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Abigail Hurd

Professor Beattie

SPED 2100

April 15, 2016

What are effective teaching strategies for children with dyslexia?

Learning disabilities are real disorders that can be evident in many children. According

to O’Brien and Beattie (2011), “a learning disability is a neurological disorder that affects the

brain’s ability to receive, process, store and respond to information” (p.132). General education

teachers can struggle to find effective strategies to help these students overcome their disabilities,

especially since the rates for children with learning disabilities are rising. The National Dissemi-

nation Center for Children with Disabilities (NICHY) (2011), stated that learning disabilities are

extremely common and roughly 1 million children (ages 6 through 21) have some form of a

learning disability (para. 9). Dyslexia, dysgraphia, and dyscalculia are three specific deficit areas

associated with specific learning disabilities. Dyslexia includes deficits in reading skills, dys-

graphia includes deficits in writing skills, and dyscalculia includes deficits in mathematical skills

(O’Brien and Beattie, 2011, p.155). Dyslexia is the most common learning disability (NICHY,

2011) and therefore it is extremely important for educators to know effective teaching strategies

to help the children with this disability.

The best educational approaches, for students with learning disabilities, try to present ma-

terial in a manner that is “short, sweet, and to the point” (O’Brien and Beattie, 2011, p.146).

There are many strategies to go about teaching including explicit instruction and content en-
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hancements. As explained by Mercer and Mercer, 2005, explicit instruction is crucial in working

with students who experience difficulty in learning new and or complex material; it involves the

teacher serving as the party responsible for providing the information. This technique, if effec-

tively implemented, can “provide a sufficient range of examples to illustrate a concept” (O’Brien

and Beattie, 2011, p.147). Content enhancements are used in an effort to foster students’ ability

to identify, organize, understand, and remember content material (Lenz, Bulgran, & Hudson,

1990). Guided notes, graphic organizers, and mnemonic devices are a few techniques that help

students to understand and retain specific information (O’Brien and Beattie, 2011, p.147). Stu-

dents with dyslexia can benefit from these two specific educational approaches.

One major part in reading that children with dyslexia struggle with is phonics. Phonics

instruction focuses on letter-sound correspondence and its role in spelling and reading (Yopp and

Yopp, 2000, p.130). Phonemic awareness, as stated by Yopp, H. K. and Yopp, R. H. (2000), in-

volves:

“the awareness that the speech stream consists of a sequence of sounds—specifically

phonemes, the smallest unit of sound that makes a difference in communication” as well

as “the ability to notice, mentally grab hold of, and manipulate these smallest chunks of

speech. Both phonemic awareness and phonics play a role in the earliest stages of reading

acquisition, when students begin to break the code and learn to match speech to print” (p.

130).

It is extremely important to identify effective strategies to help all children including children

with dyslexia to learn the smallest units of sound. Some phonics strategies that help students in-
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clude: letter cards, drill cards, writing and speaking the sound, repetition writing, phonics songs,

etc.

Additional teaching strategies for children with dyslexia can vary depending on if the

child is a visual, auditory, or kinesthetic learner (Dyslexia Scotwest, n.d.). As teachers know,

every students is unique and can learn information differently than the other. Children with dys-

lexia may have even more struggles and it is important to get to know each student to assess

what kind of learner they are. Tips for students with dyslexia that are visual learners may in-

clude, using pictures and multi-media material, looking at pictures in a book before reading,

playing games eg ‘pairs’ to improve memory, drawing mind maps, using different colors to break

up syllables in words, having an uncluttered work area, etc (Dyslexia Scotwest, n.d.). Next, audi-

tory learners can benefit from some of the following tips, “talk about the book to be read or the

information to be learned, make sure instructions are orally clear, get the student to record the

information so it can be listened to again, or use software which has good auditory input” (Dys-

lexia Scotwest, n.d.). Lastly, kinesthetic learners can benefit from these tips, “trace letters in sand

or in the air, use concrete objects that can be handled (eg wooden letters, numbers, etc.), or

memorize facts while moving about” (Dyslexia Scotwest, n.d.). These are all good tips to help

teachers and the student but not all will be successful. Therefore, it is important to observe and

understand which techniques help each unique child the best.

I completed my clinical observations in the lower school at The John Crosland School in

Charlotte, North Carolina. The John Crosland School is mainly for students with learning and

attention differences including ADHD, dyslexia, Asperger’s, executive functioning, processing

information, expressive/receptive language, navigating common social skills, following direc-

tions, reading comprehension, dysgraphia and dyscalculia issues. I worked in two different

classrooms and helped during reading tutorial and comprehension time. The John Crosland

School has many “periods” where children transition to different teachers and classrooms

throughout the day.

On March twenty-first I observed Mrs. Waltmire’s classes. Her first class was mainly

comprised of white children nine or ten years old. Six of the children were fourth grader’s and

one was a fifth grader. Their disabilities were mainly ADHD, dyslexia, and one girl had severe

Asperger’s syndrome. I had very little interaction with the children in this classroom and was

only able to help the young girl with Asperger’s syndrome. I helped her complete research on

the Washington Monument. Mrs. Waltmire presented her first period class’ lesson as a whole-

class instruction. This class worked on the laptops to complete research to fill out their guided

notes packets. For her second and third period classes she presented the lessons in a small-group

instruction style because these classes only had three or four students. Overall her teaching style

was very teacher-centered. Mrs. Waltmire showed me her personally made lesson plans and ex-

plained to me how she is constantly changing her handouts and guided notes yearly because each

child learns differently and that the same handouts from last year may not be as helpful the next

year.

On March twenty-third and April fourth I observed and helped in Mrs. Alexander’s class-

room. Mrs. Alexander is a reading tutorial and comprehension specialist. She has a wide variety

of ages of students throughout her first four classes that mainly struggle with dyslexia. Her first

and second period classes has mainly second and third grade children, her third period class has

third grade children that were reading below average, and her fourth period class has fifth grade
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students with one sixth grader that was held back. Her classroom has one table that all the chil-

dren sat around. Her teaching style is teacher-centered and she always presented the lesson as a

whole-class instruction; however, the class sizes were so small that it almost felt like a small-

group instruction. She provided binders and note cards for her students to keep their work. She

mainly used handouts and occasionally used the smart board for dictionary.com.

The first day I observed this classroom I helped a young third grade boy read through his

book and find answers for a worksheet. The children were working on going back through the

text and picking out key words and important facts. The next class I sat and observed the chil-

dren read out loud from their book. The four kids in this classroom used “E.Z.C. Reader Strips”

these strips helped children with ADHD focus on the highlighted strip of words and follow along

with the reader. Next I observed a lesson on phonics. The third grade children sang a song

called the phonics song where they went through the vowels in the alphabet. After that they were

given shaving cream to rub on the table and draw the letters with their fingers and speak out loud

the sound it made. This lesson was guided to help these children sound out words and recognize

root and base words. The last period I observed we played scrabble. There were only two stu-

dents in class that day so I was paired with the young boy who had dyslexia and Mrs. Alexander

worked with another boy. Scrabble was very fun for them and the kids came up with many

words on their own.

In conclusion, I observed a lot of effective teaching strategies and tips for children with

dyslexia. Drill cards and letter cards were very helpful in the classroom and the kids loved doing

them. The one boy with dyslexia that I worked with enjoyed learning about phonics by writing

the letter with his finger in shaving cream while repeating the sound out loud. It was very inter-
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esting to see the differences in the children and how they learned and what they retained. Over-

all, the services provided were clearly effective to meet the needs of these students. Both teach-

ers modified there lessons for each individual student. I was given the experience to see these

teachers notes, handouts, grade books, lesson plans, etc. These teachers had a lot of patience and

were very dedicated to helping each child thrive. The classrooms were much different from the

classrooms I experienced when I was in elementary school. The main difference was the size;

these rooms were much smaller and Mrs. Alexander’s room did not even have desks, just one

table. I really like how Mrs. Alexander taught her student phonics with drill cards, letter cards,

and the phonics song; I plan on using these tools in the future. I also hope to write my own les-

son plans and type my own handouts like Mrs. Waltmire did. My observations did align with my

knowledge of effective practices for students with special needs and taught me more on effective

practices for students with dyslexia.

References

Dyslexia Scotwest. (n.d.). Teaching Strategies to help Children. Retrieved April 23, 2016, from

http://www.dyslexiasw.com/advice/help-andamp-advice-for-teachers/teaching-strategies-

for-dyslexic-children

Lenz, B.K., Bulgran, J.A., & hudson, P. (1990). Content enhancement: A model for promoting

the acquisition of content by individuals with learning disabilities. In T. Scruggs & B.

Wong (Eds.), Intervention research in learning disabilities. (pp.122-165). New York:

Springer-Verlag.

Mercer, C.D. & Mercer, A. R. (2005). Teaching students with learning problems (7th ed.) Upper

Sadle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.

O’Brien, C. and Beattie, J.R. (2011). Teaching students with special needs: A guide for

future educators. Dubuque, 1A: Kendall Hunt.

The National Dissemination Center for Children with Disabilities. (2011). Learning dis

abilities, Newark, NJ. Retrieved April 20, 2016, from http://www.parentcenter

hub.org/repository/ld/#

Yopp, H. K., & Yopp, R. H. (2000). Supporting phonemic awareness development in the class

room. The reading teacher, 54(2), 130–143.