Reading Disabilities Explained: Types and Characteristics

Students with reading disabilities are present in classrooms both big and small. Thus, it is important for educators to understand their unique needs and be able to tailor their instruction accordingly. This blog post addresses the different types of reading disabilities and equips educators with strategies for best supporting each type. 

Defining Reading Disabilities

A reading disability is any struggle with reading words or understanding what those words mean. There is no singular cause of reading disabilities—although environmental factors, like whether or not a student was read to often at home and neurological factors, like differences in processing—are thought to play a role. Because early intervention can improve long-term academic outcomes, educators need to have a thorough understanding of reading disabilities. 

The Different Types of Reading Disabilities

Medical and educational researchers have identified three major types of reading disabilities:

1. Phonological deficits
2. Fluency deficits
3. Comprehension deficits

Though each of the types is distinct from the others, they often overlap. 

Students with phonological deficits have difficulty organizing sounds that create words. These students may change or drop consonant sounds and struggle pronouncing multisyllabic words. With these deficits, they often have trouble forming sentences and decreased comprehension.

Students with reading fluency deficits struggle with the speed and accuracy of their reading. These students may read slowly, have trouble sounding out words, and make mistakes when reading aloud. The effects of fluency deficits include a lack of comprehension and difficulty remembering word meanings. 

Students with comprehension deficits have challenges understanding the meaning of text. These students can struggle with identifying main ideas, summarizing text, and making connections. With language comprehension difficulties, students find it challenging to take in and retain new information across subject areas and often have poor problem-solving skills.

How To Identify Reading Disabilities

Reading disabilities can be identified by numerous common characteristics. Educators need to be aware of these four key indicators that a student may have a reading disability:

1. Labored Reading: Students may read at a notably slower pace than their peers and spend significant time sounding out each word.
2. Difficulty With Written Instructions: Students may have a hard time understanding multistep directions and may only execute a small portion of the expected task.
3. Phonological Awareness: Students may struggle with breaking down new words or frequently mispronouncing familiar words.
4. Avoidance of Reading-Related Tasks: Students may show frustration or reluctance when asked to read both aloud and independently.

Ways To Help Students With Reading Disabilities

There are several effective interventions educators can employ to support students with reading disabilities. Differentiated instruction and small-group instruction are general strategies that provide support to all students with reading disabilities. 

• Differentiated instruction uses a variety of teaching modalities (auditory, visual, and kinesthetic) to accommodate different learning styles.
• Small-group instruction creates the ideal space for targeted intervention. 

Helping Students With Phonological Deficits

For students with phonological deficits, teachers can enhance phonological skills through strategies including:

• Rhyming games
• Sound segmentation
• Blending
• Phoneme manipulation activities. 

Helping Students With Fluency Deficits

For students with fluency deficits, strategies like: 

• Repeated reading of one passage
• Choral reading
• Echo reading can help improve reading speed and accuracy. 

Helping Students With Language Comprehension Difficulties

For students with language comprehension difficulties, teachers can help students improve their ability to understand texts by using strategies like: 

• Graphic organizers
• Interactive discussions like shared reading
• Modeling comprehension skills (summary writing, reading aloud, etc.)

The Critical Role of Intervention in Reading Disabilities

Early intervention is crucial to the success of students with reading disabilities. By identifying and supporting these students early on, educators can boost students’ confidence, reduce the need for more intensive interventions later on, and improve long-term outcomes both inside and outside the classroom. 

Evidence-based assessments are an important tool for planning early interventions. These assessments provide educators with concrete data to help identify reading disabilities. This data can be used to design targeted interventions that support adequate progress for each student. Some intervention techniques that have proven successful include reciprocal teaching, scaffolded support, and one-on-one instruction.

Empower Students To Overcome Reading Challenges

Students with reading disabilities can display poor phonological awareness, fluency difficulties, and/or poor reading comprehension. Early intervention is a key component of student success, so educators should identify and address reading disabilities as early as possible. By using evidence-based interventions, teachers can empower struggling students and pave their way for success. Educators seeking to strengthen their support for students with reading disabilities can visit Voyager Sopris Learning’s website to learn more about their intervention solutions.