The Hidden Difficulties of Dyslexia at AISC

I was lucky to have such a great and responsive audience at the Asia Pacific International Schools Conference in Hong Kong for my presentation on the Hidden difficulties of Dyslexia.

It was good to share information about the Hidden difficulties particularly focusing on working memory, visual processing and auditory processing.  Many practical strategies were shared and professionals were able to look at useful resources which will be taken back to schools and colleagues.

Hidden Difficulties of Dyslexia workshop at Asia-Pacific International Schools Conference

I am delighted to be speaking at the Asia-Pacific Schools Conference in Hong Kong next week on the important topic of the Hidden Difficulties of Dyslexia.

 Although Dyslexia is a reading and writing difficulty there are so many other areas of life that are affected.  It is other areas like working memory difficulties, auditory processing difficulties, coordination difficulties and processing difficulties that cause much of the stress and fatigue for dyslexics.

I will be explaining the signs of these "hidden difficulties" and I will be sharing practical strategies to support dyslexic students in school and at home.

https://aisc.com.hk/event/portfolio/helen-trethewey-2/

Creating a dyslexia friendly classroom

1. Set realistic, achievable targets for each lesson

The academic content does not need be ‘dumbed down’ but the expectation in terms of writing and volume of work needs to thought about carefully.

There is nothing wrong with having high expectations, but remember that dyslexic children are often working twice as hard to process instructions and carry out a sequence of steps within a task. Aspects of a task that may seem routine can often drain all the child’s energy leaving little energy for creativity or thinking. Consider which skills you actually want the child to use or develop within a task and provide scaffolding for the other skills needed. 

Very often teachers ‘rob’ dyslexic children of a sense of achievement by just accepting whatever they complete in a lesson. The child knows that they haven’t completed the task and so feel like a failure.  Simply reducing the number of questions to be answered from 5 to 10 will make a huge difference. As can asking the child to write one paragraph rather than a whole story. But remember it should not always be the beginning of the story.  Use a teaching assistant to scribe the first paragraph and ask the child to write the middle of the story.  Use a dictaphone or ipad for the child to verbally record the beginning and middle and then write the end.  Shared writing where the adult and child take turns to write a sentence can make recording ideas less laborious.

     2.  Give positive, constructive feedback

Children with dyslexia already know that their spelling may not be correct and that their handwriting is messy. Mentioning this in every lesson is not helpful and will not lead to improvement. These skills need to be worked on in a structured way outside the classroom.  Remember what the learning objective for the lesson is and focus your comments on this.

3. Understand how spellings are learnt

Correcting numerous words within a child’s piece of writing will not help them spell them correctly next time. Nor will writing each word out 3 times at the bottom of the page. Dyslexic children need to use multisensory methods to learn new spellings, they also need to have spelling rules explicitly taught in a systematic way. They will need numerous repetitions and practise of using words in sentences before they will remember a word automatically.

They can also only take on spelling rules that they are developmentally ready for. For example: if a child is learning initial blends in their support lessons, there is little point correcting words with common suffixes like ‘station’ or ‘terrible’.

4. Keep verbal instructions short and provide visual checklists

One of the most common difficulties for dyslexics is weak working memory. This means that very often they find it hard to recall more than one instruction at a time.  If you give a lot of verbal information at once a dyslexic child may find it hard to process what you say and if their working memory overloaded they will not remember what was said at all. Breaking a longer instruction into 3 shorter instructions can help. Encourage the child to count each instruction with their fingers and recall what it is. Provide a visual checklist that can be referred to during the task so that they child can remind themselves of the steps.

      5. Consider font, layout and size of print of worksheets and resources

Many dyslexics have difficulty processing visual information. Certain fonts are easier for dyslexics to read these include Times New Roman, Comic Sans and Century Gothic.  Busy worksheets can be very daunting for a dyslexic child and they may not be able to successfully access the information needed to complete a task. You could consider splitting one worksheet into several worksheets and enlarging the text.

 6. Avoid copying from the board

Although supposedly this practise doesn’t happen anymore, I have observed enough lessons to know that there are still things that have to copied from the board. It may be the date and learning oobjective for the lesson, sentence starters or headings for each paragraph. Many teachers still think copying from the board is a simple task, but for the dyslexic child it is not. Many have visual difficulties that make switching focus between near and far difficult.  They may find it hard to keep track of the lines and the words within the lines.  I have watched dyslexic children spend a whole lesson copying just the date and the learning objective.  Even having to refer to the board for word list or instructions can be difficult.  Providing photocopied notes or information on an individual white board is the most helpful solution. If the information has to be displayed on the board then numbering the lines and using different colours for each line can also help.

      7. Provide a study buddy

Having to constantly ask the teacher for clarification or not being able to read the questions on a worksheet can be embarrassing. Seating the dyslexic child with a supportive capable child is a good strategy. This means that the child can discretely ask for help when needed and be more independent.

      8. Organise the classroom so that scaffolds, checklists, word banks and concrete resources are assessable to all pupils.  Resources that help dyslexic students are helpful to all students. Making it normal to use prompts and tools for learning benefits everyone.  Dyslexic children find it hard to keep all the information needed to carry out a task in their head and so checklists are vital. Also many dyslexics learn best with concrete materials particularly in maths and spelling.

 9. Try to highlight the pupil’s strengths both personally and publicly. Self esteem is a big issue for dyslexic pupils. Although they have genuine strengths very little time or acknowledgement is often given to these at school.  They have to face day after day of class work that challenges them to their limits. They are often painfully aware of their shortcomings compared to their peers. Receiving praise for something they know they are good at can be a real confidence boost. It also helps other children see the child in a more balanced light and not just as the child who is slow at reading and writing.

10. Allow time for skills to develop

Dyslexic children are not lazy, they are overloaded by much of everyday life and are working twice as hard to deal with many tasks that others consider simple or routine. Fatigue plays a huge part in their performance, leading to good days and bad days.

A dyslexic student can learn to read and write competently, it just takes time and the right teaching and support.  Just because a child cannot read in grade 2 does not mean that they will not read at an age appropriate level in grade 5. However, it is important to remember that they are not on the same timeline as the rest of the class. As a learning support teacher, I track children all through school and I know how much progress a child needs to make each year to reach the goal of adequate literacy skills at the end of primary school.  There is enough time for these skills to develop at a more natural pace for dyslexic students. Many teachers feel they are doing a disservice to child if they do not put pressure on them to ‘keep up’ with year group expectations.  This is a false economy, it is like building on sand. The learning is not secure and is quickly forgotten and lost.   This leads to a sense of failure and low self esteem.  It is better to accept the level the child is working at and find ways to help them develop age appropriate skills and concepts in other areas without focusing on reading and writing skills.  With high quality specialist interventions outside the classroom these skills will develop over time.

The frustrations of adult dyslexia

Many people think that dyslexia goes away as an adult. The symptoms change over time and become less about reading and writing and more to do with day to day information processing and organisation. But the problems of dyslexia do not go away. As an adult I still have problems with auditory processing, short term auditory memory and sequencing.

What do you mean its less about reading and writing? Dyslexia is a reading and writing disability - isn't it? The answer is yes and no. Dyslexia is much more than just about reading and writing difficulty. It is reading and writing that is noticed in school. As these can be measured and it is clear when a child is 'behind' in these skills. Parents and teachers then focus on closing the gap.

But underneath the visible reading and writing difficulties are a range of 'hidden difficulties' which many people overlook. These include memory problems, visual processing, processing speed, left/right orientation and time management.

One of the reasons reading and writing can be less of a problem to adults, is that in the main we can find ways of avoiding it or we have strategies for managing our difficulties.  For most adult dyslexics it is also not that we can't read and write, just that we are slow and inaccurate. Very often we pick professions that are practical and involve interacting with people rather than writing things down. If we do have to read, we can usually do it privately at our own pace. I am a teacher and so spend most of my time interacting with children and my colleagues. For lesson planning I only have to make my own notes and no one sees that I spend twice as long as any one else on them.  The only stressful time is once a year when I have to write reports, then I have to allow myself plenty of time and make sure someone else proofreads them. I avoid reading aloud as much as possible, I ask for a child to volunteer or use audiobooks in class.  If I am in a meeting or doing a presentation I summarise or use my own words or delegate the reading to someone else.

For me the main difficulty that remains is auditory processing difficulties.  I need visuals as well as words to understand something.  If I am talking to someone I need to see their face, see their body language to follow the conversation.  As a result I have strong dislike of phone calls as I have misunderstood things so many times.  If someone gives me address over the phone I am prone to mishearing it. Usually I have to write what I think I heard phonetically and then use a map to find the likely address.  Even when someone spells out a name, my brain seems to scrabble the letters and I often can not write the letters down quickly enough. Again I have to find information from another source.  Email and the internet has been such a help to me is this respect. Most of the time I don't have to make phone calls at all and I can communicate and get information with less risk of misunderstanding.

My poor working memory also causes many practical problems too. I carry a note book everywhere as I know if some recommends a product or place I will not remember the name by the time I get home.  If someone gives me directions I have to write them down otherwise I will get half way to a place and then realise I have forgotten what was said.  It is definitely easier to find somewhere with a map! I leave my belongings are over the place and have not recollection of where I last had them. I then have to try to retrace my steps in the hope of finding the lost item. I struggle with PIN numbers and door codes as though I do remember them, my brain very often decides to change the sequence and so my card is swallowed or I am locked out!

Most of the time I am patient with myself and laugh when things go wrong.  The lack of understanding from others can be hard to deal with and it can be embarrassing when you struggle with every day tasks others consider to be easy. Fatigue also plays a big part in how well I can function so inevitably it when I am most tired that I make the most mistakes!

Using Google Classroom and Google Docs to support students with Dyslexia, ADHD and other Learning Differences

Self esteem and motivation can be a big issue for students who have spent years struggling to keep up with classwork. Teachers seldom recognise how much effort is going into surviving each day. Positive feedback becomes less and less as teachers focus on the shortfalls.  These students become more self-aware and know that many of their peers regard them as not being clever.

Every lesson has its pitfalls. To start with have you remembered all the equipment for the lesson? Then during the lesson, you might miss a key instruction, find the pace too fast, not process the visual information from the board, not be able to read a word in a text, mishear a word or not understand new vocabulary.  These children often have challenges with working memory, auditory processing or visual processing. They may also have difficulties with organization, vocabulary, slow processing and the physical process of writing. How can we level the playing field and offer discrete support in Senior School ?

Google classroom is an excellent way to discretely supporting students with dyslexia, ADHD and other learning difficulties.  Working memory difficulties, slow processing and auditory processing can be supported by pre-teaching via Google classroom.  Students can be given access to key texts or information to read prior to the lesson.  Relevant video clips can also be posted.  This means that when they come to the lesson they are already aware of the content which makes it much easier to tune in and follow what is being said.  During the lesson they can also have access to bullet points or visual prompts in front of them that can guide them through the lesson and keep them on track if they lose focus or miss a teaching point.

Having parts or the whole of the teaching slides in front of them on their own laptop also helps those with visual processing difficulties.  The font or the colour of the text can be altered to make it easier to read.  In a classroom situation if all the children are using their own laptop, Google classroom makes it is possible to personalise what each child sees without it being obvious that the child has something different.  It is possible to set up scaffolded worksheets with sentence starters or word lists for those who find written tasks challenging. Charts, labelling pictures and fill in the blanks texts are great ways for students to show their understanding while reducing the amount writing required.

Less discrete but helpful are text readers where the computer reads the text. This is particularly useful for longer texts or texts with a lot of technical language where fatigue may mean that a dyslexic student loses the meaning of what they are reading as all their energy in decoding. Headphones could be used here or it could be used only for homework tasks.

Voice to text could also be used for longer writing tasks that would be very laborious for a dyslexic learner or those with handwriting difficulties.  This allows the student to focus more on the content of their writing than the physical process of writing and spelling. Studies have shown that speed and efficiency of handwriting can make the biggest difference to the quality of content and composition of written work.

For students with ADHD, access to pre-teaching can greatly improve their focus and engagement during lessons. In addition, questions that the teacher intends to ask them could be posted on their laptop prior to the lesson or at the beginning of the lesson.  This way the student can listen out for key information that will help answer the question. This again helps focus during lessons.

Another area of potential source of embarrassment for older students can be feedback from the teacher. Often this is done very publicly within the classroom. The teacher may comment on spelling errors or lack of punctuation.  They may mention that the student hasn’t written enough or there is not sufficient detail.  With Google classroom teachers can give feedback through comment boxes alongside the work and other students need not be aware of personal feedback given to each student. The teacher can highlight where a sentence needs to be edited or improved and give hints to guide the student.  They can use different colours for different types of editing – spelling, punctuation, better vocabulary choices. For children with learning differences it is best to just focus on one aspect within each piece of work.  Not only is this type of feedback more discrete but most students respond better to this type of constructive advice. They can act on the advice and he end result should a piece of work they are proud of which could then be shared with the class, improving self esteem. 

Google Classroom and Google Docs are versatile tools which benefit all students but can make a tremendous difference to those with learning differences.

www.achievenow.org.uk has lots of practical advice and videos to help set up accessibility functions within different computer systems.

 

Understanding Dyslexia

While there are key characteristics of dyslexia, every person with dyslexia has a slightly different cluster of difficulties.  This is why individual intervention and support is most effective.

Anyone who works with dyslexic students or parents who have more than one child with dyslexia will tell you that there are different types of dyslexia.  While cumulative, systematic multi-sensory teaching benefits all dyslexic students, there are different materials and approaches which can be used depending on the type of dyslexia.  In any intervention, it makes sense to utilise a child’s strengths and work on improving areas of weakness.

Different websites and authors explain these differences in their own way and use different terminology. Some choose to split the main areas of difficulty while others group certain difficulties together. This can be confusing and is perhaps unnecessarily complicated.  Nessy.com for example have a video and an ebook that show the different types of difficulties which relate to dyslexia and they explain how these impact a learner. 

In essence, there are 3 main types of dyslexia.   Nearly all dyslexics struggle with working memory however some have more visual perceptual difficulties and some have more auditory processing difficulties and some have equal difficulties in both areas. In addition, dyslexics in all of these groups may have slow processing  (this may be identified as rapid naming deficit) and motor skills difficulties (this may include dysgraphia or dyspraxia).

1.    Those dyslexics who have more difficulty with processing auditory information but have strong visual skills have dysphonetic dyslexia (it is also called phonological dyslexia.) This group also includes double deficit dyslexia which is children with difficulties with phonological awareness and rapid naming. 

These are the children who muddle words that sound similar like ‘bag’ and ‘back’ or ‘rag’and ‘rug’. They will have trouble identifying all the sounds in a word when they try to segment a word for spelling. They will try to use their visual memory and could spell chased as ‘cashed’ or farmer as ‘framer’. They often miss sounds or syllables or suffixes from longer words like ‘epty’ for empty, 'swim' for swimming.  These children will have trouble reading names or sounding out polysyllabic words. They can often say the sounds in a word but have trouble blending them together and they may swap over the order of the letters.

When the child starts to learn to read they may initially do quite well as they use their strong visual skills to learn key sight vocabulary and use picture cues to decipher simple texts. However, their decoding skills do not develop in the same way.  If the school uses a scheme that is based on introducing sight vocabulary a little at a time, with predictable sentence structure like Oxford Reading Tree then the child will appear to be learning read. However, as texts become more varied, complex and less predictable they will have no skills to work out new words. Suddenly, the teacher and/or the parents will realise the child has reading difficulties. If the school uses a phonic based scheme like Read Write Inc then these reading difficulties will be evident earlier.

 

These children benefit from using flip books to generate word families and colour coding letter patterns.

These children also tend to be good at maths as they recognise patterns and so do not rely on working memory for number bonds and times tables. or calculation methods 

 2. Other dyslexics struggle more with visual perception and are said to have dyseidetic dyslexia (this may also be called surface dyslexia or visual dyslexia.) These children often struggle with Maths as well as reading and writing. They find it hard to visualise maths concepts and develop a concept of number. They do not notice visual patterns and rely on their weak working memory skills to try to remember number facts and calculation methods.

These are the children who struggle to learn irregular high frequency which make up so much of our early reading (in more transparent languages these children would have fewer difficulties.) If the school uses a phonic based reading scheme these children will learn to decode simple 3 or 4 letter words but it will be noticeable that they will sound out words again and again. They do not commit words to memory. In their writing, high frequency words are spelt phonetically like ‘becos’ and ‘sed’ and they may reverse letters and words. They may also substitute visually similar letters like i and j or t and f. These difficulties are considered normal in the early stages of writing. However, as other children begin to master letter formation and key vocabulary these errors will persist. 

These children need to make words with magnetic letters and play games with these words. Verbalising what is tricky about a word is helpful in learning spellings, as are mnemonics.

 3. Some dyslexics have both visual and auditory difficulties.  These tend to be the children who are noticed early on and are most readily identified as dyslexic by teachers and parents. They struggle to develop reading and writing skills at all in a normal school context as they cannot use stronger skills to compensate. It is vital that these children receive structured, culmulative, multisensory support as soon as possible to overcome their difficulties. Lots of hands on and interactive activities are needed to make words memorable. These students learn by 'doing' and often have a strength in practical activities like sports or art. 

Understanding the importance of Working memory

In every class,  every teacher will tell you that no matter how carefully they explain a task there are always children who don't know what to do once the lesson begins and it is the same children every day.

Everyday,  parents ask their children to get ready for school and give a string of instructions only to find the child has only managed to remember one of the things they are asked to do.

But why? 

Very few adults would see this as a sign that the child has working memory difficulties. 

As many as 1 in 10 primary school students have working memory impairments which impact their performance in school and at home.

Recent research by Maehler and Schuchart shows that working memory is an important predictor of school success.  Those with good working memories perform well academically but those with poor working memories underachieve. Studies by Susan Gathercole show that working memory difficulties have substantial impact on learning particularly in the early years of education.

However, few teachers really understand what it means in practice and they often do not correctly identify those children with working memory difficulties. They often describe them as having attention problems or simply not listening.

These children are often told off or criticised for a genuine difficulty they can not control.

Why is there so little awareness of this important issue?

Memory is complex and there are many types of memory.  It is not as simple as having a good memory or a bad memory.  Each type of memory may not function at the same level.  You could have a good visual memory and a poor episodic memory for example.

A child can have an amazing memory for facts, particularly in topics that interest them or they may recall previous events in great detail but they can not remember an instruction a teacher has just given. It is this inconsistency that confuses many adults. Often it can seems like a child is not trying hard enough rather than a having a specific difficulty.

Working memory can be described as the brain's notepad,  it is the part of the brain which we use to temporarily hold information while we process it or act upon it.  We also use it to process information so that we can store it in our long term memory.  For example it is the part of the brain you use to write down a telephone number, but once you have written it down it is forgotten. Its capacity is limited and can vary greatly from person to person. This is another source of confusion for parents and teachers, when so many children can remember a series of instructions with no difficulty, why can't everyone.

Learning in the early years of school relies heavily on working memory.  When you are reading for example and are sounding out a word you need to remember the sounds to blend them together. In order to understand a sentence you have to remember the beginning by the time you get to the end. Writing is even more demanding as while you are trying to work out the spelling of a word, you still need to remember the sentence you intended to write.  In maths, when you perform a calculation you need keep one number in your head while you add on another. Many tasks that are typically presented in a primary school classroom have a series of steps that need to be followed.  Those with working memory difficulties will often forget what all the steps are.  They may lose track of where they are and miss out or repeat a step.  They may not be able to complete a task because they don't know what to do.

In addition as working memory is important for remembering information long term, those with working memory difficulties can struggle to learn number bonds and times tables or spellings.  If too much information is given in a lesson it will not be processed sufficiently to be remembered long term.

Although, we still do not completely understand how the working memory works we can clearly see what happens when it is overloaded.   

Common signs of working memory difficulties are:
 - forgetting the sentence while in the middle if writing it down
- only remembering one of a series of instructions
- not remembering materials taught from the previous day
- missing or repeating steps in a longer task
- seeming distracted

Teachers and parents need to be proactive in predicting when task relies heavily on the working memory.  They need to consider how they can offer support and encourage success. Giving shorter instructions and asking the child to repeat back what was said is helpful. As is providing checklists of tasks that need to be done or the steps within tasks.  Establishing routines were activities are always done in the same order reduces the need to use the working memory. Also making it acceptable for students to ask for instructions to be repeated.  Teachers can actively encourage the use of memory aids like visual checklists and help to teach children memory strategies.

See my article on Supporting working memory difficulties for more practical suggestions.

Being Dyslexic

Time to Move!

Children are meant to move and be active, it is part of their natural development.  Movement has a purpose, it helps their muscles grow and bodies develop.  Movement leads them to explore their environment and learn through all their senses.  This is the very foundation of all our future learning.

Just because a child can sit still and inhibit their movement, it doesn't mean that they should. Of course as children get older they have to realise that different behaviours are expected in different situations. When you travel in a car it would be dangerous to be jumping around.  On a plane there are other passengers to consider and you should try not to move around. But in a park you are free to move and should do exactly that.

Schools should be mindful of the important role of movement in learning.  As there is pressure for children to achieve academically at a younger and younger age, it is the practical, active learning that seems to be lost. Schools should be the places where children can move and learn in a way that it natural to them.  Children should learn largely by doing and exploring. These experiences are often much more memorable and meaningful than simply being told the information by the teacher or reading it in a book.  As parents we know that some the best learning experiences for our children arise when they are playing, exploring or visiting a new place.

As adults we know there are many skills that can only really be learnt through experience. When we learn to drive we all know that we can not do it by simply reading a book or being told how to do it. Of course we have to know the highway code but we can not learn to drive a car without getting into a car and trying to drive. We also know that it takes practice and we need practical, hands on experiences again and again to master a skill.

Yet both teachers and parents try to by pass these practical, hands on experiences because of the pressures of modern life.  Teachers are under pressure to deliver an overloaded curriculum and are judged by their children's achievement in certain areas.  Very often there isn't time to find interesting objects to look at to trigger discussion, questions and observation.  Instead to save time we use a picture or a video clip and tell the children the answers. As parents, limited time and tiredness mean we let an ipad entertain our children rather than playing a board game with them or encouraging them to use their imagination make something from junk materials.

Having a more active curriculum would have huge benefits for everyone.  Movement is important for all children and but perhaps even more important for children with learning difficulties.  Children with ADHD may be constantly moving and interventions are often focused on controlling the movement. We often think that the movement is distracting and will stop the child from learning. However current research by Michael Kofler suggests that the excessive movement does in fact have a purpose. It is the body's way of trying wake the mind up to be alert and focused enough to learn. Any strategies that we employ should not be about inhibiting the movement but encouraging it. Very often when we ask a child to stay still, they put all their energy into not moving  and as a result they are not able to listen to content of the lesson. If we allow them to move they are actually more likely to listen and participate in the lesson. As a teacher I have observed children who read better when they are allowed to fidget and move than when they are made to sit still.

Movement is particularly necessary for tasks that require working memory, which is known to be a deficit in many children with ADHD (and other learning difficulties).  Studies have shown that more demanding the task in terms of working memory the more movement is observed.  If we want children with ADHD to perform well in school we need to look at ways of incorporating movement into lessons. In my opinion this should be more than allowing the use of fiddles or wobble cushions (which are helpful strategies.)  It should be more about planning activities which allow children move and explore resources and record their understanding in a range of ways. 'Seating arrangements' should be flexible there should be opportunities for children to stand and sit while listening to the teacher or working on tasks.

Again if we think of our adult work lives we naturally find ways of of incorporating movement into our day even if it is just going to make a coffee when we feel our focus waning or asking a colleague in another office a question to take us away from our desk.  Also think about what you would prefer, to listen to art lecture for an hour or go to an art gallery and wander around observing and discussing the paintings with a friend or guide and then maybe using this inspiration to do your own sketch. As adults most of us prefer active learning and we should encourage the same for our children.

Below the surface - the Hidden difficulties of Dyslexia

I sometimes read articles about Dyslexia being a "Hidden Disability" and then there are many angry comments from parents of dyslexic children saying that there is nothing hidden about not being able to read! Which of course is true, but they are missing the point.  While struggling to learn to read and write are the most obvious signs of dyslexia, underneath it are many other difficulties that are not so obvious and cause many of the stresses that dyslexics experience day to day.  I really like the analogy of an iceberg and the infographic above shows perfectly that while the Literacy Problems are the part we all see, there is so much more going on below the surface.......

While teachers and parents focus on literacy skills, there are many other issues that are over looked.  Being dyslexic can be exhausting, many everyday tasks which others consider simple or straightforward require significant additional effort. Some are almost impossible. It is these things that frustrate parents and teachers and cause classmates to laugh or tease you.

Why have you lost your coat and have no recollection of where you left it?

Why have you no idea what to do when your teacher has just spend 10 minutes explaining the lesson?

Why do you turn left when your teacher asked you turn right?

Why did you miss the punchline of the joke your friend told and have no idea why everyone is 
laughing?
 
Why did you not give in your homework even though it was in your bag?

Why did you forget the message the teacher asked you to deliver by the time you got to the person the message was for?

Why does it take twice as long to complete a jigsaw puzzle compared to your friends?

Why did you not notice the sentence starters on the worksheet that everyone else is using to complete their writing?

There is often sympathy and understanding from adults about how difficult reading is, particularly if they know you are dyslexic. Teachers and parents will work patiently and carefully with you. They will give you more time to work out a word, they will give you easier texts to read, they will read tricky words or texts for you, they will let you read with a partner.  They praise you when you try to read a word even when you get it wrong.

However, there is no sympathy for the situations above. People think you are being careless or lazy or you are not paying attention.  Very often the teacher will be annoyed or cross and will tell you off for not trying hard enough. They do not realise these difficulties are also part of Dyslexia. Unfortunately, they can not see what is going on inside your brain. They can not see the level of effort that is required or that this level of effort is not sustainable throughout the school day.  They can not see that in fact some of the things they ask are actually unreasonable as they are almost impossible for you.

We would not ask someone in a wheelchair to climb stairs, but we will ask someone with a working memory impairment to remember an instruction that is beyond their memory span.  And then we blame them when they can not do it... 

There are many hidden difficulties which many people are not aware of including working memory, auditory processing, visual processing and coordination difficulties which impact students with dyslexia. These need to be better understood by teachers and parents so that the right support and strategies are provided.

Early Signs of Dyslexia and Effective Early Intervention

 I will be speaking on the "Early Signs of Dyslexia and Effective Early Intervention" for the Dyslexia Association Hong Kong at the Hong Kong Football club on Thursday 23rd May at 7.15pm.

This will a very practical and informative talk for both parents and educational professional about this important subject.

The signs of  dyslexia can be seen from a very young age but many parents and teachers choose to "wait and see".  In the meantime children lose their confidence and the gaps widens.

There are many fun and practical ways to intervene which benefit all children.  First we need to strengthen a child's 

pre-reading skills then we need to use dyslexia interventions to help them learn to read and write.

None of these activities are harmful so why wait?

For tickets please use this link

https://www.ticketflap.com/earlysignsofdyslexiaandeffectiveearlyintervention

Visual Perception - what is it?

Visual perception is the term used to describe the way in which the brain processes visual information. There can be differences in the way that visual information is perceived, processed, organised and understood.  This is different from the idea of 20/20 vision and being long sighted or short sighted.

We assume that when we show someone information visually on an interactive white board or a page in a book or a poster that they are seeing what we are seeing.  We also assume that they will be able to readily pick out the information that they need from a visual source. For many children and adults this is not the case.

Good visual perception is important for all aspects of life. We need the ability to process visual information to make sense of the world around us. We need to be able to understand shapes, colours and distance. We use visual perception to develop our understanding of everyday concepts.  For example: to know what a cup is, we need to see many cups and remember what are the key features that make a cup, as not all cups are the same.  This understanding and visual memory will help us see that while a jug is similar to a cup it is not the same. We can mentally compare and realise that a jug has a lip for pouring that a cup does not.

Good visual perception is vital to learn to read and write. We need to distinguish letters and spaces between words. We need to remember spellings and organise words on a page.  Visual perception should be one of the first things that is checked if a child is having difficulty learning to read or write.

It is not always easy to identify children who have difficulties with visual perception.  Children usually don't realise that what they see is not what others see. It is also very hard to verbalise what we see or explain exactly what the problem is.

Some of signs to look out for are:

- difficulty remembering visually presented information
- difficulty with the order of letters and objects
- difficulty picking objects out from a busy background
- difficulty organising themselves or materials in space
- they may not realise that an object orientated differently is actually the same
- they may not notice big or small differences
- they may appear clumsy

Visual perception is complex and is made up of a number of skills. 

• Visual memory
• visual sequential memory 
• visual closure
• visual discrimination
• visual form constancy
• visual figure ground
• visual motor intergration

Children do not usually have weaknesses in all these areas,  a weakness in just 1 or 2 of them can cause significant difficulties both at school and in every day life.

www.eyecanlearn.com is a very useful website for parents that explains both visual efficiency and visual perception clearly.

If you have any concerns use should consult a behavioral optometrist who can test these areas using standardised tests. Check these websites to find a suitably qualified professional  http://www.babo.co.uk or https://www.covd.org

Over the next couple of weeks I will explain some of these areas in more detail and some strategies that can be used to help.

Have Non Verbal Learning Disorders been forgotten?

Does your child have excellent verbal skills ? Learns facts easily? Asks lots of questions?

But misunderstands social situations, takes things literally, is reluctant to explore things for themselves or is clumsy?

These could be signs of Non Verbal Learning Disorder.  Many people have not heard of this difficulty.  As its name suggests it is a difficulty with understanding and processing information that is presented visually rather than verbally.  Typically there is a big discrepancy between verbal skills which are age appropriate or even advanced and their visual perceptual skills.

The difficulty affects a number of areas including social skills as the child (or adult) can not read facial expressions or body language. They may misunderstand social situations leading to friendship issues particularly as they get older.  They may 'talk at' people and may want to share facts they are interested in but not notice when the other person has lost interest. For this reason it can easily be confused with Asperger's syndrome.

While the child can seem very knowledgeable or even precocious when they are speaking, they may miss the subtleties of language.  They may take things very literally and not understand sarcasm or figurative language.  This can then affect their reading comprehension as they may focus on the factual detail and miss the bigger picture and a character's feelings and motives.  It can also be mistaken for language disorders, like social pragmatic communication disorder.

 Motor and visual spatial skills are affected making the child seem clumsy and uncoordinated.  Their handwriting and drawings will be messy.  Their lack of focus and careless work can lead to a diagnosis of ADHD.

At the heart of Non Verbal Learning Disorder is the difficulty in noticing and understanding patterns, particularly visual patterns.  They can also have difficulties with abstract reasoning, maths concepts and organisational skills.  It is like having the building blocks but not being able to put them together to make a building.  Children can have good decoding and spelling skills, have difficulties with reading comprehension.  They may be able to learn maths facts and some methods by rote but not understand maths concepts or be able to solve problems. Verbally they can seem very able to but this is not translated into their school work.  This can be puzzling for both teachers and parents and frustrating for the child.

While Non Verbal Learning Disorder is not longer listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorder (DSM-5), there is still a lot information available about this difficulty. Prior the changes diagnosis, as a lot of work had been done to raise awareness of Non Verbal Learning Disorders as a Specific Learning Difficulty.  As an Inclusion Coordinator, I recognise many of the signs in the children I work with and still consider it to be important in understanding and supporting children effectively.

With all this confusion why bother labeling?
Understanding what is really causing the difficulties a child is experiencing both helps the child understand themselves and will unlock the right interventions. Interventions for children with ADHD or Asperger's syndrome may not be effective in helping children with Non Verbal Learning Disorder.
For more information look at
https://childmind.org/search/?fwp_term=nonverbal%20learning%20disorder
and
https://www.understood.org/en/learning-attention-issues/child-learning-disabilities/nonverbal-learning-disabilities/

Parents and teachers need to focus on clear communication.  Patterns and connections between concepts need to be taught explicitly, children need to be told the main idea or concept directly. Adults need to verbalise what is represented visually to help the child to make sense of the visual material. Talking through the steps needed to solve a problem can help children know how to approach a problem solving task.  Support needs to be given for transitions between activities or for new situations.  Social skills groups and interventions which help the children to understand and practice social skills in a safe environment are important.  They need adult support to analyse situations and understand what is really happening and how they misunderstood or misread the situation.  Occupational therapy can also be beneficial in addressing the visual spatial difficulties, poor motor skills.

As a parent of a child with Nonverbal Learning Disorder, Rondalyn Varney Whitney has written an excellent book documenting the journey she took in understanding her son and gives practical advice to support parents and teachers.