My daughter is 5 yo and just started preps. She is having reading difficulties she knows all her alphabet but does not get the sounds of letters and putting them together to pronounce the word therefore she is falling behind in the classroom we are doing extra work at home with her but she is having difficulties with her phonics. Do you have any suggestions for me or where can can get help.

Hi, It would very hard for someone to sure if she was dyslexic or not at her age. However its never too early to properly understand phonics. My phonics program Begins with basic letter sounds and colour in sheets for this. Then simple 3 letter regular words.

Make sure she is taught multi sensory. She should see the letter shape, hear the letter sound, say the sound and write the letter shape ALL AT THE SAME TIME. She could practice this with flour on a plate or in a sand tray, writing the letters with her finger or a paintbrush or pen or even a stick. She may need to practice each letter hundreds of times before she properly remembers it, but once she has properly learnt them she will never forget. 

Schools tend to just show a kid the letters and if the child is distractible, like dyslexics are, they miss the connection between the shape of the letter and the sound.

Also letters are often varied in the way they are written and this confuses small children. Make sure the letter shapes are consistent, and I suggest keeping them as similar as possible to the letter in her reading books.

Hope this helps,

 Cheers Dawn

I have been researching into Princess Diana in light of the fact that Prince Harry is now being open about being dyslexic.

Dyslexia is an inherited condition and it seems to me that he does not inherit his dyslexia from his father. About 80% of the thousands of kids I have assessed turn out to have at least one parent who is also dyslexic. Very frequently I end up assessing the parent who has brought the kid to me as also dyslexic.

Princess Diana was artistic, a very good public speaker, had excellent people skills, did not have good self esteem and was always interested in helping the under dog, the poor and the sick. These are all traits common to dyslexics. She also did not do well at school.

I have learnt that you only fully understand what it like to be an under dog by having been one. So many dyslexics spend a lot of time working with the underprivileged, recently Sir Jamie Oliver with his 5 Restaurants, Sir Richard Branson, setting up a committee for world peace and Mohamed Ali who worked for black Americans and risked going to prison as a pacifist.

Very few people know how to diagnose dyslexia, and in Australia I have diagnosed hundreds of kids that everyone else has overlooked and some that have been told they were absolutely not dyslexic.

Upon investigating her school life I find the following taken from her biographies, “Dianna Princess of Wales- a Biography” by Martin Gitlin.

• “she hated school”
• “she was in trouble a lot” at school.
• “a lack of confidence resulted from poor academic and early job performances”
• A teacher described Dianna as having a “defeatist attitude “ towards schoolwork.
• “she proved quite ordinary academically”
• “she continued to not match the success of her siblings in the schoolroom”
• “she perceived herself as unintelligent”
• “Diana recalls weeping in the company of her headmistress over her failures.”
• “her failure in two sets of exams forced her to leave school at 16.”
• “Diana’s lack of progress academically”
• “Diana’s poor lack of performance in school was merely a result of her laziness in that period of her life.” (How many times have I heard this said of a dyslexic?) And even though she apparently kept her bedroom and those of her friends spotless. And neat.
• She failed to learn French at her finishing school even though it was compulsory.

And does all this sound dreadfully familiar to any other dyslexics out there? Certainly these comments were all made of me while at school.

This is just a start and the result of half an hour or so reading by a dyslexic. But I would be interested in knowing just how many other dyslexics out there totally relate to all these comments.

Let me state again, dyslexics can learn to read and write, they can do schoolwork, they do now always read or write backwards, they are smart, caring and successful people and they slip through the net all the time and end up thinking they are dumb.

What do you think?

Dawn

Dear Dawn We arrived here in Perth nearly 2 years ago from Zimbabwe, Africa and are thoroughly enjoying every minute with new opportunities coming our way all the time especially your webpage. I have a son who is nearly 16 years of age, attending high school and although we advised the school on numerous occasions of his dyslexia nothing has been forthcoming in giving any advice as to learning provisions for him although his teachers note his condition down after each parents consultation day. The school has now issued a phamphlet about all his Year 11 requirements and made mention of SLD provisions for exams. This is the first time we are in receipt of any information of this kind up until now. Any information you may give would be greatly appreciated as we are unfamiliar with school, tafe and uni requirements and/or provisions both for class tuition and examinations. Such as :- – do they require an official assessment to allow him extra time in examinations. – must his classwork all be handwritten on their supplied question sheets especially as English is graded on presentation – what can we do to ensure his grades are not being penalised unfairly (I was advised by his English teacher that his grades have been prejudiced because of his handwriting and presention despite my ensuring that they know he is dyslexic) etc As the next two years are important for my son’s education, I am also concerned that there might be other parameters regarding schooling and SLD that we are not aware of with being new to Australia and any assistance you can offer would be greatly appreciated. Here is a bit of his histroy and mine which might be of assistance:- We first discovered he was dyslexic in his first year at kindergarden (Pre-school)as he would draw mirror immage drawings & reverse his numbers and letters. We also discovered he was deaf in one ear and his vision was not the best. He had successful surgery on both ears with grommets to assist drainage and now has full hearing although sensitive to too much noise on occassion. He also wears glasses for close writing work (when he remembers to wear them). We then identified what to try to do to assist him and constantly did phonics with pictures & 3d, left/right hand eye co-ordinations, monitored giving commands and confirming their completion and then increased the amount of commands per sitting, re-evaluate and remind all procedures twice a year. All things progressed and improved, however, we have just started a new term with new teachers and once again he seems to be having trouble with his maths (last year he had an exceptional teacher and did exceptionally well) and his English used to also be of a very high standard but since our arrival in Perth that too has not been graded well. Prior to our arrival he was in a home school environment with a class of 4 per teacher giving a hands on stimulus. After reading your web pages on dyspraxia I now think he also will mark off 3/4 of your test. By the way I was diagnosed as dyslexic when my son was about 7 years old so I fully relate to his issues. As a pre-schooler I could not remember whole words nor my times tables and I too can tick 3/4 of the dyspraxia list. I suffered with severe glandular fever as a child for 2 years (from the age of 9 to 11) and also now wear glasses as well as have a sensitivity to light. Thank heaven for phonics (which by the way is now no longer allowed to be used as part of the curriculum in Zimbabwe). The following saying is so very true for me – Give me the system such as how the “Fairy E Rule”works and could then work out how the word sounds and its spelling! The good news is we both love to read with a passion and fortitude so…. try, try and try again does achieve results. Thank you for any assistance you may give. TLV

Hi, Thank you for you email,

Yes unfortunately despite my best efforts most schools in Australia seem to not do anything for dyslexics. I am setting up Dyslexic centre Australia in order to change this.
if you visit www.dyslexiccentreaustralia.com you will see a handout we offer to take to schools you can download a handout for dyslexics that we are trying to get out in every school. This points out that it is a legal requirement in Australia to have exams read and if necessary scribed but it does not seem to be happening in many places.

To get extra time for exams you have to have your son assessed by a Psych or doctor. but all they need to do is establish how long he takes to read something.

If your son had hearing loss as a small child he will almost certainly have Central Auditory Processing Disorder, which can be tested for by Western Hearing.

Dyslexia is an inherited condition and it is now thought that if you are dyslexic every one of your kids stands 60% chance of being dyslexic.

Hopes this helps
Cheers
Dawn