Dyslexia: How Do I Teach This Child?

- By Dianne Craft, MA, CNHP

What is dyslexia?

Educators have not been able to agree on what dyslexia really is. Some authorities believe that it is strictly a language-processing problem involving the distinguishing of sounds of letters. This is why the struggling reader cannot remember phonics sounds to decode a word. Others believe that it is a visual/perceptual problem, since these children reverse words laterally (b/d) and vertically (m/w) as well as scrambling letters (the=het) when they read and write.

I believe that both are correct. It is an auditory/language problem, visual/perceptual problem, and often also a visual/motor (eye/hand) problem. My 25 years of experience working with these bright but struggling learners tells me that it is mainly a processing problem that involves the ability of the midline of the brain to act as a bridge instead of a barrier. Our brain is divided into two main hemispheres, the right and the left hemisphere. The left is our thinking hemisphere, and the right is our automatic hemisphere.

When children are suffering from dyslexia, the processes that should have been taken over by the automatic hemisphere, like eye tracking, writing, and letter identification, are still in the left brain. This means that the child has to think about the processes.

The learning processes can be likened to the driving process. If you had to think about how to turn the signals, and when to brake and accelerate while you were driving, it would be a very difficult procedure indeed. While reading, recognition of letters, sight words, and letter combinations need to be retrieved from the right hemisphere where our long term memory is stored. This is not happening with children suffering from dyslexia.

Does my child have dyslexia?

You can suspect dyslexia in your child if all three of the following information processing areas are impacted, and your child is past the first grade and is about two years behind in reading. The degree of the problem and age of the child are major considerations in the determination of dyslexia. Many times these children are not reading, or are reading at least two years behind grade level. They write almost no sentences from memory, since their right, visual hemisphere is not storing words efficiently. (Copying a sentence is not considered writing.) Transposing numbers (19/91) is not considered dyslexia. When a child reverses letters or numbers, even if only once in a while, you know that there is stress in the writing system. The child has to think about the directionality of the letters rather than the content of the writing. I always take reversals (reading and writing) seriously past the first grade. One way to eliminate them is with brain-integration therapy exercises.

Auditory Dyslexia

1. Difficulty learning the names of alphabet letters when in kindergarten
2. Spelling has no phonetic pattern to it (Tuesday=Tunday)
3. Sounds out all words, including sight words (many, could, these)
4. Little memory of words just read in a previous sentence in reading
5. Sounds out the letters in a word, but can't put it into a whole (b-a-t)
6. Memorizes stories, but can't remember same words in another story

Visual Dyslexia

1. When reading, reverses whole words sometimes (on=no, was=saw)
2. Regularly reads "big" for "dig"
3. Very slow, labored reading (often takes a deep breath)
4. Reading at least a year below grade level
5. Says words wiggle when he reads
6. Often reads a word from the line above, and adds to present line

Visual/Motor Dyslexia (Dysgraphia)

1. Reverses letters or numbers in writing
2. Letters not written below the line
3. Will ask, "What does that letter look like?" when writing the alphabet
4. Cannot write words from memory
5. Copying words is labor intensive, like "art work"
6. Hates to write

How can I work with my child at home?

The approach I have taken to get children past the learning block of dyslexia is two-fold:

1.) Brain Integration Therapy - This is a very inexpensive, 20-minute-a-day home therapy program designed to eliminate the midline as a problem; to help eye tracking, remembering letter sounds, and writing reversals; and to enable the child to store words in his/her right brain, which is responsible for long term memory.

2.) A Right-Brain Reading Program, including right-brain phonics and spelling. - If your child has symptoms of dyslexia, you have found that just having him or her read to you more isn't helping. You've also found that regular phonics programs don't work, because either your child can't remember the sounds of letters, or he can remember them and sound out the pieces of a word but cannot put it into a whole. Sight words are the enemy, so most reading books are painfully slow for these children as they try to sound out each word. Usually their comprehension is great, once they've struggled through a passage. Most parents I see have given up on spelling, and the only writing the child does is copying sentences. Math, social studies, science, and Bible are the subjects that they concentrate on, with everything being read aloud to the child.

The first step to helping a child read who is facing this massive learning struggle is to utilize brain integration therapy exercises and once a week "re-trainings," using physical movements to "re-connect" the two brain hemispheres. Then, use a right-brain reading approach. I use decodable readers with as few sight words as possible, such as the well known Merrill Readers, which encourage independence.

I also use a systematic, color-and-picture-enhanced phonics program. To learn individual sounds such as consonants, vowels, and letter combinations (au/aw), superimpose the letter directly on a picture that gives that sound. Then have the child read whole words, putting the vowel or letter combination that gives the sound in color, with the picture nearby. You can make these kinds of right-brain materials yourself at home.

By using this method of picture and color in whole words, you will find that your child will soon be reading very long words. Using this method, I have generally been able to achieve a two-year growth in reading in a year. This method is an intensive, right-brain reading approach that involves about an hour a day of working together, but it pays off handsomely in its results. This method works with first graders to eighth graders.

If you suspect that your child is struggling with dyslexia, or even a processing dysfunction, start a systematic approach to increase the connection between the brain hemispheres, and teach him using color and picture to help him store words and sounds in his right-brain hemisphere for easier retrieval. This method has proven itself over and over, even with the toughest learning problems. Invest in some colored markers and pictures, and have fun teaching your child how to use his/her powerful right brain to make the learning process easier.

In my experience, it doesn't have to be so hard for the child to learn to read, nor so expensive for the parent to teach a child with dyslexia to be a good reader or writer.

Dianne Craft is president of Child Diagnostics, Inc., in Littleton, Colorado, and the author of Brain Integration Therapy for Children Manual. She is a speaker at HEAV this year. She has free daily lesson plans for the struggling reader and writer on her website for parents to download. www.diannecraft.org. Dianne is also a Learning Specialist for the Homeschool Legal Defense Association.

Check out Dianne Craft's six convention workshops, which include "Brain Re-training to Remove Learning Glitches," "Right-Brain Math," "IQ: Can It Be Changed?" and three others.