What can be done to help dyslexia?

Hi Audry,
As you probably know there is no cure for dyslexia. Your reading and writing can however benefit from specialised support such as one-on-one tutoring (e.g. with a speech pathologist) or a phonics-based reading program that focuses on the links between spoken and written sounds.

A multi-sensory approach to learning that allows you to learn using other skills such as watching, doing, listening and speaking, can also ensure you don't get left behind in other fields of knowledge. For example, you may find watching a short clip about how the earth revolves around the sun easier to understand compared to a block of text describing the orbit patterns. Or, you may find someone reading this paragraph out loud and then speaking to them about its content more comfortable than reading it on your laptop. Some schools/institutions allow you to undertake your exams orally to assist in overcoming this obstacle.

Sorry I don't know much about analogous numeracy problems - can you explain what you mean by it?

comments

Corinne Mirkazemi: btw, you may like to check out this site for more information: www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/ ...
1 year ago

Fred Penn: also try www.dyslexia-teacher.com/t16.html ...
1 year ago

Audry,

Luckily today there are many things that can help dyslexia.

The first thing to do is to recognize dyslexia for what it is; a 'cover-all' term for reading problems. The term "dyslexia" comes from two Greek words that mean: "a difficulty with words." In fact, as there is no specific definition of dyslexia there is no specific 'cure'.

Dyslexia is also not just about not reading, it changes peoples lives. Dyslexic people may have trouble with spelling, organization, and carrying out instructions. They may also confuse left and right.

In school, the dyslexia child begins to experiences failure in the classroom, but may not understand why she is failing. The result may be poor self-esteem, great frustration, and extreme loss of confidence. This may make the child reluctant to attend school.

Helping your child begins with getting an accurate diagnosis. Sometimes the school takes responsibility for this, but you may need to consult with an educational psychologist, which may be expensive.

Dyslexia is a popular subject for research at present, as no one yet understands to the fullest extent what causes this condition.

A good way to understand dyslexia is to compare the condition with colorblindness. Colorblind people are of equal intelligence and gifts. So are dyslexics.

If you find out your child is dyslexic, it's important not to assume they can't succeed. Today, there are proven methods for helping the dyslexic child bridge the gap in all areas of difficulty.

Because you can't see that a child has dyslexia just by looking at them, the condition may go undetected by teaching staff. As a result, a teacher might label a dyslexic child as "slow" or "lazy."

You can read more about dyslexia, dyspraxia and dyscalculia here: community.cognibeat.com

good luck!

Another addition to Corinne's answer is that the best approaches acknowledge that the objective in helping to improve a dyslexic's 'reading' is not to 'read-like-a-non-dyslexic-does', but to find a way of extracting information from text that works efficiently for someone who processes such information differently from the majority.

For alphabet writing systems the fundamental aim is to increase a child's awareness of correspondences between graphemes and phonemes, and to relate these to reading and spelling. It has been found that training focused towards visual language and orthographic issues yields longer-lasting gains than mere oral phonological training.

The analgous numeracy problems that you are probably thinking of is dyscalculia, which is not strictly dyslexia, but another learning disability that often coexists with people who have dyslexia.