Dyslexia

Tips for teachers on how to aid dyslexic students’ learning (most of these tips will also help non-dyslexic students’ with learning)

Firstly, it is important to identify the misconceptions of dyslexia and how dyslexia goes unnoticed. This will help teachers become more aware of the nature of the problem and will help in addressing and formulating teaching styles.

Common misconceptions of dyslexia

• All people with the disability reverse letters and words.
  • This is not true and some people with dyslexia experience only mild trouble with reversal of letters and words.
• Dyslexic people are intellectually impaired or dumb.
  • This is not true as dyslexia is a type of learning style and is independent of intellectual abilities.
  • For example, there might be non-dyslexic students with a lower IQ and who learn slower than someone with dyslexia, who notwithstanding reading or spelling troubles, might still be able to pick up new ideas and more complex concepts.
  • Therefore, often methods adopted in helping dyslexic students learn better will aid non-dyslexic students as well. This is because dyslexic students are usually more sensitive towards bad teaching styles or structures than non-dyslexic students and can help pick up on these.

Why does dyslexia go unnoticed or undiagnosed?

• Dyslexic students who are intellectually bright often don’t perform badly enough for a teacher to identify they have a learning disability. This is undesirable since it does not help dyslexic students identify how they can improve in their learning.
• Dyslexic students who are affected to a higher degree with dyslexia are often labelled ‘slow’ or ‘dumb’ and are not encouraged to seek help or to get a diagnosis for their learning disabilities.
• Dyslexic students often react to their learning difficulties with frustration and a lack of confidence or motivation. Therefore, teachers easily confuse attitude problems towards learning with the student having an actual disability toward learning.

How dyslexic people learn or ‘not learn’

In general, dyslexic people learn best through hands-on experience, demonstrations, experimentation, observation, and visual aids.

They have poor memory for sequences, facts and information that has not been experienced.

They are visual learners and think primarily in pictures not in sound, organising information in visual form.

Next: Practical tips for teachers in enhancing learning experiences