See also Dot's Diary, which contains many teaching strategies.

USING MULTI-SENSORY TEACHING METHODS

Studies from the National Institutes of Child Health and Human Development have shown that for children with difficulties learning to read, a multi-sensory teaching method is the most effective teaching method.

This is especially crucial for a dyslexic child. But what does it mean?

Using a multi-sensory teaching approach means helping a child to learn through more than one of the senses. Most teaching in schools is done using either sight or hearing (auditory sensations). The child's sight is used in reading information, looking at diagrams or pictures, or reading what is on the teacher's board. The sense of hearing is used in listening to what the teacher says. A dyslexic child may experience difficulties with either or both of these senses. The child's vision may be affected by difficulties with tracking, visual processing or seeing the words become fuzzy or move around. The child's hearing may be satisfactory on a hearing test, but auditory memory or auditory processing may be weak.

The answer is to involve the use of more of the child’s senses, especially the use of touch and movement (kinetic). This will give the child’s brain tactile and kinetic memories to hang on to, as well as the visual and auditory ones.
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CONFIDENCE BUILDING

The majority of dyslexic children have come to the conclusion that they are stupid!

In any school in any week of the year a dyslexic child experiences a huge amount of failure. With sequencing difficulties, any form of writing or math/s is going to present severe problems, and the dyslexic child cannot fail to notice that almost all of the other children are able to do the work which he or she finds so hard. Why can't he read and spell? He must be dumb, thick, stupid. It's the conclusion that anyone would reach in similar circumstances, and it badly needs changing before any corrective teaching is going to be effective.

However good our methods with phoneme awareness, finding interesting books and word games are, this basic foundation for each child of a secure self-confidence has got to be addressed before any real progress can be hoped for

The difficulty with dyslexia is that it is not visible. If the child had a broken arm, everyone would be rushing around giving extra consideration. 'Of course he can't write - his arm is broken! There's nothing wrong with his intelligence.' But no-one ever says 'Of course he can't spell - he has inherited a different pattern of brain circuits! There's nothing wrong with his intelligence.'

Teachers, parents and the dyslexic child himself come to the clear conclusion that he must be slow-witted.

What I am suggesting is a little cognitive therapy by the teacher, if possible in conjunction with the parent! Not as hard as it seems. The assumption in the child's mind - that he is stupid - is inaccurate, and it needs correcting if he is to re-establish the self-confidence he needs to learn. This is not going to be achieved simply by telling him that he's as intelligent as the next person. Well-intentioned people have been telling him that for years to no effect. He needs evidence, and he needs to re-construct the picture he has of himself in his own mind. Only in this way can he see his difficulties as a dyslexic learner in the proper context of a person - like anyone else - who has both strengths and weaknesses. Most dyslexic people have great strengths in the areas of physical co-ordination and/or creativity and/or empathy with other people. His strengths may lie in some of these areas, and he will know that lots of other children are weak in exactly these same areas.

The following exercise has a great effect on children, and can be carried out by a parent, or a teacher, or, if at all possible, both together with the child, who needs to be on his own (not in a group situation). Take a sheet of paper and make two columns: in one column put 'Things I am good at' and in the other 'Things that I am not so good at'

Take about five or ten minutes of discussion with the child for you to write a list of things that the child is - from an objective point of view - successful at. These will include such skills as swimming, sports, caring for pets, making a collection, dancing, drama, singing, art, painting, drawing, and so on. In the 'Not so good' column let the child tell you the things like spelling and writing that he really finds hard. The list will look something like this, depending of course on each child's interests:

The evidence is staring the child in the face: there are far more things that he is good at than things he has difficulties with. He can't possibly be stupid. He is clearly a successful person.

But he may well say that the things he is weak at are the things that matter in life. If you can't spell, how can you pass exams and get a job? This is the stage at which you have to argue - not tell - and say such things as 'What do you value people for - because they are good at spelling? Of course not. You value people for all sorts of qualities, especially their ability to be friendly, get on with you, consider your needs, think of other people before themselves and so on. It's up to you to keep the argument going until the child can really begin to see himself in a new light - as a successful person who just happens to have been born with a small handicap. Like being color-blind. It's not his fault. It's not because he doesn't try hard enough (as, unfortunately, many teachers will have told him).

Seeing himself in a new light can be a turning point for the child - whatever his or her age - and this new-born self-confidence can lay the foundation for the special kind of learning he needs to build up the spelling and writing skills that his fellow pupils find so much easier to acquire.

But it's not an over-night change, and it needs carefully nurturing over the coming month. The list should be carefully preserved and pinned up at home in the kitchen for all to see. He needs praise, gold stars, credits, and certificates over the coming weeks for things he does in school - of a non-academic nature - which are commendable: helping a new pupil to settle in, co-operating well in a games session, coming up with a fresh creative idea for art, and so on. The certificates he receives for these valuable activities may be the first he has ever received in his entire school career.

John Bradford
dyslextest@aol.com

OTHER ARTICLES

• Bobbi Barrows (From LD Online)
Bobbi Barrows began as an AmeriCorps volunteer. Americorps volunteers work to help teach children to read, build houses, and respond to natural disasters. Bobbie was one of only ten national winners from across America to receive the All AmeriCorps Award at a national ceremony from President Clinton on January 15, 2001. She won her "Getting Things Done" Award for her efforts in literacy. Bobbi, who has struggled throughout her life with dyslexia, teaches dyslexic children to read in Mississippi. Ms. Barrows also began a literacy class for adults using the Texas Scottish Rite Hospital Literacy Program and she is now attending college to obtain her bachelors degree in education with a speciality in reading so that she can become a "regular" classroom teacher. Her story is a tribute to the success individuals with LD can have and the impact they can make on the lives of others.

• Hearing a Child read (Dyslexia Online Magazine)

• The sounds the letters make (Dyslexia Online Magazine)

• 'How Now Brown Cow' - phoneme awareness activities for collaborative classrooms - by Patricia J. Edelen-Smith (from LD Online)

• Learning to Read - Reading to Learn - helping children with learning disabilities to succeed - Tips for Teachers from the National Center to Improve the Tools of Educators.

• The Underlining Option - using the personal spelling and usage sheet - by C. Wilson Anderson (LD Online)

• Five Guidelines for learning to spell, and Six Ways to practice spelling - by Susan Jones (from LD Online)

• Classroom accommodations - a brief, helpful listing from Parent Journal

• 20 ways to make instruction more memorable - by Barbara Fulk (from LD Online)

• What teachers can do about learning disabilities - National Center for Learning Disabilities

• Adjustments in classroom management - for the LD and ADHD child, by Suzanne Stevens (from LD Online)

• Interventions for students with learning disabilities - from the National Information Center for Children and Youth with Disabilities

• Enabling the dyslexic student - by Mike Juggins

• Teaching Students With Learning Disabilities To Use Learning Strategies by Neil Sturomski

• Phonological Awareness - by William Ellis (lower down on the same page)

• The Disorganized Student - by Ken Shore - provides the characteristics of a disorganized students and lots of ways in which teachers can help (from LD Online).

• Note-taking strategy - using a two-column format - by Karen J. Rooney (from LD Online)

• Improving students' understanding of textbook format - by Barbara Flanagan (fom LD Online)

• Homework How-To's - by Tanis Bryan and Karen Sullivan-Burstein

• Emerging Reading and Word-Identification Skills - phonics and phonemic awareness - the basic ideas.

• Helping Children Overcome Reading Difficulties This ERIC digest discusses children with reading difficulties and how these children can be helped to read and learn more.

• When the chips are down! - strategies for improving children's behavior - with Richard Lavoie (from LD Online)

• Academic interventions for children with Dyslexia who have phonological core deficits - by Julie Frost and Michael Emery

• Research on learning to read and spell - a personal-historical perspective by Linnea C. Ehri.

• Many students with dyslexia have difficulties with orthographic skills. Completing Visual Tracking exercises will help improve these skills. A series of workbooks which provide significant practice is available at LDLearning.com

• How Is Your Confidence?

Contributions

• AttackReadSpell - During 20 years of running a school for dyslexic boys and girls I compiled the AttackReadSpell programme. It is basic, easily used by teachers, classroom assistants and parents and IT WORKS! Please look at our web site - www.attackreadspell.co.uk

• I would appreciate comments on dyslexic children and outdoor education. (Andy, UK, andythompson80@hotmail.com)

• Divide the big word into smaller components and underline each part with different colored pencils; or replace a difficult (which are difficult for the child) word with more familiar words, even at the cost of losing out on the meaning of the sentence to an extent. (Renu, India)