How to Teach Reading to a Child With Dyslexia & ADHD
Teaching a child with dyslexia requires special skills, and teaching a child with ADHD does as well. If you are teaching a class that includes a child with both dyslexia and ADHD, you need to think carefully about each pedagogical step that you take. Because reading is the most difficult challenge for a student with dyslexia, be sure to make the process as easy as possible by reducing any aspects of your teaching style that can complicate the learning process.
Instructions
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Give a preview of the material before you begin. Letting the child know what you will be learning, especially if the material is broken into several manageable chunks, can help the child feel prepared and optimistic about being able to master it all.
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Choose material that interests the student, if possible. Otherwise, connect what you're about to read with real life outside of the classroom. Students with dyslexia and ADHD need additional motivation to interest them in reading material, and they may tune out if they feel that what they are reading is inapplicable to their lives.
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Allow the child to move around or fidget during reading or instruction time if he desires to do so. This may include pacing in the back of the classroom, doodling or playing with a ball of putty.
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Help the child avoid visual or auditory distractions as much as possible. You can do this by sitting her far from any distracting peers or windows, limiting the classroom noise level during independent work, writing only the most important information on the board and keeping the blackboard clean to improve the contrast between the background and the text.
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Encourage hands-on, multisensory learning. This includes auditory enhancements, such as following along while listening to books on tape, kinesthetic enhancements, such as acting out a dramatic text, tactile enhancements, such as tracing a sandpaper letter to learn phonics, and visual enhancements, such as color-coded texts.
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Break up reading material and instruction into smaller chunks, with breaks in between them. The student's ADHD requires that you limit the amount of work, and a student who struggles with dyslexia as well will have an even harder time concentrating on a long reading assignment.
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Pair up the student with an organized and friendly peer. This "buddy" may remind the student of each night's homework or provide assistance with organizing materials (such as color coding).
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Tips & Warnings
Encourage the use of technology, such as a computer, if it helps the student succeed in your class.
Avoid using a shiny whiteboard, which may be difficult for this student to read. The glare can both distract the student and make it harder to make out the letters accurately.
Try not to point out any of these accommodations to the student's peers to avoid causing embarrassment or self-consciousness.
References
- Photo Credit reading image by max blain from Fotolia.com
