TEACHING METHODS FOR
DYSLEXIC CHILDREN

See also Dot's Diary, which contains many teaching strategies for treating dyslexia.

MULTI-SENSORY TEACHING METHODS

Studies from the National Institutes of Child Health and Human Development have shown that for children with difficulties learning to read, a multi-sensory teaching method is the most effective approach or treatment.

This is especially crucial for a dyslexic child. But what does it mean?

Using a multi-sensory teaching approach means helping a child to learn through more than one of the senses. Most teaching in schools is done using either sight or hearing (auditory sensations). The child's sight is used in reading information, looking at diagrams or pictures, or reading what is on the teacher's board. The sense of hearing is used in listening to what the teacher says. A dyslexic child may experience difficulties with either or both of these senses. The child's vision may be affected by difficulties with tracking, visual processing or seeing the words become fuzzy or move around. The child's hearing may be satisfactory on a hearing test, but auditory memory or auditory processing may be weak.

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CONFIDENCE BUILDING

The majority of dyslexic children have come to the conclusion that they are stupid!

In any school in any week of the year a dyslexic child experiences a huge amount of failure. With sequencing difficulties, any form of writing or math/s is going to present severe problems, and the dyslexic child cannot fail to notice that almost all of the other children are able to do the work which he or she finds so hard. Why can't he read and spell? He must be dumb, thick, stupid. It's the conclusion that anyone would reach in similar circumstances, and it badly needs changing before any corrective teaching is going to be effective.

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IMPROVING BALANCE

The Dore/DDAT treatment of balancing and other exercises for dyslexic children and teens remains controversial for some people. DDAT stands for 'Dyslexia, Dyspraxia and Attention Deficit Treatment'. On the one hand, research is published in the Autumn 2007 edition of 'Dyslexia Review' by G H Payne, T R Miles and T J Wheeler, in a study of eleven severely dyslexic children. The children were tested on the Bangor Dyslexia Test before and after the DDAT treatment, and the study showed no evidence that the DDAT/Dore program made any significant improvement to these eleven children over and above the effects of the usual techniques commonly used by teachers in schools. 

On the other hand, a number of research projects have found positive results from using the treatment. For example, a group who had undertaken the DDAT exercises 'improved significantly more than the controls on a range of skills' in a 2006 long-term follow-up study of 35 children by Reynolds and Nicolson. There was also a 'highly significant reduction in the incidence of symptoms of inattention'.

More recently, test results of 924 British children who completed the exercise-based Dore Program showed significant gains in hand-eye co-ordination and working memory and modest changes in spelling, reading and writing.  Dore Program medical director Roy Rutherford, who will present the data to the British Dyslexia Association on March 29 2008, said the study was one of the biggest conducted on an intervention program and should silence the program's many critics.

Dyslexia Review
Reynolds and Nicolson 2006 Study
Dyslexia Program Proves Positive
Other Research into the Dore Program

TEACHING PHONEMIC AWARENESS

To assess the skills needed I do a simple phonic spelling test. Where the group are found to have similar needs we work together using a range of games and activities. The children's individual needs are then targeted on their I.E.Ps and worked on in a one to one situation. The learning objectives are then divided into three sections;

• Learning and saying.
• Identifying phonemes and spelling.
• Recognising letters and reading.

To begin with I ensure the children know all the letter sounds beginning with the vowels. The children particularly enjoy learning a 'vowel rap'. When they know it well they are keen to go back to their class and perform it to the rest of the class. This helps build their self-esteem and confidence; they have learned something their peers don't know.

We then continue learning individual letter sounds [phonemes] and consonant digraphs. The children like to use these 'special' words and again take them back to class.

We then play games listening for phonemes and also their position in the words using a 3-,4- or 5-phoneme frame, [depending on how many phonemes are in the words.] The children slide letter cards in and out of the frame.

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Another activity that has proved extremely useful particularly when introducing children to the Ace Dictionary is a phoneme count game. This has helped when listening for the syllables in words. It makes the children listen carefully to the sounds and to count, clap or tap them out. When making the sounds of the letters I encourage the children to hold their faces and feel the shape their mouth is making when they are saying the sound. They also look at each other to see the shape their mouths make. This then leads on to using rhythm and rhyme. They like the feel of the sounds on their tongue.

After working on a new phoneme we play 'I went to the supermarket ……’ game, which I have made into ‘ I went to Mrs.M's room and found these words with……. ? …………. phoneme'. The children then think about and recall the phoneme we have been working on. As we go round the children must concentrate and listen to each other in case anyone needs any help.

We then progress to looking for the letters making the sounds in short pieces of text [from a photocopiable scheme specifically for this purpose] highlighting the words as they find the letter sound or pattern we are looking for. The reading recovery scheme I use has texts that are phonically based and we scan the texts/stories to look for and sound out the phoneme in question. Using a traffic light system and blank cubes with appropriate phonemes written on them in red, orange and green. We use 2or 3 cubes depending on how many phonemes are in each word. The children roll the dice and the green lettered cube starts the word, the orange is the middle and red stops the word. They then have to sound out the phonemes and decide whether the cubes have made a word or not.

Using magnetic letters on a large magnetic board and digraphs stuck together has also been a success. The children have learned to listen to the sounds and have realised that by changing one letter they can make another word.

By Sue Maddox, a student on the Dyslexia Certificate course.

Extended 'I-spy'

I decided to make a slightly different 'I Spy' game for my pupil, as she has a very short attention span and responds better to games with visual clues.

I have made a set of pictures (I now have about 75 of them!) using the computer, so there are at least two pictures for each letter of the alphabet. I have laminated these and cut them out.

I spread out about 6 to 8 of these at a time, on the table in front of the child. I then show her a letter (one of the plastic ones we use for sequencing the alphabet).

We talk about what the letter says, what sound it makes, she used to need a lot of support with this but can now identify each letter sound for herself. Next we look at the pictures, saying their names as we identify them in turn so she can hear the initial sounds too, I then ask her if she can find something on the table that begins with the given letter.

We then set the pictures out underneath the letters as we go. My pupil really loves this game and she often requests the game as a reward at the end of a lesson.

I make the game as multisensory as possible, looking, listening, feeling the letter and writing it, saying the letter sound.

Sometimes she takes it home to play with her Mum and brother and has also played it with some of the younger children in the class, with my pupil as teacher! All in all a very successful game.

By Sue Shaw, a student on the Dyslexia Certificate course.

• Phonological Awareness - by William Ellis

• 'How Now Brown Cow' - phoneme awareness activities for collaborative classrooms - by Patricia J. Edelen-Smith (from LD Online)

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OTHER ARTICLES

• Dyslexic Children Should Read Out Loud or in a Whisper - Dyslexic children's reading can be improved if they are allowed to read out loud or move their lips while reading. These actions activate the 'Broca's area' of the brain which remembers speech muscle movements. Broca's Area

• Sound Discrimination - Most problems with phonological discrimination are caused by the brain's inability to distinguish between different words. Synthetic Phonics will help, as well as speaking slowly and clearly. Stress the difference between words like dime and time, pig and peg. By drawing out and exaggerating these sounds you can gradually improve a child's ability to hear the different words. One program which can help with this is Fast ForWord.

• Giving homework - Many of us are guilty of hastily writing homework on the board in the last minute of a lesson, and dyslexic children often arrive home with an incoherent and incomplete note of what is to be done. Parents try to help, but cannot work out what the homework is supposed to be.

Copying homework from the board is a daily problem for dyslexic children in school, and a regular nightmare for parents. Bonny Rieger suggests some teacher guidelines for making it easier for dyslexic children to go home with an accurate note of their homework.

• Confidence building in class - Building self-confidence is not just an exercise that we can do with a dyslexic child one to one. It is an element of our day-to-day teaching in the classroom which benefits the dyslexic children as well as everyone else. Alison Page describes some of the methods she has used.

• Bullying ^new! - Bullying of dyslexic children is very common, and can seriously affect their self-esteem. Even verbal bullying can have a dreadful impact, and needs to be dealt with seriously, usually by asking the school to arrange a mediation meeting between the child who is bullying and the child being bullied.

• Increasing motivation in class - 'More than half of the students I work with come from one school in the area. This school does not seem to operate by using praise or other means of tangible recognition. The only feedback students receive is grades on papers and tests and report cards. I was raised in a school that spent a lot of time praising children and I am now a teacher who strongly believes in praise as a means of increasing excitement and motivation for learning.'

• Certificate Creator - create and print out your own certificates online to improve self-confidence.

• Teaching Methods for Dyslexic Children ^new! - Maria Filomena Teixeira da Silva outlines her inspiring approach.

• Learning to Read - Reading to Learn - helping children with learning disabilities to succeed - Tips for Teachers from the National Center to Improve the Tools of Educators.

• Bobbi Barrows (From LD Online)
Bobbi Barrows began as an AmeriCorps volunteer. Americorps volunteers work to help teach children to read, build houses, and respond to natural disasters. Bobbie was one of only ten national winners from across America to receive the All AmeriCorps Award at a national ceremony from President Clinton on January 15, 2001. She won her "Getting Things Done" Award for her efforts in literacy. Bobbi, who has struggled throughout her life with dyslexia, teaches dyslexic children to read in Mississippi. Ms. Barrows also began a literacy class for adults using the Texas Scottish Rite Hospital Literacy Program and she is now attending college to obtain her bachelors degree in education with a speciality in reading so that she can become a "regular" classroom teacher. Her story is a tribute to the success individuals with LD can have and the impact they can make on the lives of others.

• The Underlining Option - using the personal spelling and usage sheet - by C. Wilson Anderson (LD Online)

• Dyslexia - Some Hints for Teachers - UK Dyslexia Institute

• Five Guidelines for learning to spell, and Six Ways to practice spelling - by Susan Jones (from LD Online)

• Spelling and Students with Learning Disabilities - (from LD Online)

• The Underlining Option - spelling techniques (from LD Online)

• Classroom accommodations - a brief, helpful listing from Parent Journal

• 20 ways to make instruction more memorable - by Barbara Fulk (from LD Online)

• Free printable Literacy Dice - This generator makes large dice from user input. Add letters, fragments, numerals and other characters.

• What teachers can do about learning disabilities - National Center for Learning Disabilities

• Adjustments in classroom management - for the LD and ADHD child, by Suzanne Stevens (from LD Online)

• Interventions for students with learning disabilities - from the National Information Center for Children and Youth with Disabilities

• Teaching Students With Learning Disabilities To Use Learning Strategies by Neil Sturomski

• Teaching Dyslexic Students in Further Education - by Kim Green

• The Disorganized Student - by Ken Shore - provides the characteristics of a disorganized students and lots of ways in which teachers can help (from LD Online).

• Note-taking strategy - using a two-column format - by Karen J. Rooney (from LD Online)

• Improving students' understanding of textbook format - by Barbara Flanagan (fom LD Online)

• Homework How-To's - by Tanis Bryan and Karen Sullivan-Burstein

• Emerging Reading and Word-Identification Skills - phonics and phonemic awareness - the basic ideas.

• When the chips are down! - strategies for improving children's behavior - with Richard Lavoie (from LD Online)

• Research on learning to read and spell - a personal-historical perspective by Linnea C. Ehri.

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

• Teaching Strategies and Techniques - lengthy listing of articles from LD Online. This organization is broad-based, catering for the whole range of learning difficulties, but some articles are listed which would be helpful for dyslexic children, e.g. (lower down the page) section B on Teaching Phonological Awareness and section C on Spelling.

• Dyslexia and exams - Examinations and tests are the worst time for a dyslexic child, teenager or student. Gillian Sams describes some examination and course work accommodations (modifications) which will help a dyslexic child show what they really know without being held back by problems with spellings or lack of time.

• Dyslexia and learning a modern foreign language - Learning a foreign language is very difficult if you are dyslexic, but this helpful advice from Hull (UK) university provide some guidelines.

Contributions

• • JP is six years old and has great difficulty in recognising and writing his vowels. I thought I would try to get JP to associate his vowels with real objects he can touch or see, so I asked JP what did the vowels remind him of, his reply was quite amazing and accurate – when shown the letter he said:

“a” reminded him of a fat man with a big belly
“e” looks like his ear
“i” looked like an ice-cream with a cherry on top “o” was his soccer ball
“u” was his plastic drinking cup.

So I made a rhyme up for JP which goes: -

“a” Looks like a fat man with his belly sticking out
“e” Looks like my ear so I can hear when someone shouts
“i” Looks like an ice-cream – Vanilla is the best
“o” Looks like my soccer ball – watch me kick it in the net
“u” Looks like my drinking cup, full of yummy milk for me.

JP knows how his vowels all look – what a clever boy is he! We couple this poem with actions like sticking our bellies out (Making sure we are facing the same way an ”a” sticks out). Then we touch our ears, eat a pretend ice cream, kick the soccer ball and pretend to drink from our cup. (P.P., North Quensland)

• • Divide the big word into smaller components and underline each part with different colored pencils; or replace a difficult (which are difficult for the child) word with more familiar words, even at the cost of losing out on the meaning of the sentence to an extent. (Renu, India)