English and children with dyslexia at P level 4

Dyslexia creates the following challenges for a child:

• Memory – inefficient retrieval and storage system for remembering facts and words.
• Confusion of similar sounding words.
• Problems sequencing sounds; both reading from print and imitating a polysyllabic word or series of numbers.
• Problems orientating symbols and distinguishing between similar symbols such as p, d, b, q.
• Problems scanning text and symbols – difficulty in tracking lines of text.
• Erratic progress if knowledge is not ‘over-learnt’ – see below.
• Poor organisational abilities.
• Problems using charts and tables.
• Difficulty remembering the alphabet sequence.
• Difficulty in understanding text: the effort of reading is great and the speed of reading is slow so it’s hard to remember what was at the beginning of a sentence.
• Problems remembering directions (left and right).
• Problems telling the time and judging time passed.

The main challenges for a dyslexic child at P level 4 are to copy the sounds of new words, remembering them and their meanings, and to recall the orientation of text and direction of reading.

You can:

• Try ‘overlearning’ important facts so that the child can store them in a retrievable part of the brain. To do this go through consistent routines so the child learns the vocabulary in context. Revisit previously learnt blocks of knowledge as it can easily be forgotten if not recalled, and subsequent learning will also be forgotten.
• Try singing new words, and fitting them into a well-known rhyme to make them more memorable.
• Play role-reversal games where the teacher becomes the pupil and the child has to take charge of the (revisited) learning.
• Use visual and tactile devices to aid memory – use magnetic or foam letters to match other letters. Let the child draw letters in the sand and foam or make them out of playdough, to get the feeling of each letter they are matching.