What are the teaching techniques used for children with dyslexia?
Dont focus on his problem, it is not curable, it is however a problem that can be improved with understanding, being a dyslexic myself I have learned to compensate when writing and trying to read by spelling the words out, many people relate dyslexia with low intelligence, which is not the case at all, many of us hold down top jobs and are also very talented in other areas, if your son is only mild dyslexic he may cope quite well with out too much interence from external sources. Try sitting a “find a word” puzzle book upside down in front of him and see if he reads better upside down, sounds stupid but my wife did this with me and was amazed at how easy i could read it that way, and how much faster I solved it, it throws the normal reading rules out the window and seems to help overcome the jumble of letters on the page. A recent shopping trip with my wife and daughter confirmed that my daughter has inherited the same problem, I was refuelling the car and heard her ask her mother what
There is plenty you can do to support your son, both at home and at school. You don’t state how old he is, but if under 10 buy some coloured magnetic alphabet. To teach him the letters of the alphabet, and the their placement in the alphabet, and the sound of each letter and practice spelling basic words. Have a list of the most 100 commonly misspelt words, & Spelling rules such as I before E except after C, & Homophones etc, see link below. For reading, try different coloured overlays, to see if it makes reading easier. Encourage him to take his time when reading and on a regular basis, however don’t pressure him into reading out to others, as this will undermine his self confidence, see link below. To ensure he is comprehending what he is reading, ask questions about who is the main character, where is the story set e.g school, home etc. Practicing writing skills by asking him to write short sentences about his favourite things e.g his pet cat/dog, favourite colour and so forth. As h
You can get special resources for him. Ask the school if they can order them for you. Some dyslexics respond better to touch than sight and you can get wooden alphabet letters in both upper and lower case. Repetition is the key when teaching dyslexics. You could ring Dyslexia Action in Nottingham and they would probably give you some advice and put you in touch with someone locally.
