Top Tips For Supporting Dyslexic Students Part 2

Top Tips For Supporting Dyslexic Students Part 2

I absolutely love my work!  To be able to share meaningful and useful information regarding studying with dyslexia to those who can benefit from using that information is an absolute joy and a thrill.
It is wonderful to be working with The Cardogan Centre, the inclusion team at St David's College, Llandudno to provide you with answers to questions that some of my readers kindly supplied.

Vanessa Evans - St David's College 

St David's sent over so much information that I have had to break the content down into three chunks out of which this is part 2.

Read Part One - Click here.

So with thanks to Vanessa Evans and her team at St David's, we continue...

A Question From Helen Lyall.

How can school staff help parents of dyslexic students engage with and support their child's learning?

Do not put pressure on them to succeed with academic tasks until their confidence is high, then encouragement to develop skills can begin. Support them and understand how frustrating it is to be Dyslexic. If homework is necessary, read and scribe to take the pressure off. Help develop verbal skills – take time to talk. Read to or with rather than expect them to read to you.

Treat all pupils with respect; build their self esteem (don’t discriminate); accept their learning style and value their way of processing information; teach strategies, e.g. for memory recall and how to answer exam questions.

·      Explain the nature of dyslexia to parents so that they understand their children’s needs.

·      Give parents information about what their children require in terms of technology e.g. a reading pen, computer, phone or tablet.

·      Providing appropriate resources for developing reading/phonics at home or in the holidays. 

Communicate with the parents. Make sure parent targets have been added to PPs in the correct section offering suggestions. For example, 20 minutes of Nessy Fingers twice a week.

 A Question From Hazel Warner.

How can we ensure the transference of quality learning and self-esteem into the rest of the life of our pupils? ·      how do they cope with life outside school?
·      do they have any issues with transition eg college/university/workplace?

Work with a resilience framework.

Use strategies that include:

• Mindfulness; 
• Nurture a ‘don’t give up’ message; growth mindset idea. 
• Give them the tools so they become independent learners.

Model a consistent growth mindset approach and a generation of learning environments/situations that stimulate growth mindset, from management through to pupils.

Help with realistic expectations that identify with the students strengths and ways of gaining support with ALN department at their college.

We need to encourage student independence in school in gaining the correct support and help that they need from staff.

·      Organizational issues and time management skills must be developed in school. These skills are vital in the working world. The use of calendars and phone reminders and alarms. 

·      Assistive technology is invaluable to pupils with dyslexia.

·      The ability to have text to speech and vice versa, the availability of free text books in pdf format, using their computers especially one note to organize their note taking and keep in it one place allows people to overcome a multitude of barriers to learning and working.

Teach resilience and independent learning. Build confidence and self-belief.

A Question From Alex Trigg.

What are the best revision techniques e.g What is the best way to approach exam questions?

Know exam question terms (explain etc)

‘Translate’ into own words

Make a bullet point list in accordance to number of marks given of aspects the answer must contain

Check with your subject teacher

Answer past paper questions, get your teacher to mark them and show you where to improve – don’t stop there! Re-answer and have it re-marked!

Flash cards, Quizlet use video pods to learn key words and concepts. Reinforce visually and orally. Past paper question practice. 

Repetition….reinforce learning within a 24 hour time frame to reinforce recall.

·      Drilling of vocabulary and keywords – Quizlet (fantastic resource.)

·      Setting up an exam revision timetable.

·      Use of Inspiration, mind maps, note taking

·      Practice exam papers and develop strategies to break down the question and determine what the examiners want the pupils to demonstrate that they know.

Subject dependent but past papers analyzing what the question is actually asking and how to use data/evidence to answer them. Flashcards work for some. Speech readers and recording own voice works for others.

One more article to come!

With thanks to the Cardogan Centre team at St David's College.  There will be one other blog post to share with you in a months time but I hope that these answers have been useful to you.

If you want to get more useful advice sooner from the Cardogan Centre at St David's then click the banner below and download their resources.

Click the banner to download the resources.