Educational Diagnosticians – Details, episodes & analysis

Texas yet again is starting the school year off with changes to the operating guidelines. The new moderators and Amy Smith, Region 10 representative charged with diagnostician continuing education, joins to talk about the changes. There's so much to talk about, that we are dividing it into two parts.

Dr. Julian Elliott joins to tell us about his new book: The Dyslexia Debate Revisited, co-authored with Elena Grigorenko from the University of Houston, this book gives a summary of the research in dyslexia and proposes that we use the term dyslexia to describe a persistent problem in basic reading skills rather than as a medical diagnosis.

Nazzie summarizes for the group both proposals for items removed and added to the Texas Dyslexia handbook. Aimee Seaberry also adds a summary of the Dyslexia Academies expected to be provided by TEA. Others also joined to comment. Thanks to Lori Melton for offering the perspective of a dyslexia therapist as well.

See this link for the text of the proposed handbook.

The "Specific" in Specific Learning Disability can be confusing. A number of articles attempt to address this topic. Diagnosticians on Clubhouse examine articles by Mather (2023), Pennington (2015), Wadsworth et al. (2010), and Peterson et al. (2021) are reviewed to explore this term.

Citing research in our FIEs can make us look more professional, help us learn about the research behind the assessments we choose, and support our interpretation with evidence. The tool mentioned in this episode can be accessed through this link. Check back by clicking on the link in the future for updates to the link.

Dr. Ysseldyke and Amanda VanDerHeyden share their vision for the role of evaluators in special education. Together they wrote the 14th edition of Assessment In Special and Inclusive Education, the go-to textbook on evidence based assessment practices. They call on evaluators to make a paradigm shift away from a focus on IQ tests and towards a focus on assessment of the basic academic skills. This is a MUST HEAR, if you haven't listened live, or even if you did, you will want to listen again.

https://www.proedinc.com/Products/40006/assessment-in-special-and-inclusive-education14th-edition.aspx

Here's a link to Dr Rasinski's website where you can read more about his books: https://www.timrasinski.com/index.html

He talks with us about his newest book, Artfully Teaching the Science of Reading.

You can purchase the book here: https://www.routledge.com/Artfully-Teaching-the-Science-of-Reading/Young-Paige-Rasinski/p/book/9781032080864

We wonder why RTI doesn't really take place in schools. Maybe it's because people would rather discredit the system rather than commit to actual school improvement? How do we assess in the context of a system that uses RTI by name only? What are the discussions around how to diagnose learning disabilities?

Dr. Schultz from MSU, Dr. Cavin from Tarleton State, Dr. Rueter from UT Tyler, and Becki Robertson from Region 10 join to tell us about some of benefits various programs offer and some of the challenges they are faced with.

CBM may not be the answer to bringing an intervention frame of mind to education, but they certainly are a step in the right direction! Nazzie Pater-Rov discusses reasons for using CBM in our FIEs, misunderstandings about CBM, and the various types of CBM that are available.