Friday, 6 April 2018

Recommended resource - Nessy Learning


When you discover your child is dyslexic it can be very hard to know where to start ......
When you google it is a minefield of information.  
When you ask other parents and professionals everyone has their own idea of what is best. 
It can be very daunting and overwhelming.

The difficulty is that every child is different and while one intervention works for one child it may not work well for another child.  There are different types of dyslexia and it is important to identify your child's strengths and weaknesses before embarking on interventions.

One of the positive of the positive aspects of Nessy is that it offers a Dyslexia Screener that identifies a child's strengths and weaknesses through a series of games.  This is a good starting point for knowing what you are dealing with.



The Nessy Webpage is full of useful advice for parents and educators which is easy to read and reassuring. 

They have created an excellent book which can be downloaded or bought called 'Dyslexia Explained'. The dyslexia journey is a long one and it takes time to for interventions to have real impact. This can be very stressful for all involved, so having clear information is empowering for parents and it can help them to communicate with schools and teachers with confidence.  There is also information that can be shared with the child themselves as and when the parent feels it is appropriate.


There many interventions and tutoring opinions available but many are very expensive and require a lot of additional time after school. Nessy Reading and Spelling program is based on Orton Gillingham which is considered to be one of the best approaches for dyslexic children.  It is fun, structured, reasonably priced and requires about 80 minutes per week.  When the child starts the program they do a placement test which sets lessons and activities suited to the child's level. Once they have progressed through their targets the computer will reassess and set new targets.  It can be used by schools and parents at home. Nessy currently offer a free trial so you can see for yourself if suits your child.
 

There are animations which teach sight vocabulary and spelling patterns, then games and activities to reinforce these.


In addition Nessy offer a range of apps  - Hairy Phonics, Hairy words, Chimp Fu and Dyslexia Quest.





And maths interventions



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