5 Ways to Support Dyslexia at Home and School

A diagnosis of dyslexia can be a hard thing to get hold of in today's SEND world - but don't despair. If you believe that your child may have dyslexia, there are ways to support them at home and school even without a piece of paper stating a diagnosis.

Signs and Symptoms of Dyslexia

Many of us would be well aware that individuals with dyslexia often experience challenges in reading and spelling. But they may face other difficulties too. The list below is intended to give an indication of whether an individual may have dyslexia. Please note: this list is not exhaustive and an individual with dyslexia may not tick all of these boxes.

• difficulties decoding words with phonics

• difficulties with spelling and phonics in particular

• they confuse left and right

• poor time management skills

• have poorer-than-average working memory

• delayed fine motor skills

• delayed language skills

• difficulty concentrating for extended periods of time

Whilst there is no cure for dyslexia, there are ways to support and manage it. This will become more and more important as the individual becomes more and more independent. Here are 5 easy ways to support dyslexia whether you are at home or at school.

The multi-sensory tasks approach

Multi-sensory approaches are very much used in early education to enhance learning, promote engagement in activities and provide an alternative input for learning. That's why they're great for individuals with dyslexia. Using visual aids, auditory support, kinaesthetic approaches and tactile learning helps the brain to function, making learning more 'sticky'.

Using visuals such as flashcards and mindmaps can help organise thoughts and make connections between ideas.

Auditory support may include rhymes, mnemonics or even songs to remember facts.

Tactile games, such as snap or pairs, can again help to support connections within the brain. Similarly, using manipulatives, such as Base 10 for maths or phonic tiles and drawing letters in the sand for English.

Kinaesthetic approaches focus on using muscle memory and gross motor skills to make learning connections. It might be air-writing

letters or making shapes according to the spelling of a letter. A technique used in a previous setting was called Spell-o-vision - it made an action for each letter of a word.

Use assistive technology to support difficult tasks

Technology has come a long way in such a short amount of time and there are so m

any devices, apps, extensions and websites that seek to make life easi

er for individuals who find reading and writing challenging.

Speak-to-text

This technology will enable an individual to speak their ideas with the technology turning that idea into a sentence, paragraph or more. For some users, it may write the whole piece of text; for others, it may just be used to record ideas so they can be listened to again and not forgotten.

Examples include:

1. Clicker (this can be expensive as it has many more features than just speech-to-text, but if your school has a whole site licence they may be able to support you with Clicker at Home.

2. Google Docs voice typing (free on Google Chrome).

3. G-board (an app that you can download to Android for free).

Audiobooks

Audiobooks are a great alternative to regular books for children that find reading difficult. They enable a child to harness all of the richness of a text without having to feel deflated because they are struggling to read it fluently.

Audiobooks can be borrowed from the library for free or listened to directly from Amazon via some Kindle subscriptions or Audible (both are Amazon products!).

Text to Speech

Text-to-speech technology allows a user to view a piece of text and then have the device read out the text for them. Great examples of this include:

1. Scanning Pens - with this device you can scan text line by line with a pen-like device, when it reaches a full stop the text is read back to you.

2. Peech - I have this app on my device and is something I use with children in school. Using your camera on your phone or tablet, scan a piece of text and save, the app will then read it back to you. This works with any formatted text and even with links to websites.

Spell check and more

Spell check, predictive text and formatting are all commonplace in writing programmes nowadays. Each of these features supports individuals with dyslexia, taking the anxiety out of writing.

Break down tasks into smaller, manageable chunks

Many individuals with dyslexia struggle with underperforming working memory. This means that they struggle to hold on to multiple pieces of information given in order to complete a small task, such as writing a report. To support this, break a task down into smaller chunks. Using the report example, you may first suggest that they research what they will write about, telling them to find 3 different facts on each sub-topic.

To support this further, you could have a task checklist so that they can refer to it to remind themselves and they can check things off of the list as they go.

Use repetition and review to help the learning stick

Educational research suggests that in order to learn new vocabulary, a person must be exposed to that vocabulary an optimum amount of 17 times (Thought.co.com). That's a lot! And you can be assured that this number would increase for children with dyslexia.

However, it is not enough to show it to children 17 times and forget, it is best to expose them to new vocabulary regularly and frequently over the course of a day and week to help words and spellings to 'stick' - meaning they will be remembered.

Of course, other facts and learning have similar expectations.

Using flashcards, creating posters, and having sticky notes around the house can all support learning to become 'sticky'. Older children and adults could also try mind mapping, which is similar to brainstorming but uses colour and categories to help organise thoug

hts and revision. For more information on this topic, you may wish to look h

ere - zenflowchart.com

Or maybe purchase this book on Mind Maps by Tony Buzan (I own two copies of this book - 🤷🏼‍♀️).

Boost self-esteem

Finally, and importantly, consideration must be given to an individual's self-esteem. School and the expectations to read and spell in front of others can damage an individual's self-esteem and self-belief almost irreversibly. Therefore, it is important, as early as possible to boost self-esteem and self-worth. This can be done in so many ways and what works will be unique to the individual, but here are some ideas.

1. Use affirmations with your child (and you). Repeating a mantra in the morning (e.g. you are a wonderful person with wonderful ideas) can really work wonders for how you view the day. Look here to understand more about this. Schoolhouse-daycare.com.

2. Praise your child for the effort that they make with tasks and not the end result. This will encourage them to try each time and not be put off if the end result has spelling mistakes or errors.

3. Discuss other people of interest who have dyslexia Many famous role models have opened up about having dyslexia and how it has enhanced their careers and lives. Discuss these and celebrate their successes.

4. Consider starting an "I'm proud" book. This is similar to a scrapbook where you can keep photographs, memories, tasks and more that you and/or your child are particularly proud of. It's important to make this about more than just reading and writing, so include football trophies or building a fabulous sandcastle. They are all something to be proud of.

I think this one is a good one to end on, because, at the end of the day, positive well-being is paramount.

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