Dyslexia Friendly Classroom

When parents of a dyslexic child ask that their son’s or daughter’s school will become dyslexia friendly, a common response is that turning an educational institution to a dyslexia friendly school is very expensive.

My answer to their wish is straightforward, instead, ask your teacher to make his or her study-room a dyslexia friendly classroom, and in order to do so you mainly need awareness.

1. When you print or send an e-mail use dyslexia friendly font such as Arial, Verdana, Tahoma
2. Use colored paper for your printouts instead of white paper.
3. Make sure that pupils with dyslexia can see your face when you speak in classroom.
4. Give pupils with dyslexia time to get organized before starting the lesson.
5. Don’t make a student with dyslexia read out loud before he is ready

Dyslexic Kids and Mobile Messaging

We are communicating with each other using text with messaging more now than we ever have before. Not long ago the main means of communication was speaking to one another but today text messaging has come to the fore.

Who doesn’t use today mobile messaging- Facebook messaging, iMessage, Whatsapp, Skype etc. to communicate? We all do and our kids much more than we.

Here are some mobile messaging statistics regarding kids:

– 75% of adolescents aged 12 to 17 have a cell phone.

– Kids between the ages of 13 and 17 send an average of 3364 text messages per month.

– Half of teenagers send 50 text messages or more every day. One third send 100 or more texts a day.

Mobile texting usually adopts a very informal language. Keyboard errors resulting in spelling mistakes, the wish to be concise (type less) even at the expense of correct English and grammar – is very common in mobile texting.

So when our dyslexic kids write text messaging with errors should we encourage them to stop and review their text before sending the message? My answer is that it depends …

3 Educational Activities That Will Benefit Children With Dyslexia

By Joyce Wilson

Dyslexia is one of the most well-known learning disabilities, with 1 in 5 students facing the challenges it presents. Although it used to be widely believed that boys were more likely to be dyslexic than girls, recent studies from Yale University show the disorder affects both boys and girls equally. While dyslexia can present some roadblocks to the intellectual development of many children, it can be overcome with creative approaches to learning. Here are three activities that can help children get beyond their struggle with dyslexia.

Play Word Games

A great way to help children pick up new words and phrases is to play a game that engages their minds in different ways. Whether it’s Scrabble, a crossword puzzle or a homemade flash card memory game, by adding an element of fun to the learning process you encourage them to develop new strategies in recognizing different words and making connections to words they already know. Games like these put more focus on a single word, instead of sentences and paragraphs, which helps young students stay focused on the basic elements of language. Word memorization games can be highly effective to help dyslexic children get ahead.

Read Aloud

While reading is typically a solitary activity, having children read aloud can help them approach the text in a new way and inspire them to develop their reading comprehension abilities. When dyslexic children read out loud, they must externalize their thought process, which makes it easier for you to recognize which words or phrases trip them up and provides you with the opportunity to help guide them along in real time. As children become better at reading out loud, you can have them memorize short monologues or poems and perform them for a small group, which will improve their public speaking ability while forcing them to internalize the syntax and semantics of the text they’re reading. Another activity akin to reading aloud is to put the words into song, and whether you go with songs written for children or a karaoke machine with the latest pop songs, music is a powerful mnemonic device not only for remembering words, but also the order they go in.

Practice in the Real World

The classroom isn’t the only place where children can develop better reading skills. One of the most effective strategies for helping dyslexic youngsters boost their reading comprehension is to have them practice in a real-life environment. Walk through public spaces and read anything you encounter while out and about. Street signs, menus, advertisements and food labels all give children a chance to practice their reading in a practical way, which will help them not only improve their abilities, but it will also help them make the connection of how reading can be applied in the everyday situations.

Joyce Wilson loved being a teacher, and though she has recently retired, she hasn’t lost that passion. She continues to educate (and help educators) by mentoring teachers in her area. She is also the co-creator of TeacherSpark.org, a resource for teachers to gather fun, engaging lesson

Difficult Times for Dyslexic Kids and Teenagers.

The summer vacation is almost over, and millions of kids and teenagers are about to return to school. As a dyslexic child, I remember these days to be very difficult.

The end of the summer break was a time when, on the one hand I could still smell Summer’s activities when my dyslexia and dysgraphia did not affect me, and on the other hand the clock was ticking in my head with alarming sound, saying, so and so days to school, so and so days back to facing my writing and reading limitations, or even more so, facing a new class and unfamiliar teachers.

I hope this short blog will help parents of kids and teenagers with dyslexia understand why this is a hard time for their dyslectic kid.

Starting a New School Could Be an Opportunity for a Student with Dyslexia.

The summer vacation is almost over, and millions of kids and teenagers will start a new school after their summer activities.

It can be very hard for a kid with dyslexia or dysgraphia to start a new school since he is leaving his comfort zone where he is already familiar with the teachers and classmates.

I believe a student with dyslexia could see a change of school as an opportunity.

In order to make the most, the child and his parents need to sit down and perform a strings and weakness table. You can do it since you already have experience coping with dyslexia and dysgraphia.

The result of the strings and weakness table needs to be an action plan for the first month in school.

The action plan may include all aspects of being a student, for example:

• Social – Making new friends in school.
• Learning – what I need to do in order to succeed in class
• Technology – which assistive technology I need in order to cope with my dyslexia or dysgraphia

Dyslexia symptoms, causes and types of dyslexia

By Melody Cleo

Dyslexia symptoms, causes and types of dyslexia:

Dyslexia refers to a learning disability which is common in children. This disorder makes children find it difficult to write, read spell and sometimes even experience hindrance in speaking. Although the severity of this disorder can range from being mild to severe it can be treated successfully with timely intervention. In many cases owing to the absence of any obvious symptoms Dyslexia goes undetected in many children during their early years. The difficulty faced by such children in being able to learn easily often makes them go through extreme degree of frustration and may show visible signs of being depressed and suffer from low self-esteem.

The Symptoms of Dyslexia:

1. the most common symptom of Dyslexia in a child is his tendency to write numbers and letters in a reversed fashion. While such reversals are quite common in children up to the age of eight, if this problem persists then the child should be tested for Dyslexia.

2. Inability to copy from the book or the board in the classroom is also suggestive of a problem and can be a symptom of Dyslexia.

3. Disorganized writing and failure to be able to retain content of a text is also suggestive of Dyslexia.

4.While Dyslexia is primarily a learning disorder children suffering from this condition may also face significant difficulty in outdoor activities owing to their inability to judge left or right , speed of a moving object or even determining special relationships.

5. Another common symptom of Dyslexia is auditory difficulty. A child suffering from this disorder experiences difficulty in following multiple commands or may even fail to recollect something heard clearly. They also experience issues in being able to express their thoughts clearly through words.

6. One of the most pronounced symptom of Dyslexia is that a child gets confused by words, letters, numbers, sequence and verbal explanation.

7. Apart from the above academic symptoms a child suffering from Dyslexia also exhibits some emotional symptoms like depression, withdrawal symptoms, and low levels of self-confidence and lack of motivation.

Causes and types of Dyslexia:

The following are the different types of Dyslexia which also explains what causes them.

1) Trauma Dyslexia – This type of Dyslexia is a rare scenario where a child suffers from the disorder owing to some injury or trauma in that part of the brain which controls writing and reading.

2) Primary Dyslexia – Primary Dyslexia refers to a kind of dysfunction of the cerebral cortex which is on the left side of the brain. This kind of disorder does not change with the advancement of age and is usually hereditary. Primary Dyslexia is more predominant in boys rather than girls.

3) Development of secondary Dyslexia – Secondary or Development Dyslexia is caused by hormonal development of the foetus in the early stage. This type of Dyslexia diminishes with age and even this is found more in boys than girls.

Dyslexia also hinders several functions like visual Dyslexia and Auditory Dyslexia .Visual Dyslexia leads to a child having difficulty in writing letters properly and often leading to letter reversals and inability to follow the correct sequence while writing. Auditory Dyslexia on the other hand is characterized by the child having difficulty in perceiving the sound of the letters or words correctly.

Hence these are the causes and symptoms of Dyslexia which if identified in children should always be taken seriously. It is important to note that if treated early Dyslexia can be cured easily and it saves the child from going through the unnecessary stress of being unable to go through the learning tasks unlike their peers. Apart from being able to identify the correct time when one should seek medical intervention it is also important to be able to bear the financial expenses of the treatment.

Author Bio:

Melody Cleo is a passionate blogger from Manchester, UK. In her free time, she writes articles on various topics such as technology, gadgets, travel…etc. As of now she is focusing on EHIC, which provides health insurance services for the European people.

Personal Note:

As a life long dyslexic and the founded Ghotit, I started to ask myself is it really important to the individual dyslexic his classification in order to help him study and work?

Diagnosing Dyslexia

The earlier a child with dyslexia is diagnosed, the more effective his/her treatment could be.

Identifying dyslexia

In practice, identifying dyslexia in younger children can be very difficult for both parents and teachers because the signs and symptoms are often subtle. However, early continuing difficulties with differentiating sounds, particularly at the beginning or end of a word, can be a sign of possible difficulties in the future.

Many children, including younger children, also develop ways to compensate for their dyslexia, such as relying on their long-term memory more than usual or by ‘picturing’ the whole word.

Signs and symptoms of dyslexia you need to be looking for:

  1. Directional confusion- for example, writing 69 instead of 96
  2. Sequencing difficulties- for example, reading the letters in a word in a wrong sequence
  3. Difficulties with small words- for example, replacing “a” for “and”
  4. Late talking
  5. Difficulties with handwriting

This is a partial list of dyslexia signs. In any case you think there is a problem with your child,  take him/her to a professional diagnostics.