All about me - disorganised me

I’m not sure whether disorganised is the best way to describe it, but I find it very hard to work in what others consider to be a logical, ordered sequence.

When I am in my office catching up on administrative tasks I work in a very haphazard way. I often wish I could video myself as I am sure my boss and many of my work colleagues would be surprised if they knew this was the way I worked. Firstly, I have a pack of post its next to me because as I start working through one task my mind will remember something else I am meant to do. I always write this down on a post it so that I don’t forget it. However, sometimes I will leave the first task and start this second task straight away. Then about half way through this second task I might notice something on my desk that I need to sort out. Again, I will stop the task I am doing and start this third task. But as I work through the third task I will remember that I didn’t finish the first or second task and I will go back to one of these. And so, the merry go round will continue of me flitting from task to task and adding new tasks to my post it list until I have completed my tasks or time runs out. Over the years I have tried to fight it and work sensibly through my to do list but I end up being less productive.  I spend so much energy trying to stay on task that the first task will take forever and I rarely get to start the other tasks. In addition, I feel frustrated that I have worked so slowly. On the other hand, if I allow myself to go with the flow and work the way I feel comfortable I feel energised and seem to complete more work.

The same is true when I write, I really struggle to organise my thoughts one at a time in a logical order. My mind seems to flit from one thought to another and my hand cannot keep up.  When I write a Blog article I do start with the title and I usually manage the first couple of sentences but then my mind will jump to ideas that belong at the end or in the middle of the article.  I will write a sentence for each idea and then go back to working on the introductory paragraph. Then other ideas pop into my mind and I will add these to which ever part of the article I think they belong to. I will continue to go back and forth between ideas, adding sentences and developing paragraphs. I will read and re-read, change the order and edit until I am happy. I am very grateful for word processors that allow me work in a fluid way, jumping from idea to idea. Again, when I work like this my brain seems to flow and feel happy.  If I try to write an article in order I get distracted and frustrated.

Perhaps this is way everyone would work this way if they had the choice – I just know from observing my work colleagues it does not seem to be the case!

There are 2 things I take from my working style and experiences.  First, we need to learn to accept ourselves and the way our minds work best. Second, we need to accept that what works for us and seems logicial and straightforward may not work for someone else. Unfortunately, schools seem to spend too much time trying to get all children to work in the same way rather than accepting that our minds are wired differently and trying to help children play to their strengths.

Different types of 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 multisensory 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. Some sources mention 4 types of dyslexia, while others list 7 or even 12 types. This can be confusing and is perhaps unnecessarily complicated. Nessy.com is one of the clearest and lists different types of difficulties and explains 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 difficulties and some have more auditory difficulties and some have equal difficulties in both areas. In addition, 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 also tend to be good at maths as they recognise patterns and so do not rely on memory for number bonds and times tables. 

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. 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. 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. Practical, hands on activities are needed for them to learn to read and grasp basic maths skills. They will have difficulty accessing and processing information that is presented verbally or visually. In essence, they will learn through doing. It is vital that these children receive structured, cumulative, multisensory support. 

Working memory boosters

·       As a follow up to the last article on working memory, here are some strategies for improving or supporting working memory

1. Teach visualisation skills.

Encourage your child to create a picture of what he’s just read or heard. For example, if you’ve told him to set the table for five people, ask him to come up with a picture in his head of what the table should look like. Then have him draw that picture. As he gets better at visualising, he can start describing the image to you instead of drawing it.

2. Have your child teach you.

Being able to explain how to do something involves making sense of information and mentally filing it. If he’s learning a skill, like how to dribble a basketball, ask him to teach it to you after his coach explains it to him.

3. Suggest games that use visual memory.

Give your child a magazine page and ask him to circle all instances of the word “the” or the letter “a” in one minute. Alternatively, play games in the car in which one of you recites the letters and numbers on a license plate you see and then has to say it backwards, too.

4. Play cards.

Simple card games like Crazy Eights, Uno, Go Fish and War improve working memory in two ways. Your child has to keep the rules of the game in mind, but also has to remember what cards he has and which ones other people have played.

5. Make up category games.

When words and ideas are put into categories, they’re easier to remember. Playing games in which you name as many animals as you can think of can eventually lead to playing games with more complicated concepts. For example, you may ask your child to name as many clue words for addition as she can (such as “all together,” “in all,” “total” and “plus”).

6. Number your directions.

Beginning a sentence with words like “I need you to do three things…” can help your child keep all of the different points in his head. You can do the same thing with other information, too, like shopping lists (”We need to buy these five items…”).

7. Connect emotion to information.

Processing information in as many ways as possible can help your child remember it. Help him connect feelings to what he’s trying to remember. For instance, if he’s learning about how the pyramids in ancient Egypt were built, ask him to think about what it felt like to have to climb to the top of one of them pulling a heavy stone in the hot sun.

8. Help make connections.

Connections are the relationship between things. Finding ways to connect what your child is trying to remember with things he already knows can help him learn the new material. For instance, show him that the twos times table is the same as his doubles facts, such as 4 x 2 = 8 and 4 + 4 = 8.

My child is dyslexic - what do I do now?

Whether you wait for a formal diagnosis or you know from your own observations that your child meets the criteria for dyslexia, realising that your child is dyslexic can be difficult to come to terms with.  

You may have suspected it for some time but hoped that things would improve or you may have been falsely reassured by teachers and other educational professionals that there is nothing to worry about. Even if you know you are dyslexic yourself there is always the hope that your child will not be affected in the way you were. For other parents, who are unaware of their own dyslexia, the world of dyslexia can be new and daunting.

1. Try not to panic

While dyslexia is a lifelong condition, it is not a life sentence.

As many websites try to point out it is a learning difference rather than a disability. While learning to read and write will be a much harder process than it is for most children, dyslexic children can learn if they are taught in the right way. In addition, many dyslexics have strengths that in life and the work place make them successful people.  

Try to keep things in perspective, while school is an important part of a child’s life, it is only one aspect of their life. A positive home life and relationships are very important, as are interests and activities outside school.

2. Encourage your child to do more of the things that they are good at and enjoy. 

It is very tempting to pull out all the stops in trying to help your child ‘catch up’ through extra work at home and tutoring. However, don’t forget that school will be exhausting enough and often demoralising, without coming home to face more tasks that are difficult. We all need down time and to have time to do the things we enjoy.  This energises us to face the things we find difficult. It is very important to preserve your child’s sense of self and confidence. In reality, it will be these interests and strengths that lead them into productive and happy adult lives.

 

3. Give yourself and your child time

Take time to read and understand dyslexia as fully as you can.  There is a wealth of information and advice online and this can be overwhelming. It is important to understand that while there are principles that help all dyslexics, no one intervention or method can help all dyslexic children. Each child and family are different and what may be hugely successful with one child may not successful with another child. 

Once you work out how best to support your child, it is worth remembering that you should allow your child to develop at their own pace and not allow the pressure of the school system to dictate. School systems set benchmarks of what your child should achieve at each age but these should only be considered as guidelines.  In reality, there is plenty of time for your child to develop their literacy skills. It is better to build the foundation stages thoroughly rather than trying to rush ahead and try to ‘keep up’. Many dyslexics who receive consistent interventions from age 6 or 7 will have reasonable literacy skills by the time they are 10 or 11.  Reading is easier to master with the right intervention, writing and spelling will take considerably longer.

4. Try to pinpoint your child’s strengths and weaknesses

This is very important in deciding what approach to take in supporting your child. You should try to utilise your child’s strengths while encouraging them to practice the skills they find difficult. Every dyslexic child is different and has a different combination of strengths and weaknesses.  While multisensory methods are recommended for all dyslexic children, knowing whether your child has stronger visual or auditory skills will help your child make quicker progress. For example, if a child has a weak visual sequential memory using mnemonics to learn irregular high frequency words will be effective. However, if they have strong visual skills you may colour code letter patterns and encourage your child to visualise the word in their head.

5. Find ways for your child to receive systematic support for reading and spelling

Children with dyslexia are capable of learning to read and write they just need to be taught differently. The first step is to ask the school to provide specific dyslexia interventions for your child. These do need to be delivered outside the classroom individually or in small groups by a specialist teacher or an adult who has been trained to use a specific intervention. More repetitions or a slower pace of ordinary classwork will not help them to develop their literacy skills and they will only slip further behind. If the school is not able to provide adequate support then tutoring or support at home may be the only option. But as pointed out earlier think carefully about your child’s schedule, if they are overtired or favourite activities are cancelled in favour of tutoring it can be counterproductive.

There are many options available both online and through workbooks, they vary widely in terms of cost and intensity of delivery. The key part is that they systematically teach letter-sound relationships and use multisensory methods. You may choose to use a specialist tutor but it is also possible for parents to provide appropriate support.  Cost is not an indicator of how effective an intervention will be for your child, remember that there are many effective low cost methods to support dyslexia.

 

6. Develop your child’s intellectual skills apart from reading and writing

It is important that your child still continues to develop their other skills despite having difficulty with reading and writing. Children who are competent readers extend their vocabulary, learn about the structure of language and develop their imagination. If they read information texts they will extend their general knowledge. Very often dyslexic children end up lagging behind because they are often reading well below their grade level. Reading to your child, using audiobooks and video clips can help your child to learn age appropriate concepts and vocabulary. Spend time talking about stories and events to ensure your child understands them and makes connections. In terms of writing, it is good to scribe for your child from time to time so that they can develop their skills in composition rather than the focus always being spelling and handwriting.  Videoing their ideas and then typing these up for child is another useful approach. Then the child can focus on editing and using interesting vocabulary. You can try voice to text applications to allow your child express themselves more freely than they can when writing themselves.  

7. Believe your child will succeed in their own way

Finally, staying positive and helping your child stay positive is so important.  They will have their own negative feelings and those of both adults and children at school to contend with on a day to day basis.  Try to keep your own concerns, frustrations and disappointments away from your child.

Typically there is a ‘mourning’ process when you discover your child has learning difficulties.  This can bring to the surface many strong emotions, work through these and seek support when you need it.

Accepting the child you have and not expecting them to be something they are not is vital for everyone’s wellbeing.  It is fine to have high expectations as many dyslexics can pass exams and go to college or university. However, many have skills that will lead them into a whole range of practical careers. Enjoy and appreciate your child for who they are.

Teacher tips for 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.