How can I help my dyslexic child?
Remember, your worst day as a teacher or parent with a child with learning disabilities is still better than the average day a child with learning disabilities will have in school.
Any assistance you give to your child at home needs to be done in a creative and fun way. This means you need to mix work with play and keep your sense of humour about you. Use games, puzzles, songs, rhymes or even physical activity in order to help your child develop certain concepts. For example, maths does not have to be taught sitting at a table with paper and pencil, it can be done in the kitchen using scales or measuring spoons, etc.
Sequencing and organisation
Dyslexics often have difficulty with sequencing, which affects verbal expression, number skills, dates, etc., which reflects the way they approach school tasks. They cannot organise their thoughts or their schoolwork and struggle to follow the development of an idea. It is difficult for them to identify when and how they arrive at a conclusion. He may remember facts and figures in fragments rather than in sequential order.
Use colours to organize things as much as possible. Colour code notebooks to match textbooks and folders.
Instructions
Dyslexic children cannot deal with a lot of words, as he has to make an extreme effort to hear, understand, integrate, remember and then attempt to carry out the instruction.
When giving instructions, slow down and be precise in both what and how you explain an idea of give directions.
Give one direction and then give enough time to execute the instruction before progressing to steps 2, 3, etc.
Make eye contact if possible and take time to let your directions settle in.
Have them repeat instructions and give all instructions on paper as a checklist. Many children with learning disabilities are easily distracted or may have trouble following instructions. It may be helpful to everyone if you ask the child to repeat instructions or directions back to you before he/she begins the task or goes to a particular place.
Many people with learning disabilities are aware of everything happening around them and are naturally curious so they are easily distracted. Use a wall chart or check off list to help your child stay focused; in this way they can also monitor their accomplishments and tasks can be given to them in smaller chunks.
Maths
Not all children who have difficulties deciphering words for reading and spelling have trouble with number skills, however, many struggle to switch from one skill to another easily, such as moving from addition to subtraction, etc.
Link new information to something that was taught in a previous lesson and ensure you don’t jump between different concepts to quickly
Allow the children to have concrete aids to assist with counting, such as, timetable or number sheets, abacus’s, beads, etc.
Encourage the child to highlight or identify the key elements of that question for example the sign in addition or subtraction sums
Children with reading difficulties will find word sums particularly difficult, so be sensitive to this and offer them as much assistance as possible
Spelling
Get a list of the sight words that your child’s teacher uses, print them on pieces of paper and place them around the house on the objects that they designate
Print the action words used by your child in their daily life, such as walk, run, laugh, etc. review these with him and have him act them out, then dictate the words to your child and have him write simple sentences using the action words.
Do the same thing for words with similar endings or beginnings or words that differ by only one vowel in the middle, such as dog/dig, live/love and has/had. These are specific problem words.
Get a box of alphabet cards with lowercase letters and each night during homework sessions, use them to spell problem words.
Use objects such as flour, sand, clay or Lego to ‘write’ new words as this allows the individual to utilize his/her creative outlet and accomplish an otherwise frustrating task. They will develop mental pictures, concepts or ideas using the “hands-on” materials.
Write spelling words on different coloured pieces of paper or in different coloured inks according to the word, for example, a young child would have action words on blue and nouns on red paper and older children would have ‘ie’ words on green paper and ‘ei’ words on yellow. The different colours provide extra visual stimulation which is very helpful
Write out two lists of the spelling words and play pairs with the words or even snap, with your child having to read the word when he matches a pair
Use mnemonics to teach unusual spellings, such as:
Because – Bake Every Cake And Use Six Eggs.
Said – Sally Ann Is Dancing
Again – Again, Gorillas Appear In Nighties.
Friend – Every friend has an I, and hopefully it will never END.
Could – Can Oliver Understand Long Division
Rhythm – Rhythm Has Your Two Hips Moving
Group together word families, which are words that share certain visual and auditory characteristics as they become easier to learn and spell if they are taught at the same time
Play games such as Scrabble, Boggle etc to help with spelling.
Writing
Writing is almost impossible for many dyslexics as they require extreme amounts of concentration to form letters and keep them aligned, as well as adequately expressing their knowledge and monitoring their spelling.
Practice writing skills by sending an email to friends weekly.
Fill in alternating lines on a page with highlighter to assist with spatial awareness as well as with tracking lines when reading and writing
Reading
There are a number of areas that need to be considered when determining a child’s reading profile:
Understanding the alphabet – a child needs to be able to identify and sound out the letters of the alphabet, without which they will be unable to form words and the sounds they designate and thus will struggle to read or write. Ask the following:
How many letters are in the alphabet?
Recite the letters
Print each letter on a card and ask them to identify them in random order
Ask the child to identify each letter by sound
Mix up the letters and ask the child to write each letter after you say it
Ask the child to write the alphabet, in sequence, from memory
Word discrimination skills – sight words should be recognised automatically and accurately.
Print sight words and problem words on cards and show them to the child one at a time, maintaining the same rhythm of arm movement. If he hesitates or starts to sound out the word letter by letter, remove it from the pile and review it later.
Phonic skills – the words the child misses in the word discrimination test offer a clue to the level of his phonic ability.
Ask the child whether he know the short and long sound of vowels
Ask him the sounds of consonants
Does he know the special sounds? (oi/oy, au/aw, ph/gh, th/sh, ch/wh, etc.)
Does he recognise these for spelling as well as for reading?
Reading comprehension – once the child is able to easily and accurately recognise words, he will be able to put them together in meaningful context, but this process needs to be taught. Skills for comprehension includes understanding of the main idea, details, inference, cause & effect and summarisation.
Reading tips:
Begin a reading assignment by asking your child a question about the material. Explore the topic before reading further, using the cover picture and chapter headings for assistance.
Ask your child to read single sentences and determine if it explains when, where, why, when or what?
Ask him to read for sequence and organisation – ask what happened first? Next? Last? Etc.
Ask these questions to little children as you read to them, including why did you like that story?
Use chapter headings to form questions. At the end of the chapter, what was the most important part of the chapter?
Ask vocabulary questions. What does this word mean?
Many times the person with dyslexia sees different letters as the same one. For example, the letters ‘b’,’d’,’p’, and ‘q’ look as though they are all the same letter. It is as though you took a picture of a car and turned the car upside down. The car is still the same car. To help a person distinguish between letters use pictures with the actual letter. For instance, write the letter ‘q’ and draw a queen’s crown across the top. The child will associate the queen’s crown with the letter ‘q’.
If subtitles are available on the TV, take advantage of extra learning time outside of the classroom. Have the child read the words across the screen. Honour the child’s right to read silently if he/she chooses. Remember, the child has probably been ostracized for slow reading in the classroom. This can be a most traumatic experience so we do not want to make the child feel that way in his/her home. Even if the child reads correctly only one or two words, he/she has done so in a loving environment.
Try using different coloured transparencies over the text – you may need to try a number of different colours before finding one that works for your child
Dyslexic children’s reading can be improved if they are allowed to read out loud or move their lips while reading.
When you read together, have a signal, such as knocking on the table or a tap on the hand, for your child to signal when they don’t know a word, immediately provide the unknown word and allow them to continue reading, this helps with their fluency and removes the pressure of having to sound out the word.
Find books that come with audio stories, on tape or CD and let your child follow the story as it is read to them
Homework
Homework can be devastating from a dyslexic child’s viewpoint. He often doesn’t know where or how to start and when he tries he’s usually wrong. Set up a homework routine:
Establish a time for homework. This may vary from day to day according to extra murals etc. but every Monday should be the same, etc. This helps to build a sense of responsibility and ensure homework becomes a daily habit.
Encourage your child from an early age to set up a special, quiet place to do homework in. Spend time everyday in that space, reading a story or looking at books together, before the child begins school and homework routines.
When your child can read, leave notes on the fridge, bathroom mirror etc. with short, simple messages or directions.
Build your child’s self-esteem. Look for what he does well and praise him for it.
Try to help your child break the homework assignments into steps so he can attack them one task at a time, so homework is less threatening.
Self-esteem
Let them do what ever they do best — running, skating, etc. Give them time each day to do this.
Say “I love you” to a child with dyslexia frequently. Often people with learning disabilities are singled out daily, particularly at school. Many kids are targeted by peers and are laughed at for making mistakes or being “stupid”. Ensure your child know you love and accept them unconditionally
Include their opinions in family discussions and take their suggestions to heart.
Specific tips for school
Please allow the child to work orally as often as possible
Allow for homework to be completed on a computer as this is easier for a child with learning difficulties
Please do not ask children with dyslexia to read aloud in class without letting them know two or three days before they will be called upon. This allows the child to practice at home or after school.
Allow the child to have a Personal Assistant Pack, which is a bag put together by the parents and contains things that help the child, for example: a small dictionary and thesaurus, an iPod, for listening to classical music, a Dictaphone to speak into, thus recording homework assignments, a file with sleeves that has the formats for writing, a sheet with the alphabet printed on it, a number sheet, a times tables sheet, and other helpful things for work that they can’t remember
The amount of new information contained in any lesson should be offered in small chunks. Learning naturally occurs in small increments and you shouldn’t try to build on new information too quickly.
Present information in a way that clearly highlights the most important parts of the information.
Attempts to link new information and lesson with information that has already been learned. It also helps if you can make new information particular or specific to that child to enhance learning potential.
Modifying the child’s assignments and requirements in order to determine that they do understand the concept but in order to avoid them becoming disheartened with repetitive work or work that progresses quicker than they are capable of following.
Keep in mind, the Internet has wealth of resources to help your child with specific difficulties and there are also various books written about dyslexia that are helpful. However, it is essential to have an assessment done initially in order to determine your child specific areas of difficulty and weakness so that programmes and suggestions individual to your child and their specific needs.
I would like to expand on this article and would therefore ask for any specific suggestions that teachers, parents or students may have that could be beneficial to other people. Please feel free to e-mail the suggestions to me.