There is a big difference between mathematics and arithmetic.
Dyslexics are generally good at mathematics, if taught properly, but not always good at arithmetic.
Continue Reading 3 comments July 29th, 2008
I use the Fun Writing Game” (sold downloadable at $8.00 from this site) to get kids to enjoy writing. Some kids are natural writers and when given this game they blossom into little authors.
Continue Reading 1 comment July 29th, 2008
Before encouraging a pupil to use this times table square as an arithmetic aid, ensure that the pupil understands the concepts of both multiplication and division.
You can test for this by showing times and divide sums and asking the pupil to predict the answer.
CLICK HERE for accompanying file
More on this can be found in chapter 17 of “Dyslexia –How to Win” by Dawn Matthews.
It has been designed to be multi-coloured and some text will be lost if printed out on coloured paper. It will be easy to read, even for those with Irlen Syndrome, because no black is used.
Do not stick it into a math book, as then the pupil will have to be constantly flicking backwards and forwards from math sums to times tables sheet. Please keep it separate so that the pupil can put it next to the sums.
I do understand that this breaks every law of design but the varied colours and fonts are used to make tracking, both up and down and side to side, easier.
It can be used for both multiplication and division.
Find the intersecting point between the bold numbers on the top row and on the side row. Eg. 4×5 find 5 on the left hand side and 4 on the top and follow 5 horizontally and 4 vertically downwards and you will find 20 is the point where these lines meet
eg. 21÷7 Find 7 on the top line and look vertically down the line until you find 21. Then go horizontally across to the left dark numbers and you will find 3. 3 is the answer.
Add comment July 29th, 2008
The following suggestions should help any dyslexic pupil to feel more relaxed and able to work well in your classroom. If you have a stressed dyslexic in your class s/he will not be learning well, could be misbehaving and will not reach his/he true potential in your class.
These tips will help both you and your dyslexic pupil.
Continue Reading Add comment July 16th, 2008
Teach them to totally understand time.
Because these kids do not always perceive properly, time is not a constant for them and one minute can actually “be” a lot shorter than another. They have to know the length of a minute and an hour. So time things, count in seconds, watch a second hand go round the clock and keep doing these until the child can predict when a minute, 5 mins, and hour etc finishes. Dyspraxic adults can end up in permanent day care because they are unable to understand time properly and sort out their days by themselves.
Keep a diary of what the child needs and has to do every day at school and prepare the day before.
Teachers and parents should check that the kid has correctly entered details in this diary as these kids are not always totally aware of what has been going on and this is not their fault.
Time how long tasks take and always leave more time than this to do a task.
These kids panic because they do not believe they can complete something on time or because they try to complete a task in insufficient time. When these kids panic they can get into a real state very quickly so you have to do anything you can to prevent this from happening.
Do lots of activities involving hand eye and body coordination.
These should include catching and throwing, kicking, crawling through obstacle courses, climbing, standing on wobble boards (see Dsypraxia a guide for parents and teachers), walking on planks while holding objects and sporting activities. This helps correct the perception problems and the neural pathways in the brain, and the kid will then do better academically and socially.
Try to keep routines and order constant from day to day.
When you have perception problems the world becomes scary if it keeps changing. These kids take some time to learn the routines and learn that they work. If this changes then they get scared that time will run out or things will get forgotten. If you have to change routine then try to do in consultation with the kid.
Try to keep the contents of their world in the same place.
These kids take a long time to learn where their world and its contents are in space and how they relate to these. When these things move then they get scared because they may not notice and run into them or just not cope with the change. If you have to move items or his/her desk, bed, or toys etc. do it in consultation with the kid.
Neither Developmental Motor Dyspraxia nor Verbal Dyspraxia can be cured or overcome by giving the child amphetamines.
Please do not give these kids drugs.
Help them establish friends, prevent bullying and cope socially through role-play.
Because of their perception problems these kids miss some information, reactions and body language. This makes it hard for them to “read” people and situations well. Also they often seem clumsy and awkward and this attracts bullies. They have to be prepared for situations and learn by acting situations out in advance. This is specially needed to cope with bullies.
Teach in a tactile multi sensory way.
You have to involve as much of the brain, attention and thinking as possible in a teaching situation. If you merely tell them something then they might not “hear” all of the words, but if you tell them, show them and encourage them to do it all at the same time, then they are much less lightly to miss information - as are all kids.
Work with their strengths.
These kids are creative, sensitive and very caring. They spend a lot of time living in their own heads and inventing and creating things. They also learn to develop their own ways of doing things. These ideas should be encouraged and used. It is far too easy to spend most of a child’s time catching up with and focusing on his/her weaknesses.
For more information and help please read “Dyspraxia – a Guide for Parents and Teachers” by Dawn Matthews
Or go to www.learningdifficulties.com.au
1 comment July 16th, 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.
For more information go to www.learningdifficulties.com.au or read Dyslexic – How to Win by Dawn Matthews
Add comment July 12th, 2008
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