Reading Strategies for Children with Dyslexia in Classrooms: A Must Know Tool for Teachers!

A dyslexic child suffers from learning disabilities especially with reading and spelling problems. It should never be considered as a neurological deficiency or intellectual disability. The child has above average intellectual level, which should be kept in mind while planning reading strategies for dyslexia. The process of adaptation to learning to read is a bit slower with difficulties in rhyming for children with dyslexia, and therefore there have to be specific reading strategies for addressing dyslexia in classroom teaching.

Teaching strategies are formulated on the requirement of the individual child as the best practice in creating reading strategies for dyslexia. It is done with an eye to the learning power of the individual child. At the same time the progress of the effectiveness of reading strategies for dyslexia is measured for further improvement and modifications.

Teachers and psychologists work concurrently to study the progress and mark the areas where the child falters and to determine remedial measures immediately. This information helps in designing the strategies according to the need of the individual dyslexic child.

There are basically five important reading strategies for dyslexia. They are tailored especially for individual suitability to obtain better progress.

• The first of its kind is the multi-sensory process, which deals with the senses of touching, hearing and vision. Studies have verified that among all the reading strategies for dyslexia, the multi-sensory approach claims to be the most effective.
• Personal training has the scope to offer guidance and receive immediate response. This helps the teachers to identify the areas of weakness which are taken care of in future lesson plans.
• Phonics methods provide the teachers with strategies to apply the benefit of sound and symbols of letters to teach students. The phonetic awareness skill in children can develop a strong reading fluency.
• The wholesome language process provides the students the experience of the natural reading process through vision, which sometimes accelerates the skill naturally. Fluency in reading text correctly and quickly displays an easy and routine ability to read words in a text. The child is able to read as if he is speaking. The child should be taught to be fluent as the correct reading strategies for dyslexia.
• The speech and natural language method helps mend the phonological disabilities so that children can identify the words and strategies to control the learning lacuna. Vocabulary is an integral part of reading knowledge. The child must acquire enough vocabulary to understand what he is reading.

Teachers need to understand the problems of the dyslexic child and make suitable reading strategies for dyslexia affected children. The environment has to be encouraging and positive for the dyslexic child to experience the learning process to taste success and build self-esteem.

Teachers should provide an outline of the lesson prior to the starting of the class and at the end give a summary of the lesson to build confidence in students and help in memorizing the lesson.

The teacher should be sanguine that every student has taken the notes properly. It is wise to use handouts instead of copying notes. Assure that the dyslexic child sits in the front row to get the better attention. Use of different colors on the blackboards will be more effective. These are some small but effective efforts, that should be included in the reading strategies for dyslexia.

These methods have been found to be successful for reading strategies for dyslexia and have benefited the dyslexic child enormously. It can be a bit consuming for the teachers and all the members associated with a dyslexic child, but your hardwork has paid off well when you find your child reading through the pages of his/her favorite storybook and enjoying himself. Wouldn't you say?