General Teaching Advice for Teachers

Source: British Dyslexia Institute

Teachers often ask how they can help a dyslexic child in class. Here are a few suggestions; some may seem too obvious to mention and others too difficult to implement. What can be done must depend on the circumstances and on the ingenuity of the individual teacher. Please remember that the learning environment can make the difference between success or failure for a dyslexic pupil. He has difficulties listening, learning, looking, sitting still, concentrating and finding things. The quieter and more organised the working environment, the greater the chance he has of success.

Do.

• praise wherever possible
• encourage
• find something that he is good at
• give less homework (e.g. shorter essays, or underline main points to learn)
• mark written work on content (not spelling) - tick what is right instead of crossing out what is wrong.
• mark on oral responses when possible
• if reading long words, divide syllables with a pencil line
• help him to pronounce words correctly
• put him at front of the class so you can help
• make sure he has understood and remembered instructions
• let him work with an open text book
• put important words clearly on blackboard
• give plenty of time to copy from blackboard - writing on alternate lines in different colours may help.
• check whether he knows his alphabet, and that he can say the days of the week and months of the year in the right sequence; check whether he can tell the time
• send an exercise book home with him, with homework assignments written in, and a note of important things to bring tomorrow, e.g. swimming things
• have expectation of success.

Do not.

• make him read aloud in public if he is reluctant to do so
• ridicule or employ sarcasm
• correct all mistakes in written work - it's too discouraging
• give lists of spelling words to learn; two or three are as much as he will manage, and it is better if they are related, e.g. plate, cake, name
• make him write out work again
• compare with others
• make him change his writing (put loops if he doesn't, etc.).

Remember

A dyslexic person:

• tires more quickly than a 'non-dyslexic' person as far greater concentration is required
• may read a passage correctly yet not get the sense of it
• may have great difficulty with figures (e.g. learning tables), reading music or anything which entails interpreting symbols
• usually has difficulty learning foreign languages
• is inconsistent in performance
• may omit a word or words, or write a word twice
• suffers from constant nagging uncertainty
• cannot take good notes because he cannot listen and write at the same time
• may have great difficulty in finding his place again when he looks away from a book he is reading or a blackboard he is copying from
• reads slowly because of his difficulties, so is always under pressure of time
•  will probably be personally disorganised - he may also be clumsy and forgetful, no matter how hard he tries
• is likely to have difficulty following a string of instructions