Fostering Futures℠
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Our mission is to engage and expand our audience by delivering thought-provoking material that focuses on key areas crucial to the development and well-being of all youth. Through our discussions, we aim to provide insights that are not only relevant but also transformative.
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Fostering Futures℠
Episode 11 - Helping Every Child Read: Early Signs, Support, and the Science Behind Dyslexia
In this episode, Iván sits down with Dr. Karina Quezada to unpack what dyslexia is and what it isn’t. They walk through how the brain learns to read, the early signs families and educators can watch for, and why early, explicit instruction matters so much. Dr. Quezada explains California’s new dyslexia-related laws, the difference between screening and full evaluation, and how the “science of reading” is reshaping classroom practice. The conversation closes with concrete guidance for parents, educators, and a powerful reminder that literacy is a civil right, not just a school task.
Highlights
- Dr. Quezada shares her journey from bilingual paraprofessional and interpreter to licensed educational psychologist, sparked by early exposure to school psychology work.
- Dyslexia is defined as a neurological reading disorder present from birth, characterized by difficulties in decoding, fluency, and phonological processing—not laziness or lack of effort.
- The episode explains how reading recruits multiple interconnected brain regions and why humans are not naturally hard-wired for reading the way we are for oral language.
- Listeners learn about the three main profiles of dyslexia: dysphonetic (phonics/decoding), orthographic (rate & automaticity), and mixed dyslexia.
- Dr. Quezada addresses common co-occurring conditions and “look-alikes,” including inattentive ADHD, trauma, health issues, interrupted schooling, and second-language acquisition.
- California policy shifts are highlighted, including teacher-prep and in-service training on the science of reading, and new K–2 dyslexia risk screeners required in elementary schools.
- The role of technology (text-to-speech, speech-to-text) is framed as supportive access tools, not replacements for teaching children to read.
Takeaways
- Early matters. When children receive ~80 hours of targeted, evidence-based reading instruction, brain imaging shows that reading pathways can be rewired and strengthened.
- Not every struggling reader has dyslexia. Systematic screening and diagnostic teaching help identify whether the issue is phonics, fluency, comprehension, language, attention, or something else.
- Core instruction is key. We can’t “intervention our way out” of weak Tier 1. Instruction must be explicit, systematic, and cumulative, covering phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension.
- Dyslexia belongs in schools. It is explicitly named under “Specific Learning Disability” in IDEA; school psychologists and teams can assess and talk about dyslexia.
- Families have power. Reading, talking, and singing with children in any language, limiting screen time, and building strong communication with teachers all significantly support reading development.
- Multilingual homes are an asset. Parents should feel encouraged to read and converse in their home language—those vocabulary and concept foundations transfer to English.
- Literacy is a civil right. Being able to read opens access to civic participation, employment, and community life, making effective reading instruction a justice issue, not just an academic one.
Thanks for listening! Follow us on Facebook and Instagram | www.cahelp.org | podcast@cahelp.org
00:00:09 Intro
The relentless pursuit of whatever works in the life of a child.
00:00:18 Intro
Welcome to Fostering Futures with CAHELP, a podcast dedicated to our relentless pursuit of whatever works in the life of a child.
00:00:26 Intro
I'm your host, Athena Cordero, inviting you to join me and countless others as we share our unique perspectives and expertise in the world of special education, behavioral health, social-emotional well-being, and community.
00:00:39 Intro
Follow us on Buzzsprout, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts.
00:00:44 Iván Campos
Hi, everyone.
00:00:45 Iván Campos
I'm Iván Campos, and I'll be your host today.
00:00:47 Iván Campos
We will be diving into a topic that's incredibly important for educators and families alike.
00:00:52 Iván Campos
The topic for today is dyslexia.
00:00:54 Iván Campos
Joining us is Dr.
00:00:55 Iván Campos
Karina Quezada, a licensed educational psychologist who's been with CA Health for over a decade.
00:01:01 Iván Campos
Welcome, Dr.
00:01:02 Iván Campos
Quezada.
00:01:02 Dr. Karina Quezada
Thank you, Iván.
00:01:03 Dr. Karina Quezada
Thank you for having me.
00:01:04 Dr. Karina Quezada
I'm excited to be here.
00:01:05 Iván Campos
Now, to get us started, could you tell us a little bit about your background and what led you to this work?
00:01:10 Dr. Karina Quezada
So, as you mentioned, I'm a licensed educational psychologist.
00:01:15 Dr. Karina Quezada
I have been in the field of education in different capacities for the past two decades and worked at the Desert Mountain SELPA as an educational psychologist.
00:01:26 Dr. Karina Quezada
Currently, my position deals with the non-public schools and residential treatment center where I oversee the services that those children are receiving.
00:01:39 Dr. Karina Quezada
These are typically children who have severe social, emotional, or behavioral problems.
00:01:46 Iván Campos
Thank you.
00:01:46 Iván Campos
I'm sure that that's very challenging but rewarding work.
00:01:50 Dr. Karina Quezada
It is, yes, but it can be very taxing emotionally.
00:01:57 Dr. Karina Quezada
Typically, these children are facing very difficult situations in their lives.
00:02:02 Iván Campos
Thank you for sharing about that.
00:02:03 Iván Campos
I'm sure that it's very appreciated by the SELPA, the school districts that we support, and as well as families, to ensure that those students are receiving the supports that they require.
00:02:14 Iván Campos
And so I'm curious, what led you down the path to become a licensed educational psychologist?
00:02:21 Dr. Karina Quezada
Well,
00:02:23 Dr. Karina Quezada
Prior to starting my schooling, I was working for a school district as a bilingual paraprofessional.
00:02:34 Dr. Karina Quezada
And in one of those occasions, there was a school psychologist who by now has retired, but he invited me.
00:02:44 Dr. Karina Quezada
He needed my services, my bilingual services, to assist him with translating
00:02:51 Dr. Karina Quezada
and interpreting for him during a cognitive assessment that he was conducting.
00:02:56 Dr. Karina Quezada
And that's how I became exposed to the field of school psychology.
00:03:00 Dr. Karina Quezada
And I was intrigued.
00:03:02 Dr. Karina Quezada
I was fascinated with the exposure that I had and began to research that path.
00:03:08 Iván Campos
That is so neat.
00:03:10 Iván Campos
I can say that I share something similar.
00:03:12 Iván Campos
Mine was as I worked as an interpreter in early intervention, and so it was through interpreting for the speech-language pathologist that
00:03:20 Iván Campos
I became introduced into that field and it really sparked my curiosity.
00:03:24 Iván Campos
And so I appreciate you sharing that part of your journey.
00:03:28 Iván Campos
Speaking of sparks, what sparked your interest in dyslexia?
00:03:33 Dr. Karina Quezada
Oh, well, I think that goes back also to my interest in the field of school psychology.
00:03:39 Dr. Karina Quezada
I'm intrigued by the manner in which
00:03:43 Dr. Karina Quezada
our brains are wired and the ability and the flexibility of the brain to learn different things.
00:03:50 Dr. Karina Quezada
And when you think about the concept of reading and the fact that the concept of reading hasn't really been around very long, if you think about the opportunity for schooling, the opportunity for the press, right?
00:04:06 Dr. Karina Quezada
The printing press did not become available until
00:04:09 Dr. Karina Quezada
relatively not too long ago in comparison to the existence of mankind, right?
00:04:14 Dr. Karina Quezada
And then the opportunity for schooling.
00:04:18 Dr. Karina Quezada
Those factors of how we are able to learn to read, even though technically the brain is not wired for such a activity, you know, the brain's main perspective and objective is to keep us alive.
00:04:35 Dr. Karina Quezada
And so yet is able to mold itself and to adjust itself to learn to read.
00:04:41 Dr. Karina Quezada
And not only can you learn to read in one language, but you can learn to read in multiple languages.
00:04:46 Iván Campos
You know, that's so interesting you mentioned about the hardwiring.
00:04:50 Iván Campos
When I was in my speech pathology program, it was mentioned that the human body, the brain, the interconnection of neurons and the apparatus for speaking or communication,
00:05:05 Iván Campos
that we're hardwired for that.
00:05:06 Iván Campos
But then as I've in my career, I've noticed that I've come across that statement that we're not hardwired for reading.
00:05:13 Iván Campos
And to me, it's fascinating that the human brain can adapt.
00:05:18 Iván Campos
And so as we're talking about these topics, I'm wondering if we could maybe start with the basics of what is dyslexia.
00:05:26 Dr. Karina Quezada
Absolutely.
00:05:27 Dr. Karina Quezada
So dyslexia has an official definition that has been adopted by the International Dyslexia Association.
00:05:33 Dr. Karina Quezada
And this happened over two decades ago, and it's recognized throughout the world.
00:05:38 Dr. Karina Quezada
And the way we understand dyslexia is that it is a neurological disorder, meaning that you were born with it, which is an important factor, I think, to begin with.
00:05:50 Dr. Karina Quezada
And in that process, we know that those individuals who have difficulties with dyslexia demonstrate difficulties with reading, reading fluency, and decoding.
00:06:03 Dr. Karina Quezada
And we also understand now that the origin of that is a deficit that is found in the phonological components of language.
00:06:13 Iván Campos
And so that definition, right?
00:06:15 Iván Campos
You mentioned that it's only 20 years young.
00:06:19 Iván Campos
And so what happened prior to that in terms of individuals that had challenges with decoding, encoding, reading, writing?
00:06:29 Iván Campos
What was the trajectory for them?
00:06:31 Dr. Karina Quezada
Yeah, good question.
00:06:32 Dr. Karina Quezada
So the understanding of dyslexia goes way, way back to many, many years ago.
00:06:40 Dr. Karina Quezada
Back in, there was a scientist, he was a French scientist, and he identified that folks were having what he called word blindness.
00:06:52 Dr. Karina Quezada
right, that people couldn't decipher a word.
00:06:55 Dr. Karina Quezada
And that was the beginning of that.
00:06:58 Dr. Karina Quezada
And that was 1800 something.
00:07:00 Dr. Karina Quezada
I don't remember exactly the date, but it was noticed then.
00:07:04 Dr. Karina Quezada
And then he began to explore all of this.
00:07:07 Dr. Karina Quezada
And, you know, at that time, we needed a way for folks to pass, right, in order to be able to study their brains and understand, right, what was going on.
00:07:19 Dr. Karina Quezada
And he was involved in that process and involved in studying cadavers to understand, you know, what was going on.
00:07:28 Dr. Karina Quezada
And specifically those of individuals who had died because of a stroke and had lost the, they had suffered a stroke and they lost the ability to be able to read.
00:07:38 Dr. Karina Quezada
And so that began, I think, the process of trying to understand where this is all generating from.
00:07:47 Dr. Karina Quezada
I think the exciting piece that has transpired probably in the last 30 years or so is that we now have the ability to do functional magnetic resonance imaging, right, or MRIs, where we are now able to see children and adults engaging in an activity, and in this case, the activity of reading.
00:08:11 Dr. Karina Quezada
And we're able to pinpoint exactly where in the brain that occurs.
00:08:16 Dr. Karina Quezada
And I think that's what has been fascinated probably in the last few decades, that we have a more clear understanding of where that happens.
00:08:25 Dr. Karina Quezada
And we can also understand when things are not occurring.
00:08:29 Dr. Karina Quezada
And there's a neural signature of what is dyslexia.
00:08:35 Iván Campos
So would you say that now through this imaging, in addition to the cadaver studies of brains back several, maybe a couple centuries ago, that
00:08:46 Iván Campos
dyslexia is specific to one region of the brain.
00:08:50 Dr. Karina Quezada
No, it's not.
00:08:52 Dr. Karina Quezada
So we know that the brain has specialty areas, right?
00:08:57 Dr. Karina Quezada
In general, we know that language-related tasks are found within the left hemisphere of the brain.
00:09:06 Dr. Karina Quezada
But I think that's a limited view of the beauty that is the brain.
00:09:12 Dr. Karina Quezada
that it has the ability to regenerate itself, that it has different sections and lows that are active and operating.
00:09:21 Dr. Karina Quezada
And all of these factors happen within milliseconds.
00:09:26 Dr. Karina Quezada
We see a written word and we see the scribbles in our brains.
00:09:32 Dr. Karina Quezada
are able to interpret those scribbles, and that happens in a specific region of your brain, but then it quickly transfers over to other areas where sound is attached to those scribbles, right?
00:09:46 Dr. Karina Quezada
And we begin to associate that.
00:09:48 Dr. Karina Quezada
And then from there, it goes over to another section of the brain where we attach meaning to those words.
00:09:56 Dr. Karina Quezada
And then it bounces to the front of your brain to put comprehension to it, right, and to add context to it, and to add meaning within the context of that paragraph that you're reading.
00:10:09 Dr. Karina Quezada
And all of this happens in such a quick manner that we're not
00:10:14 Dr. Karina Quezada
Those of us that are fluent readers are not even aware of it.
00:10:17 Dr. Karina Quezada
We don't require any thinking anymore.
00:10:19 Dr. Karina Quezada
That just happens automatically.
00:10:21 Dr. Karina Quezada
If I present a word to you, the word dog, for instance, right?
00:10:24 Dr. Karina Quezada
There is just no way that you can deny your brain the ability to read that word.
00:10:29 Dr. Karina Quezada
It's part of you and you recognize it immediately.
00:10:32 Iván Campos
It's a very complex.
00:10:33 Dr. Karina Quezada
It's fascinating.
00:10:34 Dr. Karina Quezada
It is fascinating.
00:10:35 Iván Campos
Very complex and like you mentioned, fascinating.
00:10:38 Iván Campos
You said something earlier that piqued my curiosity.
00:10:41 Iván Campos
You said that an individual is born with it.
00:10:44 Iván Campos
So are there genetic link markers for dyslexia?
00:10:48 Iván Campos
Or what do scientists feel is the cause if an individual is born with it?
00:10:54 Dr. Karina Quezada
Right.
00:10:55 Dr. Karina Quezada
So we don't have a gene identified to it.
00:10:58 Dr. Karina Quezada
We also don't know the origin of it.
00:11:02 Dr. Karina Quezada
I think those studies are still in their infancy.
00:11:06 Dr. Karina Quezada
We do know, though, however, that there is a genetic link to it.
00:11:10 Dr. Karina Quezada
So if your parents, your biological parents, had difficulties learning to read themselves, the likelihood that they will have a child with those same trademarks is pretty high.
00:11:24 Dr. Karina Quezada
There are some studies that indicate that it's about 40 to 50% probability of having a child with a condition when you have a parent
00:11:34 Dr. Karina Quezada
who presents with difficult systems?
00:11:36 Iván Campos
That's interesting you mentioned that when I was practicing in the schools as a speech-language pathologist, especially younger children, sometimes the parent would say to me, can I get them assessed for dyslexia, maybe a five-year-old?
00:11:49 Iván Campos
And then the parent would say, well, I have dyslexia, and so I want to rule it out.
00:11:54 Iván Campos
And so when can you test?
00:11:56 Iván Campos
And I said, well,
00:11:57 Iván Campos
the speech-language pathologist is not able to assess in those areas.
00:12:00 Iván Campos
And so we would have to convene an IEP meeting, invite the school psychologist, and really have a conversation about your concerns and see what supports and services can be provided, or if we're going to go through an assessment, right?
00:12:14 Iván Campos
And so that kind of leads into our next section here.
00:12:17 Iván Campos
A question that many parents and educators have is, how can they tell the difference between a child who maybe is
00:12:26 Iván Campos
Maybe slow to read or reluctant versus a child who may actually have dyslexia.
00:12:31 Dr. Karina Quezada
Right.
00:12:33 Dr. Karina Quezada
So there's a lot to unpack there.
00:12:37 Dr. Karina Quezada
So let me see if I can take this one step at a time with a previous comment that you made initially in this question.
00:12:46 Dr. Karina Quezada
And that is, what are some of those markers, right?
00:12:49 Dr. Karina Quezada
What are some of those things that we could look for?
00:12:55 Dr. Karina Quezada
there are symptoms and characteristics that we can, that we're now aware of that children present with who have the potential to have dyslexia.
00:13:07 Dr. Karina Quezada
So some of those signs, and probably the most classic one that I have read, you know, in my studies of this topic, has been the inability to rhyme.
00:13:21 Dr. Karina Quezada
Children present this ability early on in their development.
00:13:27 Dr. Karina Quezada
You know, most three-year-olds can recognize that.
00:13:30 Dr. Karina Quezada
They might not be able to produce a rhyme themselves, but they can hear it and they can distinguish that two words are rhyming, such as cat and mat, right?
00:13:41 Iván Campos
That's what I was thinking about, the word cat.
00:13:43 Iván Campos
It's many times I remember it's part of maybe
00:13:47 Iván Campos
At the beginning of the year, the teacher is running through a list of words and seeing if the student is able to rhyme them, and they start with those vowel, consonant, vowel patterns.
00:13:57 Dr. Karina Quezada
And those are mostly developmental skills, but we can see that early on.
00:14:04 Dr. Karina Quezada
And some studies have documented that children as early as three-year-olds have that inability to hear and distinguish rhymes.
00:14:12 Dr. Karina Quezada
So that's just one symptom.
00:14:14 Dr. Karina Quezada
Other symptoms that you may notice is children have a difficult time remembering letter names and letter sounds.
00:14:21 Dr. Karina Quezada
So even though they have received explicit instruction in that, they're not retaining that.
00:14:28 Dr. Karina Quezada
They may also may not be retaining the visual representation of the sound.
00:14:33 Dr. Karina Quezada
So they don't understand and cannot make the connection that the letter M, for instance, makes a mmm sound.
00:14:42 Dr. Karina Quezada
And that becomes fussy for them, and they're uncertain.
00:14:46 Dr. Karina Quezada
And so when they're trying to decode a word, they're not quite sure whether it's the mmm sound or is it something else.
00:14:54 Dr. Karina Quezada
So that's another marker that we often see in those children.
00:14:59 Dr. Karina Quezada
And then you have, because this opens up another conversation of, there are different types of dyslexia.
00:15:06 Dr. Karina Quezada
And there may be those children that can actually decode a word relatively well.
00:15:11 Dr. Karina Quezada
if you present them with a passage that it's decodable for the most part, they'll be able to decode or sound out, right?
00:15:19 Dr. Karina Quezada
Most people understand the word sounding out.
00:15:22 Dr. Karina Quezada
They can decode the word, but they do so at such a slow rate.
00:15:28 Dr. Karina Quezada
And the reason for that is because, again, those pathways in the brain are not clear for them.
00:15:34 Dr. Karina Quezada
They're fuzzy.
00:15:34 Dr. Karina Quezada
They have created other alternative ways of reaching that information, and it's not very effective.
00:15:41 Dr. Karina Quezada
So even though they may learn to decode a word, they do so in a very slow rate that it affects their fluency when they're reading, but it also affects their reading comprehension because by the time they get to the end of a
00:15:57 Dr. Karina Quezada
They've forgotten what exactly or they've gone to the end of a paragraph, the comprehension gets lost.
00:16:06 Dr. Karina Quezada
And in all reality, reading is not just decoding.
00:16:12 Dr. Karina Quezada
Reading is comprehension, being able to understand what is in the passage and being able to do something with that information.
00:16:18 Iván Campos
You know, you bring something very important.
00:16:20 Iván Campos
And as you were talking, I scribbled a couple notes here on my notepad, a standalone diagnosis and mixed.
00:16:27 Iván Campos
and so I recall back in I believe 2017 or maybe 2018 the state of California issued the California dyslexia guidelines and that is where for myself first time I heard in relation to how it impacts communication language which is I guess the big umbrella correct and so in terms of spoken language you can have individuals that have a standalone dyslexia but their language
00:16:55 Iván Campos
receptive language, expressive language is intact.
00:16:58 Iván Campos
And then you can have individuals that have a mix profile where they have dyslexia and in addition have a language delay, expressive or receptive.
00:17:08 Iván Campos
And so based on kind of what you've answered to me here is that it can be challenging to know if it's really a reluctant reader.
00:17:17 Iván Campos
or really, truly dyslexia, there's so many factors, correct?
00:17:20 Dr. Karina Quezada
There are several factors.
00:17:22 Dr. Karina Quezada
Yes, absolutely.
00:17:22 Dr. Karina Quezada
There are several factors.
00:17:24 Dr. Karina Quezada
And I think this brings us also to the topic of comorbidity or the existence of other conditions along with dyslexia.
00:17:32 Dr. Karina Quezada
And we also have a pretty good understanding of other conditions that exist with dyslexia.
00:17:36 Dr. Karina Quezada
We know that one of the first and most common, I suppose, conditions is inattentiveness.
00:17:46 Dr. Karina Quezada
ADHD, right, or attention deficit disorders?
00:17:49 Iván Campos
The internal type, correct?
00:17:50 Dr. Karina Quezada
And the one that is more prevalent is the inattentive type.
00:17:57 Dr. Karina Quezada
There are three types, you probably may know that.
00:18:01 Dr. Karina Quezada
ADHD presents either in a mixed format, so you present both with inattentiveness and hyperactivity, or you can present with either one of those.
00:18:10 Dr. Karina Quezada
Typically, children who have dyslexia present with inattentive type of ADHD.
00:18:16 Dr. Karina Quezada
And there are other conditions that can coexist.
00:18:19 Dr. Karina Quezada
And I want to make sure that it is clear to the listeners, right, that these are general terms that I'm sharing and general information.
00:18:27 Dr. Karina Quezada
It is not a must or a requirement.
00:18:31 Dr. Karina Quezada
Every child is unique.
00:18:33 Dr. Karina Quezada
And every case will be different.
00:18:35 Dr. Karina Quezada
But other conditions that exist with dyslexia can be motor coordination issues.
00:18:41 Dr. Karina Quezada
So many times these children end up requiring assistance from other professionals, such as occupational therapists.
00:18:48 Dr. Karina Quezada
Some of them will also present with language disorders, either receptive language, expressive language, or they can have articulation problems as well.
00:19:00 Dr. Karina Quezada
So, but that's not always the case.
00:19:03 Dr. Karina Quezada
And each case needs to be looked at very uniquely.
00:19:06 Iván Campos
So it can be challenging then for a parent or a teacher to really know what it is that may be impacting a child's ability to decode, encode, read or write, because there could be so many things that could be causing it.
00:19:24 Dr. Karina Quezada
Yes.
00:19:25 Dr. Karina Quezada
However, though, it's also not a mystery to us.
00:19:30 Dr. Karina Quezada
how we can determine if indeed this is a case of dyslexia.
00:19:38 Dr. Karina Quezada
Every child that struggles with reading, not every child that struggles with reading will have dyslexia.
00:19:46 Dr. Karina Quezada
One can have difficulties with learning to read for a variety of reasons.
00:19:51 Dr. Karina Quezada
One of them could be associated with trauma.
00:19:55 Dr. Karina Quezada
That's an entirely different component and perhaps a conversation for another day.
00:20:02 Dr. Karina Quezada
One can also struggle with reading because of lack of schooling.
00:20:08 Dr. Karina Quezada
There are children that move from one school to another constantly, and that lends itself for lack of continuity.
00:20:18 Dr. Karina Quezada
There could also be reasons related to health.
00:20:22 Dr. Karina Quezada
We may have children who are perhaps struggling with severe illnesses related, say perhaps cancer.
00:20:30 Dr. Karina Quezada
We have childhood cancers and they have missed a significant amount of schooling.
00:20:36 Dr. Karina Quezada
We also may see children who struggle because of English language
00:20:42 Dr. Karina Quezada
learning status, right?
00:20:45 Dr. Karina Quezada
If you're learning a second language, there may be a point in a period where you will go even through what we call a silent period, right?
00:20:55 Dr. Karina Quezada
Where you're just acquiring the language and trying to manage not only the task of learning to read in itself, but also you're trying to learn 2 languages at the same time.
00:21:06 Dr. Karina Quezada
And that can be very, very
00:21:09 Dr. Karina Quezada
taxing on the brain, and it takes a little bit of time.
00:21:13 Dr. Karina Quezada
It doesn't mean that you cannot learn.
00:21:15 Dr. Karina Quezada
It just means that we need to be a little patient with that.
00:21:19 Dr. Karina Quezada
However, I do want to demystify the fact that I think there's many misinformation out there that we don't understand what dyslexia is and that we're not able to assess, and that's not the case at all.
00:21:34 Dr. Karina Quezada
We have a pretty clear understanding of what it is, what areas are impacted,
00:21:39 Dr. Karina Quezada
And we have the tools to be able to assess for dyslexia.
00:21:45 Dr. Karina Quezada
We do need to rule out many other factors, including the ones that I just mentioned, things related to health, trauma, attendance, second language status.
00:21:56 Dr. Karina Quezada
All of those things can be accounted for.
00:22:00 Dr. Karina Quezada
But we can also go in and do a complete evaluation and even be able to tell our families,
00:22:07 Dr. Karina Quezada
and our educators what type of dyslexia the child is demonstrating.
00:22:12 Dr. Karina Quezada
We have three different types of dyslexia.
00:22:15 Dr. Karina Quezada
There's one that's called dysphonetic.
00:22:18 Dr. Karina Quezada
So those are those children that have a very difficult time decoding a word.
00:22:22 Dr. Karina Quezada
The phonics piece of the language is very unclear for them.
00:22:27 Dr. Karina Quezada
And then there's another type of dyslexia that we call orthographic dyslexia.
00:22:31 Dr. Karina Quezada
This is the one that I was referring previously, where you are able to decode, but it takes you a very, very long time.
00:22:39 Dr. Karina Quezada
And as a result of that, many children end up giving up and not wanting to participate.
00:22:45 Dr. Karina Quezada
They become very self-aware that they're having difficulties and that everybody else is already done with the chapter, but they're still struggling with the first paragraph.
00:22:54 Dr. Karina Quezada
And then the other type of dyslexia is called mixed dyslexia, where you present with both situations.
00:23:01 Dr. Karina Quezada
And that's a few other intricacies to that particular one.
00:23:06 Dr. Karina Quezada
So yes, we're able to determine.
00:23:09 Iván Campos
So it's no longer a, well, he's not trying hard enough.
00:23:13 Iván Campos
She doesn't attend during instruction.
00:23:16 Iván Campos
It sounds like through an assessment, you can really
00:23:19 Iván Campos
you can determine the cause of the challenges with reading.
00:23:22 Dr. Karina Quezada
Yes.
00:23:23 Iván Campos
And that's really amazing in order to, because if we don't know what's causing it, how do we support a student, correct?
00:23:28 Dr. Karina Quezada
Exactly.
00:23:29 Iván Campos
And so over the past decade, what changes have you seen in the field?
00:23:36 Dr. Karina Quezada
We have some very exciting changes.
00:23:38 Dr. Karina Quezada
I think California is finally getting caught up with the 46 other states that were already ahead of us in terms of
00:23:49 Dr. Karina Quezada
legisl, you know, state movements and a new laws to required certain things to happen.
00:23:56 Dr. Karina Quezada
So one of the things that occurred not too long ago was the enactment of Senate Bill 488, which requires teachers who are starting their teaching preparation programs to actually learn about how to teach reading.
00:24:16 Dr. Karina Quezada
Believe it or not, that was not something that was included in their teaching preparation programs.
00:24:22 Dr. Karina Quezada
They were taught how to pass a particular exam, but they weren't really taught the intricacies and the different components of reading.
00:24:31 Dr. Karina Quezada
We understand that reading takes several skills, and in particular, there's five that are involved, which is phonics, fluency, vocabulary, comprehension,
00:24:45 Dr. Karina Quezada
So all of those things are what makes reading effective.
00:24:52 Dr. Karina Quezada
And as an instructor in a classroom, our job is to address each one of those components and to engage children in direct instruction because reading doesn't happen naturally.
00:25:08 Iván Campos
It doesn't happen on its own.
00:25:10 Dr. Karina Quezada
It does not happen on its own.
00:25:12 Dr. Karina Quezada
And so it's critical that our educators who are coming into the field understand these concepts and that they are taking the necessary steps to ensure that children have access to adequate instruction.
00:25:25 Iván Campos
I'm curious, since this is for those teachers in teacher preparation programs, right, aspiring to be teachers, what about teachers already in the field that have been practicing for X amount of years?
00:25:37 Dr. Karina Quezada
Yeah, I'm glad you asked.
00:25:38 Dr. Karina Quezada
So as of
00:25:41 Dr. Karina Quezada
September 12th, so just what, five days ago, six days ago or so, the assembly bill here in California, Assembly Bill 1454, was just voted by the Senate and is now awaiting signature from the governor.
00:25:57 Dr. Karina Quezada
So we'll see where that goes.
00:25:58 Dr. Karina Quezada
It has not been enacted as a law, but I'll share the excitement thing about this one.
00:26:04 Dr. Karina Quezada
This particular assembly bill will require
00:26:09 Dr. Karina Quezada
teachers to receive specific trainings that are tied to what we now reference as the science of reading.
00:26:16 Dr. Karina Quezada
Okay.
00:26:17 Dr. Karina Quezada
And understanding what it takes for a child to learn to read.
00:26:22 Dr. Karina Quezada
And so districts will be required to select from a specific list of trainings that will be approved by the state of California.
00:26:30 Dr. Karina Quezada
And also districts will need to demonstrate that their teachers have been trained.
00:26:37 Dr. Karina Quezada
So I think this will be a good manner in which we can capture those teachers that have been in the field for a little bit longer and perhaps need a refresher about how we learn to read.
00:26:48 Dr. Karina Quezada
And in addition to that, which I think is also a very important component, this assembly bill is requiring for administrators to also have that knowledge because they need to be able to walk into a classroom and coach and train their teachers
00:27:07 Dr. Karina Quezada
But in order to be able to do that, you as an administrator, as a school principal, also need to have an understanding of that.
00:27:13 Iván Campos
And you know, in addition to that, I think administrators, as they're part of maybe 504 plans or student study teams or even an IEP meeting, where they're serving most times as the local school district's representative, they need to ensure that things are
00:27:33 Iván Campos
put together to really support that student from a research-based, evidence-based perspective.
00:27:39 Iván Campos
Earlier, we...
00:27:40 Dr. Karina Quezada
Could I interrupt you for a second?
00:27:42 Dr. Karina Quezada
Please.
00:27:42 Dr. Karina Quezada
There's another piece of law that I want to share with you that I think has revolutionized where we are here in California.
00:27:52 Dr. Karina Quezada
And that is Senate Bill 114.
00:27:54 Dr. Karina Quezada
And this academic year, the 25-26 school year, is when this new law comes into effect.
00:28:01 Dr. Karina Quezada
We have been talking about it for quite a few years now, but it's finally here.
00:28:05 Dr. Karina Quezada
And what this is requiring is for elementary school districts to provide a screener to children who are enrolled in grades K through second.
00:28:17 Dr. Karina Quezada
So these are mandatory screeners that our local school districts will begin to administer to children.
00:28:24 Dr. Karina Quezada
And what is the intent of the law, of the purpose of the law?
00:28:28 Dr. Karina Quezada
is so that we can capture children at a very young age.
00:28:32 Dr. Karina Quezada
Again, we understand the markers, right?
00:28:35 Dr. Karina Quezada
We understand that children that have difficulty rhyming, that have difficulty hearing sounds.
00:28:40 Iván Campos
You said as early as age 3.
00:28:42 Dr. Karina Quezada
Right.
00:28:43 Dr. Karina Quezada
So, right.
00:28:44 Dr. Karina Quezada
So if we can do that early on, what we also know is that when we intervene early, children have a better opportunity of becoming successful readers.
00:28:56 Iván Campos
If you fall behind the train, the further the train keeps going, it's harder to catch up.
00:29:02 Iván Campos
And there's always been, let's wait and see if they continue to struggle.
00:29:09 Iván Campos
But it sounds like now we have the tools, the instruments to really provide that intervention and now wait and see if we actually need it.
00:29:17 Dr. Karina Quezada
Yes.
00:29:17 Dr. Karina Quezada
The state of California approved certain particular screeners.
00:29:22 Dr. Karina Quezada
And our districts were mandated to select one of those, if not more.
00:29:27 Dr. Karina Quezada
And that will begin, and parents will begin to see that rollout.
00:29:33 Dr. Karina Quezada
The timing of that is determined by the district.
00:29:36 Dr. Karina Quezada
Parents, the law indicates that parents will be notified of when that testing window will open.
00:29:44 Dr. Karina Quezada
Parents do have an option to opt out of it if they so choose.
00:29:49 Dr. Karina Quezada
And then the districts will have a responsibility to share results with families about those screening instruments and share what they plan to do with that data.
00:30:00 Dr. Karina Quezada
Right.
00:30:01 Dr. Karina Quezada
So those are data points that we're collecting.
00:30:03 Dr. Karina Quezada
Again, the intent of it is so that we can intervene early on.
00:30:07 Iván Campos
And when you say the word screener, can you define to us what that means?
00:30:13 Dr. Karina Quezada
So a screener is meant to to do exactly that is meant to
00:30:19 Dr. Karina Quezada
ascertain a certain level of performance coming in so that we can identify those children that might be at risk.
00:30:29 Dr. Karina Quezada
A screener is very different from an evaluation.
00:30:33 Dr. Karina Quezada
An evaluation is a very comprehensive assessment that involves a school psychologist, perhaps even a speech pathologist.
00:30:41 Dr. Karina Quezada
And we're looking at different areas to make sure that certain things are in place.
00:30:48 Dr. Karina Quezada
such as a certain level of intelligence is required to be able to read.
00:30:54 Dr. Karina Quezada
We also need to have a certain level of processing speed, of working memory, of attention, being able to pay attention for a certain period of time.
00:31:05 Dr. Karina Quezada
In addition to all the reading components,
00:31:08 Dr. Karina Quezada
So that is an evaluation.
00:31:10 Dr. Karina Quezada
That's a more comprehensive.
00:31:12 Dr. Karina Quezada
At that point, we're actually indicating to everybody that we suspect that the child has a disability.
00:31:20 Dr. Karina Quezada
And therefore, we're engaging in this lengthy process to say whether the child has or doesn't have a disability.
00:31:28 Iván Campos
So it's for special education identification purposes.
00:31:31 Iván Campos
Yes.
00:31:32 Dr. Karina Quezada
Instead,
00:31:33 Dr. Karina Quezada
A screener is meant to be a quick assessment and it's meant to be a curriculum-based assessment, meaning that the teacher is involved in this process.
00:31:43 Dr. Karina Quezada
And the purpose of that is to gather data to know where the gaps are.
00:31:50 Dr. Karina Quezada
So let's say that we have a little first grader and he's having difficulties reading.
00:31:56 Dr. Karina Quezada
Well, you can say, you know, Johnny's not reading.
00:32:00 Dr. Karina Quezada
But we need to break that down.
00:32:01 Dr. Karina Quezada
We need to say and identify where the breakdown is.
00:32:05 Dr. Karina Quezada
it because Johnny doesn't know his letters and sounds yet?
00:32:09 Dr. Karina Quezada
Is it because he needs some phonemic awareness types of skills?
00:32:13 Dr. Karina Quezada
We need to be diagnostic, right?
00:32:15 Dr. Karina Quezada
And we use that data to inform our practice.
00:32:20 Dr. Karina Quezada
And so as a teacher, if I know that Johnny doesn't have his letters and sounds, then my next step is to teach those explicitly.
00:32:28 Dr. Karina Quezada
And then we track data.
00:32:29 Iván Campos
So it's guiding instruction.
00:32:30 Dr. Karina Quezada
Exactly.
00:32:31 Dr. Karina Quezada
It's a formative assessment.
00:32:32 Iván Campos
So it's very different than an evaluation that an educational psychologist or a school psychologist would complete.
00:32:39 Dr. Karina Quezada
Absolutely.
00:32:39 Iván Campos
Versus a teacher-administered screener.
00:32:43 Iván Campos
And so earlier you had mentioned that you became interested in this field as you were a bilingual
00:32:50 Iván Campos
support staff in your district supporting a school psychologist administering an assessment to a child in Spanish.
00:32:57 Iván Campos
You were the interpreter or the translator for that evaluation.
00:33:01 Iván Campos
And so one question that I have as you're talking about this is how do the screenings and the evaluations differ for students who are multilingual or English language learners?
00:33:16 Dr. Karina Quezada
So it does make things for a lot to be more complicated, right?
00:33:20 Dr. Karina Quezada
And a lot more data points for us to gather.
00:33:24 Dr. Karina Quezada
In essence, and without going into the nitty-gritty of things, in essence, what we're trying to determine and our obligation, both ethical and legal, is to determine if the perceived disability is a result of a language deficit or a language disorder.
00:33:43 Dr. Karina Quezada
related to reading, or is it simply a language difference?
00:33:47 Dr. Karina Quezada
You're just learning the language.
00:33:49 Dr. Karina Quezada
And so as a school psychologist, it's our obligation to ensure that we're accounting for that variable and that we have ruled that out as a main barrier, right?
00:34:02 Dr. Karina Quezada
That language differences is not the barrier.
00:34:06 Dr. Karina Quezada
We have tools to do that.
00:34:07 Dr. Karina Quezada
We don't have an extensive amount of tools, but we do have the training
00:34:12 Dr. Karina Quezada
and we do have the ability to distinguish that.
00:34:15 Dr. Karina Quezada
Now, from a screener, certain tools that were selected by the state of California have a Spanish version of that, and my hope and prayer, I suppose, is that folks will know that it's just one data point and that
00:34:32 Dr. Karina Quezada
we are not going to put all of our little ducks in that one basket.
00:34:37 Dr. Karina Quezada
Right.
00:34:37 Dr. Karina Quezada
That is one data point because there are other things that we need to talk about.
00:34:44 Dr. Karina Quezada
I wouldn't necessarily be gaining a whole lot of information if I administer a Spanish screener to a child who's being instructed in English.
00:34:56 Iván Campos
Because they have not been instructed in Spanish.
00:34:58 Dr. Karina Quezada
Exactly.
00:34:58 Dr. Karina Quezada
They have not received formal instruction in Spanish.
00:35:01 Dr. Karina Quezada
So knowing when to use those tools is equally important.
00:35:06 Iván Campos
Perfect.
00:35:06 Iván Campos
I really appreciate the way you've explained that, it's about the tools that are utilized in order to rule in or rule out based on the student's profile, based on their language acquisition history, based on their instruction.
00:35:21 Iván Campos
Let's talk about support.
00:35:24 Iván Campos
What kinds of evidence-based strategies or interventions have you found to make the biggest difference with students identified with dyslexia?
00:35:34 Dr. Karina Quezada
So I will stay away from mentioning any specific interventions.
00:35:39 Dr. Karina Quezada
I think what's important for us to discuss here is that we need to have a full understanding of how we acquire reading.
00:35:47 Dr. Karina Quezada
So there is a formula, if you will, and it's called a simple view of reading.
00:35:52 Dr. Karina Quezada
And this was an idea that was researched back in, I believe it was 1986.
00:35:58 Dr. Karina Quezada
And the simple view of reading calls for this.
00:36:03 Dr. Karina Quezada
Reading comprehension, which is ultimately what reading is, right?
00:36:07 Dr. Karina Quezada
If we're not able to understand what we read, then we really haven't done a whole lot.
00:36:11 Dr. Karina Quezada
And when you think about it, reading comprehension is what we all want.
00:36:15 Dr. Karina Quezada
Our
00:36:16 Dr. Karina Quezada
Lawmakers want reading comprehension.
00:36:18 Dr. Karina Quezada
Our school districts, you know, we're accountable for demonstrating performance, right?
00:36:24 Dr. Karina Quezada
And performance comes from reading comprehension.
00:36:26 Dr. Karina Quezada
Even math is influenced in that.
00:36:30 Dr. Karina Quezada
So reading comprehension is the result and the product.
00:36:34 Dr. Karina Quezada
So think of a multiplication product, right?
00:36:37 Dr. Karina Quezada
A multiplication equation.
00:36:39 Dr. Karina Quezada
It's the product of oral language,
00:36:43 Dr. Karina Quezada
and decoding abilities.
00:36:45 Iván Campos
Right, you have to have both.
00:36:46 Dr. Karina Quezada
You have to have both.
00:36:48 Iván Campos
Without one, one can't be without the other.
00:36:50 Dr. Karina Quezada
Right.
00:36:50 Dr. Karina Quezada
So when we think about those components, I think that can help our educators understand what it's needed in order for them to have a successful group of children who are learning to read.
00:37:02 Dr. Karina Quezada
So the science of reading is the manner in which we teach those components.
00:37:08 Dr. Karina Quezada
So the science of reading refers that we need to be explicit, direct, systematic, cumulative.
00:37:16 Dr. Karina Quezada
That means that we have a scope and sequence that we're following when we're teaching.
00:37:20 Iván Campos
And this is different than the simple view of reading.
00:37:24 Dr. Karina Quezada
Yes, the simple view of reading is what teaches you what components need to be taught.
00:37:29 Dr. Karina Quezada
So in the oral language part of the equation,
00:37:35 Dr. Karina Quezada
what you're going to find is that children require vocabulary instruction.
00:37:40 Dr. Karina Quezada
They required, and if we take it, you know, early on, they also require that concept of prints, right?
00:37:49 Dr. Karina Quezada
So think of a little preschooler, think of a little kindergartner who needs to understand that the book that we're reading, the letters that are on the page carry a message and that we're not inventing a story as we go along.
00:38:04 Dr. Karina Quezada
which is a reason why we point to each word, right?
00:38:07 Iván Campos
They have meaning.
00:38:08 Dr. Karina Quezada
Right, they have meaning.
00:38:09 Dr. Karina Quezada
We also teach them very basic things of the front of a book, the back of a book.
00:38:14 Dr. Karina Quezada
We teach them that when we get to the end of a page, we flip over the page, right?
00:38:19 Dr. Karina Quezada
And we do a quick sweep when we're going down the line.
00:38:23 Dr. Karina Quezada
So all of those concepts are things that we need to instill into our students.
00:38:28 Iván Campos
You know, as a speech pathologist, there was a measure that I would administer to preschool, kindergage, first grade students.
00:38:34 Iván Campos
that involves a task less, just like the one you described, as part of a broad measure of language skills.
00:38:42 Dr. Karina Quezada
Yeah.
00:38:43 Dr. Karina Quezada
So the decoding component is the word recognition.
00:38:47 Dr. Karina Quezada
So being able to teach students that, and we start off simple, right, with rhyming.
00:38:53 Dr. Karina Quezada
We start off with teaching them phonemic awareness kinds of tasks.
00:38:59 Dr. Karina Quezada
And then we build on that, and then we begin to introduce letters.
00:39:03 Dr. Karina Quezada
and we say that the letter is associated with this sound.
00:39:07 Dr. Karina Quezada
And then we get very fancy with all of this.
00:39:10 Dr. Karina Quezada
And, you know, we begin to introduce digraphs and we begin to introduce, you know, two vowels that go together, right?
00:39:21 Dr. Karina Quezada
What sound do they make?
00:39:23 Iván Campos
You're talking about the uniqueness of the English language.
00:39:25 Dr. Karina Quezada
Right.
00:39:27 Iván Campos
Doesn't have a morpheme-grapheme correspondence, right?
00:39:31 Dr. Karina Quezada
So, all of those things need to be taught very explicitly, and that constitutes that other piece of the equation, which is the word recognition, and then in the language component, that's where we're teaching.
00:39:44 Dr. Karina Quezada
Like I said, prints, concepts of print.
00:39:47 Dr. Karina Quezada
We're teaching vocabulary.
00:39:49 Dr. Karina Quezada
We're also exposing children to different kinds of genres, right?
00:39:53 Dr. Karina Quezada
We start off with poetry, perhaps.
00:39:56 Dr. Karina Quezada
So, you know, starting off with argumentative text and informational text.
00:40:01 Dr. Karina Quezada
So all of that is explicitly taught to children.
00:40:05 Dr. Karina Quezada
And that is what is required in order for children to learn to read.
00:40:12 Dr. Karina Quezada
We can't really, and I say this, and I know I went a very, in a cynic route here to answer your question, but the reason why I answer this manner is because we need to have solid court instruction.
00:40:32 Dr. Karina Quezada
And the reality is that we cannot intervene our way out of.
00:40:39 Iván Campos
Inappropriate core instruction so I think to kind of encapsulate what you're saying is that it's not about a program It's not about a methodology, but it's about the individual who is providing the reading instruction their awareness their understanding there's knowledge of reading instruction the science of reading To be able to take a student at whatever level they're demonstrating and then continue to build those skills systematically.
00:41:05 Dr. Karina Quezada
Exactly
00:41:07 Dr. Karina Quezada
Right, exactly.
00:41:07 Dr. Karina Quezada
And there's a few other layers to that.
00:41:10 Dr. Karina Quezada
There's the systems of language that we need to incorporate into all of this.
00:41:14 Dr. Karina Quezada
And those will be things like teaching phonology, teaching orthography, teaching morphology.
00:41:20 Dr. Karina Quezada
And we start off very early with that concept.
00:41:23 Dr. Karina Quezada
Those may be very big words for many folks who perhaps are listening to this, but we're talking about simple things.
00:41:31 Dr. Karina Quezada
Kindergarten students are exposed to this.
00:41:34 Dr. Karina Quezada
when we teach them the word cat, and then we teach them that adding an S at the end of a word changes the whole meaning, right?
00:41:42 Dr. Karina Quezada
So that right there is morphology, right?
00:41:44 Dr. Karina Quezada
Our first introduction to that.
00:41:47 Dr. Karina Quezada
But morphology,
00:41:49 Dr. Karina Quezada
involves so many other, and by the time you're done with 6th grade, you should have been introduced.
00:41:56 Iván Campos
To prefixes, suffixes.
00:41:58 Dr. Karina Quezada
Right, you should have been introduced to Latin roots, Greek roots, and all of that.
00:42:02 Dr. Karina Quezada
And that will open the doors for other words to be able to be read.
00:42:08 Dr. Karina Quezada
There's a semantics and syntax and different kinds of discourse and pragmatic uses of language.
00:42:14 Dr. Karina Quezada
So all of those things are not coincidental.
00:42:17 Dr. Karina Quezada
And they also do not happen by accident.
00:42:21 Dr. Karina Quezada
They require explicit instruction.
00:42:24 Iván Campos
Thank you.
00:42:24 Iván Campos
I appreciate your explanation in which you're speaking to it that the practitioner, the teacher, the instructor, and based on the laws that are about to be signed, or one that was signed in which teacher preparation programs now include
00:42:42 Iván Campos
the science of reading, and then now we're talking about providing professional development to, and hopefully this law is signed, for both educators and administrators that will bring us up to speed regarding best practices to support students.
00:42:56 Iván Campos
And it's about empowering professionals with the tools to work with any student that may come their way if we have an understanding of
00:43:08 Iván Campos
systematic instruction.
00:43:10 Dr. Karina Quezada
Right.
00:43:10 Dr. Karina Quezada
And that brings us, I think, Ivan, to this conversation that I'll touch lightly on this.
00:43:16 Dr. Karina Quezada
There's for many, many years, the state of California, along with many other states in the union, has been devoting time, energy, and money to instituting programs and practices that are contrary to what we know about reading.
00:43:36 Dr. Karina Quezada
And many of them actually support the ineffective ways in which the brain sometimes wires itself in those children who have and present with dyslexia.
00:43:47 Dr. Karina Quezada
So what am I talking specifically?
00:43:49 Dr. Karina Quezada
Well, what we have learned from functional MRIs is that there is a lack of activation or no activation in certain parts of the brain that are needed for us to learn to read.
00:44:03 Dr. Karina Quezada
And instead, those individuals that have difficulties reading rely on a certain part of the brain where working memory is housed.
00:44:11 Dr. Karina Quezada
And what we know about that is that children who don't know how to read and are struggling, they're desperately trying to recall a word.
00:44:23 Dr. Karina Quezada
And that is an ineffective way of accessing language.
00:44:27 Iván Campos
Oh, they're reading by whatever-- From memory.
00:44:30 Dr. Karina Quezada
Right.
00:44:31 Dr. Karina Quezada
And so, there's only there's certainly a certain capacity in our minds to be able to do that.
00:44:38 Dr. Karina Quezada
Most of us can contain, 7 to 9 pieces of information at a time, and so when you're trying to read a passage and even a sentence...
00:44:48 Dr. Karina Quezada
It's difficult to contain all of that in our memory.
00:44:52 Dr. Karina Quezada
And so that is the ineffective way of reading.
00:44:54 Dr. Karina Quezada
And we see that trademark, if you will.
00:44:57 Dr. Karina Quezada
We see that neurological pattern in children who are dyslexic, and adults, for that matter.
00:45:04 Dr. Karina Quezada
So unfortunately, many of the practices that have been carried out in many schools throughout the nation
00:45:14 Dr. Karina Quezada
continue to support that faulty practice of trying to memorize words, trying to bring to memory, oh, what word does that look like?
00:45:24 Dr. Karina Quezada
What can I associate it with?
00:45:26 Iván Campos
You're searching for a word and getting memory back.
00:45:28 Dr. Karina Quezada
Right, instead of the effective way, which is teaching the sound that is associated with the letter and creating new pathways.
00:45:38 Dr. Karina Quezada
Which brings me to the other thing I need to share with you, Iván.
00:45:41 Dr. Karina Quezada
Please, please.
00:45:42 Dr. Karina Quezada
the brain is able to rewire itself and is able to create a pathway where there was none.
00:45:49 Dr. Karina Quezada
And that's also a fascinating aspect.
00:45:51 Dr. Karina Quezada
So we know, and there have been studies that have been replicated, that when children receive intensive instruction based on the science of reading, based on good practices of how to teach reading, after 80 hours of instruction,
00:46:10 Dr. Karina Quezada
faithful instruction, they can rewire themselves.
00:46:15 Dr. Karina Quezada
The brain is able to rewire itself.
00:46:17 Dr. Karina Quezada
And they have taken MRIs before the intervention and after the intervention.
00:46:23 Dr. Karina Quezada
And it is fascinating to see that.
00:46:25 Dr. Karina Quezada
So we have the ability to do that.
00:46:27 Dr. Karina Quezada
But here's another fascinating aspect about the brain that I have to share with you.
00:46:30 Iván Campos
Tell me, please.
00:46:34 Dr. Karina Quezada
Remember how I mentioned to you that the brain's main objective is to keep you alive?
00:46:40 Iván Campos
Right, you said that earlier in our conversation.
00:46:42 Dr. Karina Quezada
Yes, so the brain is always, by the way, it consumes the most energy.
00:46:47 Dr. Karina Quezada
It's the organ that consumes the most energy in our entire bodies.
00:46:52 Dr. Karina Quezada
And its main objective is to keep you alive today here with me.
00:46:56 Dr. Karina Quezada
And so when the brain recognizes there are certain neurons and sections of it that are not being utilized and are only wasting energy, it will prune itself away.
00:47:08 Dr. Karina Quezada
So neural pruning occurs, and it will cut off that section.
00:47:13 Dr. Karina Quezada
So what does that mean?
00:47:14 Dr. Karina Quezada
Does it mean that, and we know that this happens, by the way, around the age of 12?
00:47:19 Iván Campos
Right.
00:47:20 Dr. Karina Quezada
So does this mean that after 12, you're not able to learn how to read?
00:47:23 Dr. Karina Quezada
Absolutely not.
00:47:24 Dr. Karina Quezada
But we do know that it will take you a little longer and it will take a whole lot of more repetition than it would have had we intervened earlier.
00:47:33 Dr. Karina Quezada
Again, you know, the reason why I'm so excited about the state of California finally administering these screeners, because I'm hoping that we can move into early intervention.
00:47:43 Dr. Karina Quezada
when it comes to the topic of reading and being able to provide what's needed for children so that we're not waiting until they're in third grade, fourth grade, or fifth grade.
00:47:54 Dr. Karina Quezada
And then by then, several things have happened.
00:47:57 Dr. Karina Quezada
One, the brain is rewiring itself and getting away from housing structures that are not being used anymore.
00:48:07 Dr. Karina Quezada
But another thing that happens is the emotional impact on that child.
00:48:12 Dr. Karina Quezada
They become disenchanted with the school.
00:48:14 Dr. Karina Quezada
They become disconnected with the school.
00:48:16 Iván Campos
They're unable to perform along with their peers.
00:48:19 Iván Campos
Right.
00:48:19 Iván Campos
They stand out.
00:48:20 Dr. Karina Quezada
Exactly.
00:48:21 Dr. Karina Quezada
So they don't want to participate.
00:48:23 Dr. Karina Quezada
And we also know that many children, those children that are not reading by third grade fluently are at a higher risk of not graduating high school.
00:48:33 Iván Campos
Incarceration.
00:48:33 Dr. Karina Quezada
They're also, they're also face a more high risk of engaging with
00:48:40 Dr. Karina Quezada
authorities.
00:48:42 Dr. Karina Quezada
So there's, yeah, it's fascinating.
00:48:46 Dr. Karina Quezada
We know what it takes to teach a child to read, and we know that it needs to be done early enough.
00:48:54 Iván Campos
Now, very fascinating about the brain that you've shared with us, and then how these studies have shown that new neural pathways are created with the appropriate systematic instruction.
00:49:06 Iván Campos
You mentioned 80 hours, right?
00:49:08 Iván Campos
And so
00:49:10 Iván Campos
What role is technology today playing with students with dyslexia?
00:49:14 Iván Campos
Are there specific tools that are better than others, and how can it support them?
00:49:20 Dr. Karina Quezada
So I have a love and hate relationship with this topic.
00:49:24 Iván Campos
Oh, tell me more.
00:49:28 Dr. Karina Quezada
I think that in many occasions, I have sat in different meetings where technology is viewed as
00:49:38 Dr. Karina Quezada
the solution to a problem.
00:49:41 Dr. Karina Quezada
I like to think of technology as a way of supporting our children while we are addressing the gap.
00:49:50 Iván Campos
So it's not a standalone magic wand.
00:49:53 Dr. Karina Quezada
Exactly.
00:49:55 Dr. Karina Quezada
Things such as text-to-speech and speech-to-text are beneficial for our students.
00:50:03 Dr. Karina Quezada
but they cannot be the solution to a problem.
00:50:06 Dr. Karina Quezada
I think that we should continue to encourage the direct and explicit instruction of reading.
00:50:14 Dr. Karina Quezada
I think that we still need to address the gaps, if we understand what the gaps are, and we have done our due diligence in understanding the gaps that the student may have, and being able to provide direct instruction in that and remediation for that.
00:50:29 Dr. Karina Quezada
I see technology as a supplement
00:50:32 Dr. Karina Quezada
to support students learning content and access to core, not a supplement to the job that needs to be done, which is to teach children how to read.
00:50:45 Iván Campos
So it can support, but it shouldn't supplement.
00:50:47 Dr. Karina Quezada
Exactly.
00:50:48 Iván Campos
Or sorry, replace.
00:50:50 Iván Campos
That's very interesting.
00:50:52 Iván Campos
I see it can be a double-edged sword.
00:50:55 Iván Campos
What would you say to a family that suspects that their child may have dyslexia?
00:51:00 Iván Campos
What are some recommendations you would give them?
00:51:04 Dr. Karina Quezada
So I think it needs to be, it's important, I think, for families to understand what I mentioned earlier.
00:51:11 Dr. Karina Quezada
There are other reasons why children struggle with reading.
00:51:16 Dr. Karina Quezada
And so we need to understand what that may be.
00:51:18 Dr. Karina Quezada
You know, it may be inattentiveness.
00:51:21 Dr. Karina Quezada
Which is something that could be addressed with a medical doctor, but it can also be lack of schooling, lack of even sleep hygiene, right?
00:51:37 Dr. Karina Quezada
Making sure that children go to bed at a certain time.
00:51:41 Dr. Karina Quezada
and that they're free of technology once they go to bed.
00:51:44 Iván Campos
So these are like preventative measures.
00:51:46 Dr. Karina Quezada
Right, absolutely.
00:51:47 Dr. Karina Quezada
So I think as a parent, if you have concerns about your child, whether they may have a reading disorder.
00:51:56 Dr. Karina Quezada
It's important for us to take a good look inside and figure out, OK, what could I do here in the home to support my son and my daughter, right?
00:52:06 Dr. Karina Quezada
That's one aspect.
00:52:07 Dr. Karina Quezada
The other aspect that I would encourage a family who's listening to me, and they may think that their child is struggling with reading, it is so critical to have a good conversation with teachers and to build relationships with teachers.
00:52:20 Dr. Karina Quezada
Bring your concerns to them.
00:52:23 Dr. Karina Quezada
You know, share with them where and how you see your child performing, and then have them share with you how they view and see their child, your child in the classroom, and see if those are a match.
00:52:36 Dr. Karina Quezada
You know, is it a common factor here?
00:52:40 Dr. Karina Quezada
What if it's not a match?
00:52:42 Dr. Karina Quezada
Well, then let's talk about that, right?
00:52:43 Dr. Karina Quezada
How can we support each other?
00:52:46 Dr. Karina Quezada
But from that point, I would want to talk about what can we do?
00:52:53 Dr. Karina Quezada
what diagnostic tools could the classroom teacher utilize so that we can have a better understanding of where Mary is in her reading?
00:53:05 Dr. Karina Quezada
So let's talk about diagnostic pieces.
00:53:08 Dr. Karina Quezada
Are we seeing difficulties with decoding?
00:53:11 Dr. Karina Quezada
Are we seeing difficulties with fluency?
00:53:14 Dr. Karina Quezada
Are we seeing difficulties with, you know, comprehension?
00:53:19 Dr. Karina Quezada
You know, where is the gap?
00:53:21 Dr. Karina Quezada
And let's do some diagnostic testing.
00:53:23 Dr. Karina Quezada
That is not a referral for special education.
00:53:26 Dr. Karina Quezada
That is a conversation with the classroom teacher of, I'm concerned, let's figure out what's going on.
00:53:34 Iván Campos
So you're telling me through this dialogue here that there are things the classroom teacher can do?
00:53:39 Dr. Karina Quezada
Absolutely, absolutely.
00:53:41 Dr. Karina Quezada
A classroom teacher should have what is needed to do a diagnostic assessments,
00:53:48 Dr. Karina Quezada
to understand all those pieces that make up reading and understand where the child is having difficulties.
00:53:56 Iván Campos
Many school districts have like a beginning of the year measure, a middle of the year, end of year, where they're looking at reading, writing, language.
00:54:05 Iván Campos
Is that what they're indicating?
00:54:07 Dr. Karina Quezada
We call those diagnostic or curriculum-based measures, right?
00:54:11 Dr. Karina Quezada
Those are things that classroom teachers are equipped to do.
00:54:15 Dr. Karina Quezada
and have that conversation, talk about where the gap is, and then obviously we want to intervene.
00:54:20 Dr. Karina Quezada
We want to provide an intervention.
00:54:22 Dr. Karina Quezada
So let's say that we're talking about a first grader who doesn't know letters and sounds yet.
00:54:27 Dr. Karina Quezada
Well, that's the beginning point.
00:54:28 Dr. Karina Quezada
That will be our starting point.
00:54:30 Dr. Karina Quezada
And what we need to do is provide an intervention for that, support that child using multiple modalities,
00:54:38 Dr. Karina Quezada
And then come back, I would say come back maybe in six weeks, and let's see where did we start?
00:54:44 Dr. Karina Quezada
What was our baseline?
00:54:45 Dr. Karina Quezada
And where are we now six weeks later?
00:54:47 Iván Campos
So there's growth.
00:54:48 Dr. Karina Quezada
Right.
00:54:49 Iván Campos
Or plateauing or decline in the scale.
00:54:52 Dr. Karina Quezada
Right.
00:54:52 Dr. Karina Quezada
And from there, you continue on the conversation.
00:54:55 Dr. Karina Quezada
So I want to make sure that our listeners understand that not every child that struggles with reading has dyslexia.
00:55:03 Dr. Karina Quezada
That's just not the case.
00:55:06 Dr. Karina Quezada
And we need to allow for opportunities for identification in the classroom, for those conversations to take place with families and teachers, and to understand that we're partners in this, right, and that we want to come together and problem solve.
00:55:21 Dr. Karina Quezada
So how do we problem solve?
00:55:22 Iván Campos
So that communication, that collaboration is key.
00:55:26 Dr. Karina Quezada
Absolutely.
00:55:27 Iván Campos
If you-- oh, go ahead.
00:55:28 Dr. Karina Quezada
I'm sorry.
00:55:28 Iván Campos
I had a phone question for you, but go ahead.
00:55:31 Dr. Karina Quezada
Since we're talking about parents, I want to add this component here because for our parents who are listen, or our listeners who are parents, my apologies, for our parents who are listening to this, I think there are many things that parents can do to support their children.
00:55:47 Dr. Karina Quezada
And I'm hoping that, you know, to be able to reach those young parents who have babies, you know, or are planning on having babies.
00:55:58 Dr. Karina Quezada
Language acquisition, oral language, is such a critical component for success in school.
00:56:07 Dr. Karina Quezada
And we have, in a full understanding, that children who come to school and they have been bred to, sang to, talked to, will do far better in academics.
00:56:24 Dr. Karina Quezada
than those children that are perhaps being entertained by a iPhone or by a tablet.
00:56:33 Dr. Karina Quezada
So engaging children in conversation is such a critical component, and it's probably the best way in which parents can support their children in school.
00:56:43 Dr. Karina Quezada
It does not take much.
00:56:46 Dr. Karina Quezada
It doesn't, really, it requires maybe a monthly visit to a library.
00:56:54 Dr. Karina Quezada
to get a couple of books, talk to your teacher as well.
00:56:58 Dr. Karina Quezada
Many school districts allow parents to check out books free of charge.
00:57:04 Dr. Karina Quezada
So having someone reading to you is one of those critical things that can occur.
00:57:12 Dr. Karina Quezada
And I would also advise our parents to limit screen time.
00:57:18 Dr. Karina Quezada
We are now beginning to see more and more studies coming out of how detrimental it is for individuals, both adults and children, by the way, to engage in technology on a constant basis.
00:57:32 Dr. Karina Quezada
And children are missing out opportunities to have conversations, to hear dialogue, to exchange ideas, to be able to tolerate different ideas from others, and to have just that human contact and exchange.
00:57:45 Dr. Karina Quezada
And I'm sure, Ivan, you can relate to this.
00:57:49 Dr. Karina Quezada
Many times we go to restaurants, and we see families that are sitting around a table, and each one of them has their own phone.
00:57:57 Dr. Karina Quezada
There's no dialogue going on.
00:57:59 Dr. Karina Quezada
This is, I think, a critical thing that we need to stop and consider, especially when our children are very young.
00:58:08 Iván Campos
This topic is, you know, the screen time, the effects of media on the brain really
00:58:15 Iván Campos
And also the lack of social engagement in the home or conversations, dialogue, book reading, without a basis of language.
00:58:26 Iván Campos
One can learn to read, but may not have words or meaning to connect to those printed words.
00:58:33 Iván Campos
And so children can struggle, even they may be able to read, but not able to understand what they're reading.
00:58:39 Iván Campos
They're lacking the language.
00:58:41 Dr. Karina Quezada
Yeah, absolutely.
00:58:42 Dr. Karina Quezada
And since we're on this topic of oral language and vocabulary development, I think it's also important for our audience to understand that this can happen in any language, even when if you come from a home where Spanish is being spoken and that is the only language.
00:59:03 Dr. Karina Quezada
I often encounter families from Spanish-only speaking homes, and I'm using Spanish because it's
00:59:11 Dr. Karina Quezada
one of the most popular languages in the U.S.
00:59:14 Dr. Karina Quezada
But many of them have this misunderstanding that I shouldn't be reading to my child in my native language.
00:59:21 Dr. Karina Quezada
I shouldn't be talking to them.
00:59:22 Dr. Karina Quezada
I need them to learn English.
00:59:25 Dr. Karina Quezada
And that can be very detrimental.
00:59:27 Dr. Karina Quezada
You know, we're robbing children of the opportunity to obtain language, vocabulary, culture, and just that pride of being able to become bilingual at one point.
00:59:40 Dr. Karina Quezada
So for our audience who perhaps, you know have friends or family members I think it's important for them to understand that It is critical for us to read to children and I don't care in what language you do that That knowledge will eventually transfer on to the target language, which is English.
00:59:59 Iván Campos
And if and if that first language
01:00:03 Iván Campos
reading conversations in the home is not occurring, then it's really challenging for English to attach to anchor on to that French language.
01:00:13 Iván Campos
And so now you're at school, you're learning concepts that you may have been exposed to at home, but maybe you weren't.
01:00:22 Iván Campos
Here's my fun question.
01:00:24 Iván Campos
If you had a magic wand and you can make one change to better serve students with dyslexia, what would it be?
01:00:32 Dr. Karina Quezada
Yeah, I don't know that it's necessarily fun because I'm trying to narrow it down to one aspect and it's such a complicated topic because I need all pieces to be able to function.
01:00:44 Iván Campos
So for you would be to have a systematic process to the science of reading.
01:00:50 Iván Campos
Yes.
01:00:50 Iván Campos
That would be your magic wand.
01:00:51 Dr. Karina Quezada
Yes, but being that I am a school psychologist,
01:00:55 Dr. Karina Quezada
I'm working -- and I don't know that it's about a magical thing.
01:00:59 Dr. Karina Quezada
I think I'm devoting time and effort and continuing my own education and my own learning so that I can share with my educator, friends, and colleagues what I've learned about dyslexia.
01:01:14 Dr. Karina Quezada
Because as a school psychologist, I still encounter many of my colleagues who believe that dyslexia is this
01:01:24 Dr. Karina Quezada
obscure concept that it's only diagnosed in a medical setting and that it shouldn't be discussed in the school setting.
01:01:33 Dr. Karina Quezada
So if I suppose if you pin me down to a wall and tell me to pick one thing, I think that would be my one thing.
01:01:41 Dr. Karina Quezada
I would love for my school psychologist colleagues to understand that dyslexia is
01:01:46 Dr. Karina Quezada
very much a topic that belongs to us, that we have the expertise, that we have the tools to assess for it, and to be able to pinpoint exactly where the gap is, where the breakdown is, and be able to suggest interventions to our educators of how to best support Mary and Johnny.
01:02:09 Dr. Karina Quezada
So that's not only a wish, but I think it's something that I'm working constantly to be able to provide that support to my colleagues.
01:02:19 Iván Campos
So I'm curious here, is the belief of we don't speak about dyslexia within the school setting is because it's not part of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act?
01:02:30 Dr. Karina Quezada
Well, it is.
01:02:31 Dr. Karina Quezada
It is hidden within one of the 13 categories.
01:02:34 Iván Campos
Hidden?
01:02:36 Iván Campos
So this is your wish.
01:02:39 Dr. Karina Quezada
So I want to respond to that because under the Individuals with Disability Act, there are 13 categories under which a child can qualify for special education.
01:02:50 Dr. Karina Quezada
And one of them is a specific learning disability.
01:02:53 Dr. Karina Quezada
And within the definition of specific learning disability, the word dyslexia appears.
01:02:58 Dr. Karina Quezada
So it is very much a school term.
01:03:02 Dr. Karina Quezada
And the law does give us permission to talk about dyslexia.
01:03:07 Dr. Karina Quezada
But somewhere along the lines, there was something or somebody or someone who came up with the idea that was a medical term and that we should not be discussing that.
01:03:19 Dr. Karina Quezada
But you know, when IDEA, right, when this law was enacted back in the 1970s,
01:03:27 Dr. Karina Quezada
the definition included the word dyslexia, and it has been there ever since.
01:03:32 Dr. Karina Quezada
So over 50, I think it's 50 years now since that.
01:03:37 Dr. Karina Quezada
This year.
01:03:37 Dr. Karina Quezada
This year, yeah.
01:03:38 Dr. Karina Quezada
So definitely something within our scope of practice, within our ability to be able to assess.
01:03:45 Iván Campos
Well, this has been truly a very transformative, but also very stimulating conversation in terms of dyslexia, what it is, what it isn't, and also intervention,
01:03:57 Iván Campos
Methodology, assessment, screeners, we've talked about a lot of different topics and also what parents can do in the home, what educators can do.
01:04:06 Iván Campos
I have one more question for you.
01:04:08 Iván Campos
And at CAHELP, our mission is the relentless pursuit of whatever works in the life of a child.
01:04:14 Iván Campos
And so as you think to your past, was there someone in your life you'd wish to think maybe they did something different to ensure that it worked for you in your life?
01:04:25 Dr. Karina Quezada
So I think there are a few individuals come to mind, specifically in the topic of reading.
01:04:36 Dr. Karina Quezada
I would say that my father was a good example of that.
01:04:42 Dr. Karina Quezada
My father did not have the opportunity to gain a schooling.
01:04:47 Dr. Karina Quezada
He came from a very limited resources.
01:04:53 Dr. Karina Quezada
But there's one thing that I remember about my dad.
01:04:56 Dr. Karina Quezada
My dad would come home for lunch every day, as it was accustomed in the little town where I grew up.
01:05:04 Dr. Karina Quezada
And during that period of time, he would come and get on the hammock, and he would have the newspaper with him.
01:05:15 Dr. Karina Quezada
And so my dad was a reader, and he modeled that for us.
01:05:20 Dr. Karina Quezada
And I can now look back to those experiences, and I attribute a lot of that, my success, being able to obtain an education myself, to those roots and to having that exposure, and actually someone who modeled that for me.
01:05:39 Iván Campos
Right.
01:05:41 Dr. Karina Quezada
My dad did not complete a higher degree.
01:05:44 Dr. Karina Quezada
He just didn't have the opportunity to do so.
01:05:47 Dr. Karina Quezada
However, he was able to speak about different topics and could hold a conversation, and I attribute that to his daily newspaper reading.
01:05:57 Iván Campos
Thank you for sharing that.
01:05:58 Iván Campos
So your father's motto of him reading on the hammock when he would come home from work for lunch has inspired you to read, to engage in those dialogues, those challenging conversations.
01:06:09 Iván Campos
That's a great way to thank your father.
01:06:12 Dr. Karina Quezada
Yeah, absolutely.
01:06:14 Iván Campos
And so is there anything else that you've, as we've talked, that you're like, you know, I wanted to share that, but I didn't.
01:06:22 Iván Campos
So here's your chance.
01:06:28 Dr. Karina Quezada
You know, Iván, I consider, I'm considering myself very blessed to have been able to obtain an education.
01:06:38 Dr. Karina Quezada
And
01:06:39 Dr. Karina Quezada
Having the ability to read is what opened that opportunity for me.
01:06:44 Dr. Karina Quezada
So this topic of dyslexia is extremely close to my heart.
01:06:50 Dr. Karina Quezada
I think that children, all children, require that opportunity to obtain an education, and I consider reading a civil right.
01:06:59 Dr. Karina Quezada
I consider that an extremely important asset to have.
01:07:03 Dr. Karina Quezada
Whether one chooses to attend college or not is irrelevant.
01:07:08 Dr. Karina Quezada
But being able to be literate allows you the opportunity to participate in your community, to fulfill your civil duties, to be a contributing member to society, and therefore, an extremely important topic for me.
01:07:25 Iván Campos
It goes beyond the classroom.
01:07:27 Dr. Karina Quezada
Absolutely.
01:07:27 Iván Campos
It's a lifelong skill.
01:07:28 Dr. Karina Quezada
Yes, and it's beyond the idea of being a school psychologist.
01:07:36 Dr. Karina Quezada
I'm also part of a community and part of a nation that I love.
01:07:41 Iván Campos
Wow, what a good way to end our episode today.
01:07:44 Iván Campos
So thank you so much, Dr.
01:07:45 Iván Campos
Quezada, for joining us today and sharing your expertise.
01:07:49 Iván Campos
And thank you to our listeners for tuning in.
01:07:51 Iván Campos
Share this episode with anyone who might benefit from learning more about dyslexia.
01:07:55 Iván Campos
Until next time.
01:07:57 Outro
Before we wrap up, we want to remind you that if you or someone you know is facing a crisis, help is available.
01:08:06 Outro
You are not alone.
01:08:08 Outro
If it's an emergency, please call 911.
01:08:12 Outro
For immediate support, you can reach out to the Crisis and Suicide Hotline by dialing 988.
01:08:19 Outro
Remember, taking the first step to ask for help is a sign of strength.
01:08:24 Outro
Stay safe, take care of yourself, and take care of each other.
01:08:28 Outro
Until next time, be well.
01:08:31 Outro
Join us on the Fostering Futures podcast for a powerful parent panel as families open up about navigating the IEP process with their children.
01:08:40 Outro
Through honest conversations and personal stories, these parents share their journey from first meeting to ongoing advocacy, offering valuable insights, lessons learned, and encouragement for other families walking a similar path.
