Learning Interventions for Dyslexia

What is dyslexia?

Dyslexia is a type of specific learning difficulty, classified as a developmental difficulty of language learning and cognition (U.S. Department of Education, 2006). It primarily affects the skills involved in accurate and fluent word reading and spelling. Some characteristic features of dyslexia include difficulties in phonological awareness, processing speed and verbal memory, while co-occurring difficulties may be observed in aspects of language, motor co-ordination, mental calculation, concentration and personal organisation, though these are not, by themselves, markers of dyslexia (Rose, 2009).

Some symptoms that a child with dyslexia include:

Common errors in reading and spelling

• Confuses letters that look alike e.g. b/d, p/q
• May reverse letter sequences e.g. “was” for “saw”, “on” for “no”
• Makes anagrams of words e.g. “tired” for “tried”, “wives” for “views”
• Mixes up words that start with the same letters e.g. “there”, “that”, “the”, etc.)
• Omits or adds letters in words e.g. “lip” for “limp”
• Unable to write down a word even when the letters are dictated
• Unable to identify the appropriate letter when given a sound and vice versa

Difficulties associated with reading

• Reads below age/grade level
• Reads hesitantly and effortfully
• Difficulty recognising familiar / high-frequency words
• Loses place in a line of print
• Leaves out words or adds extra words
• Skips or re-reads a line of words in a passage
• Complains that words or lines of text on page seem to move, yet standard eye examinations do not reveal a problem

Difficulties associated with spelling and writing

• Spells below age/grade level
• Poor handwriting, and messy, badly organised work
• Confuses similar sounding words when spelling, e.g. “one” and “won”
• Poor standard of written work compared to oral ability
• Mixes capital and small letter within words e.g., dyslexia
• Letters, syllables and words omitted, inserted or placed in the wrong order
• Lack of punctuation, or totally inappropriate use of punctuation
• Cannot write in a straight line

Short-term verbal and/or working memory

• May learn and understand how to do something, but requires frequent reminders before they remember to do it.
• Difficulty remembering multiple-step instructions
• May have excellent long-term memory for movies, experiences, locations and faces, but poor memory for sequences as well as unfamiliar facts and information

Sequencing difficulties with:

• Sorting or ordering information
• Writing/reciting the alphabet / numbers
• Remembering/executing a list of instructions
• The months of the year and days of the week in orderGiving a good verbal account of an event/events in their correct order
• Mathematics

Compromised speech ability

• Difficulty expressing thoughts and may communicate more with gestures rather than words
• Difficulty finding the words he/she wants to use
• People who do not know the child well have difficulty understanding what he/she says
• Mispronounces long words, or transposes phrases and words when speaking
• Difficulty attaching names to things and people

Difficulties with time / mathematics

• Difficulty telling time as well as managing and being on time
• Difficulty with Mathematical word problems despite adequate ability to solve arithmetic operations
• May be confused by terms, e.g., deduction, minus and subtraction; adding versus find the total
• May reverse numbers, such as reading or writing “17” for “71”
• May transpose numbers i.e., 752 for 572; or transcribe their answers wrongly
• May have a difficulty with performing mental calculations

Other general symptoms include:

• Disorganised
  
• Easily frustrated or emotional about school, reading, writing, or mathematics
  
• Appears bright and articulate but performs unexpectedly poorer than expected in the academic areas
  
• Performs much better when tested orally, but not in written form
  
• Has a poor sense of direction and/or confusion between left and right
  
• Common signs of dyslexia by school level
  (Dyslexia Association of Singapore [DAS], n.d.).

   

However, it is important to remember that not every child with dyslexia will face all of these difficulties. Some children who present with these signs and symptoms may also face other difficulties aside from dyslexia (DAS, n.d.).

In Singapore, the prevalence of dyslexia among the school-going population is estimated to be between four to 10 per cent, but dyslexia can be identified and diagnosed very early. As parents, you know your children best and are often the ones to first notice learning difficulties in your children. Early identification and intervention are vital for positive and significant therapy outcomes, and to enhance his learning experiences and boost his self-esteem.  An early diagnosis for dyslexia allows for more effective learning interventions, such as educational therapy to take place.

 

How does educational therapy help my child? 

Dyslexia is formally diagnosed through an assessment by an educational or specialist psychologist. Educational Therapy attends to the underlying learning skills that affect academics. These skills include visual and auditory processing, attention and focus as well as memory skills, which are common difficulties among children with dyslexia.

Educational Therapy offers a wide range of intensive interventions that are designed to remediate learning challenges for the child with dyslexia. These interventions are individually customised and target various areas including: reading, spelling, writing, listening skills, oral and communication skills, numeracy skills, problem-solving skills, comprehension and composition skills, time management skills, exam taking skills and social skills. For instance, the therapist may teach children with dyslexia to recognize the sounds which make up words, or help them with phonics—connecting letters with sounds, breaking words into sounds, and blending sounds into words. Together, these skills enable a child to recognise and learn new words, which is fundamental to reading.

Adapting to the unique needs of the learner, educational therapy session is a wholesome intervention programme equipped to help students with learning differences reach their highest potentials.

 

How to encourage effective learning among dyslexic children?

Phonics

Phonics teaching is an essential tool to help children understand unfamiliar words. Though a child can learn to read by recalling with they have seen, this same information will not help when they come across a new or complicated word.

It is important to understand phonics provision from the junior reader’s perspective. Be sure to keep the level of understanding and difficulty relevant and to the student’s academic level, but make it as fun an interesting as possible! Boring pupils to tears is not an effective learning strategy either!

 

Craft reading materials

Making reading materials more accessible to dyslexic children can be a simple and effective method that can greatly help a dyslexic child read. Try to use a clear, rounded, sans-serif font that is easy on the eye. Printing on tinted, or off-white paper, can help reading too! Make sure text on worksheets are organized clearly, using bold to highlight key words and phrases, along with symbols or pictures to support meaning. When writing on the whiteboard or chalkboard, accentuating important phrases or words can be useful when written in a different colour. Make sure writing is well spaced, and leave enough time to copy the writings from the board.

 

Instructions and asking questions

Dyslexic young people can also have problems with memory. Thus, it is important to communicate with them in a clear, concise manner. Giving information or instructions in short chunks helps a dyslexic child best understand you.

If instructions are written, have a list of steps prepared, and encourage children to copy down the different steps. Also, give some time for children to give the answers to your questions.

 

Look at the layout

Children with dyslexia can find it hard to organize their thoughts on paper. Clarity in instructions given, such as how many lines to leave between answers, where the date goes and how to arrange a math book can make a big difference in a dyslexic child’s understanding of the task and their performance.

 

 

Read to learn about learning interventions for children with:

• Autism spectrum disorder (ASD)
• Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)

 

 

Acknowledgement:

Ms. Tricia Tam, Psychologist at MindChamps Allied Care, who has contributed to this article.

 

References:

 

Dyslexia Association of Singapore. (n.d.). SIGNS & SYMPTOMS Retrieved from https://www.das.org.sg/about-dyslexia/what-is-dyslexia/what-is-dyslexia.html#signs                     

Dyslexia Association of Singapore. (n.d.). WHAT IS DYSLEXIA? Retrieved from https://www.das.org.sg/about-dyslexia/what-is-dyslexia/what-is-dyslexia.html#

Rose, J. (2009). Identifying and Teaching Children and Young People with Dyslexia and Literacy Difficulties. Nottingham: DCSF Publications.

U.S. Department of Education. (2006). Assistance to States for the education of children with disabilities and preschool grants for children with disabilities; Final rule. Retrieved on May 26, 2011 from http://idea.ed.gov/download/finalregulations.pdf

Gedge, N. (2017). A few easy steps to improve dyslexic pupils’ experiences [Ebook] (pp. 1-3). London: TES Global Limited. Retrieved from https://search-proquest-com.libproxy.ucl.ac.uk/docview/1909738497?rfr_id=info%3Axri%2Fsid%3Aprimo

Hodge, P. (2018). A Dyslexic Child in the Classroom. Retrieved from https://www.dyslexia.com/about-dyslexia/understanding-dyslexia/guide-for-classroom-teachers/

 

 

If you would like to make an appointment with a psychologist:

Find a psychologist in Malaysia, on GetDoc

Find a psychologist in Singapore, on GetDoc

 

Tags

• dyslexia
• early intervention
• EIP
• learning delay