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Dyslexia

Visual/Perceptual Components:

  • Difficulty learning to read.
  • Difficulty remembering names
  • Reversing letter shapes
  • Misreading or omitting common small words
  • Stumbling through longer words
  • Poor reading comprehension during oral or silent reading
  • Slow laborious oral reading
  • Difficulty putting ideas on paper
  • Spelling mistakes
  • Doing well on spelling tests, but doing poorly on daily work
  • Difficulty proofreading
  • Penmanship difficulties

Visual acuity does not cause dyslexia. Eyesight is usually normal in dyslexic individuals. However focusing, two eyed skills, and visual perceptual skill are generally reduced for individuals labeled dyslexic.

How to address the challenges:

  • Teach the individual to see small differences—examples would be “a, e, o, u”, “get and got”, “b,d,p,q” “on or no”
  • Hone Visual Memory to accurately recall what is seen immediately
  • Use Figure Ground skills to teach individual to visually discriminate what is important on a page or in the environment while being aware of non-essential items.
  • Improve Visual Closure to help the individual to see parts to determine the whole. When students begin to read, they look at each letter to know the word, and later see the outline and know the word.
  • Sequencing is required to keep numbers, letters and words in the correct order to allow us to be accurate. (76 vs.67)
  • Laterality/Directionality-- Knowing top, bottom, right, left, inside, outside on myself, on paper and in space to eliminate bd, pq, mw, sz, 3E reversals
  • Visual Speed and Visual Stamina-- these skills can be developed just as physical speed and stamina can be developed
  • Visualization Skills to change short-term memory to long term memory. This allows the individual to remember spelling words past the day of the test. Visualzation means reading words while getting a picture or “movie” in the mind, then using the “movie” to be able to remember the details.
  • Multi-tasking- doing many skills at once is required for success in school and life. We need to learn to ignore some sounds, and pay attention to others, listen and take notes, or think and write while sitting still.

Parent Comments:

“My son no longer has the dyslexic label.”

“Spelling and penmanship are now at age level.”

Products to help:

  • A Different Approach to Academics
  • Project Growth
  • Visual Motor Activity Station and Book
  • Rubber Band Books
  • Block Pattern Books