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Teaching Dyslexic Students

  • 1.  Teaching Dyslexic Students

    Posted 09-14-2020 04:06 PM
    Good afternoon. 

    I am in my first year of tutoring children with challenges on how to read. Does anyone have any strategies on how to teach children with dyslexia? 

    Help, please. 
    Thank you. 

     

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    Marissa Ridgley
    Anchorage AK
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  • 2.  RE: Teaching Dyslexic Students

    Posted 09-15-2020 08:11 AM
    Marissa,
    I have found some great information about this topic by accessing several of the free recorded webinars at edweb.net.  Once on the homepage you can search dyslexia and several options pop up to watch at your convenience.  Hope you find these helpful!
    Jennifer Fernandez
    Early Childhood Subject Matter Expert
    School Specialty, Inc.
    San Antonio, TX

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    Jennifer Fernandez
    Early Childhood Subject Matter Expert
    School Specialty, Inc.
    San Antonio TX
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  • 3.  RE: Teaching Dyslexic Students

    Posted 09-15-2020 11:56 AM
    I am an Early Childhood Educator and mother of a Dyslexic young adult. I can tell you from personal experience that I have found the following resources crucial:
    • https://www.nessy.com/us/
    • https://www.dyslexiatraininginstitute.org/?gclid=CjwKCAjwzIH7BRAbEiwAoDxxTmzJONImb9nM-bKylJbyGSmzTZbQlS07ZdisTGbyfHAesuFrT-q2zRoC5sgQAvD_BwE
    • A teacher trained in the Orton Gillingham approach to reading. This we could never access in public or private schools but had to find private tutors. The multi-sensory approach is good for every child in the classroom.
    • A book for that ever changed the way I would parent and teach my child: "The Dyslexic Advantage: Unlocking the Hidden Potential of the Dyslexic Brain" by Brock L. Eide, M.D., M.A., and Fernette F. Eide, M.D.

    My perspective from a mother and educator viewpoint is that my son was far too many times based on his disability rather than his ability. Educators were constantly telling me what he could not do and I would have to tell them what his gifts and passions were. He was always measured by his ability to read and write and never by his verbal ability or his ability to show you. Our son is now 22 and a successful business owner of several business ventures. What I wish every teacher knew about my child:
    • He was loved and adored
    • He was a vibrant part of a loving family.
    • He had tremendous gifts to evaluate others.
    • He was blessed with three-dimensional reasoning and never given much of an opportunity to share that at school.
    • Homework and the volume expected was a determent to our family life and created immense hardship on our son and myself. If he could have me scribe when he was tired and allow him to orally give me the answers we used that technique.
      • As he learned to write on a computer the app Grammarly was an amazing tool to help him with the semantics of the language.
    • His father and I would do anything to support his learning, but I wish teachers would have included us more from the start in the approaches and strategies so we could share what we knew about our son and the joy that he found in life. The school was not a safe place for him and his learning style. We had teachers out of frustration call him dumb and lazy. LD does not stand for lazy or dumb, but for learning differently. Even though I was his mother and love him to the ends of the earth I understood the teacher's frustration but never the hurt their words brought.

    Upon graduating from High School with full rides all over the country for his technical abilities in mechanics he told me, "Mom, I know you want me to go to college, but I can not do it. I have spent the last 12 years being judged on my disabilities and not my abilities. A blind child would have never been asked to show how smart they were by writing and reading without brail. However, every time school wanted to evaluate me they asked me to read or write and never asked me to show it. Please allow me to use my hands and mind to pursue my dreams I am tired of being judged by a standard that I am not." 

    Sorry for the long rant but being a family with a dyslexic child is stressful and we want all teachers to love our child, value them for who they are, and work with our child and us to figure out what works best for them. Strategies and accommodations are often viewed as not being fair to the other children, but that logic is skewed as we would not deny an adult lying on the floor not breathing CPR because we could not also give it to the other children.

    My advice to you is to learn as much as you can and remember they learn differently and need a variety of approaches to show you what they know. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for asking this question and being passionate enough to want to do what is best for your dyslexic students.

    Gratefully Yours,

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    Pamela Perrino
    Early Childhood Advocate and Educational consultant
    Perrino Consulting
    Warren OH
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  • 4.  RE: Teaching Dyslexic Students

    Posted 09-15-2020 05:04 PM
    Hi, Pamela, Thank you so much for sharing your personal and family journey with raising a child with dyslexia.No matter how well-intentioned, resources and programs for children who are special too often end up having the opposite effect - defining the child by the need and not their strengths.  We all need to start from where and who the child is rather than constantly judging how well they fit predetermined categories.
    In my program years ago, a little boy with dyslexia had parents who went to evvey length to get him the support and assistance he needed without funneling him into programs that pigeonholed him. Just last week, his mother sent me a link to the prestigious academic study he and his partner completed, that has been published in a widely respected educational/philosophical journal. This study may completely re-organize how evolution is taught, in a way that makes theory and science much more visible and clearer. I'm so proud of him and his family! I've shared my excitement and happiness about this just to remind us all how important every child's gifts are, and how essential it is to nurture them, seeing past the obstacles to the possibilities.
    If anyone reading this has a similar story, PM me and I am happy to collect them and share a link to them with our group.
    Thanks for the hard work you all do!

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    Hazel Osborn
    Consultant
    Loveland CO
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  • 5.  RE: Teaching Dyslexic Students

    Posted 09-16-2020 07:23 AM
    Thanks for sharing your personal story, Pam. So many nuggets of wisdom to consider.

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    Kimberly Tice
    Executive Director
    Ohio Association for the Education of Young Children
    Mount Gilead OH
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  • 6.  RE: Teaching Dyslexic Students

    Posted 09-16-2020 07:49 AM

    Pamela:

    The wisdom and learning from your and your son's story can be applied to many situations.  Thank you for sharing it and for the resources. We need to see and treat children from the start as full human beings with many gifts.  I'll carry this as a reminder to be strengths-based in my work.



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    Aren Stone
    she/her/hers
    Child Development Specialist
    The Early Years Project
    Cambridge, MA
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  • 7.  RE: Teaching Dyslexic Students

    Posted 09-16-2020 12:46 PM
    Awe this brought back so many memories from our son!  He also struggled with dyslexia in school. He is 20 now and a Fireman.  Yes, that was always my biggest complaint with all the testing - it only measured how he could read, not what he knew.  He is now taking classes at the community college for his AA in Fire Science.  School is still hard but at least there is the goal of moving up in the fire department and he is doing something that he loves.  The best thing that ever happened was when they offered the Fire Program classes at his high school.

    That is the biggest thing all schools need to offer - ways for students to thrive and have classes that are not just book assignments. Because we all do learn differently and that is ok.

    Thank you for sharing,
    Evelyn


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    Evelyn Johnson
    Director
    Aldersgate Weekday Ministries
    Durham NC
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  • 8.  RE: Teaching Dyslexic Students

    Posted 09-16-2020 01:16 PM
    Evelyn thanks for sharing. I have often felt we all should get together and tell our stories so others understand the impact on our children and families.
    Pam

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    Pamela Perrino
    Early Childhood Advocate and Educational consultant
    Perrino Consulting
    Warren OH
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  • 9.  RE: Teaching Dyslexic Students

    Posted 09-21-2020 04:36 PM
    Hello Pamela, 
    Thank you for sharing your story and the resources provided, and I agree all children are unique in their own way. I am a firm believer that teachers set the tone of the classroom; therefore teachers have to be mindful of how their responses to the uniqueness of each student because first, it's first contrary to our NAYC standards https://www.naeyc.org/our-work/families/10-naeyc-program-standards#3 and that it's merely not okay. Education equates inclusion from my perception. Again thank you for sharing your experience, you brought the importance of inclusion back to the forefront.

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    Marissa Ridgley
    Anchorage AK
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  • 10.  RE: Teaching Dyslexic Students

    Posted 09-23-2020 12:37 AM
    Any new upcoming events about dyslexic students





  • 11.  RE: Teaching Dyslexic Students

    Posted 09-23-2020 09:06 AM
    Hi Karen,

    One upcoming series of 3 webinar talks "DyslexiaDecodEd" might be of interest. All talks have free registration. The first talk is Oct. 8 and then Oct.15 and 22. All are happening at 6:30 PM EDT
    The full description is here https://microsoftedu.eventbuilder.com/dyslexiadecoded

     ​

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    Daniela O'Neill
    University of Waterloo
    Waterloo ONCanada
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  • 12.  RE: Teaching Dyslexic Students

    Posted 09-16-2020 08:46 AM
    Hi Marissa,
    The following are two sites with many resources for teachers. 
    The University of Florida's Literacy Institute has many resources for helping children learn to read based in the science of reading in their Virtual Teaching Hub. They are all free and include activites, lesson plans, videos etc. and they have a large Facebook group of teachers. They have a specific Dyslexia Resource Hub that you can find here: 
    https://education.ufl.edu/ufli/dyslexia-resources/
    The other is The Reading League which can be found here in their "Knowledge Base" section: https://www.thereadingleague.org/knowledge-base/
    Hope these are helpful!
    Daniela

    Daniela O'Neill
    University of Waterloo
    Waterloo, ON Canada

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    Daniela O'Neill
    University of Waterloo
    Waterloo ONCanada
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  • 13.  RE: Teaching Dyslexic Students

    Posted 09-16-2020 09:38 AM
    I don't like early diagnosis as they make it appear that a problem is life-long. Most of the treatment programs for dyslexia are adaptive approaches like reading through a slot in a 3x5 card, but I was involved in research years ago that used a sensory-motor approach to young children who had trouble with dyslexic type issues: cross-lateral games and things like that. I've never seen an argument against a sensory-motor approach. I think it just got lost when adaptive approaches were introduced. Adaptive approaches are excellent and need to be learned and used, but they are fixing the problem.

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    Jack Wright
    Child Development Consultant
    Success With Children
    St Ignatius MT
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  • 14.  RE: Teaching Dyslexic Students

    Posted 09-17-2020 07:19 AM
    Hi Marisa,
    In response specifically to this recommendation, the "science" of reading found in some arenas is a very limited set of data focused narrowly on the code of matching letters and sounds. While this is an important part of reading, it is not the only part and not even the most important part. Unfortunately, it is too often foisted on those looking for support for learners who exhibit signs of dyslexia as a cure-all for their reading challenges but it has significant gaps.
    As all these comments make clear, it is essential for all readers but especially for dyslexic learners, that we value the knowledge they hold and encourage them to use it when they read. Children's background can play a significant role in their decoding and understanding text. You have already taken the most important step for yourself in gathering a wide range of knowledge to inform your instruction; continue to analyze it critically to find the most reputable sources of information. Good luck-you are doing important work!

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    Sherry Sanden
    Associate Professor
    Illinois State University
    Normal IL
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  • 15.  RE: Teaching Dyslexic Students

    Posted 09-21-2020 04:38 PM
    Hello Daniela, 

    Thank you for the resources, I will look into them:) Much appreciated!

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    Marissa Ridgley
    Anchorage AK
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