How to Help Dyslexic Children Learn to Spell

It isn't always easy.

Researchers studying dyslexia commonly compare the reading and spelling skills of dyslexic children with those of younger children who are at the same reading level as the dyslexic children. One goal is to discover how the learning strategies employed by both groups differ. Researchers Derrick Bourassa, a psychology professor at Acadia University, and Rebecca Treiman, a psychology professor at Washington University in St. Louis, found that dyslexic children are less able than their non-disabled counterparts to use phonetic skills to improve their reading and writing. Instead they use information they have learned about how groups of letters are combined to form words--so called orthographic skills.

Instructions

1. 

   Get all their letters straight in time.

   Reduce the student's need to depend on extensive memorization of individual words by instead assigning Latin root words as a memorization exercise. According to Kevin Huitt at Valdosta State University in Georgia, repeated drilling on the approximately 40 Latin root words over a period of several weeks will be far more useful than constantly introducing new but unrelated vocabulary words.

2. Take advantage of technology by requiring students to spell-check all papers. Through repetition, students will more quickly isolate and recognize errors that they would otherwise frequently repeat.

3. 

   Blackboard. Check.

   Use blackboards rather than whiteboards, and handouts rather than overhead projectors, when conducting spelling lessons. According to researchers at MIT, whiteboards and overhead projectors can pose special challenges to dyslexic individuals.

4. Allow dyslexic students additional time to complete examinations and in-class assignments. Time limitations merely frustrate dyslexic individuals who might otherwise be willing to apply the coping strategies they have been taught or developed on their own.

5. 

   That's more like it.

   Encourage dyslexic students by reassuring them that their dyslexia doesn't need to be an impediment to success. Discouragement is the enemy. A 2003 study by the Tulip Financial Group for the BBC found that dyslexic individuals are more likely to become millionaires than other people, partly as a result of the coping skills and perseverance developed while learning how to read and spell.

References

• Washington University in St. Louis: Spelling in Children With Dyslexia: Analyses From the Treiman--Bourassa Early Spelling Test
• University of Queensland (Australia) School of Psychology: What is Orthographic Processing Skill and How Does it Relate to Word Identification in Reading?
• Valdosta State University: Teaching Dyslexic Students by Professor Kevin L. Huitt
• Dyslexia at College: Teaching Dyslexic Students at College or University
• Reading Rockets: Are Dyslexia and Wealth Linked?