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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.
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.
