Elegibility for reading services

General
1

Hi there—I’m not entirely sure where to post this, but I wanted to raise a concern related to reading services for students with Down syndrome (DS) in the United States.

A significant challenge in the U.S. is that students with DS are rarely found eligible for reading services under the category of Specific Learning Disability (SLD). Intellectual Disability (ID) and SLD are often treated as mutually exclusive, despite the fact that many students with DS also have dyslexia. My own child is a clear example of this.

Using AI, I summarized the reasons the discrepancy model should no longer be used to determine SLD eligibility. In U.S. school districts, teams generally have the option of using either the discrepancy model or Response to Intervention (RTI), now framed as Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS). MTSS focuses on identifying needs based on how students respond to increasingly intensive interventions in real classroom settings—moving from whole-class instruction to small-group support and then to one-on-one intervention as needed.

The instructional practices used in these small-group and one-on-one settings—particularly by reading specialists—align closely with evidence-based reading research. However, students with DS are frequently excluded from access to these services. In my experience, continued reliance on the discrepancy model for students with DS serves to justify not intervening in reading-related deficits, even when the appropriate response should be targeted intervention to remediate dyslexia.

In our case, the school would not formally identify both DS and SLD as present. However, they did include the necessary reading services in my daughter’s IEP. She is now in sixth grade and reading at a fourth-grade level after 2.5 years of appropriate intervention. If her reading challenges were truly the result of cognitive ability alone—as the discrepancy model implies—this level of progress would not have been possible. Without these services, I am confident she would be a non-reader.

This leads to my question: are professionals examining how the discrepancy model is being used to limit access to reading services specifically needed to remediate dyslexia? And is this issue present in the UK as well, or is it primarily a problem within the U.S. system?

Here is the AI summary I created on arguments against use of the discrepancy model

Thanks, Sam

2

Thank-you for posting this question and the supporting information Sam. I am not sure I can give a definitive answer with regard to the UK. I have had a few families contact me over recent years to ask if their child with Down syndrome may also have dyslexia but I am not aware of any recognised way of assessing this. Your link to the definition by the International Dyslexia Association which makes clear that dyslexic difficulties may exist across a range of cognitive profiles is an important advance. We can ask the experts in the Reading Working Group about their experience of dyslexia being raised for children they work with. It could be a topic for a future RWG group meeting. Regardless of definitions and assessments, the UK education system is rather different for most of our children - they are fully included in mainstream classes in their primary years with teaching assistant time allocated and should have individual work plans which can be delivered one-to-one, in groups or whole class teaching. However, I think it would be unusual for a child with Down syndrome to be receiving literacy instruction from a dyslexia trained teacher. Thank-you for raising this and sharing your concerns and information - we will definitely follow this up, Sue

3

This is so interesting Sam. I have a percentage of my pupils with Down syndrome who I classify as having ‘a dyslexic type profile’, and offer advice accordingly. This may be when they show dyslexic indicators even when good reading instruction has been put in place and not taken off as would be expected, and also when there is dyslexia in the immediate family so it should be considered as a factor particularly when can’t be assessed. Another important factor that fits into your argument is is that there always be an expectation that each and every child will read regardless of disability, and if it isn’t working then methods need to be revised, and this should be the same for any child, particularly also when a language difficulty prevents them showing what they know and understand and so there is a risk of being underestimated.

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sorry - in relation to the last sentence as sent too soon - if it is the case that they are expected to read even when have ID, then there is more likelihood that other difficulties such as dyslexia can be picked up.