle Keiper said they should also be given to targeted groups.

"Why not take a look at the bottom 20% of the state reading assessments and do some further screenings? Students with high ACE and those in the foster care system, those students that we know are having a strong indicator for adverse childhood experiences," Keiper said.

Keiper said Oklahoma teachers through third grade are getting good training to help kids learn to read, but kids in older grades also need help with reading skills.

"And I would venture to say that our fourth through 12th grade teachers do not feel qualified to help with foundational reading skills once those students enter their classrooms," Keiper said.

Certified Academic Language Therapist Tiffany Jenkins said if dyslexic kids are missed in school, they may never catch up, which can hurt their career opportunities as adults. She believes reading problems may have even played a role in the state’s difficulties distributing unemployment benefits earlier this year.

"Unemployment has been a hot topic this year with many struggling to complete the process. The Oklahoma unemployment instructions main page with where you go first to file for unemployment is written at a readability of a 13 grade level. And we wonder why so many people were having trouble trying to get the process started," Jenkins said.

Jenkins also noted ballot questions are written at a college reading level.

An estimated one in five Oklahomans is dyslexic.

Matt Trotter joined KWGS as a reporter in 2013. Before coming to Public Radio Tulsa, he was the investigative producer at KJRH. His freelance work has appeared in the Los Angeles Times and on MSNBC and CNN.