• James - a case study of a 7th-grade boy

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Three children who may be dyslexic

I have observed very similar symptoms in three children who I have been helping in school. None of these children get any help in their schools at this time and the boys have been branded as possible behavioral and lazy problem children. (C.W.) 

Full story

Difficulty copying from the board

My learner says he has these difficulties copying from the board:

• Not enough time to copy from the board.
• I lose my place. I try hard but get lost. It takes me a long time to check nearly every word to find my place. It is easier in the dyslexia group because I can ask where I am.
• When my teacher checks my work I have lots of mistakes.
• I don't like having to stay in to finish copying from the board.
• I can't read the joined up writing, I don't always know what letter to write.
• I never know what I have written.
• I can't see the words on the whiteboard. They can move around and sometimes I see two words the same.
• I can read the board better in the dyslexia support group because the teacher writes on a blue background.
(Suzanne Bateson-Winn, UK.)

Difficulty copying homework from the board

The first week of school my grandson came home every day very angry. I or his mother started going to school for the last period to see if we could detect the problem.

I noticed that Josh became very frustrated when his homework assignments were written on the new white eraser board in black small letters. Josh sits toward the back of the room in a cluster of five desks pushed together. The teacher writes their assignments on the eraser board approximately four minutes before the last bell rings.

Josh has a very hard time putting down the numbers and letters on his assignment page in the proper order. The more confused he becomes the more angry he becomes. He tries very hard but cannot finish in a timely fashion and understand the directions. (B. R., Oregon)

Difficulties reading

The following difficulties are actual examples I have seen in two dyslexic boys, aged 9 and 7:

- Makes up the story using the illustrations, bearing no relation to the text, rather than admit they can’t read it.
- Can sound out the various parts of words but is unable to synthesize the sounds into the whole word.
- Reads only in the present tense.
- Reads words backwards, e.g. “on” for “no”.
- Adds little words which do not appear in the text.
- Sometimes misreads words which look quite alike e.g. “look” and “lock”, “house” and “horse”.
- Substitutes or misreads little words e.g. “the” and “a”, “from” and “for”. (R.B., Suffolk, UK)

Reversing letters (1)

After about a week of school, the grade five teacher asked me if she could borrow the felt letters used to teach the kindergarten kids how to write letters: Green dot for go, red dot for stop, arrows to show the direction to go in…

One of the students, who had been identified last year, needed help distinguishing b and d. While this would be a useful tool, this is an extremely self-conscious student who has very low self-esteem regarding academics. I suggested that asking him to sit amidst his classmates to do this would make him feel terrible. Though I was assured he sits in the back and wouldn't be noticed, I am convinced he would be so nervous that someone might see him that the exercise would lose its effectiveness.

I gave the teacher the various techniques such as doing it on the carpet, always facing the same direction, giving the child a non-intrusive memory trick ("bed" or thumbs up) and suggested that the teacher’s aide assigned to the class could take him out of the room to do it.

As none of this was met with enthusiasm, I suggested that he be sent to see me during home-room periods and that I would carry through the techniques described with him.

We have only had four days to practice thus far. We have practised on the carpet and then with sidewalk chalk on the board (sidewalk chalk forces him to write big). He also practices "sky writing" forming the letters with his arm extended, using his index and middle fingers as the invisible pen, with his eyes closed.

I’m collecting materials of varying textures to add diversity to the practice. I’ve found and mounted on large pieces of cardboard a sizeable piece of burlap, silk, fake fur, suede, skid proof rubber matting and plastic grid. I figure that some textures may be more appealing than others for various children, particularly my student who is tactile defensive. I've also found a set of felt pens where the ink changes colours when you go over your writing with the "magic" pen. (Lynne Frappier, Canada)

Reversing letters (2)

My student reverses"d" and "b" sometimes "g" and "q" and today reversed "p" which I had not seen him do before. I also have noticed that he has trouble with the sounds of these same letters.

We have tried the "bed" idea for the letters "b" and "d" and for a short time it seemed to be helping. I would notice him making the letters either under his desk or on top in a casual way. I am not sure if he is having trouble again because I have not been reminding him to use the idea or if it is something else. We tried making the letters on the kitchen rug and talked about facing the front of the class and that the letter "d" would go toward the teachers desk - "d" for desk! I am hoping that this idea will help him become confident with these letters.

He is really struggling with these letter especially. I have been helping him with the sounds and am hopeful that if he knows the sounds he will remember the direction. I am not sure that has a connection for him, but it is interesting that he can't remember which direction they face or which sound they make. (Bonnie Rieger, Oregon)

Holding a pen or pencil

The majority of my students hold their pen/pencil tightly and have heavy pressure when writing. Writing becomes difficult as they are unable to move freely, which causes cramps in the hand.

The way in which letters are formed can be unusual. One student, when writing the letter ‘y’ will start at the bottom of the tail, make an upward diagonal stroke, then put in the little stroke. Poor spacing is a problem. Words are jammed together making several words appear to be one word. Their writing often floats above and cuts down through the lines. The mixing of cursive and printing is also common especially within a word. I have noticed the use of an upper-case/capital ‘B’ used instead of a lower case ‘b’. For example I found the word ‘trouble’ written ‘truBl’.

I have found exercises help with younger students; however, with older students it helps initially but they quickly revert to their old habits which have become automatic and hard to change. (Jacqueline Heaton, Australia)

Posture and pencil grip

Over the last week I have observed the children in the group with whom I work and have noted that three out of the six children in the group are left-handed and three are right handed. All the children hold their head in their hand or rest it on their arm whilst working. I always remind them that they should hold their work with their free hand.

One pupil in particular, J, stood out as he sits awkwardly at his desk, he slouches in his chair and despite trying him with a pencil grip on numerous occasions he still finds it difficult to hold his pencil properly - therefore his writing is very difficult to read. To attempt to improve J’s pencil control I am trying finger-strengthening exercises at the beginning of each session I have with J. If we are working as a group we all do the exercises so as not to single J out. (C.H., Yorkshire, UK)

Fine Motor Control

I have compared the handwriting of J and R in the same class; R’s handwriting sits on the line with all the letters being correctly sized, spaces even and little or no mistakes. On the other hand J’s handwriting starts well above the line and is very uneven often with letters - such as 'p' - being written above the line. Words that start off on the line often trail upwards.

I have noticed that when J is copying from a book or the whiteboard he doesn’t look at them and then write, he looks at words he is copying and tries to write at the same time, so that his writing trails upwards. To help with fine motor control we use the Teodorescu Perceptuo motor skills programme (USA | UK). This is a series of exercises the children with fine motor skills can work through. (C.H., Yorkshire, UK)

Liz and orange juice

Liz had not really started reading when she first came to me. Her body language was of a depressed seven-year old, and she had begun to wander around the classroom instead of getting on with her work. Her parents could not understand what was the matter. The rest of her family were of normal intelligence, but Liz seemed never able to keep still.

When I spoke to her she said that she liked art and drawing and physical education, but she always seemed to be getting into trouble at school. She hated Fridays when there was a spelling test.

After she had been to me a couple of times I noticed how fidgety she was, and asked what she had just eaten. "Nothing", she said, "just a drink of orange juice and an apple". I spoke to her mother about Liz's diet. Her mother was quite aware of allergic ADHD reactions to diet and had been very careful about what Liz ate and drank. "What about the orange juice?" I said.

"Surely something as pure as orange juice couldn't affect her" said her mother.

After Liz had changed to an alternative drink, the difference was amazing! At last she was able to calmly get on with her work in school, and she learned to read quite satisfactorily for her age within about four months. In fact, she is not dyslexic at all, but is a bright girl who just happens to suffer from allergic reactions to certain foods and drinks. I wonder how many more there are like her? (P.L., Norfolk, UK)

Low self-confidence

S.B. manifests low self-confidence in the way she behaves. She is shy and withdrawn. However, she tends to be friendly with people who are much younger or much older than her. With people who are of her age group, she does not speak much. Especially when in a group she does not participate. She frequently reports being bored with her work. Feelings of worthlessness are also there. Besides explicitly mentioning that she is no good, there are other signs of her feeling low about herself. Even when she does something good and she is praised by someone, she will not believe it. She will ask whether we are “really” praising her or are just trying to encourage her. Sometimes she will go and confirm with another person whether the praise was well deserved.

Many mainstream teachers are not aware about dyslexia. Ignorance leads to further misconceptions. In the case of S.B, when her problem was identified, one of her teachers said that there is no such thing as “dyslexia” and that and that the child is merely lazy. Many teachers and parents find it difficult to comprehend how a child could be “intelligent” and yet not fare well in exams. They also tend to confuse children with dyslexia with slow learners or 'mentally retarded' children (this is the term currently used in my country) . They call them “not normal” and often say “those types of children or that type of child” when talking about a particular child. I find this very humiliating. (D.S.,Mumbai, India).

If I have to put one more thing into my head, I think it will explode!

Ed is very shy and hates to be noticed. He does not seem withdrawn. He has lots of friends and seems popular in school. Ed does use the defense mechanism of appearing over-casual about his lessons. but he often says he is "bored". I have observed that usually this behavior develops in the afternoon about an hour before school is out. He seems tired and things become more difficult for him.

Ed does not act out in school. He doesn't want attention and so he is well behaved in school. He actually has more behavior problems at home than in the school.

Ed has told us that he is "stupid" or "dumb". Since we finished the list of "Things I am Good at" and "Things I am not Good at", he has not said that again. Ed had a hard time the first two years of school; he seems to enjoy it more this year although we still have days when he doesn't want to attend school. He says 4th grade is very hard. In tears, one night, he told his mother "If I have to put one more thing into my head, I think it will explode". (B.R., Oregon)

Embarrassed

I asked a 10-year boy if he ever felt embarrassed at school and if so, what were the things he hated most. He had no hesitation in saying 'reading out loud' and having to shout out spelling test results in front of everyone else.

This child often reads in church and does so with maturity and confidence so I asked him why school was different, he replied that in school he could not practise first! He also hated it when he was asked to write on the board; on one occasion he 'made a really bad mistake, I put an 's' instead of a 'c' - everybody fell about laughing'. (S.S., Warwickshire, UK)

Difficulties of dyslexia

A.J. is a healthy, ten year old girl from a professional home. She has had difficulty learning to read and write, despite the fact that she has an amazing vocabulary and imagination.

When speaking, the words she uses are always in context, however, sometimes she does mispronounce some of them. She frequently needs coaching before she can correctly articulate a word. Usually I have to break down the word syllable by syllable to help her make a correct pronunciation.

She no longer writes letters backwards, but she did occasionally until approximately 7 years old. I do not feel that this was a problem for her, anymore than for any other child of her age. She still confuses the letters 'b' and 'p'. She often misspells words even when copying.

A.J. is now being home schooled, but did have a problem copying homework, spelling words and such items from the board while in traditional school. Her visual tracking has vastly improved over the past year, as this has been a problem for her. She does skip words in sentences when reading, especially basic sight words.

One of this child’s biggest problems has been her memory. Since pre-school she has shown an alarming inability to remember the simplest details. She still mixes up some letters in the alphabet, number order, nursery rhymes, even the names of friends and teachers have been hard for her to memorize. Multiplication tables have been a nightmare for her. She is still unable to tell time on a regular clock face. In fact, she seems to have no concept of time whatsoever. An example of this is when remarking on when an event took place she will say it happened, "six or three minutes, or an hour ago."

She does have a problem with verbal multiple directions. She also performs poorly on any written test, even when I know she can read the words on the paper. At this point I am not sure if this is a sign of inability to follow written direction, or possibly just a lack of confidence in her ability to read alone. (J.H., TN, USA).

Left, right, left, right!

When my daughter first started in the band I was very worried. She had always had to stop and think about which were her right and her left. You have to understand that she is very bright and out going but directions are a nightmare. Marching band requires that they do everything automatically and everyone is supposed to know their left and right. Well, it takes her five times as long as the other students to learn the marching sets and she has to practice at home in the front yard so she won’t be embarrassed by going the wrong way or stepping off on the wrong foot. She wears a large watch and several bracelets on the left arm to remind her that she always steps off on the left foot. She has mastered this problem on the marching field but it still occurs if she removes the watch and bracelets. (L.L., Texas)

Difficulty counting backwards

When I asked my young student to count to 100, he could do so but had a lot of difficulty counting backwards from 100 down to 0. His math teacher at school was concerned while trying to make him do sums that require him to place numbers in either ascending or descending order.

I have made him practice counting out loud from 0 to 100 and vice versa (with the aid of 100 marbles which he puts into a bowl when counting to 100 and then takes them out one at a time when counting backwards, and he understands that the number he's saying represents the number of marbles he has in the bowl, i.e 97 in the bowl, when he's got 3 in the hand).

He has also had a lot of practice with rote counting -10,20,30 ... 100, and then 5,10,15,20 ... 100. Now, he is quite confident with sums that require him to place the numbers in ascending order.

I've observed something very interesting. When given sums where he is required to place numbers in descending order, he sort of fills in the blanks in the opposite direction!! For example, the sum was: Place the following numbers in descending order - 55,105,85,28,32. He drew five dashes(as one would for filling in the blanks). Then he put 28 in the last blank space, then 32 in the second but last space, then 55 in the next one and then 85 and finally 105 in the first blank space!

As long as I make him practise his rote counting of numbers every week, he seems to have got the 'ascending' order right!) (Deepti Yajnik, India)

Classroom seating position

J J is a rather large boy who usually always takes a back row seat for two reasons—doesn’t block others' view of the board and far enough away from the teacher to not draw attention to himself.

J J has difficulty seeing the board without his glasses, which he chooses not to wear unless reminded by his teacher. So, of course, he squints when he has to look at the board on just makes the teacher think he is looking at the board or overhead projector.

He prefers to copy off his fellow football player who sits beside him because he can copy from short distances with accuracy—paper to paper. The other benefit is that he doesn’t write fast enough to always have all the information written down before the teacher erases the board, so he borrows his friend's notes to complete his own. On occasion he will mis-spell words during note-taking; but he has written them phonically and therefore can comprehend his own notes at a later time (such as 'phase' might be written' faze'). If it weren’t for his understanding teammates, accurate note-taking for J J would be almost impossible. (Lisa Landers, Texas).

Megan from the USA

I was diagnosed as dyslexic in the first grade after I scored 180 on an IQ test and could not read. I spent the remaining years of school in special ed, learning to learn. I was told I was "special" but at age 9 you want to be just like everyone else and not be "special" - I still hate that word today. I was one of those kids who never followed directions, not because I was not listening but because I did not understand what was being asked.
It took me years to learn to tie my shoes and my mother put a left on my left shoe so I would know my right from my left. I went to the bathroom every day when it was time to read out loud in class, I took oral spelling tests, and had someone always read me my tests.
I excelled in math but could not get a word problem right to safe my life.
Today at age 26 I still read at a 5th grade reading level. I went to college only because I was offered a soccer scholarship. It was there I got my first "A" ever in (what else?) Logic. Soon I learned my studying style and I graduated from College a semester early.
I went to grad school, failed out after a teacher would not provide me with a reader while taking tests She was fired and I returned to grad school and graduated only a semester later. My mother thought I would make a great special ed teacher since I went through the system, but to be honest I think it would be better to have a teacher who could spell and read correctly.
I currenctly am a social worker, and love helping people out like my teachers did for me. Life is much easior now that I'm no longer in school. I still transpose letters, and my speech is still terrrible but I learned to tie my shoes, I no longer need the 'L' on my shoe to know what is my left, and I don't mind reading out loud just as long as no one is listening. (spelling corrected)

Using a laptop computer

When my student arrived for his tutoring session, he brought a lap top computer which he had borrowed from school. He only recently got a word processor at home and he uses it mainly for games. I showed him how to adjust the brightness of the screen and he found it easier to read it clearly. I demonstrated different types of fonts and he liked the Arial the best. He thought the best font size for him to use was 14. I got him to write a sentence and showed him how to use the spellcheck.

Unfortunately, his visual memory for spelling patterns is extremely weak: his spellings were not even close approximations and the spell check was of little help to him. A talking and spelling word processor program such as TextHelp may be a preferable choice for his needs. The student had little prior knowledge of adjustments to a word processor.His memory of the placement of letters on the keyboard is weak and his typing is very slow. He needs to work on a program to improve keyboarding skills so he will have a systematic way to remember the position of the keys through touch. (Flora Gillis, Canada)

Jenna from Canada

My daughter spend two years in grade one. She could not learn to read. I brought her to see an eye doctor, a hearing doctor and we had some child specialists meet with her. We could not understand what the problem was. Finally, after discovering there were others in my family with learning disabilities, I had her tested for dyslexia. As it turns out, she is dyslexic.
Together with the help of a few caring teachers and myself, she is learning through SMT dyslexia therapy. I have to tell you this therapy has been amazing: my little girl is reading after only one year and going into grade three on her own. She is still behind the other students, and I understand it will always be harder for her, but she can do it if she wants too. Thanks to the Canadian Dyslexia Association and some very caring teachers who have taken their own extra time to be there for Jenna. (contributed by Colleen, Canada)

Robert

Robert - age 11 - was studying slavery for his history project. He is a severely dyslexic learner and as well as his considerable writing difficulties, he finds reading a real chore. He had enjoyed discussions in class and the videos he had seen. When he went to the library, he quickly became discouraged, as most of the books required good reading skills.

He found it particularly hard to use an index since, by the time he had worked through the alphabet, found the heading, noted the page number and started looking for the entry, he had forgotten what he wanted to know! His teacher showed him how to use the multi-media CD-ROM Africana. He had a go with the virtual tour of the slave port and then found articles he wanted. He highlighted them and copied them into his word-processing program. He listened to the information and hen decided what he wanted to keep and what could be deleted. He spent a long time editing the document and produced a long and detailed piece of work that showed his enthusiasm and considerable knowledge. (from 'Dyslexia and ICT', published by BECTA).

Reading aloud

One day MB came to class like a big bear. He was mumbling and you could see steam rising from his head. The reason was that his English teacher called on him to read aloud in front of the class. It wouldn’t have been as bad if the teacher had told him at the beginning of class that he was to read the first paragraph on page 89.

Well, the teacher didn’t give MB a chance to read over the paragraph and code what he wasn’t sure of and this was extremely embarrassing to him. MB thought all of his peers were looking at him and making fun of his reading. This is what embarrassed MB. In reality his peers know that MB reads aloud a little slower than they do but he is their equal in everything else.

Since this happened with a new teacher at the beginning of the year, I believe that the teacher had not had the time to look over his accommodations which stated that ‘a teacher was not to call on a student to read aloud unless they let the student know before hand what they were to read’. This statement can mean a class period or the night before. This can be taken care of by having a brief inservice between the regular education teachers and the dyslexia teachers. By looking at each student’s modification/accommodations and allowing the regular education teachers a chance to ask questions pertaining to a specific student will take care of that problem. Also, the dyslexia teacher needs to keep in close contact with the regular education teachers. (Lisa Landers, Texas, USA)

My daughter

My daughter has dyslexia. She will graduate on June 1, 2001. She has struggled all through school. Sometimes she wants to quit, but I let her know she has come a long way to give up now. She is going through O.V.R.to find a job or go to a trade school. She is determined to succeed no matter what she decides to do. (G.M.K., USA)

Write legibly, please!

Every year BF’s teachers tell him the same thing: Write legibly, please. That has been the case for his entire life in the public educational system. BF writes everything in upper case form without any spacing at all. When you look at his paper you cannot tell where one word starts and another begins or where the paragraph is indented. Although he has learned to sit his letters on the base line and the form is rather nice, but there isn’t any spacing between the letters. It is similar to this:

IWANTYOUTOKNOWTHATIHAVEASPELLINGTESTONWEDNESDAY
ANDWORLDHISTORYHOMEWORKDUETODAY

That isn’t quite as bad on a computer as it is when he writes it on notebook paper. If you really have the time to analyze his work then you as a teacher can read it after a lot of practice. I have found that when he is using an AlphaSmart to do all of his work, with the exception of math, all of his grades improve simply because his teachers can read his work easily. Again, this works because he doesn’t have to use pencil/pen and paper and he has been taught to use the space bar on the keypad where we can’t get spacing when he uses pen and paper. I believe that for a student such as BF it is imperative that they use a computer or AlphaSmart to relieve the stress that education places on them. (Lisa Landers, Texas, USA)

Multiplication tables and shoes

In the classroom that "J" is in all the children change their outdoor shoes, and put on sandshoes. One morning while the children were out of the classroom I decided to try this activity. I got "J" to pair all the shoes up and then to count how many shoes there were. After counting the shoes I then got her to count how many pairs there were. Altogether there were 22 shoes; we then started to count the shoes in 2's, which I hasten to add "J" did extremely well.

I then proceded to explain to her that the two times tables was just like doubling. After practising a few more times "J" really started to understand. I then decided to move on to making her some two times table cards. I found that she very quickly learnt how to match up the times table question with the correct answer. We started to make it a little bit of a game, each day I would time her to see how quickly she could match them up, and then see if the next day she could beat her time from the previous day. Her first time was 92 seconds her last time was 15 seconds, which I think is a magnificent improvement.

Carrying on with "J"s two times tables I decided to make up some of my own work sheets, to retain the information she had learnt. I started off with some very simple sums using a picture of a dog. For example, the question may have had 4 dogs shown and the question would ask how many ears altogether on the four dogs - 4x2 =8. I would then repeat the question using different numbers of dogs.

Once "J" had completed all 10 questions I then gave her a calculator so that she could check her own answers. All were correct, of course. I then went on to use this same method with the 10, 11, and 5 times tables, using different pictures to help her visualize what she was doing. This worked really well for "J" because if she did get stuck, she could actually count the items on the picture to get the correct answer.

"J" was not only rewarded with stickers and team points for doing so well, she also received a certificate for each new times table she learnt. She is presently learning her 3 times tables, and so far is doing pretty well. (L.P., Yorkshire, UK)

• Provision of Extra Support - a brief case study by Flora Gillis.

• Hearing a Child Read - an Exercise - Johanne Rifkin describes using a new method successfully.

• Description of One Dyslexic Child's Symptoms - by Flora Gillis.

• David's Difficulties - by Michelle Ward.

• Dyslexia Parents' Resource - Hints and Tips - helpful hints and tips sent in by parents of dyslexic children and teenagers.

• World of Dyslexia Discussion Forum - wide-ranging forum for discussion and advice sharing.

• Why I want to become a Special Education Teacher - Rita C. Wright describes her own journey through childhood difficulties with dyslexia, and onto becoming a teacher herself.