Top Tip…Fine Motor Skills  Dyslexia Toby © 2017

The co-ordination of the skeletal, muscular and neurological body functions combines to perform fine motor skills. Fine motor control is the ability to make small, precise movements, such as picking up a tiny object with your thumb and index finger. There are several things you can do to improve fine motor skill…working with a soft ball…making sure you get your child to squeeze the ball, stretching the fingers and pull the ball in by using mainly the finger tips…rolling up a tea towel is also good for this.
Marbles is a great game for improving fine motor skill and children love to play it. Set up a marbles game and play it for 15 to 20 minutes several times a day. To shoot marbles, set up a small box on its side either on a table, on a carpet or on the floor. Hold a marble between the tip of your index finger and thumb; shoot it towards the box, trying to get it inside. Start close to the box and as co-ordination improves move the box further away, which will also continue to develop more accuracy. You can also use the index finger to flick the marble if preferred.
Try using your non-dominant hand It helps improve co-ordination. This also helps those with dyslexia.
Another exercise to strengthen the fingers and improve fine motor is to get an elastic band and thread it around the fingers and try to spread the fingers as wide as you can and return to normal position. Repeat this (a few minutes at each end of the day) every
day.
This information is for guidance purposes only


All our articles are for information only and guidance…professional advice should always be sought. Dyslexia Toby © 2017

Moving on up… “Transition from Primary/Junior (8th to 9th grade) to Senior School” by  Dyslexia Toby © 2017

Transition from any structure and stability can be very stressful for so many, just imagine how you feel about changing your hairdresser/barber or Doctor and Dentist, the emotions that come with starting a new job… multiply this and that is how a child with additional learning needs feels every time he or she has to face change.

The stress and anxiety doesn’t just stop with the student… the parents will worry for the child and themselves about the early days in the new environment, knowing full well this has already been a problem with changing desks, teachers and classes in the past and now we are talking a whole new school.

All change is risky and comes at a price, so transition needs to be gentle… why schools don’t allow new student intakes to go to the next level for tasters is beyond me… this is achieved in many third level colleges.

Flexibility is king in accommodating the transition process when a child presents with SPLD.  There are guidelines for schools to follow, but many parents will be unaware of this at the point it’s required and lack of communication should be avoided at all times, prior and after transition to make sure we are all aware of the individual’s needs.  Senior schools should communicate with both parent and Junior School to find out and be able to accommodate the child’s needs (IEP).

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Discuss the history of your child with the school to make sure you are all singing off the same hymn sheet… reasonable accommodation should be afforded in certain instances (Students with dyslexia, dysgraphia and dyscalculia), such as :

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Reader.

Voice Recorder.

Laptop/computer.

Writer present - to be able to sit their exam away from the main exam room.

Exemption from spelling and grammatical components in language subjects (waiver).

The key to reduced stress lies in preparation… I will always remember the old saying “fail to prepare, prepare to fail”. Be pro-active and less problems will occur… transition is, as it says, a period of smoothness from one thing to another.  This should happen very early on in the final year/sixth class and below I have made some suggestions that can be used by both parent/child and school.

Transition without the Stress – Hints to help inform First and Second Level Schools

Get the school to demonstrate an understanding of your child’s condition.

Talk with the students on a one to one basis about the different structure and the increased formality they might face at second level.

Introduce a mentor from the present first year to ease in the new student… this will grow the network for the incoming students.  Avoid older students as they could draw the incoming students out of their comfort zone.

Try to get the school to give lockers that are easy accessible and away from the hustle as children with learning needs can become nervous in crowds and all fingers and thumbs.

Inform them that they will have a variety of teachers, possibly one per subject… it’s important that their year tutor informs the others of your child’s needs.

Work with your child in the summer recess with new subject areas such as business studies, Science/Biology, CSPE and Home Economics, this will help reduce anxiety.

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Parents/carers should teach their children/students how to write out and also read prepared timetables and it helps to colour code and replicate with school books…e.g. maths on Monday is yellow so put a yellow sticker on the maths book and the timetable.

Start in junior school to write more complex and varied timetables… identify presentation of projects and variations like school trips, etc… get the SNA to help take down homework.

Students need to know about acronyms…subjects like CSPE shortened from Civic, Social and Political Education.

Make sure you avail of every opportunity to visit the new school… it’s worth driving past there occasionally, especially at busy time.  Let them know about shortened lesson times and moving to different classrooms for each lesson (orientation is so important), school meals…is there a café or will they take food?… homework clubs… maybe show them the school website and they can check out the gallery of photos.

Make sure your child decides on whether they want their new class friends to know they have learning needs… not all children are comfortable with this and the school cannot tell others as you are protected under data protection.

You should be in possession of a valid statement in order to show the new school for the provision of resource hours, laptops, etc.

Make sure they are aware of toileting, etc… I recently spoke to my son’s teacher about his transition from primary school last year and asked if they understood about his dyspraxia and the answer was ‘yes’.  However, in the next sentence they mentioned that he was spotted going to the toilet less than 20 mins after the start of the first class of the day and surely he knew he wanted to go (inferring he should have gone before lessons started)… so did they fully understand dyspraxia?... no is the answer.

Parents need to be prepared for schools to call them if meltdowns happen… it might be wise for you to take time off work during the first week at least so you can meet them from school and also in case you are called by the school.

 Keep an eye out for bullying (change of mood, disturbed sleep, return to bed wetting are all indicators)… find out who they spend breaks with… listen out for names and check to see that they are in the same year as quite often older boys will use them to do things they shouldn’t be doing, like leaving the school to go to the shop or hit a child on their behalf.

Try to be all positive and avoid pressure in relation to performance until they are settled.

Invite their new friends around as soon as you can and let them join a few of the school extra curriculum activities… this will keep them in the loop with others in their class (prevent isolation).

All our articles are for information only and guidance…professional advice should always be sought. Dyslexia Toby © 2021

Moving on up… “Transition from Senior School to College/University” by  Dyslexia Toby © 2017

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Have you experienced a transition from your normal routine?... changing job or moving home perhaps?  This change can affect your structure and stability and can also be very stressful for many.  Multiply this and that is how a child with additional/specific learning needs feels every time he or she has to face even the smallest change.

The stress and anxiety doesn’t just stop with the student either … the parents will worry for the child/young adult and themselves about the early days in the new environment, knowing full well this has already been a problem with less challenging changes like moving desks, teachers and classes in the past and now we are talking a whole new environment in an adult world, where most of the direction has to come from the student.

All change is challenging and comes at a price, so transition needs to be gentle.  Why more schools don’t allow students to go to the next level for tasters (visit the college for a couple of days to allow students sample courses before deciding which to enrol for) is beyond me… this is achieved by few and yet a wide range of tasters and courses are offered by so many third level colleges… certainly in the UK and something that would be worth looking into at any college you’re considering.

Flexibility is king in accommodating the transition process when a child/young adult presents with SPLD.  There are guidelines for schools and colleges to follow, but many parents will be unaware of this at the point it’s required.  It’s vital to maintain communication with tutors and/or special needs department, both prior to and after transition to make sure everyone is aware of the individual’s needs.  Senior schools should communicate with both parent and college/universities to compile the information necessary to be able to accommodate the child’s needs (IEP).  Parents need to be made aware of points reductions where statements can back up a specific learning need, such as in Ireland there is the DARE scheme…this allows for a reduction in entry points required and many colleges subscribe to this.

Guidelines in the UK:

“To comply with the terms of the Equality Act, students with dyslexia and other specific learning difficulties should not be penalised for poor spelling, grammar or sentence structure.

Students registered for dyslexia/spld support are given blue cards to attach to their work to alert the marker to their dyslexia/spld so that appropriate concessions can be made.

For further information about marking the work of dyslexic/spld students, please see:

http://www.brookes.ac.uk/asa/exams/guidelines_marking_dyslexia.pdf!

For modules where academic standards would be compromised by applying dyslexia/spld marking concessions, exemption may be requested. This is normally likely to apply only to modules specifically testing use of language – for example foreign language modules.”  Quote from Oxford Brookes University.

Guidelines in Ireland:

DARE is a College and University Admissions Scheme (Disability Access Route to Education) that offers places on reduced points to school leavers with disabilities, apply early.

Who is DARE for?

Dare is for school leavers (Under 23yrs as at 1 January 2013) who have a disability and who may not be able to meet the points for their preferred course, due to the impact of their disability.

Apply Early: apply to the CAO at www.cao.ie

Discuss the history of your child/young adult with the college/university to make sure you are all singing off the same hymn sheet… reasonable accommodation should be afforded in certain instances (students with dyslexia, dysgraphia and dyscalculia), such as :

Reader.

 Voice Recorder.

 Laptop/computer.

 Writer present - to be able to sit their exam away from the main exam room (less distraction).

 Exemption from spelling and grammatical components in language subjects (waiver).

The key to reduced stress lies in preparation… I will always remember the old saying “fail to prepare, prepare to fail”. Be pro-active and less problems will occur… transition is, as it says, a period of smoothness from one thing to another.  This should happen very early on in the final year/sixth class and below I have made some suggestions that can be used by both parent/child and school.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Steps-for-dyslexiadysgraphiadyscalculia-improving-academic-study/509977782389910

Transition without the Stress – Hints to help from Second Level School to college/university:

Get the College to demonstrate an understanding of your child’s condition.

Talk with the students on a one to one basis about the different structure and the increased formality they might face at third level.

Introduce a mentor from the present first year to ease in the new student… this will grow the network for the incoming students.  Avoid older students as they could draw the incoming students out of their comfort zone.

Try to get the College to offer lockers that are easy accessible and away from the hustle as young adults with learning needs can become nervous in crowds and all fingers and thumbs.

Most will realise that they will have a variety of teachers, possibly one or more per subject… it’s important that their year tutor informs the others of your child’s needs.

Parents/carers should teach their children/students how to write out and also read prepared timetables and it helps to colour code and replicate with text books…e.g. 1^st lecture on Monday is yellow so put a yellow sticker on the relevant book and the timetable…they will have far more free self-directed study periods at third level and need guidance to discipline themselves with this strange routine.

Students need to know about acronyms… for example, Exam bodies like Edexcel and RSA …these will be used far more in third level.

Make sure you avail of every opportunity to visit the new place of education… it’s worth driving past there occasionally, especially at busy times.  Let them know about shortened lesson times and moving to different classrooms for each lesson (orientation is so important).  Also, they need to know meals will be at different times, depending on their timetable… is there a café or will they take food?  Maybe show them the college website and they can check out the gallery of photos. Take them along to as many open days as you can and talk to course tutors, etc.

Make sure your child decides on whether they want their college/friends to know they have learning needs… not all children are comfortable with this and the college cannot tell others as you are protected under data protection. I have found from experience that there is great support from those that know, at this higher level of education.

You should be in possession of a valid statement in order to show the new college/resource department for the provision of resource hours, laptops, etc.  Most have really great facilities in their learning resource rooms and can help with essay/assignments, etc.

Make sure they are aware of toileting, etc… I recently spoke to my son’s teacher about his transition from primary school last year and asked if they understood about his dyspraxia and the answer was ‘yes’.  However, in the next sentence they mentioned that he was spotted going to the toilet less than 20 mins after the start of the first class of the day and surely he knew he wanted to go (inferring he should have gone before lessons started)… so did they fully understand dyspraxia?... no is the answer.  Also, they might well have quiet rooms if your child gets stressed or make arrangements for time out if your child feels threatened by an activity.

Parents need to be prepared for colleges to call them if meltdowns happen… it might be wise for you to take time off work during the first week at least so you can collect them from their new environment, have a coffee and let them talk about their early experiences. It’s also advisable in case you are called by the college.

 Keep an eye out for bullying (change of mood, disturbed sleep, confused and reluctance to get going, wanting to change courses after a few weeks  and maybe even a  return to bed wetting…  these can all be  indicators).  Find out who they spend breaks with… listen out for names and check to see that they are in the same year, as quite often older boys will use them to do things they shouldn’t be doing, like leaving the college to go to the shop or start trouble on their behalf.  Watch out for people trying to influence smoking/drinking or drug taking.

Try to be all positive and avoid pressure in relation to performance until they are settled.

Get to meet their new friends and encourage them to visit... this will help them gel and stay in the loop, thus preventing isolation.

Make sure you attend parent evenings and get a direct line to your child’s course tutor and make sure they have all the relevant information in course files. Get dates from them for exams and project deadlines and make sure you chase them about accommodation for exams ahead of time to avoid upsets.

I will say, third level are far more pro-active than first or second level in this regard, as they are funded on outcomes in most cases and not student numbers.

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All our articles are for information only and guidance… professional advice should always be sought.  Dyslexia Toby © 2017

‘Exam season…Shared Anxiety between Parent and Child/Adult’ by  Dyslexia Toby  © 2017

We start in earnest with the up coming mock exams and with positive and negative feelings dependant on a students academic ability.

End of spring and start of summer heralds the arrival of  those dreaded words, ‘Exam time’… most students who are  taking exams see far less of the sounds of summer as they are still seeing less day light hours than the students who don’t have exams to take.  You might be tempted to leave your study and drift outside to catch the rays, but think again… you get very few chances to get a good grade. The secret is to try and get stuck in so you can have some time to relax, instead of playing catch-up, by putting it off till tomorrow and all of a sudden tomorrow arrives the day before the exam!  It will soon be past and you will have a long vacation ahead.

How can we structure our study and avoid meltdowns?

1.       You must be relaxed and in a positive frame of mind to make the best of your revision/study.

2.       Make sure you look after your body by eating a good balanced diet (plenty of oily fish is good for the brain).

3.       Plenty of sleep is so important for retention… a tired brain is a less active brain!

4.       Structure your study into subject areas and concentrate more on your weaker subjects.

5.       Make sure you set the tempo of your study programme… the right room temperature, the right     light (preferably natural light) and the correct noise level.

6.       Stay hydrated (two litres of water per day) as this can cause lack of concentration.

7.       Make sure your study is relevant, have access to past papers as well as well managed course notes (indexed) and colour code your study notes.

8.       Make sure you are well aware of your exam timetable, the marking scheme will give you an idea of the amount of points to be awarded  per question, and this will give you an idea of how much to write, relative to the points awarded.

9.       Confidence is an attribute and over confidence can be obstructive to sound revision.

10.   Comprehension is key in most exams… the person marking your paper could be the other side of the country so bear that in mind and make it clear what is being said…make sure you have covered all points asked in the question.

11.   On exam day, make sure you are relaxed and read through the paper before you begin to answer any questions… you will be more relaxed and positive and will make far fewer mistakes.  Divide the questions by points value and time so you don’t spend too long on a given question.

12.   Don’t revise on the day of your exam unless this works for you… cramming can cause confusion in many.

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13.   Don’t dwell on a poor result, look forward to the next one… invariably you will have done better than you think.

Try to read books on subjects that interest you, record your work, watch documentaries/films on subject areas... You Tube is good for science/biology, history, literacy and geography.  I read, then rough write my prep and then type it onto the laptop and by then it usually goes in.

Stay close to your family and open up with your thoughts…so many of us have been there and they really do mean well…they will embrace and support you good or bad.

NB. This information is from personal experience and research and also partly sourced through the work of others.  It is purely for improving the understanding of dyslexia and to offer helpful advice.   Dyslexia Toby © 2017

How does Dyspraxia and Dyslexia affect us In relationships? by Dyslexia Toby © 2017

A strong, healthy relationship can be one of the best and most important supports you will ever experience in your life.  A good, strong relationship improves all aspects of your life, it helps strengthen and maintain a healthy existence, it settles and improves your mind and it can also help you maintain and develop connections with others.  However, if the relationship isn't working, it can also be a tremendous drain and strain.  Relationships are for the long haul and you should reap what you sow.

As has been mentioned in previous articles, we are made up of left, right and those with left and right brains… this is important to understand as communication between like-minded people is, for the most part simple, straightforward and often without problem.  However, communications between a left brain dominant and a right brained dominant can have its fair share of moments… equal left/ right brained should find communicating with others less problematic.

Dyspraxia and dyslexia can affect us in many of our relationship’s, families… friends, school peers and also loving relationships.  One of the key elements that can cause mood swings and distancing is so often the fear of being let down or letting others down, through poor judgement or negative criticism (often rings bells from the past), doing or saying the wrong thing at the wrong time (this is mainly down to lack of confidence).  We can also miss the point due to our slow processing speed, which leads to incorrectly picking up the wrong signals and we can also appear shy.  I had a huge problem with dancing due to co-ordination… this was a real inhibitor, as those that could dance always got the girls.  We also tend to be very trusting; we don’t always see the worst in others until it’s too far down the road and, coupled to this, we tend to fall in love very quickly.

I think this is down to the draw of being loved, attention and the initial lack of criticism; the wheels can very quickly fall of when the relationship settles down and our partners tire of our ways and then start to pull us up with regularity due the many things we struggle to do correctly.  This is hard and often brings us back to all the criticism we have had to face from so many throughout our lives.

It’s so important to get through conflict.  Some couples talk things out quietly, while others may raise their voices and passionately disagree.  The key in a strong relationship, though, is not to be fearful of conflict.  You need to be safe to express things that bother you without fear of retaliation, and be able to resolve conflict without humiliation, degradation or insisting on being right and this can be difficult with those of us who have dyspraxia.  We by nature have excellent memories, we don’t tend to let things bother us in the early stages and we store things, often quoting letter and verse at the person we are upset or arguing with.

Honest, direct communication is the mainstay of any relationship.  When both people feel comfortable expressing their needs, fears and desires, trust and close bonds are maintained and indeed strengthened.  Non-verbal cues, ie. body language like eye contact, leaning forward or away, or touching someone’s arm, are critical to communication and again this is an area that doesn't come as natural to a dyspraxic as it does to those who don’t suffer from the syndrome.

Touch has long been accepted as a fundamental part of human existence; however this can be a problem for those of us that have tactile processing issues.  Studies on infants have shown the importance of regular, loving touch and holding has a long lasting benefit to early brain development. These benefits do not end in childhood. Life without physical contact with others is a lonely life indeed.

This article seems to have an adult flavour to it, however I would like to point out that some of these points would be relevant to our children too.

Our articles offer guidance and we always recommend that those reading them should always seek professional advice on any thing that might concern them.

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All our posts are for guidance only and professional advice should always be sought.  Why not friend us on Facebook or Twitter @ Dyslexia Dublin and follow our Blog at  www.dyslexiadublin.blogspot.ie.

 Dublin Toby © 2017

“Should we truly forget those who have spurned us for another’s ear or think and consider them in this the coming year? Maybe their friendship has chilled like the cold nights of winter and shunned as many plus me.Shall we reflect just this once and show the hand of friendship and toast to all acquaintance past and present, for the sake of times gone by?” (inspired by Robbie Burns and Auld Lang Syne, great poet). Happy New Year my friends! Toby Lee Dyslexia  2016 ©

Dyslexia. One Way Forward.by Dyslexia Toby © 2016

Children with dyslexia (dysgraphia,dyscalculia, dyspraxia)so often struggle with academia, full stop.
They however are very inquisitive; they also have very good long term memories. On the flip side, their short-term memories are very weak!
So what do we do! We focus on their long-term memory as a principle learning tool.
Many children incorrectly overcome the reading in some cases.
Why incorrectly? They skip or replace words depending on how the storyline is going.
Is this a problem! Yes. If we allow children to replace or skip words while reading, they will tend to skip words when they are reading important documents like exam papers or written instructions. Reading maps requires a degree of orientation, this is an area dyslexics are okay with, they have almost an instinctive knack of knowing where North is.
We need to look at the cause and produce an effect.
Many parents accidently overlook the need for work with reading as their children pick up books and read. It’s only when you stand behind or sit beside your child will you see how many words they skip.
Shared reading can also highlight problems! I have heard so many parents comment on how great their children are at reading, only to be disappointed when they see test results and feedback from teachers.
Most of us have seen the talent in our children and dare I say it in ourselves; we are very practical people.
If people use a myriad of ways, we can learn most things and to a very high standard.
I wonder why few have picked this up during their time tutoring us.
The Germans have a very good second level model, they recognise the students strengths be it academia or creative.
The children are guided into specific centres that specialise in these areas of the curriculum; they are still given tuition in the secondary area.
They as far as I am aware have not linked this to a pattern of brain/learning types.
As mentioned earlier we need to accommodate the child in the style that best suits them.
We specialise in breaking problems down into manageable chunks and then repeat that same problem from several angles.
This style of learning promotes both learning and retention. We can all remember watching a program or reading a book, only to forget the whole thing. On the other hand we can remember the opposite, yes we glean every minute detail, why! We were not stimulated in the first instance and stimulated in the later.
You have probably seen your child stuck on homework and yet able to construct the most amazing things at home; why…stimulation!
Try and bring to his teacher/tutors attention the areas they have excelled in; pennies might drop.

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All our posts are for guidance only and professional advice should always be sought.  Why not friend us on Facebook or Twitter @ Dyslexia Dublin and follow our Blog at  www.dyslexiadublin.blogspot.ie.

Dublin Toby © 2016

Part Three of ‘Dyslexia - The Why’s and how to spot some of the Signs’  by  Dyslexia Toby  © 2016

Problems with accuracy and recognition of the written word, decoding of words (phonetics), reading comprehension and slow growth of vocabulary come in a variation of forms of Dyslexia and Dysphonesia (problems with blending pairs... see below).

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Spelling and Visual memory weaknesses prevent a child from having a strong memory of what many common words look like. Using multi-sensory materials and techniques is the most effective help. With spelling, 96% of the English words are regular. A Dyslexic’s spelling word list should be very limited and the use of computers for spelling word practice and tests is encouraged.  Spelling words forwards and backwards is a big help for long-term memory of spelling words.  Please do not tell a Dyslexic to use the dictionary to find the spelling of a word as they will have trouble locating it, which may cause frustration.

There are many ways in which our children with dyslexia/dysphonesia can be helped. One way is to teach them how to break words into different sounds. Then how to write the different sounds and create and build new words. This helps with both reading and writing. As previously mentioned, children with dyslexia have poor processing power due to signals sent from one part of the brain to the other through various neural pathways are often misaligned. In order to improve/re map those areas a multi-sensory teaching method is favoured…as this works through 4 senses (touch, sight, speech and hearing) and uses the left side in tandem with the right, which means the information is far more likely to be retained.

Dysphonesia is a very important area to work on as previously mentioned…children with dyslexia and/or dysphonesia very quickly improve their single syllable words (dog…cat…rug) with the use of phonics. Mono syllabic words are slightly more challenging…we can improve this area by breaking down the words into syllables like SUM-MER…WIN-DOW, etc. We also need to introduce work on blends which is equally important. What are blends?…blends are pairs of letters that become a single sound like sh and ch and depending on where they are placed, as this could have a slight variation of sound. We are looking at a language that has a Germanic and Latin platform on to which the English was framed...known to be one if not the hardest languages to master.

With children going into second level schools it is also worth considering Italian or Spanish as a preferred language choice, if a 2^nd anguage choice is mandatory.  As previously mentioned, they appear to have a lower rate of dyslexia which could be due in part to fewer variations of the way a word sounds, and in relation to how the word is written down (reading and spelling). “The average language has about 50,000 words in its vocabulary compared to English which has( approx) a quarter of a million million. France has the second largest amount of words" - Lloyd Lofthouse. 

Around 80,000 words in the English dictionary are latin based or taken directly from the French language.

Visual stress can also be a problem with around 20% of the world’s population suffering with this…however don’t be tricked into believing that this can cure dyslexia. Visual stress aids can certainly help with visual tracking and give words greater clarity, which can give improved reading levels for some students presenting with visual stress, but it is not a cure. I have posted an article on this condition previously.

Hand writing is often slow in sufferers due to poor word recognition and retention…often students will look up at the board twice to write down one word. It’s also important to strengthen memory and this will improve writing skill along with tuition in this area (dysgraphia).

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We use a variation of software and games in our tuition...all the work we do engages the main senses (multi-sensory) to stimulate and improve our student’s literacy skills and we generally find that they improve by one reading year for every 50 hours of intervention. We feel this is in part to do with the holistic approach we take in our training programme 

Please ask for professional advice as our articles are to guide only.

‘Dyslexia - (part two) The Why’s and how to spot some of the Signs’ Part Two by  Dyslexia Toby © 2016

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It is still very much exploratory times on the origins of dyslexia. What we do know is it affects far more boys than girls and seems more common in English speakers and those that speak languages with multiple rules/variations in sounds and spellings, such as German and Irish for example. Languages where the spoken word is close to the written word seem to fair better, such as Italian and Spanish.

There are also suggestions that it can be passed on from family member to family member, genetically. However, it will not descend in a uniform pattern…if one or both parents suffer with dyslexia it could miss most of the next generation. There are many such cases, where one child or more in a family has dyslexia, but some brothers/sisters do not. There are also families, where one child has dyslexia and parents do not, pointing to the fact that dyslexia can also skip a generation.

Dyslexia can also be brought on in later life due to stroke or other forms of brain trauma… overcoming this is a very slow process, unlike dyslexia from birth.

There are many commonly held beliefs, as with all things…Dyslexia has nothing to do with a low IQ or that we read letters in a different way to others…there is little wrong with a dyslexic child’s eyesight in comparison to a non-dyslexic child.

We need to head in the direction of linguistics and why our spelling performance doesn’t always reflect that of our reading ability… are we reading exactly what is in the books or are we adlibbing, replacing words with words that are stored in our brain? We need to take a holistic approach so we can begin to understand the problems faced by the dyslexic child and apply the preferred teaching/learning style, if we truly want to move this forward!

Language/speech is an art most have little problem with…we start forming our early words long before we start to read, write or spell and have a fair vocabulary by the time we do, so why do some find it difficult to read or spell? Our early venture into the spoken word is often through pronouncing whole words like mama and dada…we don’t use phonemes (words segmented into letters or blends of letters ch…sh, etc.) at this early stage. This is related to the ability to process in a phonological manner. However, it is widely believed that people with dyslexia find this much harder than those without dyslexia (Dysphonesia – problems with letter sounds and blends).

We certainly know from our own training centre that children retain more words through the photo image side of the brain and also through the phonetic /phoneme channel with far greater accuracy than the words they read or indeed write.

Next time in our final part we will look at ways of improving the lives of those with dyslexia.

NB. This information is from personal research, research of our team and also partly sourced through the work of others and is purely for improving the understanding of dyslexia…we do not make any suggestions in our posts.  Dyslexia Toby © 2016

`Dyslexia - (part one )The Why’s and how to spot some of the Signs’  by  Dyslexia Toby © 2016

We can all relate to our early learning and the struggle at school to grasp the English language. We all share one thing in common…it was a subject that couldn’t be skipped, we had to learn it…we need it…we would struggle to manage without it.
I was talking to someone in their fifties who struggled with the very subject and they remarked “Even now getting on a bus is a worry…I have to ask the driver as I can’t read the sign or understand the numbers that tells me where the bus is heading”.
If all our food came in a plain package with no images so many would struggle to read what the package contained…even cooking instructions would prove difficult, as would instruction manuals for all our gadgets…so much so that what many take for granted is a struggle for others in society.
If we take a look at education…most subjects involve English…even maths!
It’s unfortunate but poor reading and also poor learning skills is becoming ever greater with young people…modern technology that has been designed to make our lives easier is helping to fuel the problem…predictive texts…spell checkers…voice typing software, etc.
With some 10% of the population suffering from Dyslexia, how can we spot that our child might be dyslexic?
Some of the suggestions below could also point to dyscalculia and dysgraphia.
The most obvious sign is letter reversal and common letters are b and d…p and q.
Some children get the number 5 the wrong way round (dyscalculia).
Letters within words can be the correct letter but in the wrong order, leading to spelling errors such as ‘girl’ could become ‘gril’.
Diagraphs/blends tend to prove difficult, the sh…ch...ur…ir , etc.
Word endings are often difficult with the y very often replaced with i or e.
Monosyllabic words are often easier for the dyslexic child to relate to as they can sound the letters out.
Children often confuse right with left.
Poor or slow writing is another possible indicator (children have to constantly look up at the board to replicate the correct spelling) and this can also point to poor short term memory (dysgraphia).
Memory can also show up in a slow reader and also the lack of retention or reference to the passage of reading.
Tracking is another problem (if the teacher pauses note taking or classroom noise distracts the student). Reading rulers can help to keep your sight line/passage of text.
A lack of interest or understanding in subjects that involve reading, writing and spelling, but a flair in creative subjects can be another indicator of dyslexia…dysgraphia…dyscalculia.
Part Two on what causes dyslexia and how we can help will follow next week.
Please note all the information in our posts are taken from personal knowledge and research and may contain the work of others in our field. Dyslexia Toby © 2015 I am happy for people to share my work...please mention the producer of this piece

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