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Dyslexia how to help my 12 year old

17 replies

Kitkat2025 · 25/04/2025 20:54

Can anyone recommend websites books, podcasts to give me the resources to help my 12 year old daughter with dyslexia to build her confidence and get her through secondary state education!

OP posts:
groovylady · 25/04/2025 21:40

www.engagingeyes.co.uk

Apples and pears workbooks

gato21 · 26/04/2025 06:52

You could look at the Toe by Toe and Stareway to Spelling books https://toe-by-toe.co.uk/what-is-stareway-to-spelling/. I'm finding Toe by Toe useful with my 8 year old, but others have different experiences.
Touch typing would be a great thing for her to learn.
What support have the school provided or suggested?

What Is Stareway To Spelling? - Toe By Toe

Stareway To Spelling focuses on how to spell and read the 300 most used words in the English language quickly, confidently and accurately.

https://toe-by-toe.co.uk/what-is-stareway-to-spelling

OhCrumbsWhereNow · 26/04/2025 13:48

Learn to touch type (English Type Junior is dyslexic friendly as a course) and use a laptop as standard.

Be a very squeaky wheel to get her as much help from school as possible. The issues caused by dyslexia are made considerably worse by our exam system, so start early and don't be fobbed off.

NJLX2021 · 27/04/2025 06:07

Agree with the poster above - Help her with typing. Growing up Dyslexic, that was one of the best things my parents did. As soon as I hit the age where we could start to type instead of write by hand for coursework and exams, my academic performance shot up. It was a huge confidence boost that while I could never spell as well as other kids, I could type faster and more accurately than them. Especially with the help of spellcheck I could then knock out a great essay quickly and finally get reasonable grades.

Also, link reading to hobbies and interests. A dyslexic student will require far more hours of reading practice than a non-dyslexic student to reach the same level. The only way to motivate them to do that is to foster a genuine will to read, and that usually comes through pre-existing interests.

Most of all though, tell her very strongly and confidently that her dyslexia is never a reason why she can't do something she wants to. Yes it makes everything harder and slower, and more challenging to learn writing/reading, but everyone has challenges to overcome and this is just one of hers. Especially it is one that she can overcome, especially with supportive parents.

I know a lot of dyslexic people from when I grew up, some of whom never mention it anymore, and do great work, often including writing/reading, because despite requiring a lot more work when they were younger, it isn't a barrier to becoming a good writer and reader. Equally I know others who still struggle, because instead of having parents that helped them exceed with a difficulty, their parents told them that it was ok to not try or do well because of being dyslexic, and so they just gave up, assigned themselves the identity of "bad with words" and then never tried to improve from there.

So make sure she doesn't frame her situation as:

"I am dyslexic, so I can't do well at English"

but instead understands the situation as

"I'm dyslexic so its going to take me a more effort and time than other people, but I can still do well at English"

52isjustanumber · 27/04/2025 07:22

My daughter is dyslexic and was only diagnosed at Uni despite us suspecting for many years. She was not picked up on regular testing.
She says that it affects her memory as well and this impacts on exams. What helped her was to opt for subjects with course work rather than exams or with an element of coursework which could boost the overall grade.
She is very arty and creative which is often the case with dyslexia. She went to an arts Uni and they said that a high percentage of students were neurodiverse.
Focusing on organisational skills was also really helpful re her memory.
I also insisted on her dropping a foreign language as it stressed her out completely. She couldn't spell in english let alone spanish.

ADifferentSong · 27/04/2025 07:27

groovylady · 25/04/2025 21:40

www.engagingeyes.co.uk

Apples and pears workbooks

This website is for those with visual stress. Although this can sometimes co-exist with dyslexia, visual stress is a separate condition.

Springtime97 · 27/04/2025 07:35

OP slightly different to your question, what are school doing to support / help? They will be able to suggest things based on your childs specific needs. My child has a school profile and it has specific dos and donts on it. It’s a good starting point to draw teachers attention if they are not giving reasonable adjustments etc.

My DC school uses Chromebook’s as standard and this has been great for my DD. She can’t track and having the work in front of her is fab!

Springtime97 · 27/04/2025 07:42

52isjustanumber · 27/04/2025 07:22

My daughter is dyslexic and was only diagnosed at Uni despite us suspecting for many years. She was not picked up on regular testing.
She says that it affects her memory as well and this impacts on exams. What helped her was to opt for subjects with course work rather than exams or with an element of coursework which could boost the overall grade.
She is very arty and creative which is often the case with dyslexia. She went to an arts Uni and they said that a high percentage of students were neurodiverse.
Focusing on organisational skills was also really helpful re her memory.
I also insisted on her dropping a foreign language as it stressed her out completely. She couldn't spell in english let alone spanish.

My DD has the exact issue with working memory. We have found that a lot of people don’t understand this about dyslexia. She also takes a while to process information and cannot follow more than one verbal
instruction at a time. If she is given several she will become overwhelmed and ‘shut down’. She can read above her age so I’ve had lots of comments that she’s not really dyslexic or that she’s high functioning, when actually if not managed right it can completely debilitate her!

Benvenuto · 27/04/2025 07:55

Nessy.com - it's not cheap but they offer a free trial so you can see if it will suit you. They also have some free resources & information for parents.

Difficultsituation89 · 27/04/2025 08:00

from experience, the best aid I have ever had is a screen reader. Most computers have it as standard in settings. Being able to listen to long articles and information while reading the words really helped my focus at uni and prevented the fatigue caused by reading.

CalypsoCuthbertson · 27/04/2025 08:51

#dyslexicthinking is now a hashtag and skill you can select on a Linked In profile. It’s becoming more widely acknowledged that dyslexics have great skills in creativity, imagination, lateral thinking, entrepreneurship etc - skills that workplaces really value and will increasingly value as the world changes.

https://www.madebydyslexia.org/dyslexicu/ - click through to ‘enrol’ for links to more videos/information.

https://madebydyslexia.org/MBD-Intelligence-5.0-Report.pdf?_gl=11bpd57z_gaMTU4NDU2NjM1MC4xNzQ1NzM4NDEz_ga_B9332T9HS9*MTc0NTczODQxMi4xLjEuMTc0NTczODYwOC4wLjAuMA..

People like Ed Milliband, Jamie Oliver and Richard Branson have all been in the media in the last few years talking about dyslexia.

Dyslexic Thinking

Dyslexic Thinking

Now the world's most valuable skill

https://www.madebydyslexia.org/dyslexicu/

OhCrumbsWhereNow · 27/04/2025 15:37

NJLX2021 · 27/04/2025 06:07

Agree with the poster above - Help her with typing. Growing up Dyslexic, that was one of the best things my parents did. As soon as I hit the age where we could start to type instead of write by hand for coursework and exams, my academic performance shot up. It was a huge confidence boost that while I could never spell as well as other kids, I could type faster and more accurately than them. Especially with the help of spellcheck I could then knock out a great essay quickly and finally get reasonable grades.

Also, link reading to hobbies and interests. A dyslexic student will require far more hours of reading practice than a non-dyslexic student to reach the same level. The only way to motivate them to do that is to foster a genuine will to read, and that usually comes through pre-existing interests.

Most of all though, tell her very strongly and confidently that her dyslexia is never a reason why she can't do something she wants to. Yes it makes everything harder and slower, and more challenging to learn writing/reading, but everyone has challenges to overcome and this is just one of hers. Especially it is one that she can overcome, especially with supportive parents.

I know a lot of dyslexic people from when I grew up, some of whom never mention it anymore, and do great work, often including writing/reading, because despite requiring a lot more work when they were younger, it isn't a barrier to becoming a good writer and reader. Equally I know others who still struggle, because instead of having parents that helped them exceed with a difficulty, their parents told them that it was ok to not try or do well because of being dyslexic, and so they just gave up, assigned themselves the identity of "bad with words" and then never tried to improve from there.

So make sure she doesn't frame her situation as:

"I am dyslexic, so I can't do well at English"

but instead understands the situation as

"I'm dyslexic so its going to take me a more effort and time than other people, but I can still do well at English"

Edited

Brilliant post and agree with everything you have said.

We found it important to find something DD was really good at and focus on that to help with self-esteem and confidence.

Hobbies linked to reading also a good idea. DD acts professionally and has had to learn to read and learn scripts for auditions, training and productions. She is very incentivised and so will put in the extra needed to do that in a way that she wouldn't if it was for homework or 'just for fun' (it's not fun). It's also massively helped her working memory.

And agree it shouldn't hold you back. My daughter will never be able to spell and it will always be less than easy for her to write, but she is considered gifted at creative writing and it's a huge part of the degree she is going to study.

We found work arounds to help her with vocabulary - Taylor Swift songs (and checking she understood the meaning), live theatre, really good film and TV. For younger kids, things like the Narnia films, The Secret Garden, Five Children & It, Beatrix Potter, Roald Dahl - hunt down film versions of the Classics as they will have good writing, great vocab and also give them those cultural literary references.

Audio books can be hit and miss. I am the opposite of dyslexic and love audio books as I can multi-task. I couldn't understand why DD didn't like them, but her particular dyslexic weaknesses and working memory issues affect her ability to hold the information she is hearing - she does much better with film where she has visual cues.

Lots is trial and error.

It's also sooooo much better once school is done and you can have ALL the tech and help available.

EHCPerhaps · 27/04/2025 15:48

Thank you for mentioning all these resources. I would add that with older kids podcasts are helpful as a quick way to gather info on a topic that they might be covering at school

meala · 27/04/2025 15:49

If you’re looking for websites then Dyslexia unwrapped has some great information.
https://dyslexiascotland.org.uk/unwrapped/

there are also videos by the young ambassadors which are great.

In terms of school work, there are loads of accessibility tools available that can help. Screen readers are great- in Microsoft there is Immersive reader which can read back work ( and much more). What’s useful about this is that it helps pick up sentences that maybe don’t make sense or spelling and grammatical errors that might not get picked up otherwise ( for example a correctly spelled word being used in the wrong context). Immersive reader is also available in the Edge web browser. If you click the book icon at the end of the search bar (or type read in the address bar at the start) then it will remove any distracting content on the page and enable all the features of immersive reader. There’s also a dictate feature in word that is worth a try.

A dyslexic young person | Dyslexia Scotland

Dyslexia Unwrapped, the online hub for young people with dyslexia.

https://dyslexiascotland.org.uk/unwrapped

turkeyboots · 27/04/2025 15:57

Nessy is good for basic skill, if maybe a bit too young. And keep your DC reading, read anything. Magazines, subtitled movies, websites, recipes, cereal boxes, absolutely anything she'll engage with to build skills.

Audio books are great for books she has to read for school.
And work with the school to get permission to type school work and exams. Work on basic form filling handwriting, but typing skills will benefit her more in the long term.

tortieCatLover · 27/04/2025 16:26

What are the problem area - memory spelling accurate reading hand writing?

DD1 just need disagonsed at Uni - along with few other things. She doesn't have memory issues - DS not diagnosed yet as schools flip flop - massive memory issues.

We did dancing bears and apple and pears in primary.

https://www.soundfoundations.co.uk/learning-to-read/
https://www.soundfoundations.co.uk/learning-to-spell/
These suggest reading ages they an help with - about 9 and half - and spelling placements.

We also did Sign post for spelling for DD1 at secondary for spelling.

Memory - it was going over things so basics went in - but lots of stuff round topics so they encounter same facts over and over - and working out how they need to revise.

Handwritting Speed Up!: a Kinaesthetic Programme to Develop Fluent Handwriting and finding smooth pens my teens in exam years like these
STABILO Exam Grade but tried various grips and slopes as well.

Accurate reading - was things underlying reading twice in exams - etc that often needs a lot of drilling in.

By secondary a lot of it was keeping them reading generally and helping with any gaps. There are quite a few dysliex abook seller now like barrington-stoke but also graphic novels magazines can help.

Is school SENCO any use - DD1 passed the dsylexia screening tests - but when she had a proper test at uni very clear she had problems. DD1 just been given a lot of applications via disablity at Uni - and she finding things like grammerly package very useful.

Also outside hobbies help when school gets hard.

Where to start with reading - Sound Foundations Books

The Dancing Bears reading programme has three starting points.  Choose the best book for your child by looking at how well they can read now, not by how old they are.   Bear Necessities Book A1 is the starting point … Read More

https://www.soundfoundations.co.uk/learning-to-read/

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