Michigan Stops Waiting for Failure and Takes Dyslexia Training to Preschool

Last updated: July 31, 2026

Every parent of a struggling reader has heard some version of “let’s wait and see.” Michigan’s answer, announced July 30, is to stop waiting: the state will train preschool and pre-K educators to recognize the earliest indicators of dyslexia and to build the language foundations reading stands on, years before formal reading instruction begins. The training arrives while Michigan’s own K-3 screening requirement sits on the calendar for 2027-28, and after third-grade reading scores fell to the lowest point in the state test’s history. The message underneath the announcement is the one worth hearing: waiting for children to fail was the design, and the design failed.

TL;DR

On July 30, 2026, Michigan's MiLEAP announced "Dyslexia Starts Early," a state-funded, Orton-Gillingham-based training for preschool and pre-K educators built with the Michigan Dyslexia Institute.
Two-day sessions run Aug. 11-12 (Genesee ISD), Aug. 25-26 (Oakland Schools), and Sept. 1-2 (Bay-Arenac ISD), each serving up to 30 educators, funded by the federal Preschool Development Grant Birth-Five Renewal.
Michigan's 2024 literacy and dyslexia laws (Public Acts 146 and 147) require screening all K-3 students for characteristics of dyslexia three times a year starting in 2027-28, with parent notification and interventions.
Michigan third-grade English language arts proficiency fell to 39.6 percent in 2024, the lowest in the test's ten-year history, then to 38.9 percent in 2025.
The International Dyslexia Association's 2025 definition states that language and literacy support before and during the early years of education is particularly effective.

Michigan will train preschool educators to recognize the earliest indicators of dyslexia. Here are the questions parents ask most about what that means for young children.

Common questions

What are the earliest signs of dyslexia in a preschooler?

The earliest indicators are spoken-language signals rather than anything about letters: persistent difficulty with rhyming, trouble remembering familiar nursery rhymes or songs, little interest in sound play, and unclear pronunciation that lingers. Reversing letters is not on this list. Young children commonly reverse letters as they learn, and every major pediatric and eye-care body agrees dyslexia is a difficulty mapping the sounds of language onto symbols, not a vision problem.

A teacher flagged early indicators. Does that mean my child has dyslexia?

No. An early indicator is a risk signal, not a diagnosis, and Michigan’s training says so directly: educators are learning to recognize indicators and adjust instruction, not to diagnose. The same rule applies to any screener a parent uses at home. A screener is a starting point, not a diagnosis. If your child might need formal accommodations such as an IEP or 504 plan, or you suspect a vision, hearing, or medical cause, pursue a professional evaluation too; that is the only route to those supports.

Should my preschooler be learning to read?

Formal reading instruction is a job for the school years; the preschool job is building the foundations reading stands on. Children soak up spoken language naturally by being around it. Reading is different: there is no reading instinct, so it has to be taught, step by step, when the time comes. What helps most before then is rich language play: reading aloud together, rhyming and sound games, songs, and lots of conversation.

What does Michigan’s dyslexia law require, and what if I live somewhere else?

Beginning in the 2027-28 school year, Michigan public schools must screen all K-3 students for characteristics of dyslexia three times a year with an approved tool, provide interventions through a multi-tiered system of supports, and give parents the results along with recommended next steps. If you live elsewhere, the same questions travel: ask what early literacy screening your school runs, what training teachers have in structured literacy, and what happens the moment a concern appears.

Michigan is training preschool teachers to spot the earliest signs of dyslexia, before its K-3 screening requirement even begins in 2027. The quiet admission: waiting for failure was the failure. Tweet Now Follow Learning Success

What Michigan announced

On July 30, the Michigan Department of Lifelong Education, Advancement, and Potential (MiLEAP) unveiled a state-funded training for preschool and pre-K educators titled “Dyslexia Starts Early: Building Strong Language and Literacy Foundations for Future Readers.” Built with the Michigan Dyslexia Institute around Orton-Gillingham principles, the two-day sessions run Aug. 11-12 at Genesee Intermediate School District, Aug. 25-26 at Oakland Schools, and Sept. 1-2 at Bay-Arenac ISD, with up to 30 early childhood educators in each. Funding comes through Michigan’s Preschool Development Grant Birth-Five Renewal, awarded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; Michigan is one of 20 states holding that renewal grant.

“We’re not teaching educators to diagnose dyslexia,” said Marlene Tebben, Orton-Gillingham instruction advisor and instructor for the Michigan Dyslexia Institute, who is co-leading the training. “We’re helping them recognize early indicators, understand how children learn to read and adjust instruction using research-based practices, so every child has the strongest possible foundation for future reading success.” It is the first professional development the institute has built specifically for early childhood educators.

The timing tells its own story. Michigan’s 2024 literacy and dyslexia laws require universal screening for characteristics of dyslexia in kindergarten through third grade, three times a year, but not until the 2027-28 school year. Third-grade reading results supply the urgency: 39.6 percent of third graders passed the state English language arts test in 2024, the lowest mark in the assessment’s ten-year history, and the 2025 figure slid further, to 38.9 percent.

Author Quote "

We’re not teaching educators to diagnose dyslexia. We’re helping them recognize early indicators, understand how children learn to read and adjust instruction using research-based practices, so every child has the strongest possible foundation for future reading success.

What the coverage gets wrong

Stories about early dyslexia programs usually land in one of two poor frames: alarm that schools are testing and labeling toddlers, or applause that treats earlier as automatically better. Both miss what the evidence supports. Dyslexia's earliest indicators are oral-language signals, and reading itself has to be taught because the brain never evolved for it (Geary's biologically secondary knowledge, Dehaene's neuronal recycling, the National Reading Panel on explicit instruction). Imaging work from Shaywitz at Yale and Temple at Stanford shows struggling readers developing the same reading pathways as their peers after the right instruction, and the International Dyslexia Association's 2025 definition calls early-years language and literacy support particularly effective. For a parent, the test of any early-years program is not earlier for its own sake: it is whether the program builds skills or assigns categories. Michigan's training, by its own description, does the former.

The real story: a state walking away from wait-to-fail

The press release describes a training. The larger event is a state walking away from the wait-to-fail design, in which a child must struggle publicly, often for years, before anyone is required to act. Marsha Chance, executive director and CEO of the Michigan Dyslexia Institute, named the alternative plainly: “we believe one of the most powerful ways to support children with dyslexia is to start before they fail.” A Michigan reading interventionist put the same idea to Michigan Public this January: “We don’t want to wait until third grade to find out they can’t read.”

The science behind starting early is settled and specific. Spoken language is biologically primary; children absorb it by being around it. Reading is a cultural invention roughly 5,000 years old, and cognitive scientists from David Geary to Stanislas Dehaene to Maryanne Wolf converge on the same conclusion: there is no reading instinct, so reading must be explicitly and systematically taught. That is why the earliest indicators of later reading difficulty show up in spoken language, in how a child handles rhyming, sound play, and the songs and rhymes of early childhood, long before letters enter the picture. A preschool teacher trained to notice those signals, and to build sound awareness into daily play, is working exactly where the evidence points.

Brain-imaging research from Yale’s Sally Shaywitz and Stanford’s Elise Temple supplies the second half of the case: children who struggle with reading develop the same reading pathways as typical readers after intensive, appropriate instruction. And the International Dyslexia Association’s 2025 definition states that language and literacy support before and during the early years of education is particularly effective. For parents navigating dyslexia and other reading differences, the takeaway is direct: the earlier the right kind of support starts, the less there is to undo.

Key Takeaways:

Michigan moves earlier than its own law: Preschool educators get dyslexia training while universal K-3 screening waits for 2027-28.

Third-grade reading sits at a record low: 39.6 percent passed Michigan's 2024 ELA test, then 38.9 percent in 2025.

The earliest indicators are spoken-language signals: Rhyming, sound play, and rhyme memory flag risk years before letters appear.

What this means for your child, in Michigan and everywhere else

Early recognition helps when it stays focused on skills. It hurts when it drifts into two familiar failure modes: pushing formal academics down into preschool, and letting a risk indicator harden into a label on a four-year-old. The Michigan program, as designed, avoids both. The training targets language and literacy foundations built through play and intentional instruction, and its lead instructor drew the line out loud: educators are learning to recognize and respond, not to diagnose. That distinction is the one for parents to hold onto, and to ask about, wherever early screening or early training reaches their community.

If your child is in preschool now, watch the signals the science points to: persistent trouble with rhyming games, little interest in sound play, difficulty remembering familiar rhymes and songs. Young children commonly flip letters as they learn to write, and reversals by themselves are not dyslexia; every major pediatric and eye-care body agrees the difficulty lives in mapping sounds to symbols, not in the eyes. If indicators pile up, act early and keep the framing on skills: more language play at home, a conversation with the teacher, and specific practice on the systems your child needs.

Scale is the honest caveat. Three sessions of up to 30 seats each is a start, not a transformation, and host districts are recruiting eligible educators through targeted outreach. But direction matters, and states watch each other. If your state still waits for failure, bring simple questions to your school: what early literacy training have our preschool and kindergarten teachers had, what happens when a teacher notices a struggling reader, and how early does anyone act?

Author Quote "

At Michigan Dyslexia Institute, we believe one of the most powerful ways to support children with dyslexia is to start before they fail.

Parents do not need permission to act early, and they see the earliest signals first: the rhyming games that never land, the songs that will not stick. The villain here was never a teacher or a test; it is the wait-to-fail design that requires a child to struggle before anyone is obligated to respond, and Michigan’s move is one more sign that the design is losing. Your child is capable, and the foundations that matter are buildable at home starting today. The Learning Success All Access program gives you the multi-system tools, from sound awareness through reading practice, to start before struggle ever defines the story.