Advice with Dyslexia?

Question

I am tutoring an adult female (35) who has severe dyslexia and some retention problems, she is at first grade level, she wants to learn to read in the worse way and works hard and has a lot of heart, I have been working with her on phonics, short vowel sounds and segmenting large words into small ones, am wondering if there is anyone with experience in this area that might be willing to give me some pointers and some tips that have helped them in the past. ANY help is appreciated.

Answer 1

I have been a tutor for dyslexics for many years and my favorite program to use with adolescents and adults is the Wilson Reading System. It was designed specifically for what you are trying to do with your client. The overall "starter" package for tutors is an investment, but you can buy individual components to get started. You should also take a look at their training videos so that you can be the most effective in your teaching.

The link to their website is:  www.wilsonlanguage.com

Answer 2

Go online and buy the book, McCraken Spelling Through Phonics. It is the best book in the world for teaching phonics, reading and writing all at one time. I used it for learning disabled kids for many years.

Unfortunately the term dyslexia has no basic meaning. It is a basket term for a specific learning disability that causes a person to have trouble learning to read. Try putting "specific learning disability" into your search engine. You will find a world of information about the kinds of learning disabilities related to reading and writing and how to address them.

It the person is having retention problems, it probably means she has a memory deficit. If her handwriting is terrible, it can mean she has a visual motor integration deficit. At any rate, you must supply a visual prompt along with any verbal prompting that you do. That is why McCraken is so good. You are stimulating three senses at one time: visual, auditory and kinesthetic, which enhances memory.

Just remember, visual, visual, visual!

Answer 3

You should refer her to investing in a reading program for people with learning disabilities. This program is called Kurzwell 3000 and helps students to follow text (anything you scan into the program) by highlighting each word as well as read (with various voices to choose from) out loud the text being read. It is a multi-functional program. The reading voices are a bit mechanical (the intonation gets lost compared to a real reader) but the program is designed to help people decode and was specifically designed for people with processing problems like dyslexia.  It also allows your student to be self-directed and work at anytime that she wants. I don't know about the price though. I do know that students, specifically with dylexsia seem to benefit greatly from this program.

Read  to her within content (ex. a story). Memory rentention is so much harder if its out of context (ex. just learning an isolated word). Make a word wall (keep the words visual).

Chunk information into no more than 5 facts/words at at time.

Keep it interactive. Also review review review. Hope this helps. She has the motivation, it will happen for sure.

Answer 4

dont ever give up on her let her know shes as smart as anyone else boost her confidence and treat her like a real person.