Dylexia

Take a look at this page:

http://www.dys-add.com/dyslexia.html

LDOnline has some great resources here:

http://www.ldonline.org/indepth/reading

Best wishes!

The best source for information regarding dyslexia is www.interdys.org. The is the website of the International Dyslexia Association that was first established in 1949. There are many fact sheets at this site.

Those websites are great. As a parent of a dyslexic child, I have found that it is often overlooked as a possible diagnoses. We obtained an IEE for my daughter which provided the data as well as the other school assessments for her to receive proper instruction. She blossomed. I think that dyslexia is very individualized. The IEE by the neuropsyche provided the guidance that the school district desperately needed.

Dyslexia is not a rare condition. One child out of five or one child out of ten is dyslexic, depending on where your cut-off is. Some are mildly (borderline) dyslexic; some are garden-variety; some are severely dyslexic. They can be average or below-average in intelligence, but many are extremely bright. First you have to rule out big problems like low intelligence, not knowing English, or having a mother that doesn’t read to her children and talk to them. If you have ruled out these problems, the dyslexic child is the one who has more trouble than the other children with sounding out words or memorizing sight words. In other words, recognizing dyslexia in an informal way is not rocket science.

If you want to know about the dyslexic brain, Sally Shaywitz, who wrote “Overcoming Dyslexia” and does MRIs of dyslexic children, has found that dyslexic children do process letters and words differently from non-dyslexics but that they often respond well to early intervention.

Dyslexia is easier to diagnose when the child is somewhat older (partly because there are so many late bloomers), but early intervention in kindergarten or first grade really helps (as it does with speech therapy). The important thing is that we don’t have to wait for the perfect diagnosis before we start to work on learning the letters. Playing games with letter-sounds (not letter-names) is an appropriate intervention for the youngest children if you use picture-letters that take the rote memorization out of the process. (See www.mnemonicpictures.com for free games that link letters with key words that have the letter-shapes built into them).

Don’t ask a young beginner to sound out words if he or she can’t yet put sounds together. Some children are late bloomers and may not be dyslexic after all. Spelling words with letter-cards is easier for these children than reading them. (See the packets games in my website).

Aside from having trouble memorizing which letter goes with which sound—memorizing abstract symbols by rote—dyslexics often (not always) have trouble memorizing words at sight, especially words with irregular spellings. (See my website for color-coding the vowels). Or they have trouble sounding out the letters in their correct order. (See my website for Spelling With Clues). Older dyslexics (even mildly dyslexic ones) tend to confuse look-alike words like “left” and “felt” or “head” and “hard.” Reversing B and D is not the best indicator because some dyslexics don’t reverse letters and some non-dyslexics do, although reversals tend to persist longer in dyslexics.

Dyslexics do better if you prepare every word for a book before they start to read it. Many beginner books are not at all systematic about building reading vocabulary. And may phonetic books introduce consonant blends (like the mp in stamp or the tr in trip) too soon in the learning sequence.

I’m offering my materials free (with manuals) through e-mail attachments. I am a grandpupil of Anna Gillingham (for those who know about Orton-Gillingham procedures), but I have been adding memory tricks, games, and color coding to the mix throughout most of my fifty years of tutoring dyslexics.

Ann Turner
www.mnemonicpictures.com

Hi Piyag:

Lots of good stuff in the previous responses. I would add that you also need clearly defined help in knowing what to do once you know what it is!

I highly recommend www.allkindsofminds.org as a resource for you as well as a book called Educational Care: A System for Understanding and Helping Children with Learning Problems at Home and School. The author is Levine, published in 1994. You can get a used copy online for just a few dollars.

For more information about me, I’m at www.doctormichaelhart.com. Come visit!

I wanted to respond before your question goes too far out of date because helping people learn to read is one of the most rewarding things I do. Dyslexia means quite literally ‘inability to read’ and there are so many reasons why a person can’t read, it makes the term rather meaningless, in my view. As you learn about the subject you will doubtless encounter some strong arguments in favor or against certain instructional methods. These arguments are what I call ‘the reading wars.’

I urge you to adopt a broad open view for yourself about what is good for an individual reader because each person may need something a little different. The strategy that I have followed is to build a large toolbox of different devices and instructional methods. Know what good readers do when they read and then look for those things among the non-readers and struggling readers you work with. There will always be an imbalance which you then will try to restore by drawing from your large toolbox. I apologize for speaking in generalities here but it is a huge topic you have decided to tackle!

Hello—

I am currently a fifth grade teacher in the state of Virginia. From personal experience, I have spoken with parents and my students who have been diagnosed with dyslexia. One strategy that works is to print off materials on different colored paper. For example, white copy paper tends to make the black font overwhelming to look at. By printing on a different color, like ivory, it softens the appearance of the text. However, it is different for every student. I have one student who prefers to work on blue paper while I have another student who prefers to work on green paper.

Hope this tip helps!