Dyslexia (1672)

What is Dyslexia?

Dyslexia is a learning disability that makes it hard to read correctly and quickly.

Children with dyslexia struggle to understand letter sounds and how to put those sounds together. This makes it hard to read and hard to understand what they read.

Dyslexia is not a problem with how children see. Children with it have some differences in their brain but it does not mean there is something wrong with your child’s brain.

Children with dyslexia may have a hard time:

• Learning sight words. Sight words are short words that are used often, like “the”, “when”, or “me”.
• Remembering the sounds of letters and putting them together to form words.
• Understanding what they read.
• Sounding out words and reading at a smooth pace.
• Spelling.

How can dyslexia affect my child?

• Struggling to read can be frustrating. This can lower a child’s confidence.
• Children with dyslexia may be less interested in doing homework.
• They may put off reading and take a long time to finish homework.
• They may read below grade level.
• Dyslexia makes it hard to learn in other subjects. Children with dyslexia may struggle in math class. For example, it may be harder to solve word problems in math.

How can I help my child?

There is no cure for dyslexia, but there are things you can do to help your child.

At home

• Play rhyming games with your child.
• Read out loud to your child. Have your child listen to audio books. You can sign up to get audio books at https://www.bookshare.org/cms/ or ask for help at your library.
• Help your child use their senses when learning words. They can:
  • Write words in the air or in sand.
  • Make a picture in their mind they can link with the word (like a picture of two eyes with the double “o” in the word look).
• Build on your child’s strengths. They can do sports or hobbies they are good at and like.

At school

If your child is behind in school, you can ask for a plan for extra help. This plan is called an IEP. An IEP lists ways that the school will help your child. Work with your child’s school to develop an IEP that includes special education services and changes in the area your child struggles in. These changes are called accommodations.

If you think these things would help your child, you can ask your school to use them:

• Read tests to your child. Your child gives answers out loud.
• Pre-teach and practice new words.
• Give copies of class notes to your child.
• Give short and clear directions.
• Match pictures/visuals with words whenever possible
• Use speech to text software for long writing assignments.
• When grading school work, do not count misspellings if it is the content that is being assessed.

Note

There are special programs to help children with Dyslexia. Some of the programs are: Orton Gillingham, RAVE-O, and Lindamood Bell.

You can contact the following program to sign your child up for tutoring:

Additional Resources

• www.starfall.com Starfall is an on-line reading program for preschool through early elementary school students.
• www.pbskids.org This website has games to help children work on their beginning reading and phonics skills.
• http://www.readingrockets.org/ This website has information to help with reading and understanding.
• www.dyslexia.yale.edu/ The Yale Center for Dyslexia and Creativity
• http://www.ncld.org/ National Center for Learning Disabilities
• https://www.understood.org/en Understood for Learning and Attention Issues
• "Overcoming Dyslexia", 2nd Edition, written by Sally Shaywitz, M.D.