Dyslexic Centre Australia School for Dyslexics.

Having recently set up Dyslexic Centre Australia (www.dyslexiccentreaustralia.org.au) we are now looking for premises and a school.

If you think you would be interested in such a school please do add your name (as a comment below) thus showing your interest in such a school, so that we can give numbers to the people considering our proposal – we can also keep you notified of progress.

Continue Reading 226 comments March 1st, 2011

Tafe Course for Dyslexics

Hi Dawn I recently purchased your book and I just love it it is so user friendly and I just want to keep reading it. I am a teacher assistant at a secondary school and have been working with a year 8 girl who is dyslexic your book was mentioned to me in the holidays and after purchasing it can see that it is going to be very useful. So thank you. I would lke to know more about the course that is running at Tafe in WA, is it available on line what age or year level is it aimed at. Look forward to hearing from you Marisa

4 comments March 1st, 2011

Be happy with what you have …

You will need QuickTime to view this amazing video

Be Happy with What You Have

7 comments October 12th, 2010

YouTube Videos posted by Dyslexic Centre Australia

View the latest videos posted to YouTube by the Dyslexic Centre Australia

Continue Reading 3 comments May 13th, 2010

Can you recommend schools for Dyslexia in Brisbane?…

Hi My son is 8 years old and has recently been tested as dyslexic and I was enquiring if you have any schools you could recommend in the Brisbane area and any programs or software that may assit

Hi,
I do not know of any schools that in way cater dyslexics in Australia. I am trying to set one up but it takes time, and anyway I am in Perth.
I am writing materials all the time and my new complete Dead Easy Phonics course in coming out next month, hopefully. In the meantime the best programs are the Nessy program from the Uk www.nessy.co.uk

My book Dyslexia – How to Win tells you a lot of things that are helpful. the rest of the material i sell will soon become a part of the new Dead Easy Phonics program. Mathletics is also the best I can suggest and can be found online at a cost of about $100 per year.
hope this helps
Cheers
dawn

33 comments February 19th, 2010

What fonts are easiest to read?

Hi Dawn,

Just a quick question for you. Which of the fonts that are generally available on computers are easiest for you to read? We would like to make all our marketing material as user friendly as possible for our clients and I presume that what works well for you would work well for other dyslexics.

I know that you were very impressed with the Nessy font but I don’t think that is generally available.

Hi,
Did a survey ion this last year. asked about 100 dyslexics and gave them a choice of the ones the committee liked best.

The ones that people liked best were the simple fonts with wide spaced letters.
I print my sites etc in arial,and my books are a now a combination of arial and bradley hand bradley hand. However the preferred fonts were those with a proper round “a” but there are no generic ones so sites cannot be made out them.

Comic sans was the most popular followed by bradley hand and the arial. If you expand the letters and put 2 spaces between every word it makes it much easier for dyslexics to read. Also bigger letters are better, and short lines.

hope this helps
cheers
dawn

Add comment February 19th, 2010

Enquiry about my child … please help

i’m currently assessing kids to find out what actually they have and then showing parents how to teach them using my teaching materials which are soon to be published. I am doing this through the use of SKYPE although some are people are actually preferring to come vast distances to see me.

Continue Reading 12 comments February 19th, 2010

Fact Finding

Hi there, I am just beginning my journey through dyslexia, ADD, etc. Our middle of 5 children is 13 yo, Year 7. She struggles with spelling and fluency. We recently had her tested, her results were high IQ but poor rate and fluency, yet good comprehension. Query, dyslexia?, auditory processing? My husband, David and his brother have always been slow readers, yet have worked in the literary world – Poet, Author, Pastor! Recently we discovered some first cousins with ?dyslexia and ?ADHD. Our other 4 children excel in Literacy. One has been labelled a ‘genius’ for her age (8yo). So our poor middle daughter, Anna, feels really ‘dumb’ (her words). Not sure where to begin?
- Cheryl

Hi Cheryl,
Dyslexia is an inherited condition. If your husband is a slow reader, if he has to say every word in his head when reading silently then this a form of dyslexia.

I was taught in the Uk and my Center follows the British Dyslexia Association. So what i say is not always the same as what you are told in Australia.

Auditory processing disorder is also a form a dyslexia and all dyslexics have this to some extent.
In the Uk we test for dyslexia before testing for ADHD or ADD. if dyslexia can account for the kids problems then we call her dyslexic and do not assume that she also has ADD or ADHD. Very few kids are medicated in the UK and it considered extremely old fashioned to merely give a kid drugs.

I recently discussed this with a top psych in the BDA by phone. They have no policy on getting kids off ritaline because they not put on it in the fist place, She was extremely shocked to hear what was going on Australia regarding Amphetamine drugs.

Hope this helps
Dawn

4 comments January 5th, 2010

Need to know what’s best for my child

Thanks for all your info Dawn & time.
When you have a child that never gives up, you want to keep pushing on.
Our daughter Sarah, is an anxious child, loves being at home with her family, home body, and loves the water, beach. Sarah has ADD/ADHD, expressive language difficulties, learning difficulties, however very visual, and learns visually, Sarah is 9yrs old.
I did the Tick box assessment / for the 8-13yrs for Dyspraxia, Sarah’s score was 19.
I also did the Dyslexia late infant or early primary screening sheet Sarah’s score was 12.
I am a little dyslexic myself, so probably from my side of the family.
Sarah has had expressive speech difficulties since she started to talk, Sarah did speech therapy for 6yrs. Sarah is reading well, Sarah is doing tennis lessons at the moment and has really improved, plus we bought a trampoline, as she takes a while to try new things, and the trampoline takes her out of her comfort zone which is good, Dawn suggests the wobble board which is brilliant for balance also. Sarah is learning to surf on a surfboard, we are seeing big improvements in all area’s of her gross motor skills, all these things help her confidence, In the past I have tried Sarah on
Omega fish oil since little, taken her to occupational behavioural optometry, speech therapy, neuro psychologist, you name it.
I would like to say Dawn has up to date research and provides practical resources for children like Sarah who don’t learn the mainstream way.
I wished all states in Australia would adopt Dawn’s methods of teaching children that learn differently, our daughter is very visual and Dawn’s resources are fantastic.
Thanks again
[name withheld, Sydney Australia]

instead of doing the fast forward you can buy earobics DVD at a fraction of the cost and i have found it to be as god.
Dawn

We did look into fast forward, got all the info DVD etc, we were already doing
with our daughter education DVD on the computer Maths and English, fun type learning computer games, from Tandy, Dick Smith etc, our speech therapist
looked into fast forward and said what you are already doing is very similar, our daughter Sarah is very visual, learns visually, Sarah is a whiz on the computer, plus fast forward was big $$$$, also looked into Cell field again big$$$$ and no studies to back up what they say it does, have looked at so many things and tried so much. Thanks again

I do not sell earobics but will try to work out how we can do that. I got hold of them by going to www.earobics.com. Our local SPELD sell them also. You can phone them on 0894743494.

I sell a downloadable dyspraxic pack which contains a book on dyspraxia and a phonics course and lots of other teaching aids. for $39 i think.(!) Get it from www.dyslexia-testing.com.au and type dyspraxia in the store search engine. The book I sell on dyspraxia is only at present available downloadable.

All the things you are doing are good. Skate boarding is very good also or a wobble board, I tell you how to build one in the book,

If your child is dyspraxic i would expect her to score as positive in both the dyslexia and he dyspraxia tick tests.

There are no schools which properly cater for these kids in Australia, unfortunately, so try not to worry too much if she does not keep up. Just remember that primary education is only actually meant to prepare your kid for secondary and high school is only intended to prepare her for life, so concentrate on life skills.

It is so important to find her strengths and concentrate on them rather than just correcting things that she is not doing well at.
And yes if she is dyspraxic she can improve greatly and live a more or less normal life. My step mum is dyspraxic and she was a maths teacher in a top private school.
I am beginning a maths program for these kids but as you might imagine I am quite busy!

I do offer skype assessments now.
Good luck you are doing very well and are obviously a really good mum.

dawn

5 comments January 5th, 2010

Form Filling Help for Dyslexics

A close friend who is dyslexic phoned up yesterday very frustrated because of ongoing problems he was having filling in a passport application form. It made me realize that the advice I gave him should be posted.

Continue Reading Add comment September 28th, 2009