Traditional teaching methods do not work for everyone. Taking notes whilst being taught and reading textbooks does not play to the strengths of students with dyslexia or other learning differences.
When restricted to learning this way, bright students often underachieve.
I’ve collated resources that can alleviate the need for students to:
take comprehensive notes in class
read and remember lengthy academic text books
Many of the resources included are free!!
This is a FANTASTIC resource to help readers from 7 years old to develop comprehension skills.
Click on the image to access information on Reading Wise’s Learning Library
Essentially, this is a free trial, which normally I would simply include in my FREE Trials web page, but if I did that, the amazing depth of functionality on offer could easily be missed.
I am impressed that you can get so much help developing comprehension skills free of charge!!
What makes this free trial different:
It is NOT for a limited period
It does NOT only give you basic functionality
Instead, it gives you full functionality for a limited number of books.
Reading Wise’s full solution The Learner Library provides a range of age appropriate, interactive online sessions for readers from 7 years upward.
It works through a series of extracts, each session is designed to bring together key ingredients to improve reading:
the explicit exploration of comprehension strategies
elements of metacognition
collaborative discussion
reading for pleasure
George's Marvellous Medicine
The Witches
Two great books to engage young readers.
The trial is normally limited to schools but Reading Wise have kindly made it available for families too.
To access this free trial please enter your details below and Reading Wise will contact you.
After working with my own dyslexic children and hundreds of other students with learning difficulties I am convinced the most important role of adults in the lives of children who learn differently, is to help them BELIEVE IN THEMSELVES, particularly if the school they attend makes them feel stupid.
Let's face it schools are designed for students that can easily
Read to learn
Write to be assessed
Recall information
Daily children compare their weaknesses with their peer's strengths, resulting in them wrongly assuming they cannot achieve academically. This alone can have a dramatic negative impact on attainment
To better understand why students who find school difficult might struggle with their mental health, I highly recommend this short but powerful video,
How can adults help students believe in their own strengths and abilities? In my experience of working with bright and older dyslexic students, their biggest barrier to their success is ….
Dyslexic students can often feel overwhelmed, exhausted and defeated by school. This can result in them having low expectations of what they can attain. Sadly, some students give up on ever achieving academically.
When this happens, it is hard to motivate students to invest additional time and effort into learning new technologies/techniques that could help them achieve academically.
Having a regular activity that a student enjoys and that energises them, is a welcome distraction from difficulties at school.
More importantly, as children become more proficient and even excel in their chosen activity, it will boost their confidence and self-belief and enable them to derive respect from their peers.
It is important for parents to invest in and value these activities as much as their child’s academic success.
Parents often assume that their child’s teacher will be knowledgeable about dyslexia.
This is a HUGE generalisation, but many teachers are unaware of how little they know about dyslexia. Sadly, many educational professionals are simply not trained to accurately identify or support dyslexic learners.
Obviously, training teachers is beyond the control of parents but anything you can do to respectfully inform could hugely benefit your child. Perhaps you could share with them some of the videos that I recommend and that you found particularly helpful.
Parents having a good relationship with the school is enormously important. Try not to vent at or about teachers, particularly in your child’s hearing. If a child is finding school hard, learning your teacher is incapable will not fill him/her with confidence or hope.
Personally, I always went out of my way to appreciate any extra help teachers gave to support my dyslexic children.
Students must understand that they are bright and capable of academic success.
The earlier dyslexia is identified and students understand their learning style is ‘different’ rather than ‘inferior’, the easier this is.
The longer students compare themselves unfavourably to their peers, without understanding why, the harder this is.
Dyslexic students need to believe that they learn differently, and know that with alternative methods of learning, they can achieve, exceeding all expectations.
Help them see that technology can help them overcome their difficulties with literacy.
I have created this video below to explain why building self-confidence is critical and to communicate what I have seen that has helped students.
Watching specific videos has encouraged my students far more than listening to anything I’ve ever said.
Many videos have been created to inform and encourage dyslexics. These can be great conversation starters.
The discussions I’ve had with students after watching these videos have been enlightening, as they have provided clues to where further support is required.
I've spent an inordinate amount of time watching oodles of videos to find the most helpful ones.
I've created a playlist and provided notes to help you select the most appropriate videos by sharing ones that had the most positive impact on my students from ages 6-18 years.
This will hopefully save you precious time.
Having a child with a learning difference can be really expensive. With this in mind, I have brought together some of the best free online resources to help teach a child to read.
It’s very encouraging to find so many helpful free solutions!
Free solutions are great to supplement and reinforce classroom learning.
If you are a parent supporting a child who continues to struggle with learning to read, it would be good to consider a more structured intervention solution. I don’t sell solutions, so I have no vested interest in advising them.
Once children can read, there are useful resources to help with reading comprehension. To learn more click on Free Resources to Teach Reading Comprehension.
The best solutions for any child depends on their individual needs and preferences. As there are plenty listed here, I’m sure you will find resources that your child(ren) will enjoy and benefit from.
Click the image for more information
Click on the image for more information
Alphablocks is a BBC TV Show that teaches phonics. It is on BBC iPlayer but I couldn’t find the first series on the iPlayer. There might be a licensing issue for anyone outside the UK, so I’ve included a link to their YouTube Channel.
You can purchase accompanying books, but the videos are FREE.
Here is an example video
Click on the image for more information
They also do interactive episodes and Numberblocks.
Click on the image above for more information
Oxford Owl is packed with expert advice, tips and activities to help parents support primary aged children.
Their eBook library offers an extensive range of books.
They have lots of free resources for primary aged children.
Heggerty Phonemic Awareness is an organized 35-week curriculum of daily phonemic awareness lesson plans.
Unlike other solutions listed here, I believe that this is only being made available for free during the global pandemic.
Click on the image to access worksheets and lessons
Developed on a systematic scope and sequence of skills, each level focuses on eight phonemic awareness skills, along with two additional activities to develop Letter and Sound recognition and Language Awareness.
Click on the image above to watch videos
They have a number of videos on YouTube to teach parents how to use the solution.
Click on the image above for more info
ABC Ya’s mission is to inspire learners everywhere by creating entertaining and educational computer games for children.
There are lots of fun games to choose from.
The computer version of this product is free.
Click on the image for more information
It's been provided by a charity, the Usborne Foundation, as a way of helping children learn to read.
The Teach Your Monster to Read app is available to download from the App Store and Google Play Store.
The iPhone, iPad and Android version of the game is a paid-for app which helps fund the project.
The web-based version for computers is free and contains all three Teach Your Monster to Read games: First Steps, Fun with Words and Champion Reader. Income from the app goes back into the Usborne Foundation to create more free online games and content.
Click on the image for more information
This site has a number of useful games, including those that help improve phonological awareness.
StarFall provides free resources to use in the classroom and home. Games, worksheets and much more.
https://www.starfall.com/h/index-grades123.php
StarFall has a YouTube channel that can be found here.
Click on the image for more information
Into the Book is designed to help improve students' reading comprehension, as well as their ability to think and learn across the curriculum.
Many families spend money unnecessarily while FREE solutions go unused because it's not in anyone’s financial interest to promote them.
This has inspired me to help dyslexics by collatating all the best free solutions in an eBook.
This eBook:
- Will stop you spending money unnecessarily
- Is suitable for all age groups
- Contains solutions to help overcome many areas of diffiuclty
- Includes videos to show solutions in action
This eBook will be updated as new solutions become available.
It is no secret that children who read for pleasure are likely to do significantly better in formal exams than their peers.
Reading for pleasure was found to be more important for children’s cognitive development than their parents’ level of education. Click here for the full report.
Reading for pleasure not only improves academic success, it has also been shown to improve emotional intelligence, empathy, creativity, confidence and general wellbeing.
The list of benefits goes on and on. Click here for more research on this subject.
Today, children have so much online and offline entertainment available to them, that struggling through reading isn’t always an attractive option.
Evidence suggests that most children say that they don’t enjoy reading.
If for whatever reason a child struggles learning to read, expecting them to read for pleasure is ambitious.
Knowing from first hand experience how very hard it can be to instil a love of reading in dyslexic children, I’ve created this video to share honestly about the mistakes I made and what I would do if I had my time over again.
To help parents, I have also created a fun pamphlet packed full of practical ideas that will not only make reading together something you both enjoy, it will also help deepen the emotional connection with your child.
For more helpful information, subscribe to my YouTube Channel.
Students with dyslexia are disadvantaged by our current exam system. For more information click here.
Many bright dyslexics have poor working memory and struggle to commit facts to memory.
Revision can require an enormous amount of reading.
Exams involve students having to recall information and write it down legibly under strict time pressure.
If dyslexics study the same way as their neurotypical peers, chances are their grades will NOT reflect their ability.
Doing well in exams is a skill that can be taught.
Schools concentrate on teaching subjects rather than teaching children how to learn/revise.
Many teachers have not been trained in how to take advantage of dyslexics’ strengths when revising.
Every student learns differently.
I am convinced that my dyslexic children excelled in formal exams because of the support I was able to provide.
The stress of preparing for exams can make relationships between parents and children strained. Nonetheless, dyslexic students can benefit from parental support.
I offer one to one consultancy sessions to help students and their parents work efficiently and effectively together.
Consultations are most effective when a student has something they need to learn, then we can figure out together what works best.
Click here to find out more about my consultancy service.
The earlier students learn how to revise effectively, the better. Ideally, get me involved helping with revision as soon as they start sitting subject exams. Better grades are achieved the earlier students adopt new ways of learning.
I run Revision Workshops for teenagers. Given that formal exams have been cancelled this year, I will be running these workshops on demand. If your child is sitting exams this year, do get in touch.
If you are not able to book a consultancy session or join a revision workshop, I have put together some tips to help students revise effectively.
There should be something to help any student, regardless of their individual learning strengths.
For more helpful information subscribe to my YouTube Channel
Spelling tests can be extremely demoralising for dyslexic children, and preparing for them can be time consuming and stressful for the whole family.
Most primary schools give students regular spelling tests. These tests can become a real ordeal and can crush dyslexics’ self-esteem. Parents can also struggle with how best to help their children with the spelling lists.
It’s consoling to know that poor spellers can thrive in academia and in future careers by using spell check functionality! I did really well academically, but my spelling is still rubbish!
Parents stressing about spelling tests, can add to their children’s anxiety, which is never helpful.
Hearing ‘Don't worry, Mummy still can't spell either' helped my children! However, to save them feeling humiliated weekly in front of their peers, I did try to help them learn their spellings. Given I had three children who were reluctant readers, I found this very time-consuming. Most people hate doing what they are bad at!
Fortunately, technology can offer a range of extremely helpful solutions to learn and test spellings which then frees up parents. The best IT solution for your child depends on the:
student’s age
device they have to work on - iPad, laptop, PC, Mac, etc
budget (I have found a number of FREE options)
I've put together a summary of some of the technologies available to help. I must add, however, that these solutions should complement and not entirely replace traditional learning methods.
There is still HUGE value in the 'look, say, cover, write, check' method of learning spellings, no matter how much more appealing playing games on a tablet or computer can be to children.
Technology is fun and may save time, but research shows that writing by hand engages the brain in learning and that neural activity is far more enhanced when children are printing by hand.
For more information click here.
Unfortunately, my own children got bored with traditional techniques VERY quickly!
Unless I was physically with them -
forcing the looking
doing the covering
saying the letters
testing them
they would NOT do it, regardless of what the research said.
It helped my sanity to find IT games that they could play to help them learn their weekly spelling lists. As they enjoyed the games, they did improve their weekly spelling scores.
I simply had to find the time to input each of their spellings each week. I had them in the kitchen on their devices as I prepared dinner.
Would you like to know more about the games I found helped my children with spelling?
For more helpful information subscribe to the Achieve Now YouTube Channel.
Some children find learning to read and spell exceedingly difficult. These children can benefit enormously from help at home.
Teaching your own child to read isn’t always an easy task. I have collated some resources to make it much, much easier.
FREE online resources to train parents
Paper based intervention solutions
Electronic intervention solutions
How to access free trials of solutions
Tips on making it work for your family
Help to decide where to start
Let me know who to send this eBook to