Math and Dyslexia: Quick Tips for Word Problems

dyslexia math Jan 26, 2023
 

For many students with dyslexia, word problems in math can be especially challenging. Why? Dyslexia is a language-based learning difference. There is a language to math that may often be overlooked.

We need to break down the vocabulary in terms of math problems and explicitly teach these to students. You can have students highlight or underline these terms and essential information as they work with word problems.

In addition to language, many students with dyslexia have difficulty with sequence, order, and concepts of time. In multi-step word problems, students need to make sense of what needs to be solved first. Teaching students to identify, and then number, what needs to be done first, second, and so forth, can assist in the sequencing of the problem.

Many dyslexic learners have strong visual and spatial reasoning skills. So, teaching through concrete, think manipulatives and pictorial representations, those drawings, benefit students in gaining an understanding of...

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3 Tips For Building Phonemic Awareness

Recently, in the education world, there has been a lot of talk about phoneme awareness and its importance in reading instruction - with good reason! As classroom reading instruction shifts, finding ways to bridge the research to instructional practices is crucial. But with this comes a need to understand what the research means for our work and our students. 

There is widespread agreement that phoneme awareness skills such as perceiving sounds in speech, isolating sounds, and blending and segmenting words are the foundation for learning to read and write. A National Reading Panel in-depth review of 52 phonemic awareness articles found that explicitly teaching phonemic awareness directly impacts children's reading significantly more than instruction without any attention to phonemic awareness. This evidence was so clear that they recommended that explicit phonemic awareness instruction be a part of classroom reading instruction beginning in preschool.  

Looking at the...

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Multi-Sensory Instruction: Moving Beyond the Sand Tray

multisensory Dec 15, 2022

When you hear the word "multi-sensory," what comes to mind? For many who teach reading, especially to beginning readers, it may elicit images of hands-on activities, plastic letters, and sand trays. These are wonderful tools to incorporate into our structured literacy lessons (read more here), but there is so much more to multi-sensory instruction beyond the sand tray.

What Is Multi-Sensory Instruction?

Multi-sensory instruction means students simultaneously engage in two or more sensory modalities to take in and express information. These modalities are visual, auditory, kinesthetic/motor, and tactile. Multi-sensory teaching is often emphasized by those who work with dyslexic learners. Why? Most programs used with struggling or dyslexic learners are rooted in the Orton-Gillingham principles and include the direct, structured, systematic, and explicit teaching of the organization of language also referred to as Multisensory Structured Language Education (MSLE). These...

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3 Easy Ways To "Gamify" Your Structured Literacy Lessons

One of the biggest misconceptions and things that I hear, and you may as well, is that the science of reading is a new fad or just phonics. The reality is that the instruction that we have used for years with dyslexic learners is the "science of reading" come to life. The collection of research that is the science of reading is not new. We have decades of research and evidence about teaching reading, and we know that it is a complex process with many different components. Structured literacy covers all of the elements of literacy instruction. 

The umbrella term, Structured Literacy, was coined by the International Dyslexia Association to describe effective reading instruction that is essential for students with dyslexia and beneficial for all. Structured literacy (SL) encompasses more than phonics. It addresses language at all levels: sounds, spellings for sounds and syllables, patterns and conventions of the writing system, meaningful parts of words, sentences,...

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Knowing the Hidden Impacts of Dyslexia

dyslexia resources Oct 28, 2022
 

Even though the official Dyslexia Awareness Month is ending, it remains a daily topic of conversation and concern for those impacted by dyslexia. I encourage you to continue discussing dyslexia, reading instruction, and the science behind learning. We want to bridge the research to our instructional practices and address social and emotional wellbeing to provide the best outcomes for dyslexia learners. For this reason, I want to revisit this blog which addresses the hidden impacts of dyslexia. 


As educators and parents, we often hyper-focus on the academic components surrounding reading and writing for dyslexic learners. This makes sense because dyslexia shows itself in the educational setting. And yet, there is so much more that dyslexia impacts. Unknown to most people, many impacts of dyslexia reside below the surface, hidden from view, yet their effects can be profound.

This image  is a powerful reminder that what you see isn't the whole picture. This is...

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Why Do We Talk About Language and Dyslexia?

dyslexia Oct 20, 2022

Academic challenges for those with dyslexia become the forefront of focus in the school-age years. When people speak about dyslexia, the conversation often surrounds reading and spelling, which makes sense as difficulties with accurate and fluent reading are a primary characteristic of dyslexia. In addition to the reading component, we can look at dyslexia through the lens of language. Why?

Dyslexia Is a Language-Based Learning Difference

Dyslexia falls under the Language-Based Learning Disabilities (LBLD) umbrella. What does this mean? Language-based learning disabilities refer to a spectrum of difficulties related to understanding and using spoken and written language. Dyslexia is a cluster of symptoms impacting language skills such as reading, spelling, and writing. 

Characteristics of dyslexia can be seen early, and many of the early indicators for dyslexia are rooted in language. For young children in the early ages of school, oral language competence underpins the...

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Did You Know That October is Dyslexia Awareness Month?

dyslexia resources Oct 07, 2022
 

October is Dyslexia Awareness Month! Do you know that dyslexia is a topic around the globe? It's true! 

Dyslexia impacts people across all languages, races, socio-economic statuses, and genders. While the prevalence rates for dyslexia may vary somewhat across writing systems, there appears to be core deficits across writing systems in the area of phonological deficits (Goswami, 2015). 

I have had conversations with people worldwide regarding dyslexia and its instructional and emotional impacts on our children. We are all seeking the best ways to help close the reading gap and meet student needs in a way that preserves their emotional well-being and sets them up for success.

Unfortunately, there are still people and scholars that think dyslexia does not exist. To that, I say, look at the brain neuroscience, the fMRI, and the years and years of research about dyslexia, and then #saydyslexia because our children deserve to have educators and our society understand their...

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Additional Support For Dyslexic Students' Self-Confidence

dyslexia social emotional Sep 16, 2022

*This is an extension of the blog post How to Support Dyslexic Students' Self-Confidence. Read more about dyslexia strengths here.

When the Excitement of the New School Year Wanes

The beginning of the new school year can elicit all kinds of emotions. Do you remember the excitement and nervousness that comes with starting something new? Those butterflies in your stomach flutter between feeling sick to your stomach to a little twinge of adrenaline? For many, the beginning of the school year can feel like this. 

As we move into the daily school routines and schedules, the new school year's excitement may be waning or bringing into light some different emotions. For many students with dyslexia and learning differences, as the newness of school wears off and the lesson pace increases, the academic pressures and demands can leave students feeling more anxious than excited. The feelings of anxiousness and frustration may arise due to academic hurdles, new routines, inappropriate...

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Shifting our approach to reading instruction from reactive to proactive

reading Sep 08, 2022

What would happen if we shifted our approach to reading instruction from reactive to proactive?

We need to stop and think about why our students struggle with reading at a national level. According to the last National Report Card, 35% of all 4th-graders and 34% of all 8th graders performed at or above proficiency. That leaves 65-66% of our students reading at the basic level or below. 

The number of students behind in reading requires shifting our approach at the core. All students are at risk of not having until they can read. 

I have always felt that this reactive approach is like a sinking ship where we are working so hard to scoop the water from the boat that we don't analyze why the ship is sinking in the first place. We will never be able to keep the ship afloat this way, and our national reading scores prove this.

So what can we do as educators in the system? Providing core instruction within the general classroom that follows the principles of structured...

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Code and Read - How using diacritical marks aids students with dyslexia

dyslexia reading Aug 26, 2022

At a recent training, one of the participants asked me about our students using coding (the diacritical marks used when analyzing words) and was unsure of the benefits. I love that she asked me this because it is also something many parents may find unfamiliar.

Coding words allow students who are learning to read, who have dyslexia, or who may struggle to have a clear strategy for decoding unknown words. The use of set markings is a scaffold within our instruction that helps students focus on key components of a word. Coding removes the guessing of words because students have an explicit and systematic approach to accessing unknown words. Coding is taught systematically and explicitly through multi-sensory learning within a structured literacy approach. 

The goal of coding is to gain reading with accuracy. Accuracy is the ability to decode single words correctly with freedom from mistakes or errors. This scaffold supports students as they learn and practice a new skill -...

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