Do you or your child:

• struggle to read?

• forget what was read?

• make a lot of spelling errors?

• have trouble writing down ideas?

• can't recall math facts?

• have difficulty with handwriting?

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These are some of the signs of dyslexia, a neurologically-based learning difficulty.  If you or your child have any of these issues, you are not alone. One in five (that's 20%!) of the population is affected by some degree of dyslexia. And if you, or someone else in the family struggled to read, there is a good chance that your child will or does as well. And, dyslexia has nothing to do with intelligence! Some very smart people have dyslexia - they are often very creative, outside-the-box thinkers. But before people with dyslexia become successful, they often struggle in school and are made to feel that they are not smart enough. This can lead to frustration and disinterest in school. Moreover, dyslexia affects not only the person with dyslexia but also others in the family who try to help or must become advocates to get their child help. Dyslexia can lead to embarrassment and anxiety about reading; it can turn kids off from learning as they start to shut down. But it doesn't have to be this way!

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So, what can be done? NRICH Tutoring uses a structured, systematic learning approach, based on the science of reading, which can help learners with dyslexia to retrain their brains and learn to read. Structured literacy focused on explicit instruction in phonological awareness, word recognition, phonics and decoding, spelling and syntax. Students learn how syllables can help with reading and spelling. A focus on morphology (the study of the forms of words) helps students understand the ways that English is logical.

 

The Fourth Grade Slump

Students with dyslexia often start to struggle more as they get into third or fourth grade - up to that point, they have relied on memorizing words (and even whole books!) which makes teachers and parents scratch their heads when they suddenly "can't read." They can be very good at hiding a problem but what they need is to be taught how to sound out new words so they can add them to their sight vocabulary (they probably have them in their verbal vocabulary - some kids with dyslexia are good talkers and recall things that the teacher says in class so they can get by without reading a text, at least in the early grades).

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Orton-Gillingham

Tutors who are trained in the Orton-Gillingham approach provide the gold standard in dyslexia intervention. Orton-Gillingham has been around for decades and there are different programs built on the approach which, at its core, is a multisensory, structured literacy approach that teaches the connections between sounds and letters.

 

Having a tutor trained in O-G is important but parents or other caregivers can do a lot to help their child as well. We are here to provide resources and extra support for those with dyslexia as it is a lifelong struggle but it can get better with hard work and the right approach.

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Check out this article from the International Dyslexia Association on the Reading Rockets website:

Structured Literacy Instruction: The Basics

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