Getting started with Dyslexic Help

Thank you for the lovely comments and those who have approached me on social media. I often think people with dyslexia aren’t being giving the right information to help themselves. I was incredibly lucky that there are a few people I follow on social media who have already tackled some of this battle for themselves.

Because the school refused to help – no money apparently and of course he wouldn’t get an EHCP we had to find things out for ourselves. Here our top tips so far:

EHCP – No your child does NOT have to be 4 years behind before they’ll be considered! Also if the school refuses to apply you as the parent can. We did – against the school and even without their support and home schooling we won. We had to fight at every level but at every level the council’s decision was overturned! Did you know that more 90% are at the first stage?! And still schools wont apply! So if you think your child needs help APPLY!! FIGHT! It’s worth it in the long run. Ours was made easier by having the private diagnosis I have to say. Do bear in mind you need paperwork to back up your claims!

Phonics/Reading – this is my main gripe. My son has phonological blindness and as such jolly phonics and reading taught in school does not teach my son. I took him our in year four when he couldn’t even read a basic sentence. We worked for a term with a specialist tutor and then went on to Nessy & books such as blast off to reading which teach phonics and reading using a multisensory Orton Gillingham method which is proven to work for Dyslexics. There are plenty of options out there from using something like Toe by Toe, Nessy, All about Reading, Barton Method etc. Each is different. Find out your dyslexics learning style and take it from there. Heres a basic quiz. Most dyslexics learn best through kinesthetics learning – multisensory and in fact everyone can learn this way regardless of learning style.

Typing – Dyslexics brains are so incredible and so fast that no matter how quick they write their brain will almost certainly be two books ahead! So the best thing to do is to learn to touch type. This will pay off in dividends and while there are some great applications out there – Nessy, Disney etc there is also plenty of free options! BBC dancemat starts off with the basis then you can google typing games which build up those skill!

Maths – Time Tables was our huge issue. Trying to recall them straight up quickly anyhow. He can figure it out if he has time but trying to find that file in his head and answer quickly is torture. So we spend a lot of time working on this. There are some great books and app such as Times Fables, the Nessy maths games & of course Carol Vordermans Math Factors but we’ve found that what works best is learning to create our own times square. We start off with the 1,2s,5s and 10s, then we fill in the 9s from our fingers and then the ones we know from silly mnemonics – I ate and ate until I was sick on the floor – 8x8 =64 and within 5 minutes we can create a times square. I was recommended to start this now so that by the time it came to GCSES and the paper they cant use a calculator then he could write this out in minutes and save himself a lot of time when it came up later in questions.

If you have any great tips for the three main lessons – Reading, Writing & Arithmetic’s please shout below!!