Coping Skills

When children have learning disabilities school is often a dreadful place for them when they come home sometimes they need support from their parents. Parents often have a hard time understanding what the child needs and how the child feels. Parents can provide copying skills that can help the child tremendously.

According to CNN, these three coping skills are most effective are to be supportive, talk to your child and take steps at home to make it easier for your child to study.

Children need to have his or her strengths and talents appraised to help them build self esteem back. Children with dyslexia often have low self esteem. We all know how much talking can make us feel better when we are feeling down. A calm, clean, quiet, organized place for the child to study can help them remained focused.

These skills will not help every child but they are a starting point for parents. To learn more feel free to check out CNN.

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CNN

Common Classroom Accommodations

Children that have difficulty reading and writing can often verbalize better. Therefore easy classroom accommodations can help them in the classroom. These accommodations could be as easy as having a test read to them or having un-timed test. Un-timed test can help students because they are not required to rush to finish and they can take there time. Another good accommodation is to grade on content not spelling or handwriting.

However the most important way I believe to help a dyslexic student is to ask the student how he or she best learns. Use what the student tells you in order to incorporate it into your lessons or tests. Therefore this student is not under as much pressure and feels like he or she can accomplish what is being asked.

Some dyslexic students have very low self-esteem and can not complete tasks. Therefore I believe that if you are showing the student that you care and willing to help then it shows the student you are working to help them. To me this is the best way to help the student see he or she is not in this alone and as a teacher you are willing to help them succeed.

You can read more of the common classroom accommodations from Bright Solutions for Dyslexia. Feel free to tell me what you think.

Sources
Bright Solutions for Dyslexia.

Famous?

There is no cure for dyslexia but people who have dyslexia go on to live extremely normal lives. They use different strategies and techniques to help them with their weaknesses. They can learn to read accurately but they continue to read slowly.

What do the following people have in common: Magic Johnson, Tom Cruise, Leonardo da Vinci, Cher, Thomas Edison and Whoopi Goldberg? Take a minute. Figure it out yet? They are all famous Dyslexics who went on to live an extraordinary life.

An article from DARC has many quotes from famous dyslexics that talk about the positive and negative that they had experienced with dyslexia. It also talks about life after school.

“I had to train myself to focus my attention. I became very visual and learned how to create mental images in order to comprehend what I read.”-- Tom Cruise, actorThat is just one example of what one of the many said. More can be read at DARC.

Sources: DARC

Myths equal FALSE

Given that you may not know anything about dyslexia reading my blog you should of learned some things by now. Did you know that some people think that dyslexia does not exist? What do you think? I don’t believe it. I know that dyslexia exists. I know that dyslexia exists because I have seen it in people. Remember me telling you about my neighbor. I have first class experience seeing her work and helping her in her struggling areas.

There are many myths about dyslexia that caught my attention when I came across Persistent Myths about Dyslexia. These are the ones that caught my eye. “Many children who experience reading and writing problems in kindergarten through third grade will outgrow those problems. These children are just developmentally delayed.” “Repeating a grade will often help children gain skills because it allows them to mature and become developmentally ready to read.” “The way to help a child to read is to force him or her to read at least 20 minutes a day.” Can you believe what people are saying? This is nonsense. These children do need extra attention and help yes but they need to be taught ways and given accommodations that are going to help them succeed in the classroom. Check out all the myths at Bright Solutions

Source:

Bright Solutions

Early Intervention Helps

As a future-teacher dyslexia is something I have to look for in my classroom. I also would have to know how to accommodate the student how to make sure they are working at their highest potential. I read an article by Evan Carden. It asked two questions One in five kids have dyslexia How many of those go undiagnosed? What can be done to help teachers recognize the signs of dyslexia as early as possible? These questions make me wonder how much responsibility teachers need to have when keeping up on the types of syndromes, warning signs and symptoms those children have and what they could be. They need to know when to refer the student to get help in having them diagnosed. How many children go undiagnosed. Its so important to help students get diganosed because a simply thing could help them progress extremely well in the classroom.

A superintendent in Washington County said “We do know that early intervention helps. If parents recognize their child is struggling and pass that information along to us, we can tackle it." It is a collaboration process, both responsibility of the parent who sees the child at home and the teacher that sees the child at school. That may mean that teachers need to go to training services in order to better help prepare them. They also most know what type of accommodations each child needs to help them in the classroom.

You can read a full article taken from the South Alabamian which is a paper from Alabama here South Alabamian. The article talks about dealing with dyslexia head on.


Source:
The South Alabamian

Dyslexia Awareness

So I just found out that you can not have dyslexia and ADD. Which I thought was really strange because I always thought you could. I think that we are quick to say oh the child has ADD. What we fail to realize is that child just might not be motivated. All children get fidgety from time to time and it is important to let them move around or get up and then refocus. I found that very interesting.

Some other facts for thought: one in seven Americans has a learning disability such as dyslexia; students with dyslexia are often very artistic. Check Dyslexia Awareness for some interesting facts at Dyslexia Resource Center.

In my previous post Signs and Symptoms I talked about some of the warning signs that can be related to dyslexia. This website on the Dyslexia Syndrome breaks it down on a more academic/non-academic level. It divides it into 11 categories including balance, coordination and self-esteem as well as reading, writing, math and speech. These categories help you understand a little more of how dyslexia affects an individual. That website is The Dyslexic Syndrome.

Source
Dyslexia Resource Center

The Dyslexic Syndrome

How is dyslexia diagnosed?

Now that you know some of the warning signs its time to learn a little more about how dyslexia is diagnosed. Dyslexia cannot simply be diagnosed by signs and symptoms. To be diagnosed the child needs to be referred to a psychologist and go through several tests.

According to Mednet the test helps determine functional reading level and compare it to their reading potential. This can be evaluated by an intelligence test. Many people do not realize that children with dyslexia have the potential and want to learn they simply just need a little extra time and help to help them.

Another aspect of the test that is a huge key in diagnosing the child looks at the child as an individual. It looks how the child processes information, and what they do with it. This could be for example where and how they store it and even if they remember it.

What I found extremely interesting was how the test will help determine the child’s learning style, whether they do better with auditory, visual or kinesthetic or a mixture of two or all three.

Also according to Information on Child’s health making the child feel comfortable is important. They chose to use game and puzzle formats to take the child out of the initial paper/pencil test. Be sure to read more on how dyslexia is diagnosed.

Source: Mednet.com