What are the observable differences between seriously and grossly decoding-disabled students?
Seriously decoding-disabled students are those who: • have stabilized some of the short vowel sounds and most of the consonant sounds • understand the concept of sequencing sounds within syllables and syllables within words from left to right, even though they may make sequencing errors • know some of the remaining letter-sound associations (ack, etch, ar etc.) but are inconsistent in their application • know a few of the remaining letter-sounds (-tial, -cious, au, ou, etc.) • have larger speaking and listening vocabularies • may have better visual memory, allowing them to memorize more words. Grossly decoding-disabled students are those who: • have not stabilized short vowel and consonant letter-sounds • do not know the remaining letter-sounds • confuse b/d and other letters (m/n, g/q, etc.) • do not demonstrate an understanding of the concept of sequencing letter-sounds within syllables and syllables within words • are obviously guessing at a significant number of words.
