Dyspraxia Awareness Week 9th – 15th October 2023 The Dyspraxia Foundation appreciates that dyspraxia/DCD is a life-long condition. In 2023, our annual national campaign Dyspraxia Awareness Week is set to take place between the 9th – 15th of October 2023. What is Dyspraxia Awareness Week? The aim of the Dyspraxia Foundation’s event is to raise awareness of dyspraxia and educate children, parents, carers and teachers alike about this disorder, how to manage and treat it and how to tailor certain activities and teaching methods to help people with dyspraxia. One of the oldest and best organisatio ..read more

Should Schools Make Students Use Fountain Pens? Can Student’s Hand-Writing get better by using Fountain Pens? Why do some schools still insist that students use fountain pens?  Because some tutors believe students can write better if they do.  Is there research to support this?  Is there an advantage to using a fountain pen over a biro or similar pen? I believe there is.  Do you remember your first lovely fountain pen?  I am not talking about the first one you had to have at school, which probably cost a £1 and leaked all over the place.  My pen leaked everywhere ..read more

Some People See Text Like This This blurred text is an excellent representation of how some people with dyslexia see the written word.  This problem is called Visual Stress.  The problem is that the child thinks everybody sees the same way, so getting on top of the situation is extremely difficult.  Sometimes the child will say that the letters are ‘jumping about’. We must spread the word about getting independent eye examinations.  I believe the one at school (in the UK) unintentionally misleads parents into thinking that an eye test has been carried out and the child has ..read more

Annual Dyslexia Dates to help raise understanding & awareness of dyslexia. Each year, organisations, charities, campaigners, and schools participate in various activities to raise awareness.   Events take place all over the UK and many other countries, helping to raise awareness of the learning difficulty. The British Dyslexia Association (BDA) organises a Dyslexia Awareness Week (UK) – from 02 October – 08 October – theme to follow… World Dyslexia Awareness Day – Thursday, October 6th.  This event occurs on the Thursday of the week of European Dyslexia Awareness Week.  ..read more

Annual Dyslexia Dates to help raise understanding & awareness of dyslexia. Each year, organisations, charities, campaigners, and schools participate in various activities to raise awareness.   Events take place all over the UK and many other countries, helping to raise awareness of the learning difficulty. The British Dyslexia Association (BDA) organises a Dyslexia Awareness Week (UK) – from 02 October – 08 October – theme to follow… World Dyslexia Awareness Day – Thursday, October 6th.  This event occurs on the Thursday of the week of European Dyslexia Awareness Week.  ..read more

There are over 25 muscles in the hand and fingers, so you can see why it is essential to have strong muscles, leading to good handwriting and drawing. You will find lots of helpful information and excellent aids and equipment to help people with dysgraphia and handwriting issues. There are so many ways you help a student with dysgraphia/handwriting problems.  If you know the tools available to you, you will be able to help them very quickly.  The problem is many people do not understand how they should write correctly.  The ideas I have put together should help tremendously with ..read more

Should Children learn to Touch-Type? With the Easter holidays upon us, it would be a good time for children to touch type.  Two of my favourite programmes are KAZ – Typing Nessy Fingers Touch Typing  Check out my full article on touch-Typing The post It’s the holidays, let’s teach children to touch-type! first appeared on Dyslexia A2Z ..read more

Fine Motor Control using Q-tips to paint This young lad shows how easy he finds doing things like painting this spiders web with ‘Q-tips’.  That was not always the case, he used to find difficulties with fine motor control.  Now, after several years of practice, you would hardly know he had had a problem. Dyspraxia, usually known as Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) is a Specific Disability affecting muscle control – fine & gross motor skills. Poor muscle control, especially in the hand and fingers, leads to problems with literacy and numeracy. Superb list of Educational ..read more

Annual Dyslexia Dates to help raise understanding & awareness of dyslexia. Each year, organisations, charities, campaigners, and schools participate in a wide range of activities to raise awareness.   Events take place all over the UK and many other countries, helping to raise awareness of the learning difficulty. The British Dyslexia Association (BDA) organises a Dyslexia Awareness Week (UK) – from October 3rd 2022 – to October 9th 2022. They have chosen ‘Breaking Through Barriers’ to focus on their campaign for 2022. World Dyslexia Awareness Day – Thursday, October 4th.  T ..read more

Another brilliant man, Robert Ballard, who, through the darkness under the ocean, said, “I live in a world where everywhere I go is totally dark. So you have to visualise it in your mind. And dyslexics are extremely good at visualisation of three-dimensional space. He now realises how much his dyslexia helps him with his searches.  However, that wasn’t always the case when he was at school. It was a few years ago when Ballard, who always knew he was ‘wired differently’, realised the problems he had at school were caused by dyslexia.  Suddenly the penny dropped after listening to the ..read more