Photo by Miguel Á. Padriñán on Pexels.com Dyslexics are in the main visual thinkers. Most knowledge and thoughts are stored as pictures or in image form and time is needed to translate these into words.  People with dyslexia typically forget what they hear and are poor auditory learners, however, they remember what they see and once something is known it is not forgotten. They also remember what they understand and need the ‘why’. Dyslexics are Aha! learners who may take longer to get a concept but are helped by new ways of seeing it rather than repetition which frustrates them. They stil ..read more

Photo by Tom Swinnen on Pexels.com Learning to tell analogue time is a persistent difficulty for dyslexic learners. Why is it so tricky? For one, it is hard to differentiate between the two hands. In addition, counting is typically done on number lines or tape measures – straight lines – yet this number line is circular and NEVER STOPS! Moreover, time does not easily link to other topics of measurement. Most common misconceptions are that the minute hand will be used to read from the hour markers, a confusion between ‘past’ and ‘to’ and understanding that 0 clock follows 59 minutes (or 55), th ..read more

Photo by EKATERINA BOLOVTSOVA on Pexels.com People that are good spellers can picture how words look. Whilst dyslexics typically have strong visual abilities (in design and creative fields) this does not extend to orthographic memory (memory for how words look). There are lots of ways you can try to tap into a strong visual skill: Mindmapping words connected by a shared sound. Exploring the etymology/history of a word and presenting it visually. Small High Frequency Words can be tricky because, often abstract, they may not readily be visualised. Using etymology to show how some words are l ..read more

Photo by mentatdgt on Pexels.com A few years ago, I took a job as a Reading TA with Reception children. I hadn’t worked extensively with this age group before and I was studying (in the final year) of my Masters in SpLD (dyslexia). I was particularly interested in the Reception phase as research shows this is particularly important – students who fall behind, stay behind: https://www.cem.org/blog/pupils-taught-well-in-reception-class-do-better-in-their-gcses Having read with my own dyslexic son from a young age, I knew the signs of dyslexia in early readers. The job required me to listen to th ..read more

The above is the Frayer model, developed in 1969 by Dorothy Frayer at the University of Wisconsin. It has been championed by Alex Quigley and it is perfectly fine for the majority of students. However, for students with low working memory, this method is insufficient to enable new vocabulary to stick. This is the eternal problem in the field of educational research – it rarely focuses on what works for struggling students and most things work for the majority – to differing degrees. Why is it insufficient? Because it is the individual sounds (phonemes) in language which create difficulties fo ..read more

Photo by cottonbro on Pexels.com Metacognition is not new and is simply thinking about thinking. ‘Metacognition means “thinking about one’s own thinking”. There are two aspects of metacognition: – reflection- thinking about what we know and self-regulation managing how we go about learning. Taking together, these processes make up an important aspect of learning and development. Developing these metacognitive abilities is not simply about becoming reflective learners, but about acquiring specific learning strategies as well. Metacognitive beliefs, metacognitive awareness, metacognitive experie ..read more

  I’ve been following the ongoing phonics debate in Australia with interest. Many parents are calling for the introduction of the Phonics Screening Check (PSC) and state Education Ministers are opposing it. Is phonics a panacea? Introduced in 2012, can we categorically say the PSC has been a success? Children are still failing to learn to read, even some who ‘pass’ the PSC. Part of the issue seems to me, that schools see the PSC as a hoop to be jumped through, rather than an opportunity to reflect on, and improve, phonics teaching for reading. Non words are part of the PSC and these are ..read more

  Photo by Suzy Hazelwood on Pexels.com Guided spelling or ‘Spelling between the desks’, is a new concept of mine! Informed in part by mine and others’ approaches to maths. We are essentially trying to get inside the mind of the student to help to guide and explore their own thinking, in order to model HOW to think analytically about spelling. Often when I ask why a child has made a certain choice, they will say ‘it SOUNDED like that’ or worse ‘I DON’T KNOW!’. Whilst the children are working, you can circulate around the desks to support key students. Questions the teacher should ask: Wh ..read more

Year One It can be difficult for Primary schools to identify dyslexia, one of the reasons is that emphasis is on development and some students not being ‘ready’. How to spot dyslexia: Dyslexia: Finding the elephant in the classroom. The suggestion is that given time and opportunity to catch up, they will. Dyslexia is, however, a specific difficulty and students do not typically catch up but fall further behind, until the gap is too wide for them to bridge it. We know from research that students who fall behind in Reception do not catch up and this is why emphasis is now on this phase, in ter ..read more

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