While early literacy often receives the most attention, reading difficulties—particularly dyslexia—persist and evolve as students transition into middle and high school where the academic focus shifts from "learning to read" to "reading to learn." This session will explore how dyslexia manifests in adolescents through subtle red flags such as slow reading pace, hesitant speech, word-retrieval issues, and difficulty with multi-syllabic terms or foreign languages. We will move beyond common myths to address the academic impact and the emotional toll of "hidden" literacy gaps, while simultaneously highlighting the unique cognitive "Sea of Strengths" these students possess, including high-level conceptualization, big-picture thinking, and sophisticated listening vocabularies. Participants will leave with a curated toolkit to identify struggling learners and implement accommodations that bridge the gap between a student's decoding abilities and their true intellectual potential.
