How to Support Dyslexic Learners

“Dyslexia is not due to a lack of intelligence, it's a lack of access. It's like, if you're dyslexic, you have all the information you need, but find it harder to process” - Orlando Bloom

Dyslexia is more common than most people think it is.  In fact, dyslexia is a learning disability that almost one child in every classroom struggles with. As a teacher, you will mostly pick up signs of this disability when children are learning how to read or write as dyslexic children tend to find it hard to write and have difficulty reading aloud.  While dyslexia is classified as a learning disability, it does not at all hinder a learner's intelligence at all. A common misconception that people have is that dyslexic children cannot fit in or cope when they are placed in mainstream classrooms. Truth be told, dyslexic children have every right to be in mainstream classrooms and can perform well provided they are given the concessions that they need.  All children regardless of their abilities and disabilities can fit into mainstream classrooms provided that they have teachers who support them and work with them to help them to help them to do well.

Learn more about considering special education needs students and how to incorporate these students into mainstream classrooms.

If you are a teacher and you never thought that you ever have to worry about learning disabilities like dyslexia, think again! You need to familiarise yourself with these disabilities so should you encounter a dyslexic child in your class, you know how to help him or her.

Teachers need to constantly professionally develop themselves in order to keep up with the needs of the children. A good idea is to take some tutorial classes with one of our Superprof tutors who specializes in working with students with disabilities. A few guided tutorials with a Superprof tutor specializing in dealing with dyslexic students will help you to assist dyslexic learners in your classroom as well.

Dyslexia is considered and taken very seriously in South Africa. You can visit Dyslexic South Africa where you can find a dyslexia self-assessment to test if you exhibit the qualities of a dyslexic person.

Knowing all about dyslexia is the first step to help students who have been diagnosed with dyslexia.

How to Support Dyslexic Learners Through Acceptance of the Condition

The teacher might identify cues which show that a certain learner is dyslexic, but the teacher's job is never to diagnose a student as being dyslexic. The teacher can reach out to parents to ask parents to take the child to the doctor, but it is once a doctor has diagnosed a student as dyslexic that a teacher can try to support the student. Once diagnosed, teachers must note that children suffering from dyslexia will get tired more quickly than other children when reading and writing. The teacher can step in to allow the dyslexic child to read a shorter passage or to write less than other learners in the class. The teacher will understand that getting a learner to perfect half a page of something that was read is far better than forcing the child to read a full page where the child struggles to read every word and doesn't actually learn anything.

Acceptance of dyslexia means that the teacher is willing to allow concession time to a student who is dyslexic during exam time and for all class tests. The additional minutes that the dyslexic students get due to their learning disability is necessary as dyslexic children have:

• Problems with speech (phonological awareness, phonemic awareness, fluency, rhyming, etc.)
• Language difficulties or barriers
• Reading difficulties (word recognition, comprehension, literacy, and general reading skills such as reading aloud)
• Writing difficulties mainly due to the inability to remember spelling of words or replicating the alphabets
• Difficulties organising themselves in their daily lives
• Slightly reduced auditive and visual memory

While dyslexia does not mean that the child suffering will have only the above listed difficulties, some students may exhibit all of the symptoms mentioned above while other dyslexic children may have a few of the symptoms listed above only.

The best way to show support of this condition is to support each dyslexic learner independently. Support also means emotional support. Children who understand their struggle tend to feel frustrated because of their condition and feel more sensitive when they are ridiculed by other children because of being dyslexic. The teacher's role is to ensure that the difficulties associated with the learning disability is not used to ridicule the child outside of the classroom and during break time.

The more research teachers do, the better able they will be to help students overcome the challenges they face in the classroom and beyond.  Since the bulk of the time in brick-and-mortar classrooms is spent advocating reading and encouraging writing, the teacher must be compassionate about the plight of dyslexic learners. The teacher must be able to put himself or herself in the shoes of these learners so as to know when they might be feeling overwhelmed.

How to Help a Student with Dyslexia?

A fictional tale that will help you to understand just how stressful battling dyslexia can be is the Roald Dahl's classic, "The Vicar of Nibbleswicke".

The tale speaks of a Vicar-Reverend Lee, who overcomes dyslexia as a child, but once he accepts the position as the vicar, he develops a new strain of dyslexia. While it is a fictional tale, Dahl has a way of making you understand the struggles faced by people with dyslexia through his character, Reverend Lee. Part of Reverend Lee's difficulty arose as he didn't have self-belief.  As a teacher with the intention of assisting the dyslexic learner in your classroom, you must work on improving his or her self-belief and self-confidence. Fostering an "I can attitude," in all the children is essential.

How to Teach Students with Dyslexia?

Firstly, compassion and understanding are necessary as teaching a dyslexic child is no walk in the park. Neverthess, helping a dyslexic learner to succeed is far more gratifying than any accolade that you may achieve as a teacher. So patience and hard work will get you very far.

You do need to note that it may look like the dyslexic student is barely doing anything in class. Part of the reason that the dyslexic learner is more reluctant to try to read and write is that recognising letters of the alphabet and reading tends to be a rather daunting task for the learner. Hence, as a teacher, you ought to watch your tone and what it is you say to these learners. Reacting to a dyslexic child in a negative way may break his or her spirit and that is never ideal. You need to allow the dyslexic learner in your classroom to get some more time to complete an activity and you need to encourage him or her along the way.

Give the child more time to go over the extract that you are reading. Allow the student to rote learn some words or parts of the story. This will allow him or her to read the story more confidently in front of the class. Again, applaud positive utterances and be sure to praise the child when he or she is reading well or writing letters of the alphabet correctly.

If you are encouraging and motivating, you will surely motivate the children in your class to do better. Create a classroom atmosphere where children are not afraid to ask for help or express themselves when they lack the confidence to do a certain task. The last thing you want is to have the dyslexic learner in your classroom suffering in silence.

The more comfortable a dyslexic child is telling you about what he or she is struggling with, the better the chance you have of helping him or her.

Simple things like making the font of a reading passage larger or including more pictures next to words may help dyslexic children to read better.  Again, the more techniques that you employ to help a learner, the better off you will be.

Adopting Different Strategies for Dyslexic Learners

While you may get frustrated from time to time when working with a dyslexic learner, you should remember that even the slightest progress that you are making is well worth all the effort that you are putting in. One different strategy that you can adopt is to monitor the dyslexic learner's progress every step of the way.

If you are regularly monitoring the dyslexic learner's progress, you can see if the learner is keeping up and performing at the same pace as the class and you will also see if all the other strategies that you are using are working or not. Also, keep track of your learner's progress on all formal assessments so that you can see if each learner is progressing every term.

Monitoring not only means checking the results of formal assessments and tests but informally assessing if these learners have understood what you have taught them.

Parents of dyslexic children must never underestimate the value that an experienced tutor could provide to help their children who struggle to read, write, and recognise the different letters of the alphabet.

A beneficial strategy is that the teacher should always act as a coach. The main thing that all dyslexic children need is to feel as if they are supported. They will then be able to progress rather than feeling frustrated and stuck.

As a teacher, you are the biggest motivator for your students so motivate all the learners in your class to do better.  Again, you need to be a beacon of hope for all students regardless of whether they are battling with dyslexia, ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder), dyspraxia, or even autism spectrum disorder.

According to the founder of Made by Dyslexia, "Dyslexics are round pegs in square holes when it comes to school. We don't fit in unless our way of thinking is recognised and supported." Kate Griggs