Dyslexia: What Teachers (& Parents) Need To Know (Part 4)

Posted on November 14, 2013 by Squarehead Teachers

This is the final part (part 4) in a series about Dyslexia. The author, Robin, is a mother of 4 boys, 2 of whom have dyslexia. She has been taking her sons to private tutoring and researching as much as she can about dyslexia for the past 7 years.

Famous people who are dyslexic (and these are only the ones whose names I recognized):

Whoopi Goldberg Henry Winkler*

Tom Cruise Jay Leno

Danny Glover Orlando Bloom

Alexander Graham Bell Albert Einstein

Thomas Edison Cher

John Lennon Bruce Jenner

Muhammad Ali Magic Johnson

George Washington Woodrow Wilson

Andrew Jackson Nelson Rockefeller

Hans Christina Anderson Agatha Christie

Henry Ford Charles Schwab

Steven Spielberg Walt Disney

*Henry Winkler, also known as the Fonz from the TV series Happy Days, is dyslexic. He never new until he was an adult and his own son struggled with it and was diagnosed. He had a very strict military father and went to military school and really struggled. He had a talent for acting so that’s how he became a success. Anyway, he got together a few years ago with an author and they wrote a series of books about a kid in elementary school with dyslexia (based on Winkler’s life). They are called the Han Zipzer series. Many teachers haven’t heard of them, but they’re an excellent read. They are funny but bring to light some of the struggles that kids with dyslexia have as well as some of the stereotypes of being lazy or just a bad kid.

I’ve combined all these posts together into a 9 page PDF document so you can print it out easily. Here it is: Dyslexia book.

DISCLAIMER: The medical information in this article is merely information – not advice. If you need medical advice, you should consult a doctor or other appropriate medical professional.

Dyslexia: What Teachers (& Parents) Need To Know (Part 3)

Posted on November 13, 2013 by Squarehead Teachers

This is part 3 in a series about Dyslexia. The author, Robin, is a mother of 4 boys, 2 of whom have dyslexia. She has been taking her sons to private tutoring and researching as much as she can about dyslexia for the past 7 years.

Kids with dyslexia learn best kinesthetically. Here is a list of ways to help them learn material if they are struggling with other areas.

writing words in the air
large invisible letters on a wall with their finger, have them point to where each letter is in a different sequence so you know they visualize the word
write on the board in large letters
Have them write their letters inside a square box so they remember which direction the letter goes.
Practice tracking with the child using fun finger pointers, a pen, or a ruler
Play fluency games: a list of letters repeated in a different order on each line. Have them read as many as they can in a minute and see if they can beat their previous time every day. You can also use words as they begin to read more.
Sand is messy so make a board with fine sandpaper that students can write letters with their fingers.
hair gel in a large zip bag gives them a squishy surface to practice spelling words.
Teach students WHY a word is spelled the way it is, give them a rule to apply or a saying to go with the rule. One of the first that my son learned was the FLOSS rule which states that when a small word with a single short vowel sound ends in F L S (or Z), you double the last consonant. And the word floss demonstrates the rule. Other words are jazz, miss, grass, fluff, doll…you get the idea.
Give instructions in steps and allow more time to complete assignments or shorten the assignment to help the child feel successful by completing along with the rest of the class.

One final thought. Kids with dyslexia often have distortions when looking at a page with a lot of text. Copy work on to colored paper (blue is the most common to help) to eliminate the stark difference between black print and white background. The distortions are part of what is called Irlen’s Syndrome. The Irlen method of using colored overlays or lenses was discovered by Helen Irlen. It is common among people with all kinds of learning disabilities such as dyslexia, ADD/ADHD, and various other visual processing disorders. The disorder is not only associated with dyslexia, although many people with dyslexia are helped by the Irlen method.

Remember, these are smart kids that just learn differently. Find what works best for them. You will be their best friend if you show that you try to understand them. Encouragement goes a long way with a child who puts forth a great effort that seems effortless to others.

{MINDY’S 2 CENTS: I had Irlen’s Syndrome as a kid. In elementary school, I was in the gifted and talented classes, but I had a hard time reading. I complained of having headaches while reading and said the words seemed to swim on a white page with black printing. My GATE teacher referred us to a specialist from the Irlen Institute who tested me to see how well I did on reading and different tasks when I had colored lenses on. Light blueish-violet was the trick! That particular shade of blue caused no color distortion (when I looked at a white wall it was still white), and my reading problems went away! The specialist said that without the colored lenses (or colored transparency on the page), I wasn’t blinking so my eyes would become fatigued. The colored sheets did the trick, and I wore blue-tinted lenses for many years as a kid. This was a relatively inexpensive fix (not funded by the school district) and it did wonders! Turns out, my sister also needed colored lenses (a different shade) for depth perception instead of reading. They weren’t the coolest glasses ever, but it made a world of difference in my studies, self-confidence and ability to get through scholastic tasks. Now I don’t really seem to have the problem, but boy am I glad my teacher knew enough about Irlen’s Syndrome, dyslexia and other learning circumstances to suggest this to my mom.}

Stay tuned for more in our Dyslexia series (symptoms, tips & tricks for parents and teachers)!

DISCLAIMER: The medical information in this article is merely information – not advice. If you need medical advice, you should consult a doctor or other appropriate medical professional.

Dyslexia: What Teachers (& Parents) Need To Know (Part 2)

Posted on November 12, 2013 by Squarehead Teachers

This is part 2 in a series about Dyslexia. The author, Robin, is a mother of 4 boys, 2 of whom have dyslexia. She has been taking her sons to private tutoring and researching as much as she can about dyslexia for the past 7 years.

What does Dyslexia look like?

Do you have a child struggling to read? It might be Dyslexia. It’s not just reversal of letters as most people think. Dyslexia manifests itself in a variety of ways. It has been estimated that one in five children of average or higher intelligence have this common learning difference. Look at this list of symptoms. If you have a child who exhibits a few of them, maybe it’s time to be tested.

* difficulty reading unfamiliar words

* slow, sound by sound reading

* headaches when reading

* words moving, shifting, or blurring on the page

* difficulty with handwriting

* unable to write alphabet in order or alphabetize

* reverses or flips letters or numbers

* writes from right to left or backwards

* unable to determine dexterity – tries to use both hands

* difficulty of eyes following text on a line

* fixating on one word or area of text for longer than normal

* spells phonetically, often eliminating vowels (HND for hand)

* poor organizational skills – messy desk or backpack, forgets homework

* loses concentration and attention quickly

* makes many errors while reading

* re-reads text often

* mispronounces larger words – amblience for ambulance, pasketti for spaghetti

* has difficulty recalling a list of items when given the list verbally

* has difficulty remembering names or objects

* forgets or doesn’t follow instructions

* slower than most kids to complete work or tasks

* difficulty learning math facts, days of the week, months of the year

* lack of coordination, clumsy or bumps into things

* difficulty remembering left from right

* is very artistic, musically inclines, or athletic (right brained)

* seems to zone out

* learns best by hands-on activities

* knows material but doesn’t test well

* difficulty copying print

* writes in an upward or downward slant

* might be extremely orderly or line things up even if it’s not organized

* time management problems

* difficulty with large or fine motor skills

* difficulty telling time on a traditional face clock

* learning to type is difficult

It was a list similar to this one that helped me determine why my son was struggling to read and succeed in school. His teacher had previously told me that she thought he was just lazy. Look over the list and you’ll find that you too might recognize multiple symptoms in your struggling reader. If you are a teacher, ask parents to look at this list. Maybe they will recognize some of the symptoms that you don’t encounter at school. If so, refer the child for testing.

Stay tuned for more in our Dyslexia series (symptoms, tips & tricks for parents and teachers)!

DISCLAIMER: The medical information in this article is merely information – not advice. If you need medical advice, you should consult a doctor or other appropriate medical professional.

Dyslexia: What Teachers (& Parents) Need To Know (Part 1)

Posted on November 11, 2013 by Squarehead Teachers

I don’t know very much about Dyslexia, and as a teacher, I should. So I’ve asked my friend, Robin, for help. Robin is a mother of 4 boys, 2 of whom have dyslexia. She has been taking her sons to private tutoring and researching as much as she can about dyslexia for the past 7 years.

As a Mom, nothing hurts more than to see your child struggling at school. As my first child entered Kindergarten, I had such high hopes for him. I would send him off each day with visions of him making new friends, learning about the world, and learning how to read. Unfortunately, that was not the reality for him. He struggled to complete his work before he could go outside for recess. He struggled to read. He complained of headaches when it was time for homework. And he even has a bit of trouble socializing with other kids. As time went on, reading became more and more difficult for him until I finally realized that it was my right as a parent to ask to have him tested. ADHD was my first thought since he would tap his pencil on the table and stood with one knee on his chair during homework time. I was wrong. He has dyslexia.

Dyslexia manifests itself in so many different ways in different children. The only shared trait among dyslexics is that they all struggle to read at levels far below those of typical children of the same age. For him, the biggest challenge is his processing speed. For others, it might be the reversal of letters or numbers. Many years later, and after thousands of dollars in private tutoring, I know that it is possible to learn to read with dyslexia. It takes dedicated teachers who are willing to be patient and specialize a program to help these children.

Dyslexia, particularly in relation to processing speed, prevents students from moving information from the frontal cortex where learning occurs, to the storage area in the brain which allows them to recall words upon sight (like so many reading programs teach). For someone with dyslexia, a systematic multi-sensory kinesthetic approach is necessary. The rules of the English language MUST be taught so that a reader can decode a word every time he sees the word. This allows for only a small portion of the millions of words in our language to be put to memory – hence, sight words. Although dyslexia is a neurological difference, it does not affect intelligence. In fact, many kids with dyslexia test at average or higher than average intelligence. Einstein had dyslexia.

The biggest problem I see as a parent of a child with dyslexia is lack of training and knowledge among our schools. So many teachers do not know how to teach a student with dyslexia so these children are simply put in special ed and given more time to be taught to read in a method that is not conducive to the way that a dyslexic learns to read. There are so many programs which are fairly inexpensive for teacher’s to use that are very effective. Discover Intensive Phonics by Reading Horizons is one of them. S.P.I.R.E. is another that is used by the private tutor I take my son to. It is a bit more expensive but still much less costly than many of the programs already being used in schools and special ed classes. There are also many kinesthetic approaches that are helpful for dyslexic students to train their brains to recognize words.

My suggestion for teachers and administrators is to become more educated about dyslexia. Here are just a few facts that might impress education professionals of the importance of learning more. It is estimated that 70-80% of children with poor reading skills are dyslexic, many of whom are undiagnosed. One in every five students overall has dyslexia. Less than one third of students with reading disabilities are receiving school services to address those disabilities.

Find out where the local chapter of the International Dyslexia Association meets in your area and attend their monthly meetings. They often have specialists visit to teach methods of helping these struggling children. Become more informed as a teacher so you can help keep these kids from falling through the cracks. You never know, some day it may one of your own children or grandchildren.

Just for fun, click here to see one graphic designer’s take on dyslexia.

Stay tuned for more in our Dyslexia series (symptoms, tips & tricks for parents and teachers)!

DISCLAIMER: The medical information in this article is merely information – not advice. If you need medical advice, you should consult a doctor or other appropriate medical professional.