My son has recently been diagnosed with dyslexia, and he is currently being tested in school for an IEP. The school is wonderful, but they don’t know anything about dyslexia. What are some things I need to request for his IEP that could truly help my son?

The first question is whether your son will meet the school’s criteria for a specific learning disability, which is the area that dyslexia falls under. I have diagnosed many students in my private clinical practice who definitely have dyslexia but who do not meet the school criteria for special education services. Here is a piece that I wrote about that challenge.

So, if he makes that hurdle, what should you ask for in an IEP? Your son’s goals and accommodations should be aligned with his learning needs. The assessment should lay out his profile of strengths and weaknesses, and then goals and accommodations are designed to address and support his needs. Goals should be measurable. I have information about that here.

You didn’t say how old your son is, but early on students with dyslexia need structured literacy (SL) intervention.

The question to ask is whether anyone in the school is trained in structured literacy intervention. I have some SL programs listed here.

That said, if he is older, particularly post-elementary school, he may need a bit targeted intervention on specific letter/sound combinations, spelling rules, decoding strategies using an SL approach, but then he will likely also need work on reading comprehension strategies, how to learn from text, and writing strategies, to name a few areas:

• how to learn from text
• reading comprehension strategies
• writing strategies

It is a balance to figure out how to best deliver services in school. We know that intervention delivered on an intensive schedule has the best outcomes, so ideally we want him to get as much intervention as possible, particularly for starters. According to Dr. Sally Shawitz, in her book Overcoming Dyslexia (2020), a student with dyslexia will need 300-500 hours of intervention. That said, we need to balance pulling students out of class for intervention with ensuring that they are not missing the teaching of important content. Pulling them out means they will miss content instruction, but if they can’t access the content because they can’t read it, then that’s a problem – it’s a vicious cycle. We need to ensure that he is getting the right intervention as well as accessing the curriculum. The diagnostic assessment should pinpoint his needs.

In regard to accommodations, again, the evaluation will identify what he needs. I’ve got some suggestions here.

Audiobooks are pretty much a standard accommodation these days. Most students with dyslexia benefit from learning to use speech-to-text software for writing. One other accommodation that is standard for my students is the need for additional time to complete assignments, quizzes, and tests.

Last, I typically recommend Dr. Sally Shaywitz’s book Overcoming Dyslexia, which she wrote for parents (and it is also good for teachers). Dr. Shaywitz covers what dyslexia is (and isn’t), assessment and diagnosis, and intervention. I think you will find it informative.