Specific Learning Difficulties or Dyslexia
It’s only natural that some children will be slower to read, write and spell than their class mates. If you and/or your child’s teacher have noticed that your child is experiencing difficulties, don’t panic! Often with sympathetic help and encouragement, allowing your child to progress at his or her own pace will result in a happy and successful reader and writer.
Keep in touch with the class teacher and find out how you can help your child at home, but remember that you know your child best, and it may be that they have other interests or needs at the time.
Help in School
Some Local Education Authorities (LEAs) are investing resources in providing one to one reading support for six-year-olds (who need it) through the Marie Clay Reading Recovery Programme. Some schools will provide small group or one to one support in the short term. This will often be enough for most children to make good progress.
By the time your child is about seven- years-old, it may become more obvious that there are more significant difficulties, but it is still quite early at this stage to identify a Specific Learning Difficulty. Perhaps you have noticed one or more of the following signs which may indicate specific learning difficulty or Dyslexia.
Is your child:
* Avoiding reading and writing activities?
* Becoming frustrated and showing some behaviour difficulties at home or school?
* Having difficulty hearing and generating rhyming words?
* Unable to recall simple nursery rhymes and songs?
* Saying he or she can’t see the words on the page and find it difficult to keep to each line?
* Producing bizarre spellings and unable to remember learned spellings?
* Producing mirror writing?
* Having a poor short term memory - they can't recall a number sequence, the letters in a word or their times tables?
* Experiencing poor auditory discrimination - they can’t hear the different sounds in words (particularly short vowels although these are hard i.e. cot or cat.)? This makes spelling difficult.
* Have word finding difficulties or reversals - can’t remember the names of people or places and talks around a subject. Says 'park car' instead of 'car park'?
* Disorganised, forgetting homework and PE kit.
* Clumsy, tripping over feet, bumping into objects and finding PE difficult?
* Showing a poor sense of time - can't learn to tell the time and the months of the year?
Was you child a slow talker? Often a child will have been slower to learn to talk and may have some speech sound difficulties.
Remember that each child is an individual and makes progress at their own rate. Although it is important to pick up difficulties early on in order to help your child, labelling and over anxiety won't help.
What to do?
If you do continue to have concerns, arrange to meet the class teacher and/or the special needs teacher at school, and ask what they will do to help. Is it possible to have your child assessed by the school’s Educational Psychologist? You can contact the British Dyslexia Association and ask advice about private assessment and teaching in your local area. Ask other parents what they have done - often they know a good teacher who will help.
A child who is identified as having a Specific Learning Difficulty with reading and writing needs specialist teaching support. They need to learn through a multi-sensory approach in order to maximize their visual, auditory and tactile strategies for learning. They need to follow a structured programme which is taken at the child’s pace and includes their interests and needs. This specialist teaching support should enable the child to access the whole curriculum, including the National Curriculum in the school.
Your child will learn their own strategies for spelling, reading and writing and will make progress. They just need your support and encouragement. Build on their strengths and interests.
Contact The British Dyslexia Association at:
98 London Road
Reading RG1 5AU
Helpline phone number: 0118 966 8271
or click here
Elaine Townshend is a teacher specialising in children with Specific Learning Difficulties
Keep in touch with the class teacher and find out how you can help your child at home, but remember that you know your child best, and it may be that they have other interests or needs at the time.
Help in School
Some Local Education Authorities (LEAs) are investing resources in providing one to one reading support for six-year-olds (who need it) through the Marie Clay Reading Recovery Programme. Some schools will provide small group or one to one support in the short term. This will often be enough for most children to make good progress.
By the time your child is about seven- years-old, it may become more obvious that there are more significant difficulties, but it is still quite early at this stage to identify a Specific Learning Difficulty. Perhaps you have noticed one or more of the following signs which may indicate specific learning difficulty or Dyslexia.
Is your child:
* Avoiding reading and writing activities?
* Becoming frustrated and showing some behaviour difficulties at home or school?
* Having difficulty hearing and generating rhyming words?
* Unable to recall simple nursery rhymes and songs?
* Saying he or she can’t see the words on the page and find it difficult to keep to each line?
* Producing bizarre spellings and unable to remember learned spellings?
* Producing mirror writing?
* Having a poor short term memory - they can't recall a number sequence, the letters in a word or their times tables?
* Experiencing poor auditory discrimination - they can’t hear the different sounds in words (particularly short vowels although these are hard i.e. cot or cat.)? This makes spelling difficult.
* Have word finding difficulties or reversals - can’t remember the names of people or places and talks around a subject. Says 'park car' instead of 'car park'?
* Disorganised, forgetting homework and PE kit.
* Clumsy, tripping over feet, bumping into objects and finding PE difficult?
* Showing a poor sense of time - can't learn to tell the time and the months of the year?
Was you child a slow talker? Often a child will have been slower to learn to talk and may have some speech sound difficulties.
Remember that each child is an individual and makes progress at their own rate. Although it is important to pick up difficulties early on in order to help your child, labelling and over anxiety won't help.
What to do?
If you do continue to have concerns, arrange to meet the class teacher and/or the special needs teacher at school, and ask what they will do to help. Is it possible to have your child assessed by the school’s Educational Psychologist? You can contact the British Dyslexia Association and ask advice about private assessment and teaching in your local area. Ask other parents what they have done - often they know a good teacher who will help.
A child who is identified as having a Specific Learning Difficulty with reading and writing needs specialist teaching support. They need to learn through a multi-sensory approach in order to maximize their visual, auditory and tactile strategies for learning. They need to follow a structured programme which is taken at the child’s pace and includes their interests and needs. This specialist teaching support should enable the child to access the whole curriculum, including the National Curriculum in the school.
Your child will learn their own strategies for spelling, reading and writing and will make progress. They just need your support and encouragement. Build on their strengths and interests.
Contact The British Dyslexia Association at:
98 London Road
Reading RG1 5AU
Helpline phone number: 0118 966 8271
or click here
Elaine Townshend is a teacher specialising in children with Specific Learning Difficulties
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