Did you know about 15% of Americans suffer from dyslexia? Of that number, many are children who experience a tough time in the school system. Many children with dyslexia find it difficult to concentrate or succeed in class.
That is because they learn differently than their peers. So, understanding how to teach children with learning disabilities is a must. Want to know the top dyslexia strategies for your children or students? If so, continue reading this article.
1. Phonemic Awareness Instruction
People can experience several types of dyslexia. However, many of these variations involve difficulty reading or interpreting words. That is why many dyslexia strategies involve evidence-based reading instruction.
That means you implement a systematic method proven to aid children with disabilities. One part of this instructional method is Phonemic Instruction. Phonemic awareness means you can break up each word into different sound segments.
So, phonetically sound out each word in a book or passage while you teach. For instance, if you have the word “cat,” you will sound out three different phonemes.
When you do this, your students understand what sounds make up the word as a whole. Once the children learn how to do this on their own, it will strengthen their reading and comprehension skills.
2. Systematic Phonics Instruction
Systematic phonics involves understanding the correlation between sounds and letters. So, you want your students to see a word and instantly recognize the sound that letters make.
When you utilize this method, you represent each phonogram in isolation. You also want your students to repeat the phonogram as many times as it takes for them to learn.
That is the key to systematic phonics. You begin simple and help the students work up to more advanced words and reading.
3. Classroom Accommodations
Teaching children with dyslexia isn’t all about instruction. You also have to prepare classroom accommodations for those students. A good way to start would be to have a parent-teacher conference.
Ask the parents how the child learns and what accommodations work best. One of the best accommodations is breaking material up into blocks. Do not throw a lot of information at the students all at once. This can create confusion and frustration.
You can also do your best to block out outside stimuli that may distract dyslexic students from their work.
That way, they can hone in on classwork without extraneous sounds and visuals. By accommodating these children in the classroom, you ensure they learn to the best of their abilities. Along with these tips, you may also enroll your child or student in a literacy program to help empower them with personalized instruction.
For More Dyslexia Strategies
As you can tell, children with learning disabilities like dyslexia learn differently in the classroom. By implementing strategies, like evidence-based reading instruction, you can enhance dyslexic children’s learning abilities.
We hope these top strategies help you with the dyslexic students in your class. If you require more tips and advice about dyslexia teaching methods, we urge you to continue reading our Education blog posts. We have many more articles discussing teaching methods that will surely help you become the best teacher possible.