Dyslexia

[danskmor]

Hi
My son has not been formally diagnosed with dyslexia but we are in the process of tests etc. My question really is, what can I do at home to help? Specifically he is a 7 year old boy and loves games (and minecraft!). What kind of board/card games could help with dyslexia? He likes things to be 'gamified' and I wondering how I can make learning fun and engaging. Any help or advice is much appreciated.

. Learning issues are so complex so dyslexia may present as inability to spell or write but can read…. I think that’s where the input of a professional can really help identify the gaps. Nessy is an online games based resource. Previously we’ve used Toe by Toe or Hornet. 10 mins every day with a reward for every 20 pages completed - cinema or a day out. Little and often and rewards, keeping it light and less pressured.

When you say “help him” what do you mean?
Does he need help with reading? Attention? Self-esteem?

There are lots of computer programs which claim to help, some very expensive, and I am dubious about all of them.

Imo if you are a parent who can give one-on-one focused help daily that is worth its weight in gold.

For reading: paired reading (you can Google the instructions) and Toe by Toe helped us a lot. Also audiobooks - an Alexa by his bed at night - help with vocabulary and also help him to chat with his friends at school about books they are all reading so he doesn’t feel left out.

For attention: Ask the teacher if he can be allowed to discreetly use a fidget toy or move about in class. Ask the teacher to make all instructions very visual and broken into parts. Speak slowly and clearly, check that he is watching, point to things, repeat instructions (this will probably help quite a few children in the class).

For self-esteem: find something he is good at, eg games, sport, art, and promote a level of achievement in whatever it is so that he has something under his belt to enjoy and feel proud of.
All this while getting his hearing and vision checked along with arranging his Ed Psych assessment.

Also be careful that his language difficulties don’t cause him to fall behind in other subjects such as Maths.

Dyslexic children often have difficulty learning their tables which are quite “verbal”. Get him to recite them over and over while throwing a ball, jumping on a trampoline, going for a walk. Impossible to proceed without knowing them well so repetition, repetition, repetition.

Maths should be taught in a very visual way, lots of diagrams and practical examples - you might need to do this at home. And again, over-learning….repetition, repetition, repetition...short, quick, practical sessions but every day.

Please make sure one of those tests are on his eyes with a behavioural optometrist - so many diagnoses of dyslexia miss this and kids who have issues which could be helped with prisms (even with 20/20 vision) get missed as it isn't routinely tested for (sometimes also called visual dyslexia, accommodative insufficiency, etc)

My cousin had a dyslexia diagnosis by 7 but didn't do one of these tests till age 10 and so much time was lost. He now has specs with prisms and is trying to make up for lost time but it's like starting over again in many ways.

Hi @danskmor

I know in schools, they try different coloured overlays when reading - common is yellow or purple I think. Same for writing so you could try different coloured paper and see if there is a colour that helps.

Also using a ruler to keep track of the line they are reading on is helpful for many children.

Other than that, I am not too sure.

TRUGS. Teaching Reading Through Games is very good. Look on Smart Kids website.

My son is severely dyslexic.

He has prescription reading glasses as he has a "rugby ball shaped eye" and needs some help. He does better with a blue overlay, but the optometrist put blue lenses in his reading glasses. This helps massively, and means he can work/read on white pack grounds easily.

He gets some help in school with one to one, but I now pay for private tutorship once a week. This has helped massively.

At home, I just encourage reading, sit side by side and help. Using a ruler or a blank piece of paper helps minimise how many lines of text he sees at one time.

Game ways, for letter recognition I used to draw the letters on A4 pieces of paper and then I'd shout the letters out and he would jump on to the correct letter. Then we moved on to high frequency words like "the" "and" "it" "I" and he jumps onto them. Lots of jumping and giggling.

We also used to on the dinging room table use fun things like shaving foam to draw letters/words, or play sand in a baking tray to trace with fingers. Messy but good fun.

DS is great at maths though, thoroughly enjoys it. So maths I haven't needed to alter.

Could you say any more about this? I help with reading in a primary school and have recently come across a 10 year old girl whose reading seems to have regressed - she complains of the words going swimmy ans jumbled up. I asked if she had had a recent eye test (she already wears glasses) and she said yes. She is being monitored generally for other behavioural difficulties but it seems baffling that something that presents very like dyslexia would turn up so late.

Sorry that was meant for @Xiaoxiong

Touch Typing

My Y9 DD is severely dyslexic and also has hypermobile fingers. At Primary she was diagnosed as soon as she was old enough to sit the assessment. She consistently failed everything and didn't really learn to read till she was 7 years old. She has a high IQ and scores very well on both NVR and VR but it didn't translate over into scores in class.

During lockdown, when she was in Y6, she did an online touch typing course and moved to a laptop for everything. She uses spell check and editing software and it has been pretty miraculous. She's now top sets for everything at secondary and predicted high scores for all her GCSEs.

She still hates reading, and cannot spell for toffee... but the tech has massively increased her confidence and her grades.

We used English Type Junior as the touch typing course. It's designed for dyslexic children.

Toe by Toe and Nessy had no discernable effect at all sadly.

www.madebydyslexia.org

You may find this helpful

Flash cards to help him get 100 high frequency words.

As other said tutor to help him get the foundations in place and esp with maths.

@OhCrumbsWhereNow

When I mentioned my dd typing nothing much came of it ( primary) how did you manage to get her to use it?
I'e in school?

Her Ed Psych came up with the idea, but school were a bit meh on the whole idea.

Then we were stuck in lockdown with all schooling online, so I did some research, bought the programme and got her to do it at home. Then moved her to a laptop for everything.

When she started secondary, we just said that she used a laptop as her normal way of working and sent in a copy of the EP report as back-up.

We've now moved to using an iPad with a case that incorporates a keyboard and an e-pen. Much lighter than a laptop, you can install Office 365 for Word and Excel, and she can use the camera function to photograph the board or worksheets or graphs which can then be edited using the e-pen. It was also significantly cheaper than a laptop.

MotherOfCatBoy, the jumbling of words/ words moving thing is often associated with Dyslexia but you don't have to be dyslexic to be affected. Routine eye tests don't usually pick it up so you can have 20/20 vision and it's missed. It's baffling that it's not routinely screened for - it's such a simple thing to ask all primary school kids if the words move or blur when they're trying to read. Google 'Irlen Syndrome' to find out more but she needs a specialised optician to test for it and few do. Coloured overlays might really help her with reading, but she'd still have issues with the whiteboard. The best solution is tinted glasses - it has to be the right tint for her though so she'd need a specialised eye test to solve it.

Thank you - I sat with her again yesterday, she is going through tests for dyslexia (not confirmed yet) and has an overlay now, and her reading was a bit better. But what I don’t understand is that she was a level 9 reader last year and I last saw her in October when she read easily and fluently. Something has changed drastically. Is that possible?

My son is now 10 but similarly to your child went through the dyslexia assessments when 7. His spelling and writing are still awful (he is dyspraxic too) but his reading came on when the school tried a programme called Rapid Readers. He now has a reading age of 11 years but a spelling age of 6 years! He still refuses to read books at home but he will play ‘sussed’, ‘something fishy’ and ‘top trumps’ all of which require some reading.

@Xiaoxiong Wgere would you find a behavioural optometrist? I can't find one in my area

@Googl my cousin was referred to one by the SEN coordinator at his school - I can't remember how far away it was but they had to take the whole day off for the appointment, I think it was in London.

www.babo.co.uk/ has a list as well.

Thank you, I check that out