Dyslexia affects a child’s reading and writing skills. With reading, writing, and spelling difficulties, it can also be seen that a child faces numerous challenges in their mental calculation, memory, and organizational skills. It is easy to identify symptoms of dyslexia when children first start school, at the point when they begin reading and writing. Dyslexia comes with a combination of difficulties and abilities. Therefore, it is suggested to see a Toronto tutor who specializes in the Orton Gillingham approach, which is used for dyslexic students.
How Does Dyslexia Impact Children?
Dyslexic students have difficulty with reading as they struggle to identify speech sounds and the connection between letters and sounds. Dyslexic students process language differently in the brain as compared to others. Dyslexia can affect students in different ways:
Reading Comprehension Difficulties
The trouble with decoding and reading often causes a child to have reading comprehension problems.
Trouble with Writing and Spelling
Dyslexic students find it difficult to divide words into sounds when they spell them. Children may confuse letters that sound alike.
Delayed Academic Progress
Dyslexic children often struggle to keep up with other students to maintain academic progress within their grades.
Delayed Speech and Pronunciation Problems
Delayed speech, reduced vocabulary and pronunciation difficulties have been associated with dyslexia.
Tutoring in Toronto: Effective Teaching Strategies for Dyslexic Students
To support dyslexic students, tutors use several dyslexic teaching strategies to meet their needs. Here are a few methods used by Toronto tutors to support dyslexic students:
Multisensory Approach
The best teaching strategy for students with dyslexia is to use multisensory learning techniques. This approach engages multiple senses of the students to enhance their engagement when they read, write and spell. Tutors include activities involving touch, sight, movement and sound. This multi-sensory approach is called Orton Gillingham. Generally, Orton Gillingham tutor uses this multisensory approach to support dyslexic students. This approach is used for the prevention of reading difficulties. This method integrates multisensory techniques to support dyslexic students to learn to read, write and spell. It focuses on the structure of the English language and direct instruction of phonics.
Explicit Instruction
Dyslexic students can benefit from the explicit instruction. When tutors use explicit instructions for reading, they provide students with clear learning objectives and divide complex concepts into sequential steps that teach essential elements of reading. Primary elements of explicit instruction are:
- developing new skills
- offering various opportunities for the students to practice
- provide structured opportunities to review skills and use them in practice
To use this dyslexia teaching strategy, tutors must have a strong understanding of reading terms, such as consonant blend and consonant digraph. Class in Session has experienced tutors who have in-depth understanding of these key reading terms.
Teach Phonics Systematically
Tutoring in Toronto for your dyslexic child will involve teaching phonics systematically. Teaching phonics helps students better understand the connection between sounds and letters. Improving these skills can enhance the student’s spelling skills. Explicit instruction of phonics taught in a structured manner to help dyslexic students build a strong foundation for reading. The students can develop advanced reading and writing skills progressively.
Structured Literacy
Structured literacy supports children’s reading by learning to decode words. Instruction is clear and follows a specific order. This method is appropriate for children with dyslexia. Various elements are taught in this approach, such as phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, syllable instruction and sound-symbol association.
Parents must identify if their child has dyslexia. If your child is struggling with reading, writing and spelling, you should see a professional tutor at Class in Session for your dyslexic child. We follow different teaching strategies to support dyslexic students. We support them in improving their reading, writing and spelling skills.