I know someone who's dyslexic, and I was wondering about the best and most effective way to help such a person

Question

I am not some kind of professional, and my resources are limited, I have read about this disease and would like to know your opinion about how to help a child overcome it

Answer 1

As already stated dyslexia is not a disease, therefore there is no cure.

Those who are dyslexic can do as well as their contemporaries at school  and in life as my own dyslexic son does.  Getting the child diagnosed and the right help is very important, this help  needs to be done by those who are qualified or those with detailed knowledge of dyslexia.

Do not make a big thing of it, treat this child the same as you would any other.  Look for the things this child does well and praise these, many dyslexic children feel they are stupid as they have difficulties with learning basic reading and writing, so do anything you can to boost this child's self confidence.  

There are many good websites where you can increase your knowledge, take a look at the first one to see that many really clever famous people were/are dyslexic and went on to do really well many even before dyslexia had a name.

Answer 2

You should only try to help the child if the parents have asked you to tutor him/her. Otherwise, you are encroaching on his learning disability.

He/ she is a kid first. He/ she will not like being singled out because of their disability.

But if you are a tutor, it really depends on the child on what you can do to help.

If they do not know letters, start by making letters out of clay.

Then if they do know letters, have the child read to you. Notice what mistakes they make. If they constantly skip over certain words, go through these words and ask what they mean (like it, the, and). If the child doesn't know, help them look them up in the dictionary. Then have the child draw a picture or make a clay figure describing the word.

Learn "rules" to give to the kid. Like "I before E except after C ...." .

Find out what the kid is interested in. Read books about that.

If the kid is under 7 (including some 7 yr olds), they might not be ready to read. Reading requires a physical change in the brain that occurs around 5-7 yrs old. If this is the case, they might not be dyslexic, but simply unable to read until their brain reaches a certain point. Definately don't push them too hard or they may resent reading.

Answer 3

Try my website on them:

www.geocities.com/carjug

It might help, write me [e-mail] and tell me how it goes.

If the person is dyslexic, then they lack visual speech. The most important thing to find out is: Does the person need to read aloud for meaning?

Now the answer: Books on Tape!

Another answer: High interest nonfiction and comics

Last answer: Have them read aloud for fifteen minutes a day. This helps bypass the missing brain circuit.

Also: Phonics help, try www.unifon.com for a start.

Answer 4

Sorry first it is not a disease it is a learning disability that does not reflect that persons intelligence. In fact many people with dyslexia are quite intelligent. Only trained people can help them to find a technique to overcome this and relearn how the words/letters are read by the brain.

How to help, firstly you have asked, and secondly be a friend. Do not try and finish their words, or correct them, they will most likely not take to kindly.  There is more to a person than having learning issue. Be a friend that will actually help them more than a speech pathologist. Many of these people are isolated and may look angry, play up etc. Be a friend, do not bring up the subject, let them and if they do say that must be a challenge I am sure you will overcome it, I have heard many great and intelligent people have had this.

Answer 5

it is a learning disabilty i have it, it can impove overtime but it remains with the person for life.... for helping a child to over come it, you can try hooked on phoinics , or minimal lighting in a room, if the child should get headaches while reading , they should ware a hat.... while reading... tinted paper, or a tinted folder... [covering the words written down with it, also helps]  

if the childs should feel discouraged about it, tell him or her that they are not limited to anything, they just learn differenly then others