Dyslexia: How to successfully teach a dyslexic child to read

To teach a dyslexic child to read (ride hands free on a bike), the following strategies have proven to be very

Tina BurgessJamul Special Education Examiner August 22, 2012

successful:

1. Practice makes (almost) perfect.

Learning to read for a dyslexic child is like learning to ride a bike hands free. The key to successfully teach a dyslexic child to read is balance.

Reading with a dyslexic child on a regular, daily basis is crucial. The length of time should be adjusted to a childs ability to put a lot of energy into an exercise. It is better to practice reading (like riding the bike) for just a few

There are readers and there are readers. Most readers like to read short, to the point, non-exhausting reading materials. And then there are life-long readers that can spend hours with a good book or consume vast amount of reading materials in little time.

minutes.

2. A teacher cannot replace a parent.

Hardly any parent would delegate the task of learning to ride a bike to a teacher; neither should learning to read.

What kind of a reader a dyslexic child is going to be is not determined by dyslexia but the determination, time investment, and dedication of a parent.

3. Timing is everything.

Trying to practice riding a bike when a child is tired or exhausted is as fruitless as trying to teach a dyslexic child to read. While a structured time is important, it is even more important that both parent and child are relaxed and able to focus.

An early diagnosis of dyslexia and an understanding of the dyslexic mind can help a parent in teaching a dyslexic child to read.

Dyslexia is often genetically inherited. Unfortunately, many parents do not know or are not aware that they are dyslexic until their child is being diagnosed. By examining ones own ability to read, to spell, and to complete leftbrain hemisphere tasks (math, language, logical, analytical, sequential, rational thinking), a parent might realize that he or she also has dyslexia.

4. Beware of fatigue.

One of the challenges of teaching a creatively oriented dyslexic child is that sleep patterns do not follow any parenting book. A sleepy child cannot learn to ride a bike nor learn to read.

5. Control the speed. Understanding the role of left and right brain hemispheres and the importance of the corpus callosum (the structure that connects both hemispheres), helps in choosing the right academic courses for a dyslexic child. Dyslexic children do not like to waste time and have the tendency to just get the reading over with. As on a bike, maybe the faster I go the sooner I get to my goal is the dyslexic minds way of thinking. While for most children working faster is a challenge, for many dyslexic children going slower is the challenge. Just like a parent can slow down the bike riding exercise with a child by beginning to talk about something else, the reading can be slowed down by distracting the child with a conversation about the reading material, a picture, or a completely different topic.

Learning to read for a dyslexic child is like learning to ride a bike hands free and the key to success is balance.
Because of a dyslexic childs artistic and intuitive dominant right brain hemisphere, balance does not come naturally as a dyslexic child tries to read. Dyslexic children will, whenever possible and by nature, try to go too fast or shift too much to the right and down the bike goes.

6. Periods are Stop Signs.

Dyslexic children like to run over anything that gets in the way, including periods. For some children, saying

Stop Sign when there is a period works. For some other children saying Take a breath works. For very energetic dyslexic children it might take a change of topic conversation, however, to actually reinforce the stop sign.

By using the word Help, controlling a dyslexic childs reading speed, and by discussing the reading material with a child, any parent can make reading a precious time. Riding the bike hands free is especially fun for dyslexic children because the reading material provides them with a fertile ground to learn something new, to explore new

7. Be the training wheel.

interests, and to explore a different creative horizon. All of those are the unique characteristics of dyslexic children.

Hardly any parent would expect a child to get on a bike and just ride it hands free, especially if the child has a strong tendency to move to the right. In order to have the necessary balance to read, a dyslexic child needs training wheels. By teaching a child to say Help whenever he or she struggles with a word, a parent can be that training wheel.

11. Continue practicing reading through writing.

An additional helpful exercise to complete with a dyslexic child in order to reinforce newly learned words is to pick two to six words from the daily reading material and to write sentences with those words. Some dyslexic children

8. The magic word, Help.

enjoy the challenge of including as many of the assigned reading words in one sentence. By trying to combine completely unrelated words into one sentence many parents discover the innovate approach a dyslexic child takes towards language. Including daily readings of those sentences until the child has mastered the words provides a continuous supply of new ideas.

Saying help when a dyslexic student struggles with a word is the safety a dyslexic child needs to be able to learn to read without having to be afraid to fall. There are more than 200 small trigger words that will cause disorientation in a dyslexic childs brain. By being able to say help, a dyslexic child will not become disoriented and the reading exercise goes much more smoothly. By using ONLY the word help, it also prevents a dyslexic child from accessing too much of the dominant right brain hemisphere. Many dyslexic children can talk ones head off in order to shift away from the left-brain language activity to the right brain creative activity. Like riding the bike though, that shift will throw a child out of balance and he or she will fall. A parent can initiate different conversations in order to control a childs reading speed; a child, however, has to stay in balance.

12. Riding hands free and having fun.

As the life paths of Leonardo Da Vinci, Agatha Christie, Winston Churchill, Anthony Hopkins, Jay Leno, Whoopie Goldberg, Tom Cruise, Charles Schwab, Keanu Reeves, and many more famous dyslexics show, being dyslexic can be a precious gift. To explore that precious gift and to discover the amazing innovative talent, writing and drawing can be fun exercises to explore with your dyslexic child.

9. Check your expectations.

Not all children want to ride a bike hands free and not all dyslexic children are destined to become a future

Many parents expect that after giving a dyslexic child little words like in, on, was, a few hundred times, that the child should know the word. That is not how the mind of a dyslexic child works. There are a few scientific reading exercises for non-dyslexic readers where the reader is asked how many different of appear in a section. Most normal readers are not able to recognize the correct amount.

Leonardo Da Vinci or Agatha Christie. All any child can ask of a parent is to at least let me try. http://www.american-dyslexiaassociation.com/Free/Lists.php?kat=SL http://www.scoop.it/t/pictograms

10. Focus on the treasure of reading.