~ Dyslexia ~ Tips & Methods   Menu The "Right" Way (NOT) For the Preschooler: Preparing to Read For the Elementary Schooler Teaching an Older Child/Teenager The "Right" Way (NOT) Even when they were young, my kids decided that they couldn’t do things the "right" way. I don’t know when this starts, so I couldn’t stop it before it happened. But my experience taught me how to fix it. Remind them that they didn’t walk "right" at first, either. They didn’t run "perfectly". They didn’t talk "perfectly". Instead, they tried again and again until they could do it. It wasn’t perfect but they did it. As they practiced, they got better. This applies to EVERYTHING humans learn to do. A good example is important too. Let them see you try things that you don’t do perfectly.   One of the important things at our house is drawing. I don’t draw well. But I’ve learned that if I don’t try, my budding Picasso may never get out the crayons. So, I draw.   Obstacles: A dyslexic who tends to reverse letters (or numbers) will learn to be cautious about her work and to compensate for this tendency. Holding a finger on the written word as well as on the word copied to check the work is a good idea. However, even this precaution will not help if the dyslexic is tired. If she is tired, more mistakes will be made.   Reversals: Because dyslexics may make mistakes in copying work (12 for 21 and 43 for 34), photocopied problems will cut down on errors unless you want to evaluate the student on the work he did 12+31 instead of 21+31.   If he is writing down phone numbers or writing a check, he will want to learn to repeat the number back to be sure that he's got it right.   Reading Out Loud: Some people feel that a dyslexic just needs to read more, especially out loud. My personal opinion is that this is not a good idea...he has to decode the letters, decode the word then transfer it the interpretative facility which tells him what it sounds like. By the time he does all that, he knows that word, but he doesn't know the sentence and he has no idea what the story is. I asked mine to read enough so that I knew what stage she was at but not so much so that it was torture. Once I knew she was getting it (even if she didn't say it right) all I was interested in was in her comprehension.     For the Preschooler: Preparing to Read Draw circles and lines any way at all (to develop the coordination to write) and then in an orderly fashion along a line. Trace the ABCs. Recite them AND the sound they represent. ABC books which list words beginning with each letter are good for this. This teaches recognition of the letter and indicates that these symbols represent sounds. The Just So Stories story about how the alphabet was formed is great to illustrate this principle. Make pictures out of the letters. Draw the letter and decorate it or use the letter to make a picture of another object such as goal posts out of the letter "H". There are ABC books which give ideas about this but it would be better for the child to develop his own while he is unaffected by the "right" way to do things. Send the results to a grandparent or a friend. Draw the letters in the sand at the beach. Using more than one sense helps the child to learn material better. This is especially important for the dyslexic child. When drawing in the sand, in the dust of the car, on the blackboard, using chalk on the sidewalk, the child usually makes larger letters than he would on paper. He uses his entire arm and sometimes his entire body. You may see people with spelling problems writing a word in the air or on their arm. They are reminding themselves of how to spell the word by remembering the motion used to write the word. Sand, flour or sugar on a cookie sheet also works if you don’t have a beach close by. Make the letters out of cookie dough and eat the lesson. This is another effort to use more than one sense (sight) to remember letters and words. You can also use clay.     For the Elementary Schooler: Learning to Read and Spell: Label items around your house: the curtain, wall, TV, records, books, door, kitchen, bed, etc. Seeing words and identifying them with the object helps. Read cereal boxes. Read stories (helps them learn good forms of grammar and sentence structure). Draw the words in the sand at the beach. Using more than one sense helps the child to learn material better. This is especially important for the dyslexic child. When drawing in the sand, in the dust of the car, on the blackboard, using chalk on the sidewalk, the child usually makes larger letters than he would on paper. He uses his entire arm and sometimes his entire body. You may see people with spelling problems writing a word in the air or on their arm. They are reminding themselves of how to spell the word by remembering the motion used to write the word. Sand or flour on a cookie sheet also works if you don’t have a beach close by. Make the words out of cookie dough and eat the lesson. This is another effort to use more than one sense (sight) to remember letters and words. You can also use clay. Dyslexia students often have problems with their writing. Use art to help them make it better. Teach them that writing is artistic and that you can have fun with it. Dyslexia students also have problems with short term memory retention. When spelling words, their thought process goes something like this: I want to spell "home". OK, "home", that sounds like a "ha" sound. How do I write the "ha"sound. That’s an "H", right? H. Two posts and a bar. OK. Got that. What was the word I’m trying to spell? Oh, yeah, "home". This is the reason that taking the letter formation (the writing) out of the equation makes learning spelling easier. So teach them to type even while trying to make writing fun through art. At some point they will be able to write adequately AND they will know how to spell what they write as well. Copy a favorite passage. Type it, draw it, illustrate it, do it in calligraphy, do it in your own style. It doesn’t matter. What matters is that the formation of words and their pattern (both spelling and grammar) is being learned. Let them read anything that they are interested in reading. If they want to read comics, let them read comics. If they want to read Pokemon stuff, let them. As long as they are reading, it doesn’t matter what they read. If he wants to read a book and needs help, try audio-tapes which read along with you.   Alphabet Game for the elementary child: This is the alphabet game: The object is to get from A to Z before your competitors by finding the letters on anything OUTSIDE the vehicle in which you are riding. There are several variations on this game depending on the age and potential success of the child. For the youngest child, you find the letters with her: "Look, there’s a word that starts with "A". That’s Avenue. Do you see it? And you go through the alphabet together without competition. The next step is to compete for letters but to "share" the hard ones. "I see a "B" on the sign up there." "I see a "C" on the license plate of that car." Once the child begins to read fairly well, the child must identify the letter and the word it is in before other competitors do: "I see "D" in Detroit on that truck."   Spelling tricks: When children begin spelling, they first recognize the beginning letter/sound of words OR the ending letter/sounds but not both and certainly not the middle. The object is to continue to make them accustomed to the sounds of various letters by stating/asking: There’s a dog, what sound does "dog" start with? What letter does that sound represent? Once they get the beginning letter regularly, ask them what various words end with using objects around the house or on your visits outside the house. Basically, you are teaching them to hear and to understand what they hear in terms of symbols (letters and sounds). It is because they have trouble with the middle that it is good to break a word up into syllables or smaller words. It is easier to learn a two or three letter phoneme such as "-ed" or "-ing" than it is to learn bumped or bumping as one word. Make up mnemonics for hard words. My daughter still spells daughter by reciting "dogs are ugly; girls hate to eat radishes." Teach spelling by grouping words together which rhyme: "bat, cat, fat, hat, mat, rat, sat". The child learns one sound, "at" and several words by sticking on different beginning sounds. Identify other sounds like this. At one time, spelling texts (20 years or older) always arranged words in this fashion. To avoid confusion between lower case "B" and "D": Teach them to "make their bed": Hold up your hands in front of you with the last three fingers pointing up and the index finger and thumb touching each other and touching the other hand. You will form this figure bd.   The first letter (reading left to right as we always do) is the first letter in the alphabet with this shape (the "b") and is the "headpost" for your bed shown by your hands. That leaves the second letter to be identified as the "d" or "footpost".   Multiplication tricks: Some dyslexics have problems learning the multiplication tables. Here are tips about how to remember them with mnemonic aids. For now, these will help the dyslexic succeed and remember what he needs to know. Sometimes, these aids becomes unnecessary.   Learning 0, 1, 2 and usually 3 is not difficult for the dyslexic. Learning the 4s is different.   1. 4s. Multiple the number by 2 and double it. If you are looking for 6 x 4: multiple 6 by 2 giving 12, then double it: 12 + 12 = 24. If you are looking for 8 x 4: multiple 8 by 2 giving 16, then double it: 16 + 16 = 32.   2. 5s. Use skip counting: 5, 10, 15, 20…   3. 6s, 7s, 8s. For these, pretend that you have a friend holding out his hand with his 5 fingers. Hold out your left hand. For the 6s, you will use your thumb as the 6th finger (counting your friends 5 fingers). For the 7s, you will use your thumb and index finger. For the 8s, you will use your thumb, index finger and middle finger. Since we are only dealing with numbers over 5 (6, 7, and 8), use your right hand the same way as described for your left for the second integer. * 6 x 7 = Put your left hand thumb against your thumb & index finger on your right hand. Hold all other fingers up in the air. The fingers that are connected are the "tens". * Next, multiple the fingers which are up in the air and ADD the answer to the "tens" which are connected. 4 x 3=12 and 12 +30= 42. * 7 X 7 = Connect thumb and index fingers (fingers numbered 7) to each other * There are 4 fingers connected, so you have 40. * There are 3 fingers on each hand, so 3 X 3 = 9. * 40 + 9 = 49.   4. The 9s. Hold your hands in front of you. Counting from left to right, your pinkie is one, your thumb is 5, your next thumb is 6 and your right pinkie is 10. Turn down the number you want to multiple by 9. If it is 7, turn down the 7th finger (or your right index finger). Read the number by identifying the left hand fingers as "tens" and the left hand fingers (after the turned down finger) as "ones". Your answer is 6 tens (or 60) and 3 ones (or 3) = 63. If you want 8 X 9, turn down the 8th finger (or longest finger). Your answer: 7 tens (or 70) and 2 ones (or 2) = 72.     Teaching an Older Child/Teenager How to read and spell (Or How to Teach When the Student is Getting Frustrated): (The McCabe Method—Sequential Spelling)   If a child isn’t reading, he hasn’t learned the patterns he needs to know in order to read. Phonics will help but there is a quicker way outlined by Don McCabe. His method is to start with small words that the student probably knows and build on that until you get to very hard words. He calls it sequential seplling. You’ll find his web site in the resources. The teacher’s object is to encourage the student at everything he tries. There’s always something that he has gotten right.   Lesson 1: (List: bat, rat, brat) Mr. McCabe begins by asking the student to spell "scattered" and assures him that he will be able to spell it (and a lot of other words) by the end of about an hour. If the student can’t spell it (and we wouldn’t be talking about this if he can), ask him to write down whatever letters he thinks might be in the word. Most might write down "s-d-a-r". Congratulations are in order because each of those letters are in the word "scattered". You can assure him that the next time he’s asked to spell "scattered", he’ll be able to do it.   Begin the lesson in these steps: Ask him to spell "at". If he spells it right, fine. If not, the teacher writes it and asks the student to rewrite the word. Ask him to spell "bat". He probably knows that all he has to do is use the same "at" word with an initial "b". Congratulate him. Ask him to spell "rat". Again, congratulate him when he spells it correctly. Ask him to spell "brat". There’s a good chance the poor speller will be uncertain about the word and may write "bat" again, knowing that it isn’t right. Assure him that he got the important letters right but show him that he didn’t quite here the "rat" in the word. The teacher writes "rat", then adds the "b" before "rat" to make "brat".   Lesson 2: (List: bats, rats, brat flat, flatter, spat) McCabe feels that it is important to let time pass (about 10 minutes) once this much has been learned to give the student time to forget. In his book, he spends the time talking to the student about memory. The second lesson will build on and cement the previous lesson. Begin by asking the student to spell "bats". Since the "t" is practically silent, most students will spell it "bas". Congratulate her on her good hearing and point out that you would have to spit to say "bats" while hearing the "t". Point out that we have to write "bat" then add the "s". Ask her to spell rats. She probably will be able to do it and may be able to spell "brats" also. Congratulate her. 3. Go to "flat". Congratulate her for any letters she uses which are in the word. She’ll likely leave out "l". If so, write "lat", say it and then add the "f" sounding it out as you do it. Introduce "flatter". Congratulate her for any letters and tell her that in English, we need to double the "t" and add "er" to gett the "atter" sound. Ask her to spell "spat". Again congratulate her for any letters used in the word. If she left out the "p", write "at", add the "p" making it "pat", then put the "s" in front of "pat" and sound out the word accenting all letters.   Lesson 3: (List: batted, ratted, batter, flats, flatters, spats, mat, matter, hat) Here, it’s time for another pause. You might want to mention that there are other ways to spell the sound "er" such as "ir" (sir), "or" (word) and "ur" (fur). Mr. McCabe points out that the natural way of learning is to make and correct our own mistakes. This is the way we learn to stand up, walk, talk, use a knife and fork, swim, skate, etc. (Actually, I tell my kids about the swimming, skating, etc., but it’s the same principle.)   When spelling "batted", some kids spell it the way it sounds "badid". However, English again doubles the "t", then adds "ed". Once the student has this principle, he can spell batted, ratted, and batter. If they are getting the hang of this, they may spell flats wrong at first, but may correct themselves before you do. Remember to encourage anything they do.   Lesson 4: (List: batting, ratting, batters, pat, flattered, spatter, mats, matters, hats, cat, scat, scatter) Take time for another pause. Understanding that you double the "t" in these words and add "ing" helps the student get through the next few words. A reminder may be necessary along the way in some of these words. The student probably knows how to spell cat and may feel insulted by the introduction of this word at first. But she will see why it is part of the list when you introduce scat. Scat is just the "s" sound in front of "cat". That brings us back to scatter, which most students will now be able to spell.   McCabe has a book about the patterns of sequential spelling. He goes through words with "all", "end", "ain", "erve" (such as serve), and "crat" (such as democrat) and "ice".   It is important to work on this system every day until the patterns are easily recalled.

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