What has been most helpful for your dyslexic child?

[Curlewwoohoo]

That's it! Things at school, things at home.

I would recommend the book toe by toe, my son’s primary school provided it buy you can get a copy from Amazon or Waterstones

maybe helpful to some, but I am dyslexic, and hate this with a vengeance.

But she’s not wrong. There is no independently corroborated evidence that it’s an actual thing. I did my dissertation on Dyslexia and researched IS but found no scientific evidence.
Thinking about contrast wherever the written word is presented will help reduce visual stress for everyone, so a dyslexia friendly classroom should think about things such as backgrounds used on teaching slides etc.
I recall one parent who spend £500 on glasses with coloured lenses. Her DS hatred wearing them and would refuse to read if it was insisted. I had to complete a reading assessment for applying for access arrangements for SATS and on the morning of the assessment, he came to me without his glasses. We did the assessment anyway. The following day, he did it again with the glasses on and scored lower - on the same text.
One investigation I did as part of my dissertation was where I gave children a choice of 4 different coloured overlays and asked them to try them all out, then choose which one helped them the most. For some reason, the girls chose pink or red overlays, the boys chose blue or green.
I believe its a placebo in the vast majority of cases.

I think what you mean is that dyslexia manifests itself in different ways. Proper screening can highlight the areas of difficulty and further in depth assessment will pinpoint the exact areas of weakness.

Getting the Phoenix comic. DS claims reading that taught him to read. At about 9.

staying in state eduction but paying for tutors via Mytutor site.

Luckily ds was diagnosed early so had extra time and a computer in the exams. But also following up the school, he had a computer but only for English until I checked …. Co you don’t write in any other subjects……..! Like history.

Dd had lessons weekly on Saturdays for 3 years, reading, writing and spelling lists to bring home. Didn't please her at the time but I think it made the difference. Top degree and professional level job

@mybeautifulhorse

DDs teacher took us aside in year 1, she was still 5. Dyslexia can be spotted young, but remember some children aren't dyslexic, they just are not as advanced at that point so not all teachers are willing to speak to parents so young

No I did mean different types - I have phonological.

Just knowing (getting the diagnosis) has probably been the most important thing. Partly because then we could find better ways to help her, but mainly because it changed both our attitude and her own about why certain things were difficult. Dyslexia takes a huge toll on a child's confidence and self-esteem.

Practically, the most important thing has been finding dyslexia-friendly books (lots of pictures, short text) that she likes so much that it makes the extra effort she has to put into the act of reading worthwhile.

The 13 story Treehouse series was probably the first set of books DD actually loved reading to herself. Graphic novels are also great, like 'City of Dragons'. And Lottie Brooks when she became a tween. I credit these books with giving DD a genuine love of reading despite her dyslexia. Which is fairly miraculous.

And keep reading with them. Having them read a bit to you - then you reading a bit to them - works well. They take pride in reading to you, and it gives them the courage to keep going with harder texts. And if one of the days, things are too much and they don't want to read, you haven't really lost the rhythm - since you can just read to them instead... then encourage them to try again another day when they are in a better place. You need to be careful not to push them and put them off, but regular reading is absolutely critical.

It's not being used in "just any old way" though?
It's being applied in the way it is often used by professionals discussing the subject of neurodiversity. "Masking" often translates to hiding traits associated with a neurodivergent condition to appear “neurotypical”.

What do you think it means?

Toe by toe and word shark. Also routine and structure, labelling storage so it’s very clear what should go where, making sure they get enough sleep, lots of positive but specific praise. And making sure they understand the positives of being neurodiverse instead of all the focus being on deficits.

Following! My seven year old DD is getting assessed at the end of this month. Anything I can do to make things easier for her is the aim really.

Lots of people already recommended touch typing, I found this very helpful. I was at school in the days before lots of computers (we did have PC's at school but not many) I used a digital typing machine to take notes in class. I have spotted a few different things brought up on this post that I also struggled with.

Being able to remember verbal instructions, I still have to wrigth everything down or I forget things. Taking notes and listening at the same time, I used a tape recorder at university to record lectures this helped. I did a science subject so touch typing wasn't really an option for most of my lectures. But at high school I took notes electronically as it is so much easier for me to do this.

Having extra maths and English lessons helped a lot as mine wasn't picked up until I was 11 and I was already quite far behind with English. Reading for pleasure constantly, I found this helped a lot at school and even now if I don't read then I can tell my ability to read well seems to slip.

I think you can still get these, but having a spell check on the computer which actually lists the meaning of each word and doesn't just give a list of words on there own is really useful. I have an index dictionary as well which makes it far easier to find a word in a dictionary, although I couldn't find one when I wanted to get my nice one.

Coloured backgrounds, I did have glasses for a while but didn't find them that helpful (but if a child wears glasses already I would recommend light reaction glasses and anti reflection coating as glare doesn't help), I still use different colour backgrounds now. Printed books where never as big as a problem than computer screens as most paper backs aren't on white paper.

I read on my phone with the kindle app a lot now and find being able to change font (although that maybe age now 😅) and colour backgrounds very helpful.

I'm also a visual learner and watched a lot of documentaries to help study for GCSE, DD is the same and has watched a lot of YouTube videos. There are some really good ones for both GCSE and A-level's.

As you can probably tell from this post,y grammar and spelling aren't perfect. I'm much better on a computer then on my phone though.

I don't believe dyslexic children or adults mask, masking is copying behaviour to make yourself appear the same as everyone else (I had great conversations with my autistic colleague on this subject, she definitely masks and did a lot as a child)

Dyslexic children tend to find work arounds or coping strategies. Like always asking to be read to at night even as they get older or I would always ask someone else to read the menu to me in a restaurant. Asking friends about homework or in my case constantly writing everything down so as not to forget.

I was actually quite bright and believe one of the reasons why it was picked up late is that I actually appeared to cope quite well most of my primary years as I was extremely good at maths.

I think people have different understandings of the expression "masking" on this thread. It's very much used in the field of neurodiversity to mean the hiding and concealing of struggles and finding workarounds and coping strategies to try to fit in and appear "normal".

Have a look here:
https://rethinkdyslexia.com.au/unmaskign-dysleixa-understanding-the-impact-of-masking-on-mental-health-and-advocacy

@MigGirl when DS was learning to read a TA used the reading recovery program.
The TA would read the book and then DS would ‘read’. He had a great memory. The TA thought he was doing brilliantly and wouldn’t accept that I thought he wasn’t.
His great memory was masking the fact that he couldn’t actually read. The SENCo tested his reading ability at the start and after a few months of the pointless program and DS had made zero progress!

What DS was compensating but to some it might look like masking.

'To mask' just means to hide or conceal; to prevent something from being seen or noticed

People with dyslexia employ all sorts of techniques, workarounds, and distractions in order to "mask" their difficulties.

As a young child, DS was an expert in evasion and avoidance to mask his dyslexic struggles - he'd have a meltdown and say he was 'too tired'/ 'it was too boring'/ 'he didn't have to do it'/ 'he had a headache' whenever we tried to get him to do his reading rather than have to admit that he found it difficult 😟

OP - as your child gets older, another important thing is to teach them to self-advocate. This means not being afraid or ashamed to ask for help or explaining what reasonable adjustments would help them.

For DS this meant practicing things like asking:
"can I take a picture/copy of that please, as I can't write it down quickly enough" (in sixth form)
"could you please repeat that"
"do you mind if I record this conversation/ meeting" (all his uni tutor meetings)
"Could you please confirm what we've just agreed by email/text/'WhatsApp etc"