1.    Understand How Dyslexia Affects the Student

2.    Help Dyslexics with Language Difficulties

3.    Focus on Dyslexics Strengths

The last way you can help dyslexic students is by helping them embrace and build the skills that come naturally to them.

Recently there has been talk in the news about our current “Creativity Crisis.” Researchers have found that over the past 20 years young people have become increasing less creative. Whether this finding is perfectly accurate or not there is a reason that creativity is a concern: it is very valuable to our society.

“There is no doubt that creativity is the most important human resource of all. Without creativity, there would be no progress, and we would be forever repeating the same patterns.” — Edward de Bono

Because of the strong right brain of dyslexics, they are often naturally creative and adept problem solvers. If you can help dyslexics focus on their creativity and problem solving abilities there will be many ways they will help our society progress in the future.

It is especially important for to help dyslexics appreciate their strengths because with their struggle with language subjects, it is easy for them to undermine their potential.

“The principle goal of education is to create men who are capable of doing new things, not simply of repeating what other generations have done – men who are creative, inventive and discoverers.” —Jean Piaget

This quote offers a sound insight into how you should approach dyslexic students (and all students in general). It is easy to teach what other people have already learned, but as Piaget said, it is more important for you to teach students how to learn things that have not yet been discovered.

By helping dyslexic students hone in on their creative abilities, you are helping them learn how to invent and discover new things. It is this ability that will likely provide success for them in the future.

“Creativity can solve almost any problem. The creative act, the defeat of habit by originality, overcomes everything.” — George Lois

Another valuable strength of dyslexics is their empathetic abilities. Many dyslexics can easily relate and feel the emotions of others. This can be a difficult social skill for many individuals that have a dominant left brain to embody.

Dyslexics naturally possess two of arguably the most valuable abilities: creativity and social skills. When you realize this it is sad to know how susceptible they are to developing a low self-esteem. They have strengths that can lead them to success and that can enhance society in so many ways. As you work with dyslexic students be sure they know their value!

Read some of the posts from the Reading Horizons At Home blog series: “Celebrating Dyslexia”>

This post is part of a three part series which discusses tips for helping teachers reach dyslexic students. To read the first post of the series visit the link next to #1:

1.    Understand How Dyslexia Affects the Student

2.    Help Dyslexics with Language Difficulties

Although you might think helping dyslexic students improve their reading skills is a daunting task, it is possible.

As discussed in the first post of this series about understanding dyslexia, the dominance of dyslexics’ right brain is what makes language tasks difficult for them.

To know how to help your dyslexic students improve reading you must use the simple logic found in a line from one of my favorite Disney® movies, Hercules:

Hades: “How do you kill a god?”
Panic: “Um... their immortal…?”
Hades: “Bingo! So, first we got to turn the little sun spot mortal.”

(I apologize if that is not word for word since I derived it completely from memory.)

The connection of this quote to helping dyslexics improve reading is that in their current state reading will remain difficult. However, if you help them use their brain in a different way, the task of helping them improve reading is no longer impossible.

How is this done?

Have you ever done a logic puzzle (such as a Sudoku) and gotten to the point where you feel there is no way you can figure it out or find one more answer. But, you keep trying and out of no where you have a moment of genius! The next thing you know you have solved the once deemed “impossible” puzzle. 

These “moments of genius” are a result of new connections in your brain; the same thing that is needed for dyslexics to improve their reading. 

You need to include two things in your reading instruction in order to help dyslexics make the new brain connections that will allow them to improve their reading:

1. teach phonics with an explicit & systematic approach
2. engage students in multisensory instruction

Explicit and systematic phonics takes a step-by-step approach to teaching students how to decode words starting with a single letter or sound before progressing to the whole word. This helps dyslexics to understand the sounds and rules of language and transfer these concepts to what they are reading.

The lack of foundational knowledge that comes from many strategies for teaching reading is what prevents many dyslexics and struggling readers from excelling with reading.

When teaching explicit phonics to dyslexics, it is important for you to realize that dyslexics have developed many coping strategies that help them get by with language tasks. Because of this, this type of instruction can feel below their level or too basic. However, the reason this instruction helps them with reading skills is not because they are unintelligent, it works because it helps them make new connections in their brain.

The other concept that you need to incorporate in your teaching is multisensory instruction. By engaging multiple senses during instruction, dyslexics are able to make new connections in their brain.

Dyslexics are not always the strongest visual or auditory learners; thus, when hands on activities are connected to visual and auditory instruction, their brain can make new connections and understand concepts in a way that didn’t make sense to them when they were only being taught through auditory channels.

To help incorporate both explicit phonics and multisensory techniques into your reading instruction for dyslexics, use Reading Horizons Online Workshop for Teaching Phonics>

(Although these concepts are crucial for helping dyslexics improve reading, they are beneficial for any student that is learning to read.)

3.    Focus on Dyslexics Strengths

"That was the kind of battle I had. I knew what I had, but my teachers didn't." – Charley Boormam

Recently actor Charley Boorman discussed his struggle with dyslexia on an interview with BBC News. It was interesting to hear him discuss the problems he had faced because of his dyslexia. Rather than having low self-esteem because of the difficulties he had in school, he had a hard time in school because of the negative way his teachers responded to his difficulties. He understood that he struggled because of his dyslexia, but his teachers didn’t.

Because Boorman would have been saved from a lot of emotional and educational issues if his teachers had properly responded to his dyslexia, our next few posts will discuss 3 ways you can better meet the needs of your dyslexic students:

1.    Understand How Dyslexia Affects The Student

Often when people think about dysleixa, they associate it with reading problems. Although most dyslexics do struggle with reading, they also have many talents and abilities that are valuable. In fact, dyslexics often demonstrate above average levels of intelligence.

Why is this? The more you understand dyslexia, the more you understand that the dyslexic brain is not inferior or less valuable than the average brain, it is just different. Compared to the typical brain, dyslexics have a very dominant right brain.

Recently, Dr. Papanicolau of the University of Texas, discovered that because of the dominance of dyslexics right brain, it is also the area that is activated when dyslexics are performing language tasks. Typically the left brain where the “language center” of the brain is accessed is used for language tasks. This is the reason dyslexics have a difficulty with many language tasks.

Papanicolau described the difficulty of performing language tasks with the right side of the brain by comparing it to “an artist trying to paint with their toes.”

Understanding how difficult language tasks can be for dyslexic students can help you be patient with these students and to be more realistic about your expectations.

2.    Help Dyslexics with Language Difficulties

3.    Focus on Dyslexics Strengths

It took me awhile to find any value in twitter, but this week as I took the time to click on some of the links, I found some new education and language resources that I thought were interesting. My top 3 favorite twitter finds of the week were:

#3- Teach with Games

This site has a collection of free printable games for a variety of subjects. Reading Horizons has helped a lot of students learn to read through a multisensory curriculum, and this site offers a lot of options for making teaching all subjects with more multisensory and interactive strategies: http://teachwithgames.com/

#2- Ghotit Assistive Technology for Dyslexics

This spell-checker was developed by dyslexics for dyslexics. From what I gather it is a spell-checker like the one found on Microsoft Word that is sensitive to the common spelling mistakes of dyslexics. The resource is very affordable for individuals, only $14.99, and can be used by schools for free. To try it free online visit: http://www.ghotit.com/home.shtml

#1- Smarty Ears iPod Apps

This was the trendiest find. I can’t decide if this resource is number one because of its value or if I was excited about it because it was the most relevant to today’s technology. Because it is trendy it would be an easy tool to get students excited about. These applications are for speech therapy and the primary goal of the apps are to help the user improve the way they communicate. The company offers apps in four categories: Spanish, Language, Articulation, and Fluency. Learn more about these apps at: http://www.smarty-ears.com/

Follow Reading Horizons on Twitter: http://twitter.com/ReadingHorizons

Multisensory phonics instruction is effective for struggling readers and dyslexics because it helps students:

1. Create a Solid Reading Foundation

Imagine you were planning to build an addition to your home but in the process you discovered that your house was built on an unstable foundation that failed to provide adequate support for your home. Instead of trying to build on top of the problem, the smartest decision would be to repair the problem before it gets worse and degrades the safety of your home. This analogy easily applies to the need to help struggling readers and dyslexics strengthen their reading foundation, rather than trying to cover up the problem.

Multisensory phonics helps dyslexics and struggling readers connect the letters of the language to the individual sounds. These connections are often what are missing in the understanding of dyslexics and struggling readers. By building these connections, reading makes more sense to these students.

2. Strengthen their Mind

Multisensory and interactive instruction is effective when teaching phonics to students because it works to strengthen the mind. By engaging students in learning through multiple senses they are able to make connections in their mind that they were not previously able to make. For students that do not naturally acquire reading skills, new and stronger brain connections help them overcome their difficulties.

3. Improve Reading Fluency and Comprehension

As students increase their phonetic abilities and understanding, reading fluency and comprehension also improve. A thorough understanding and competency in phonics allows students to focus on the meaning of what they are reading instead of focusing on sounding out each individual word.

To promote the development of natural word decoding skills and phonetic abilities, Reading Horizons has developed this unique marking system:

5 Phonetic Skills

2 Decoding Skills

Learn more about Reading Horizons curriculum to see how it can help your students build a solid reading foundation, strengthen their mind, and improve reading fluency and reading comprehension: http://www.readinghorizons.com/v5/index.aspx