» 10 tips for presenting worksheets for dyslexics

10 tips for presenting worksheets for dyslexics

July 12th, 2008

Use as few words as possible.

Dyslexics are slow and painful readers and we are put under stress by being given lots of text to read in a short time. We are frequently unable to read the given text in the time teachers give us. The fewer the words the easier it is for us to complete the task.
Vary the font, colour and style of writing so it does not just look like a mass of black letters crammed on a page.

This makes it easier for us to read as letters and words appear to move about on the page for dyslexics. Also a whole page or plain text is scary for someone who finds reading hard.
Print text on blue or green paper whenever possible.

Most dyslexics find this easer to read as we actually see too clearly so that harsh black text seems to bleed out and move about on bright white paper.
Leave as much blank space as possible between words, lines and paragraphs.

This makes the page seem more friendly to us, the text less daunting to read and the words do not appear to move about as much when we read it.
Please put only relevant pictures onto the sheet.

We learn to use pictures to help us read and irrelevant pictures confuse the dyslexic.
Highlight, or embolden key words and phrases so that the dyslexic can find these easily when re-reading text.

If the text does not contain this teach the dyslexic to highlight key words.
Avoid using upper case letter for whole words.

This is much harder for the dyslexic to read as dyslexics learn to recognise words partly by shape. For example the word “train” has the shape of an old-fashioned steam train but the word “TRAIN” is merely rectangular like every other word in upper case letters.
Whenever possible give text in spoken form to a dyslexic.

There are many spoken books and a variety of software that can read text on a computer. Please see www.learningdifficulties.com.au for web addresses.
Try to keep the content interesting.

When reading is the hardest thing you ever do you are not likely to want to put enormous effort in to decoding something that is of little interest to you.
Allow more time for the dyslexic to read any sheet of text or s/he will not be able to complete the task.

It is always possible, with the correct teaching, to teach a dyslexic to read but it is not possible to teach them to read quickly. I still have to “say” every word in my head when I read silently.