Top tips of how to help students
with Dyslexia and Dyspraxia
Aims of session
• To help suggest tips of how to help
students with dyslexia and dyspraxia
• To disseminate findings of my action
research
• 10-15 minutes of questions at the end
Write down in pairs.....
what you know about dyslexia and
dyspraxia and what you have done to
help students with Dyslexia and
Dyspraxia that has worked?
Key facts about Dyslexia
• About 10% of the population are affected by dyslexia to some
degree.
• Dyslexia is not the same as a problem with reading. Many
dyslexic people learn to read, but have continuing difficulties
with spelling, writing, memory and organisation.
• Did you know that 40 percent of all the entrepreneurs in
Britain are dyslexics? And that number is 35 percent in the
United States.
• As against popular belief, dyslexia is not just about reversing
numbers and letters, in fact only a fraction of dyslexics suffer
from this (30 percent of dyslexics to be exact).
Dyslexia
• The word 'dyslexia' comes from the Greek. It
means 'difficulty with words'. Dyslexia is a
general term for disorders that involve
difficulty in learning to read or interpret words,
letters, and other symbols, but that do not
affect general intelligence
• Dyslexia is a brain-based, genetic trait.
• Research supported by the National Institute
of Child Health and Human Development
suggests that dyslexia affects the temporal
parietal lobe.
• Brain activity while reading of a non-dyslexic
person (left) and dyslexic person (right).
These two brains are reading. The red and
yellow sections indicate brain activity.
Dyspraxia
• Developmental dyspraxia is an impairment of the
organisation of movement. The way that someone
with Dyspraxia processes information in the brain can
result in messages not being properly or fully
transmitted.
• The term dyspraxia comes from the word praxis,
which means 'doing, acting'. Dyspraxia affects the
planning of what to do and how to do it. It is
associated with problems of perception, language
and thought.
• Dyspraxia is thought to affect up to ten per cent of the
population and up to two per cent severely. Males are
four times more likely to be affected than females.
Dyspraxia sometimes runs in families.
How to spot someone with Dyslexia
• They often report that words seem
blurry or that they move or dance on
the page or are jumbled up
• They might see some letters as
backwards or upside down
• They might not be able to tell the
difference between letters that look
similar in shape such as o and e and
c
• They might not be able to tell the
difference between letters that have
similar shape but different orientation,
such as b and p and d and q
• The letters and words might look all
bunched together
• The letters of some words might
appear completely backwards, such
as the word bird looking like drib
How to spot someone with Dyslexia
•
They might see the letters o.k., but not be able
to sound out words -- that is, not be able to
connect the letters to the sounds they make and
understand them;
• They might be able to connect the letters and
sound out words, but not recognize words they
have seen before, no matter how many times
they have seen them -- each time they would
have to start fresh;
• They might be able to read the words o.k. but not
be able to make sense of or remember what they
read, so that they find themselves coming back
to read the same passage over and over again.
• A dyslexic person could have any of the above
symptoms – or none! It is possible for a dyslexic
person to be able to read very well, yet find it
extremely difficult or impossible to write or spell.
Symptoms
•
It is best thought of as a continuum, not a distinct category, and there are
no clear cut-off points.
• Co-occurring difficulties may be seen in aspects of language, motor coordination, mental calculation, concentration and personal organisation, but
these are not, by themselves, markers of dyslexia.
• Difficulties with numbers (eg learning times tables, getting numbers in the
wrong order, confusing numerical signs)- Dyscalculia
• Poor organisation
• Directional confusions
• Difficulties with sequencing information
• Poor sense of time
• Problems making skills become “automatic”
• Difficulty taking in oral information
• Problems with pronouncing some words
• Problems finding the right words (word retrieval)
• Difficulty learning and applying rules eg punctuation rules
Associated Strengths
• Not all people with dyslexia experience all of these
“symptoms” from the previous slide. Everyone is
different. People
with
dyslexia may also
Everybody
is
a
genius.
experience some of these strengths, again to
differing
degrees:
But
if you
judge a fish
•by
Intuition
its ability to climb a
• Good at visualisation, including in 3D
it will live its whole
•tree,
Creativity
•life
Good
at seeing the
believing
thatwhole
it ispicture
•stupid
Good at
making
links
between
things,
seeing
.-Albert Einstein
connections
How to spot someone with
dyspraxia
• Clumsiness. May drop things, spill
things, bump into people, etc.
• Difficulty writing, both forming letters and
the speed. Writing may even be painful.
• Reading difficulties and Speech
problems.
• Poor short term memory. E.g. If given a
list of instructions to carry out, may
remember the first and last one but not
the ones in between.
• Awkward walking and running.
• Sensitive to sounds, e.g. may not like
loud music
How to spot someone with
dyspraxia
• Poor concentration. E.g. easily
distracted by background noise.
• Poorly organised. E.g. leaving things
you need for school at home
• Have trouble learning new tasks
particularly those involving
organization and concentration.
• Trouble with social skills, E.g.
problems reading and understanding
body language, trouble
understanding distance rules when
sitting/standing next to someone,
cannot keep eye contact, etc.
What you can do to help students
with Dyslexia and Dyspraxia
• Treat them as
individuals- you cannot
help until you know what
their difficulties are and if
they need any help! So a
discussion of their needs
early on would be useful!
General Hints and Tips for
organisation and homework
• If they have difficulties with organisation- letting them use a phone
to set deadlines and reminders this will help with time
management and remembering to bring resources
• Encourage good organizational skills by the use of folders and
dividers to keep work easily accessible and in an orderly fashion.
• Break tasks down into small easily remembered pieces of
information.
• Deadlines and tasks must be written clearly on the board and
students strongly encouraged to write down
• Set a limit on time spent on homework, as often a dyslexic child
will take a lot longer to produce the same work that another child
with good literacy skills may produce easily.
• All children should be encouraged to proof read, which can be
useful for initial correction of spellings. Dyslexics seem to be unable
to correct their spellings spontaneously as they write, but they can
be trained to look out for errors that are particular to them.
•Limit the amount of
text on a power point
•Avoid using writing
that is all in capital
letters as this can be
•
difficult
for students to
read
•Try to do handouts with
cream or pastel
backgrounds and black
writing
•Some students have a
colour preference so if
they wanted you could
print their resource on
this colour paper
•If visual memory is poor,
copying must be kept to a
minimum. Notes or handouts
are far more useful.
•The use of diagrams, flow
chart, graphs etc may be
helpful for students rather
than lots of text as they can
visualise the information
Tips for
creating
resources
•Use a plain, evenly spaced
sans serif font such as
Arial and Comic Sans.
Alternatives include
Verdana, Tahoma, Century
Gothic, Trebuchet.
•Font size should be 12-14
point. Some dyslexic
readers may request a
larger font.
Tips for Board Work
• Use different colour pens for each line if there is a lot
of written information on the board, or underline every
second line with a different coloured pen.
• Use of mind maps on the board helps to break up
information for students as well as using their visual
skills. Even better if different coloured pens are used for
different sections
• Ensure that the writing is well spaced. Leave the writing
on the blackboard long enough to ensure the child
doesn't rush, or that the work is not erased from the
board before the child has finished copying.
Hints and Tips
• Give them thinking time when you ask on the spot
questions
• Let them talk to the person next to them (task related)they are not trying to be disruptive often they are
checking understanding and building confidence.
• Inspiration software for mind maps
• Audio tapes for recording lessons that can then be
written up at a later stage.
• Written record of the pupil's verbal account, or voice
activated software can be used such as dragon.
• Students could be encouraged to listen in lessons
rather than take notes and then write up notes from
moodle after the lesson.
More tips
Use of colours i.e. Different
coloured packs for different
topic areas or students could be
encouraged to use highlighters
Use of coloured line rulerdifferent colours work for
different students so they
need to experiment for
themselves- often this will
change over time. They can
also change the
background of their
computer screen to a
different colour to help them
Make sure if
you do in class
tests that
students are
given their
allocated extra
time otherwise
this will put
them at a
disadvantage
especially if it
will be graded
or peer marked!
More tips
• Starter
sentences- or
begin task in
class
Use of videos, role play
and posters to reinforce
learning
Provide written
directions and
checklists for
assignments.
Provide model
answers,
templates for
structure for
essays or
extended writing
Reasons why I did my research
• Frustration!
What I did
• Student led focus groups- learn strategies
from each other
• Symptoms in no two dyslexics may be the
same. In fact it is now known that only 30% of
all the dyslexics are known to reverse the
letters in words, the rest however, suffer from
a range of different combination of
symptoms.
• Therefore IEPS!
• Shared with teachers
Findings
• Students-The response was overwhelmingly positive
• “the focus groups were useful to talk to other students and helped
me to learn ways to learn from others”,
• “I found the focus groups extremely helpful. It was great to have
both fellow students’ and a teacher’s support and advice. It was
good to know you had a teacher who was on your side and
understood our difficulties, so could help us challenge our disability
especially when the challenges involved other adults”
• “I have really enjoyed meeting students in a similar position to
myself. It makes me feel less alone and more capable to do things,
because they have been through it before e.g. lessons, exams and
assessments (an AS student talking about A2 students) and have
come out smiling and fighting and that gives me a little reassurance
that I can achieve despite my problems”
• “it is good to know that you are not alone”.
• In terms of the IEPs 100% of the students said that they found them
helpful and 100% said that it helped them to develop strategies for
learning
Findings
• Data from teachers• 75% said they had seen improvements in
individual traits for example note taking, time
management or confidence.
• When asked if teachers felt they were more
aware of how to help these students since
the IEP 11% strongly agreed, 55% agreed,
18% said that they didn’t know and 14%
disagreed.
• 82% of teachers saying that they would like
to receive IEPs in the future.
Questions
Maths specific tips
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It has been estimated that around 90% of dyslexic children have problems in at least some areas
of maths. General mathematical terminology words need to be clearly understood before they can
be used in calculations, e.g. add, plus, sum of, increase and total, all describe a single
mathematical process. Other related difficulties could be with visual/perceptual skills, directional
confusion, sequencing, word skills and memory. Dyslexic students may have special difficulties
with aspects of maths that require many steps or place a heavy load on the short-term memory,
e.g. long division or algebra.
The value of learning the skills of estimation cannot be too strongly stressed for the dyslexic child.
Use and encourage the use of estimation. The child should be taught to form the habit of checking
their answers against the question when they has finished the calculation, i.e. is the answer
possible, sensible or ludicrous?
When using mental arithmetic allow the dyslexic child to jot down the key number and the
appropriate mathematical sign from the question.
Encourage pupils to verbalize and to talk their way through each step of the problem. Many
children find this very helpful.
Teach the pupil how to use the times table square and encourage them to say their workings out
as they use it.
Encourage a dyslexic child to use a calculator. Make sure they fully understand how to use it.
Ensure that they have been taught to estimate to check their calculations. This is a way of 'proof
reading' what they do.
Put key words on a card index system or on the inside cover of the pupils maths book so it can be
used for reference and revision.
Rehearse mathematical vocabulary constantly, using multi sensory/kinesthetic methods.
Put the decimal point in red ink. It helps visual perception with the dyslexic child.