Tutoring a dyslexic student - any advice please?

[Pariswhenitdrizzles]

Hi everyone.

I've been tutoring for a while now, and will soon start GCSE English tuition with a student who is dyslexic.

I'm currently preparing our first tuition session. I have the student's parents' contact details, so WIBU if I email them to ask how best I can support the student before our sessions together?

I've now tutored GCSE English to several students, and have also tutored a language A Level to a dyslexic student. I wasn't asked to adapt resources or to change my tuition style with the dyslexic student that I tutored previously.

I've heard that resources can be adapted in specific ways to support dyslexic students (for example, choosing certain background colours on paper and PowerPoint slides, or being mindful of the font size, style and colour on PowerPoint slides and paper resources).

AIBU to ask you for any tips you might have on how I can best support the student please?

I agree the OP needs to look at the ed psych assessment, and that she needs to be sure what'll be allowed in the exam. And I agree that dyslexia is a spectrum with a lot of diversity.

I see where people are coming from, in saying the OP should have more training. TBH it would worry me if I knew my child's tutor was relying on advice picked up on MN, but to be fair to the OP, I assume she's doing other things too.

But, I'd be a total hypocrite to say she needs formal qualifications. I teach in HE, where many of us don't have any formal teaching qualifications and some of us have very little formal training. I teach a lot of dyslexic students and I get good results - and I've spent a lot of time educating myself on strategies and pedagogic theories and testing out what works best for students who struggle with English. But I don't have formal qualifications.

I think if you know you're not formally trained, you have to be very honest about it. And you have to be very flexible in your approach, and upfront about saying 'this is something we will try, because x, y and z reputable sources recommend it. But if it isn't working, I'll admit it and I won't pretend I can manage something I can't'.

Learning to read and understand an ed psych report is a skill in itself, and that would be the first step. After that I would want to identify problem areas, which the OP should be able to do from her tutoring experience. Then I'd probably look at resources such as the BDA website, for some help. BDA also have some training resources, here, though I've not logged in myself: www.bdadyslexia.org.uk/services/e-learning

But OP is a tutor, not a teacher, or anything provided by the school. The school and exam boards have to make reasonable adjustments to support the child with dyslexia - possibly including extra time or support in lessons, use of a recording device as an alternative to note taking. That is to level the playing field. If the student is not receiving this then the school is failing, but we have no reason to assume this.

OP is a tutor, which is extra on top of all that, and something that most children do not have. She doesn't need specialist training.

OP is a tutor, which is extra on top of all that, and something that most children do not have. She doesn't need specialist training

Ideally someone with dyslexia needs tuition from a specialist teacher. The reason provision in many schools is so poor is that children with specific learning difficulties often have their additional support (if their lucky enough to have any) provided by a well meaning, but unqualified TA often providing interventions that are not evidenced based. Alternatively, the child is given an overlay without any consideration as to whether visual stress is the cause of their reading difficulties - if visual stress is present, the child needs a proper assessment from a specialist optician. Specialist tuition provides evidenced based interventions tailored to the individual's needs - this can make a huge difference to outcomes. However, as PP said it is almost impossible to get a specialist tutor in some areas.

The school and exam boards have to make reasonable adjustments to support the child with dyslexia

The reality is this just doesn't happen - many schools and Counties go out of their way to avoid this because of the cost implications. Approximately 10% of the population have dyslexia, but 10% of the state school population do not get whatever combination of extra time, reader or scribe that they are entitled to. It is very different in some independent schools: this is not because these indie schools are cheating, but because they are ensuring that every pupil gets the full access arrangements that they are entitled to. Sadly, the playing field is far from level.

OP is a tutor, which is extra on top of all that, and something that most children do not have. She doesn't need specialist training.

I don't think that follows. She might need training in order to do a good job - she presumably wants repeat custom. She might need training in order to satisfy her own professional ethics, because you do feel shit if you do a terrible job, don't you?

Not at all - hence my use of 'might' in the above post, and everything I said in the post before that one.

Not intentionally - I just think it's fair enough for people to assume the OP might want/benefit from training.

I'm thinking about this partly because I do fairly often come across people who don't know training specific to dyslexics even exists!

I dunno how I feel about that. For one thing, dyslexia often runs in families, so you do often get people who aren't brilliantly placed to work out what's needed from a tutor, or to assess the results. Even people with no special needs can be pretty uninformed customers, I think.

I am not for a minute suggesting the OP is doing anything wrong, but I would never support a blanket statement that if parents are ok with the quality of tutoring, it must be ok - because you will always get some people who are unscrupulous and will get away with providing a truly crap service. For example, a friend of mine knows someone whose English is terrible, who's setting up as a tutor of English as a foreign language. She'll get away with it because her clients won't know any better - but that doesn't mean she should!

It's tricky about paying. Some training is available freely, though. Or she might find it's worth it, as you can sometimes charge a bit more if you're a respected specialist.

I teach GCSE English.

You need to find out whether the school has tested the student and whether the are giving him/her a reader and/or scribe, and extra time for the exam.

Would the student be able to use a laptop with you?

Don't overload the student with pages and pages of information.

Short bursts of easy to read information is better.

If you're teaching set texts, these are often available in graphic novel form, which can help. I have a 'picture' version of Romeo and Juliet which is useful. Recordings of plays to listen to, rather than just read might help.

I've worked with many students with dyslexia, and no two have responded the same. The key to this working is for you to let them take the lead as to what they need and being able to adapt your delivery to suit. And build up a relationship with them, this means you listen, adapt, listen, adapt, continuously.

Ask the parents what their child needs. So therefore not unreasonable to contact them. Also ask as it is English you are teaching whether you are correcting spellings. If eg. you were tutoring biology you may not correct spellings other than scientific terms etc.

Each child is different - my DSS had a coloured overlay that he used to use and take into exams with him (with permission from the exam board).

Some use green or yellow or blue papers depending on what their actual need is.

I have to say, pen, I've done tutoring; my mum tutors and has done for well over a decade, and I've not seen that to be true! Lots of parents really scrape together the money, especially for a dyslexic child. And even parents with money are often quite at a loss when it comes to how to teach, especially a child whose needs aren't standard.

Mum tutors maths, and regularly gets parents who believe 'maths is about memorising rules' but can't explain the simplest basics to their children, because they forgot all the rules when they left school. They wouldn't be able to assess how competent or incompetent her teaching is, and they could easily waste money on a teacher who'd spend hours trying to force a dyslexic child to rote-learn little jingles about division, or whatever (which is a terrible way of teaching anyone, but particularly dodgy for a dyslexic).

I'm not at all saying the OP wouldn't be any good. As I say, I don't have qualifications, and I do think I'm capable. But I could see why other posters would worry, too.

Hedda garbled

Can you expand on the point you made about point, example explanation?

My child gets no support with their dyslexia at their selective school.

Case in point: you say a lot of tutoring is about content and can be done verbally. Both pretty big assumptions - it could be this pupil is fine with the content, and needs help with everything else. It could be they can't cope verbally because what they actually need is help with getting things down on paper.

Oh, sure. I don't think we are disagreeing hugely, and I hope the OP's finding the debate vaguely useful at the least. I think my views are just formed from seeing the results of well-meaning but uninformed tutoring, as well as my awareness that you can do an awful lot to train yourself, without spending money.

I agree that the provision by schools is not always up to scratch. It's also this way in University and training. If the OP was engaged by the school to tutor the children with dyslexia then I do think she would need specialist training. But she is outside of that system.

The OP isn't teaching, it's extra tuition, which is usually explicitly provided by people not trained as teachers - often students. It's much more like peer mentoring, or having extra coaching in a sport by an older kid who competes at a higher level.