Dyslexia: Instructional Strategies

Whole Language Implementation

At Home Reinforcement

The teacher will choose a book for the class to read that is fairly simple to understand and does not contain difficult words. Then vocabulary, spelling, writing assignments and other language arts portions will be related to the story being read in class. If the student is being pulled out from class to work on reading, using the Edmark curriculum is a highly structured way to practice these skills as well.

Whole Language Strategies

Let the student choose a book that they are interested in and read with them. Reading should not always be seen as a chore or homework and should be reinforced that it is fun. In addition, make language arts activities at home interactive and fun. School is an expectation but home is supposed to be for downtime but can still be educational.

Whole language strategies combine reading, writing, vocabulary, phonics, spelling and comprehension together. Therefore, different language arts concepts are taught alongside reading.

Dyslexia

Multisensory Activities at Home

Dyslexia can affect reading fluency, decoding, reading comprehension, recall, writing, spelling, and sometimes speech.

This disability can manifest itself by the student reading slowly and painfully. The student may also struggle with decoding and mixing up letter order. There may be a difference between their listening comprehension and reading comprehension abilities. Spelling is also very difficult for these students, and it is common for them to substitute one sight word for another. These students are commonly very frustrated when reading in class and may also have difficulties with numbers.

Mimicking activities that are done at school at home help generalize learned skills. When reading with your child, practice reading to them and having them mimic what you're saying will help them practice their words and letters. Be sure to work with the intervention team for materials as well as suggestions. Another fun practice idea is to use shaving cream to practice spelling to make spelling fun as well as incorporating another sensory aspect to learning

References

Multisensory Techniques

Cox, J. (2015, May 18). Teaching Students With Dyslexia: A Guide For Educators. Retrieved from http://www.brighthubeducation.com/special-ed-learning-disorders/126674-guide-to-teaching-students-with-dyslexia/

Fidalgo, J. (2012, January 4). Teacher Strategies for Students With Dyslexia. Retrieved from http://www.brighthubeducation.com/special-ed-learning-disorders/64540-teaching-strategies-and-techniques-for-students-with-dyslexia/

Grove, A. (2012, July 12). Helping Students with Dyslexia. Retrieved from http://www.brighthubeducation.com/special-ed-learning-disorders/32710-how-students-with-dyslexia-learn-to-read/

This technique allows students with Dyslexia to use their other senses such as touch, sight and hearing in order to help them develop their reading skills. Multisensory techniques provide dyslexic students with a higher retention rate for learning new material.

Parent Resources

Multisensory Implementation

1. Reading Rockets

http://www.readingrockets.org/article/dyslexia-basics

2. Bright Hub Education

http://www.brighthubeducation.com/special-ed-learning-disorders/126674-guide-to-teaching-students-with-dyslexia/

3. Learning Disability Association

http://ldaamerica.org/parents/

4. The Yale Center for Dyslexia & Creativity

http://dyslexia.yale.edu/PAR_wordvocab.html

One way a teacher can implement multisensory techniques for a student with dyslexia is to have a student physically trace a sentence that is being read aloud to the student. This allows the student to see the sentence, physically write the sentence as hear the sentence out loud. This allows the student to pair all of those sensations in order to retain the information at higher rate as well as refer back to each sensation if simply seeing it is not enough.

Dyslexia: Instructional Strategies

Tierra Jefferson SPE/559