Sunday, May 20, 2012

:: Ways to Read with Your Child with Dyslexia ::


            I have never given much thought to how varying the method and approach to reading could help a child with dyslexia. I came across a short but helpful article by an academic language therapist who works with children with dyslexia.  She gave four helpful tips for parents:

1. Make reading out loud fun.

She encouraged parents to change things up for their child! Make the story interesting by having the child read one page; then the parent reads the next page. Read in different voices for different characters. Take turns reading every other word. These tips and more can be found in the article.

2. Remember: Syllables are your friends.

She told parents that a key to helping their child is breaking words down by syllable. It is a complex process, but a parent can help children at least break down the natural breaks that they hear in words.

3. Use multiple readings to help fluency.

Think of how little children learn their favorite books and “read” them to themselves. They cannot possibly be reading at such a young age –yet they are sitting with the book in front of them, saying the words on the page. How is this possible? Multiple readings/memorization is the key! For children with dyslexia, multiple readings will help build their confidence in reading a passage and will help them read faster and smoother.

4. Focus on comprehension.

She says that asking comprehension questions while reading a story will keep a child clued into what is going on besides lots of work and attempts to read the print on the page. Connecting with the text will motivate children .


To read more, check out the full article: 

Ways to Read with Your Dyslexic Child

~Sarah Beth~

3 comments:

  1. This is a good example of something you could create to share with families. I think it would benefit all families, not just those with children who have disabilities.

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  2. These are some very useful tips parents can use when reading with their child. I agree with Dr. Carr how these could be used for any family and not just those who have a child with a disability or dyslexia. Going through school each tip seems very logical, but I would not have thought about breaking the word into syllables to help much. This does get the child to look at the word more and hear the different sounds.

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  3. I also agree that these would be helpful as a teacher with a student with dyslexia. This shows that as a teacher there are resources to help not only students with dyslexia, but other academic challenges when looking in the right place!

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