How to support children with Stealth Dyslexia

Many people want to keep the dyslexia label for a select few who meet the criteria for ‘classic dyslexia’.  Children where there is a clear mismatch between their intellectual ability and their ability to read and write.  Children who struggle to learn to read and write despite good quality general teaching.  Others only consider dyslexia to be relevant if you cannot read or write at all.

In my opinion, this is unhelpful for all involved and leads to much misery and frustration for children, teachers and parents as they all puzzle as to why ‘simple’ school tasks seem to take so much time and energy. Often children who are in fact working harder than their peers are accused of being slow, lazy and careless with their work.

As someone who is dyslexic I know that the difficulties with reading and writing are only one aspect of this complex learning difficulty. As an adult, it is the other difficulties that remain and cause the most problems: difficulties hearing and following a series of instructions, difficulties with organisation and doing things in a logical sequence, difficulties remembering phone numbers and PIN codes, muddling names and struggling to bring the right word to mind are just a few.

Some teachers, schools and educational professionals are beginning to realise that a broader understanding of dyslexia to include children with any combination of working memory difficulties, visual perception difficulties, auditory processing difficulties, motor skills and coordination difficulties, sequencing difficulties is much more helpful. As I have mentioned in previous articles, dyslexia interventions are good for all children and are certainly not harmful if is later decided that ‘dyslexia’ is not the best way of understanding the child’s difficulties. However dyslexic students will not grasp many basic skills without these interventions and may develop unhelpful coping strategies: copying, masking and avoiding tasks they find difficult.

In this article, I want to focus on Stealth dyslexia and how to practically support students with this difficulty.  As its name suggests it often goes ‘under the radar’ and is a form of dyslexia that is undetected in many students.  Typically, these are bright students who always seem to be underachieving in school related tasks. While these students many seem to cope quite well in primary school, the difficulties can have a profound affect particularly when education becomes more complex towards the end of high school, at college and university.  In my previous article (August 2017) I refer to an excellent article by Brock and Fernette Eide (Dyslexia Advantage) explaining the main characteristics or signs of Stealth dyslexia, so here I will just focus on effective interventions.

What should we do to help?

Each child will be different, but these interventions offer a good starting point for most students. As very often Stealth dyslexia is noticed in secondary school rather than primary school, I have selected resources more suitable for older students.  Other useful resources are mentioned on the Dyslexia – Teacher's page

1.One of the difficulties is sounding out words, due to an under developed understanding of phonics and how to break up polysyllabic words. Very often words are learnt by sight through traditional reading schemes and unfamiliar words are usually worked out from the context. Syllable division is rarely taught explicitly and children are just expected to pick it up. The child’s average or above average comprehension often masks the difficulties they have in decoding.

Stride Ahead is a great resource for developing reading accuracy and syllable division. It is a ‘grown up’ version of Toe by Toe and is suitable for students of 10 or older.  It focuses on syllable division and common letter patterns and teaches them step by step.  It involves meeting timed targets which is good for motivating students to improve their skills.

Units of Sound is a computer program originally devised by Dyslexia Action to practice reading, spelling and memory skills. It is now available online and can be purchased by the school or individually by parents.  It is effective and is particularly good for older students, it has a placement test so that the letter patterns practiced are those the student actually finds difficult.  The program explicitly teaches ‘units of sound’ or letter patterns and relates these to common words. The program frequently revisits patterns previously learnt so that they are remembered. https://www.nisai.com/unitsofsound/

2. Many children with learning difficulties have undetected visual difficulties which can have a big impact on reading and writing.  Vision is a complex area and is much more than whether we can see or not (long or short sightedness).  There are many aspects to visual perception and visual efficiency each of which can make visual tasks hard and tiring.  Children can not explain that they are having visual difficulties and often don’t know that what they see is not what others see.  Consulting behavioural optometrist for a visual perceptual assessment is a simple step in understanding whether this an area of difficulty or not. All the tests are standardised and visual therapy and exercises will then be recommended as appropriate.  Many of the skills can be worked on and improved making reading and writing less demanding.  Eye Can Learn is an excellent website for parents that clearly explains the different aspects of vision and gives practical activities to try.

www.eyecanlearn.com

3. It is a good idea to try to use strategies to make reading less demanding:  listening to audio books, making use of text reading features on ipads and on Google and adults acting as a reader.  This is particularly necessary when a text has a lot of new or technical vocabulary where context and good comprehension cannot be used to compensate for weak decoding skills.

4. Writing using a computer can lessen many of the difficulties dyslexic students experience with writing – sequencing, spelling, handwriting.  Being able to edit and correct easily is extremely helpful, as are spell and grammar checkers.  Developing good keyboard skills is important to make this an effective option, BBC Dance Mat typing is one of many programs you could follow.

5.Thinking and writing in a logical sequence can be difficult. Programs like Inspiration and Kidspiration allow a child to make notes in a haphazard fashion as ideas come to them.  It will them turn these into a linear prose which can then be expanded upon. https://www.inspiration-at.com/   

Post-It notes can also be an option for noting your ideas as they come to you and then ordering ideas and linking ideas that go together. Sentences can then be written for each idea.

Parents and teachers should encourage the child to explore different ways of presenting information that are less laborious.  This could include charts, annotating or labeling pictures or diagrams, using bullet points and photos on Powerpoint.  Adaptions and concessions should be made to both in class and for homework with teachers being mindful about the purpose of the task - showing understanding of concepts or information or developing writing skills. Programs like Kami https://www.kamiapp.com/ and Seesaw https://web.seesaw.me/ open up a wealth of options for students to record their ideas and understanding

6. Just being aware that reading and written tasks will take longer can eliminate some of the stress students often experience.  As a parent, you can help your child map out how many sessions it will really take to complete a homework task and avoid the last minute panic.

7. Proof reading is a difficult skill for all and teachers frequently underestimate how hard it can be notice your own mistakes, when your brain tells you that what you have written is correct.  It is better to accept that you will always need all your written work proof read by some else: a parent, a teacher, sibling or friend.

8. Patience!

As an adult with Stealth dyslexia I can tell you that there are no quick fixes.  But learning to understand yourself and your challenges goes a long way to helping to find a way through.