How to Help Kids Who Have Dyslexia or Dysgraphia Read
Dyslexia is a condition in which a person is unable to read at the desired level, despite possessing average intellectual capacity. People who have the less well-known condition of dysgraphia are unable to write at the desired level and sometimes cannot even organize their thoughts in a coherent fashion. Students who have dyslexia and dysgraphia can learn to read, but the instruction must be as structured as possible for them to succeed.
Instructions
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Teach students phonemic awareness skills orally, especially the ability to break a word into its various sound components (phonemes). You can do this by asking questions like "What is the first sound you hear in the word 'bag?'" or "If you changed the /b/ sound in 'bag' to a /t/ sound, what word would you make?"
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Teach students the sounds that consonants make, but call the consonants by their sounds, rather than by their typical names. For example, you would call the letter "m" by the name "mmmm" rather than "em."
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Teach students the sounds that short vowels make.
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Show students how to blend various letters to make short, one-syllable words, such as "lip" and "van." Give them plenty of practice time with this skill before moving on.
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Teach students the long vowel sounds, as well as the different combinations of letters that make them, such as "ee," "ea" and "ie" for the long "e" sound. Let them practice sounding out short words that include these digraphs.
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Give students practice reading longer words, focusing on open syllables (such as the first syllable of "major") and closed syllables (such as the first syllable of "finger"). Explain to them how knowing the difference between open and closed syllables can help them figure out whether the vowel sound is long or short.
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Introduce more complicated reading and spelling patterns, such as "ou" and "aw." Also introduce students to prefixes, suffixes and roots. Emphasize the different spellings of various sounds during this process.
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Tips & Warnings
Students who have dysgraphia may need help improving their sequencing and handwriting skills at the same time as they are developing their reading skills.
Do not ask a student with dyslexia to read a text that is beyond her reading level.
Avoid asking a student with dyslexia to read aloud in class. Encourage individual or paired reading instead.
References
- Photo Credit boy reading book image by sonya etchison from Fotolia.com
