Reading Horizons Launches Online Dyslexia Screener at No Cost
Inspired by research on the effectiveness of early remediation, a group of reading specialists developed the screener to help educators identify and support students with dyslexia
(Salt Lake City, UT) October 18, 2018 — In honor of dyslexia awareness month, Reading Horizons, a leading provider of literacy solutions for the Prek-12 education market, has launched a complimentary online dyslexia screener. Parents and educators can access the non-diagnostic risk screener to identify indicators of dyslexia, with the goal being earlier recognition and intervention. Studies show that approximately 10-20% of students struggle with factors related to dyslexia. The announcement came during the company’s second-annual Online Dyslexia Summit on Thursday, October 18.
Dyslexia impacts virtually every experience a student will have in the classroom. Research shows that if a student is identified and receives targeted remediation by 1st grade, the educational consequences of dyslexia can be greatly reduced. The screener was developed by a team of reading and dyslexia specialists including psychologist Dr. Richard Selznick, author of several books on dyslexia and learning issues, who served as a consultant. The primary research sources for the screeners include Overcoming Dyslexia by Sally Shaywitz and Essentials of Assessing, Preventing, and Overcoming Reading Difficulties, by David A. Kilpatrick, as well as several studies. Links to the research behind each question are available on the screener.
“Schools benefit by screening students, whether they have characteristics of dyslexia or not, since many educators may be unfamiliar with the signs of dyslexia. This is a good first step in obtaining valuable information,” said Donell Pons, a reading and dyslexia expert and co-developer of the screener. “Informal screening that includes information from parents and educators can be done quickly and is an effective tool that can be completed at no cost. When teachers know what to look for, they are better able to support their students.”
The screener is available in four versions: one each for four- and five-year olds, six-and seven-year olds, eight-years old and above, and adults. Each screener includes questions focused on the specific indicators of dyslexia that are developmental or appear as reading tasks become more complex. Parents are invaluable as a source of information to determine if there is a family history of reading problems, and other early risk-factors such as a child’s delay in speaking, difficulty with rhyming, or retaining letter names and sounds.
Once the screener has been completed, a list of the responses is generated, along with recommendations based on the number of identified indicators. To learn more about how to identify, accommodate, and support students with dyslexia, watch Reading Horizons’ second-annual Online Dyslexia Summit.
About Reading Horizons
For more than 30 years, Reading Horizons has dedicated its time and efforts to perfecting a reading system that makes learning to read simple and enjoyable for beginning and struggling readers. All of Reading Horizons’ products are based on a method that provides explicit, systematic, sequential decoding instruction. The Reading Horizons method has been proven successful for beginning readers, struggling readers, and students learning English. For more information, please visit ReadingHorizons.com.
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Hurricanes: it is Time to Rethink Disasters
By Dr. Tim Ball and Tom Harris
The deaths and devastation caused by Hurricanes Michael and Florence are certainly appalling, and condolences are in order. However, it is a mistake to say that such events are worsening due to man-made climate change. In comparison with 2017, 2018 has been a relatively quiet year for hurricanes. The reason is simply that the wind shear, the changes in wind speed and direction that occur between atmospheric layers, has generally been high this year in the Gulf of Mexico, thereby usually disrupting cyclones before they can grow into hurricanes. And, of course humanity has no control over wind shear.
However, the global warming debate has become so distorted that most people do not understand that hurricanes are normal events and recent climate change is modest and well within natural variability.
To illustrate how this has come about, consider the September 23rd ABC News report, just days after Florence, which started:
With global temperatures rising, superstorms taking their deadly toll and a year-end deadline to firm up the Paris climate deal, leaders at this year's U.N. General Assembly are feeling a sense of urgency to keep up the momentum on combating climate change.
Global temperatures are not rising. There are no superstorms, and the human toll is not deadlier. Costs, which are part of the toll, increased because of insurance, government, and exploitation. These claims are a sign of desperation as the climate change movement loses momentum. After all, very few countries are meeting their political and financial commitments to the Paris Agreement and the Green Climate Fund.
The only real urgency is for those who demand climate action, since the public is apparently losing interest. Gallup doesn’t even list climate as a separate concern in its July 2018 US poll, lumping it in with other issues in the general “Environment/Pollution” category which garnered only 2% of those polled saying it is “the most important problem facing this country today.” And, according to the UN’s worldwide poll of 10 million people, “Action taken on climate change” ranks last out of the 16 priorities suggested by the agency.
The environmental movement was originally a necessary paradigm shift when it started in the 1960s. Everybody knew it makes sense not to soil our nest but it went too far. In order to promote the alarm of human-caused change, they take normal events and present them as abnormal or unnatural.
The story of Hurricane Florence underscores the degree of corruption of natural events for a political agenda. All the players, from the bureaucrats at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, through many in the press, and the historical role of insurance companies, created misinformation, misused and omitted data, to distort the reality. They took an event that was well within the norm in the historical record, and turned it into a never-before-seen monster. In reality, the impact of Florence was below the normal for long-term averages of hurricanes in this region. And Michael, though about the size of California at its peak, was dwarfed by the 2,200 km-wide ‘Super Typhoon’ Tip, the strongest ever, which made landfall in southern Japan on October 19, 1979 at the end of a cooling period.
Seen in a long-term perspective, what humans define as disasters are an opportunity for improvement, just like in nature. We must rethink disasters and reduce risk as much as reasonably possible but also recognize that they are opportunities to rebuild with better materials, new ideas, and improved planning. People go to London, England and marvel at the remarkable urban planning of streets and Georgian architecture. All of that happened only because of the Great Fire of London in 1666.
The public must start demanding proper answers to real world questions. Are building codes adequate for regions that experience extreme weather events? Why are not more electrical systems buried underground? Why isn’t the long-term goal to create an infrastructure that reflects the risk factors of the region? The cost may be higher initially, but cheaper than the repair, not to mention the loss of lives, property, stress, and misery.
Of course, the answer is simple. The planning horizon is defined by the average length of time in office for politicians.
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Dr. Tim Ball is an environmental consultant and former climatology professor at the University of Winnipeg in Manitoba. Tom Harris is executive director of the Ottawa, Canada-based International Climate Science Coalition.
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Kavanaugh Confirmed: Where Do We Go From Here?
By Laura Finley and Matthew Johnson
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The dust has settled on Judge Kavanaugh’s ascension to the Supreme Court and the strong, complex emotions associated with it. Despite being the least popular, most polarizing nominee in recent memory, his legacy is far from settled. It remains to be seen whether progressives’ worst fears or conservatives’ best hopes will come to fruition.
It goes without saying that Kavanaugh’s confirmation process was about more than filling one seat on the highest court of the land. It was even about more than securing a 5-4 majority for the conservatives or blocking an attempt to do so. It was about justice for sexual assault survivors.
Although justice was delayed (to put it optimistically) the unprecedented campaign to shed light on Kavanaugh’s high school and college exploits was not waged in vain. Progressive activists can learn a lot from it about strategy and tactics — beyond the obvious negative lessons regarding the extent of Republican partisanship and white male privilege.
Takeaway #1: Survivors can be taken seriously
Yes, despite the result of the Senate hearings, Christine Blasey Ford was considered credible by many commentators from Left to Right. Her testimony was a transformational moment in U.S. politics, and it’s reasonable to say that history may condemn the Kavanaugh confirmation and praise Ford as a hero. More and more people on both sides of the political spectrum are coming to realize the complex reasons survivors do not always report sexual assault to the police or even to their loved ones. The harassment of Ford and her family — including death threats requiring relocation and other personal security measures — was repugnant to many conservatives as well as progressives. Ford’s picture on the cover of the mainstream magazine Time further demonstrates the continued shift in the degree to which the nation will discuss sexual violence, riding on the heels of the many celebrities outed, accused, and occasionally convicted as a result of the #MeToo movement.
Takeaway #2: If you can’t beat ‘em, confront ‘em in an elevator
After Ana Maria Archila, a sexual assault survivor, confronted Republican Senator Jeff Flake in an elevator, Flake called for a one-week delay in the Senate floor vote on Kavanaugh’s nomination. This was a dramatic shift, as Flake had just said he would unequivocally vote to confirm Kavanaugh. Flake noted how moved he was by the woman’s story, while she said it was good to know that “people who have the responsibility of making decisions for our country can actually listen to their conscience." This type of confrontation — non-threatening but forceful — has long been a tool of nonviolent activists and has been successfully adopted by #MeToo. Moreover, grassroots activists can utilize principles of what criminologist John Braithwaite calls reintegrative shaming. That is, once individuals are shamed for an offense, concerned citizens can then find ways to educate them, to change their thinking, and to offer them second chances.
Takeaway #3: Women are not monolithic but have common interests
The consensus among conservative women, once the sexual assault allegations against Kavanaugh surfaced, seemed to be that the judge was the one in need of protection. This “himpathy” is not new, and, despite their condemnation of the Left for trying to hold “victim status,” it is a frequent tool of conservatives. Many expressed concern that their sons could some-day face unfair or false accusations by women. This might be a concern shared equally by progressives if it were likely to occur, but the data show that false allegations of sexual assault and similar offenses are rare. According to the FBI, an estimated 2 to 8 percent of sexual assault claims are false — a rate lower than that of most crimes. The challenge for progressives is to break through the information barrier on multiple fronts because, while many conservatives deny the rarity of false reporting, they also deny the frequency of sexual assault. This is despite the obvious fact that sexual assault directly affects conservatives at comparable rates to the rest of the population. Feminist and playwright Eve Ensler alluded to this in her recent “Letter to White Women Who Support Brett Kavanaugh.” The common, uncontroversial goal of all sides of the spectrum should be to end rape culture in the United States. This will not only ensure that no one is ever-again falsely accused but also, more importantly, that no one is ever-again sexually victimized.
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Laura Finley, Ph.D., teaches in the Barry University Department of Sociology & Criminology and is syndicated by PeaceVoice.
Matt Johnson is an author and activist.
