Amplify
Special miniseries, Episode 3

Diagnosing dyslexia in multilingual learners, with Francisco Usero-González

As we continue our miniseries on English learners and multilingual learners, Francisco Usero-González, Ph.D., guest, a renowned expert in bilingual education and dyslexia intervention, joins Susan Lambert to discuss diagnosing dyslexia in multilingual learners and the intersectional understanding it requires. To accurately approach observation and assessment, educators need all the different parts of their own identity to create a complete picture. Usero-González discusses how moving from Spain to the United States led him to champion professional development that teaches educators to have a linguistic, cognitive, and cultural understanding of students. Together, Susan and Usero-González also touch on the ways in which symptoms of dyslexia and the natural process of language acquisition can be confused, how to diagnose dyslexia in multilingual learners, what dyslexia looks like across languages, and how translanguaging is especially helpful for multilingual learners with dyslexia.

Meet our guest(s):

Francisco Usero-González, Ph.D.

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Francisco Usero-González, Ph.D., has several bachelor’s degrees in education, as well as a master’s degree in teaching Hispanic language and culture and a doctorate in curriculum and instruction. His research interest surrounds multilingual and multicultural education and its different models, programs, and interventions at all levels. He is particularly interested in examining culturally and linguistically responsive approaches to help Hispanic bilingual students’ education and development, and the influence of sociocultural factors on family engagement in diverse school communities through the innovative use of instructional technology. Through his scientific training and teaching experience—nationally and internationally—he increased his knowledge of biliteracy program design and implementation. He has participated in national and international educational conferences and published several papers in international educational journals.

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Meet our host, Susan Lambert

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Susan Lambert is the Chief Academic Officer of Elementary Humanities at Amplify, and the host of Science of Reading: The Podcast. Her career has been focused on creating high-quality learning environments using evidence-based practices. Lambert is a mom of four, a grandma of four, a world traveler, and a collector of stories.

As the host of Science of Reading: The Podcast, Lambert explores the increasing body of scientific research around how reading is best taught. As a former classroom teacher, administrator, and curriculum developer, Lambert is dedicated to turning theory into best practices that educators can put right to use in the classroom, and to showcasing national models of reading instruction excellence.

Transcripts and additional resources

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Watch: TEDxSHSU: Bilingual Learners, Dyslexia, and Inclusive Education
Read: Vogel, S., & García, O. (2017). Translanguaging. Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Education.
Transcript

Quotes

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“We need to promote collaboration, because we need to talk to the different teachers that the student has in order to see if it is indeed a second language acquisition issue, or it belongs to the patterns, the symptoms, that a student with dyslexia might have.” —Francisco Usero-González, Ph.D.
“It is very important for us to have this communication with parents and teachers and have them as our best allies. They are going to give us a lot of information that we maybe cannot track during our classroom time.” —Francisco Usero-González, Ph.D.
“Dyslexia is something beyond a language. It is something that our students bring with themselves. We need to give them all the tools and resources in order to help them overcome those symptoms.” —Francisco Usero-González, Ph.D.