not just fluency. When done the right way, fluency activities improve connectivity in the reading circuit and provide a shortcut to reading gains. For connectivity to improve, the research tells us that these activities must "push" Alec out of his comfort zone in both reading and handwriting rates.

Alec's tutor recommended that the fluency drills involve repeated timed reading of the assigned word lists and groups of sentences, in addition to writing these words and sentences (from dictation). She explained that each time he completed a timed reading or writing task, he should repeat the task multiple times, with the goal of increasing his speed each time. During the school year, the tutor had set a goal with Alec of increasing his reading fluency rate by 20 words correct per minute (WCPM) every month. She encouraged Alec's mother to do the same, explaining that goal setting is a very important part of making gains in dyslexia. She suggested that some small prize could be awarded to Alec for reaching the goal or getting very close to it. She also gave Alec a fluency chart, so he could track his own progress.

Lastly, she alerted Alec's mother to the possibility that he may try to skip the handwriting component as he had attempted to do during the school year. This was the only part of the intervention he didn't enjoy. She shared the results of neuroimaging studies which found that handwriting, by itself, plays a major role in rewiring the reading circuit, especially timed handwriting activities. In fact, handwriting fluency facilitates reading fluency.

These fluency activities had been included in Alec's sessions throughout the school year. He especially loved the game of beating his own time, competing with himself instead of other students, and seeing his fluency improve, week after week. Even though he enjoyed this challenge during the school year, his mother knew that she had to integrate the drills into a summer-fun environment. She tucked the writing paper, word lists and sentences into clear plastic pocket sleeves to make them waterproof for trips to the beach, nearby pool, and waterslide. She also included them in the backpack they took when the family went hiking. Stopping to snack was the perfect time to do a 15-minute drill. Once they were back on the trail, Alec never gave it another thought until their next stop. Sometimes they saved the handwriting drills for the kitchen table.

Audiobooks were another recommendation from the tutor, because they are a great way to build vocabulary and comprehension, over the summer. His mother repurposed a comfortable and quiet space in the house for him to listen to these books. Alec also selected books from the library for his mother to read aloud to him.

Each week the tutor sent him home with "decodable" readers that he could read somewhat independently in his spare time. Decodable readers are books that use phonics skills that have already been explicitly taught to the student. This usually prevents the word-guessing habit, so common in dyslexia, but it's still important for accuracy to be monitored by a tutor or parent, while reading. When matched to the student's current phonics skills, decodables can provide practice, enjoyment, and a sense of accomplishment.

Alec used the fluency chart to track his own progress over the summer, and he, his tutor, and his mother were excited to see monthly gains. He had almost met the goal that was set for the summer. When he returned to school and was tested, these gains were confirmed. His mother was relieved to learn that he had

avoided the summer reading slide and had even made gains in several other reading measures. Most importantly, embedding the fluency drills into some all-day summer-fun activities made the work seem almost effortless to Alec.

COMPARING APPLES TO ORANGES

When summer tutoring for dyslexic students is dropped, the reading slide can be far more substantial than the summer slide experienced by other students. The activities that would prevent a reading slide for Alec's non-dyslexic classmates, such as lots of independent reading, would not be sufficient for Alec and could even create problems for him. For example, depending on how much time a student has already spent in their intervention and how much progress they've made, unsupervised reading activities could reinforce dyslexia-related reading behaviors, such as wordguessing.

The first step in preventing the summer reading slide in dyslexia is to recognize that these students need much more specialized help than their classmates •

References

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Georgie Normand, M.A. holds a Master's degree in Reading Education and has spent many years working with students with dyslexia. She is the founder of Early Literacy Solutions and the author of the Orton-Gillingham based Fluency Builders Dyslexia Program (earlylitera- cysolutions.com). Designed for parents, tutors, and teachers, the Fluency Builders program utilizes the latest neuroscience in dyslexia. These new studies found that dyslexia is not a one-size-fits-all learning disability. Georgie has also developed the Certified Dyslexia Practitioner Program, a professional learning program that trains teachers and tutors to identify and succeed with multiple dyslexia profiles. Contact her at georgienormand@earlyliteracysolutions.com