Understanding Dyslexia

What is Dyslexia?                      

Dyslexia is a difficulty with words: ‘dys’ means ‘difficulty’ and ‘lexis’ means language.

Dyslexia is more common than you might think: it is thought that it affects up to 10% of the population, and it affects as many females as males.  It has strong familial link, so if there is a history of dyslexia in the family, it is good to know about it.

In 2008 the Government tasked Sir Jim Rose with investigating how to improve provisions for dyslexic children. The report that followed provided a widely accepted definition of dyslexia, which (in summary) is as follows:

  • a learning difficulty that affects the skills involved in accurate and fluent word reading and spelling
  • features include difficulties in phonological awareness, verbal memory and verbal processing speed
  • it occurs across a range of intellectual abilities
  • 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 co-ordination, mental calculation, concentration and personal organisation, but these are not, by themselves, markers of dyslexia
  • an indication of the severity and persistence can be gained by examining how the individual responds or has responded to well founded intervention

Know the signs, and how to help children with dyslexia can make a significant difference to a child’s education, not only in what they learn, but also their self-esteem and confidence. The children who go undiagnosed may have their struggles at school incorrectly attributed to lack of effort, low intelligence or environmental factors.

Dyslexia is most commonly associated with trouble learning to read, write and spell, due to poor phonological awareness: the awareness of the sound structure of words, enabling a child’s to recognise and manipulate the sounds in language. Children with dyslexia, despite good language comprehension often find it hard to decode new words, or break them down into manageable chunks to then sound out or spell.   These children may be able to memorising words to reduce this, but they will still have difficulties recognising new words and may be slow in retrieving words familiar to them.

Dyslexia can be seen as a mismatch between a child’s overall ability and their achievements in reading, writing and spelling.  This is could be due to a number of difficulties, which include poor phonological skills, a weak working memory and/or slow speed of processing.   Some children with dyslexia may be able to keep up in class in the early years, but as the work gets harder and increases in volume, they may well fall behind.

With help and strategies for compensating for their relative areas of weakness, children with dyslexia can thrive academically, but dyslexia is not something they will grow out of. 

Indicators of Dyslexia 

  • Struggle with learning rhyme and alliteration and syllable awareness
  • Make limited reading progress
  • Have difficulty blending sounds together to decode words
  • Difficulty with matching letters/ combination of letters to sounds
  • Hesitant and laboured when reading aloud, and reluctant to do so
  • Weak reading comprehension
  • Fail to recognise high frequency words
  • Slow rate of reading
  • Difficulties with storage and retrieval of words

Also:

  • Untidy handwriting
  • Spelling difficulties
  • A poor standard of written work compared to oral ability
  • Slow rate of writing
  • Extreme reluctance to write
  • Difficulty copying from the board
  • Letter reversal

They may also find it hard to:

  • Follow verbal instructions and multi-step instructions
  • Multitask e.g. to take notes and copy from a board
  • Tell the time
  • Summarise information
  • Keeping up with conversations
  • Get started, plan and make decisions
  • Pay attention in class

…often leading to frustration, impacting their self-esteem, confidence, motivation and behaviour.

How is Dyslexia Diagnosed?

If your child isn’t meeting expectations for reading writing and/or spelling, as parents you can ask the school if they have any concerns and if they can perform a dyslexia screening test.  You also need to ensure they have had their eyes and hearing tested, and to rule out any environmental barriers to learning, that may be causing the lower than expected attainments.

If you want a full diagnosis, you can obtain a full evaluation by a specialist teacher & assessor or an educational psychologist.

When should a child be evaluated?

Dyslexia can begin to reveal itself at a young age, and there is evidence to show that your young child’s awareness of the sounds that make up words is a strong predictor of their reading and spelling development.

The earlier intervention is put in place, the greater chance your child has of catching up and/or not falling behind, while at the same time, reducing the risk of lowering their self-esteem and confidence.

How to help children with dyslexia

  • Multi-sensory teaching: visual, oral, auditory & kinesthetic, so tapping into as many senses as possible. Learn by seeing, saying, hearing, and touching
  • Scaffold teaching: recover, new teaching, reinforce through multi-sensory game
  • SMART targets that are: specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, timed
  • Acknowledge their effort and celebrate hard work, even if there are still mistakes
  • Positive language: ‘would it help if…’, ‘I like the way you’ve…’
  • Evaluate: ensure success is experienced and modify if required
  • Self-reflection and meta-cognition: awareness and understanding of the child’s own thought processes: ‘learning to learn’: help children think more explicitly about their learning, to help them plan, evaluate and modify their own learning
  • Help them recognise their strengths and combat negative self-talk

Accommodations may also be put in places, which can include, being given extra time on tests, using a laptop rather than writing by hand, listening to audio books, and even a reader or a scribe in some situations.

If you have further questions, or feel your child may benefit from support, please contact SarahEgerton-Warburton at egertonwarburton@btopenworld.com or 07740 451 408.