Helping Dyslexic Students Thrive in the Classroom

As a teacher, you have a remarkable opportunity to foster the growth and academic attainment of dyslexic students. It's a chance to implement your teaching skills to the max. However, without the right tools, it can be a challenging task for you, and a frustrating one for the pupil, but with the right strategies, dyslexic students can thrive in the classroom environment.

Understanding Dyslexia

To effectively support a pupil with dyslexia, it’s helpful to know what dyslexia is, and what it means for the person living with it. It’s important to remember that a dyslexic pupil’s struggles are not related to a lack of intelligence or willfulness.

Dyslexia is a neurological learning difficulty (or learning difference) which is commonly known for how it affects reading and writing skills. However, dyslexia is actually more about information processing, as dyslexic people have difficulty processing and remembering information they see and hear, which then goes on to affect learning and the acquisition of literacy skills. Dyslexia exists on a spectrum, and dyslexic people’s symptoms range from mild to severe.

What Causes Dyslexia?

Whilst the exact cause of dyslexia isn’t known, it often runs in families. Genes inherited from parents can cause dyslexia to appear in children. People of all intellectual abilities can develop dyslexia and it’s no indication of a child’s intelligence.

Dyslexia as a Disability

Dyslexia is classified as a disability according to the Equality Act 2010 as it’s a lifelong condition that affects normal day-to-day activities. As dyslexia is officially classified as a disability, it means that “reasonable adjustments” must be made for dyslexics in schools and workplaces. It’s important to understand that dyslexia isn’t a learning disability though as a person’s intelligence isn’t affected. However, many people refer to dyslexia as a common learning difficulty.

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How Dyslexia Affects Learning

Dyslexia mainly impacts reading, writing and spelling. As a result, children with dyslexia may take longer to do written work and take notes. Motor learning can also be affected meaning children with dyslexia might struggle to distinguish left from right. Tying shoelaces and getting dressed can also be impacted by dyslexia.

Children with dyslexia often have difficulty with short-term and working memory, meaning they struggle to hold more than one or two points in their head at one time. A 2021 study found that dyslexics may struggle more with phonological working memory. They may also have problems in other areas, such as reading maps, or organisational skills. However, many dyslexic people show strengths in other areas such as reasoning, and in visual and creative fields.

Identifying Students with Dyslexia

One in ten pupils have some form of dyslexia, spanning every ability level and every culture, so you will undoubtedly encounter dyslexia at some point in your career as a teacher.

Although some children are diagnosed with dyslexia before they start school, the symptoms usually become more obvious once school starts and the focus on learning to read and write begins.

Common Symptoms of Dyslexia

Some symptoms of dyslexia in school-age pupils are:

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Unpredictable and inconsistent poor spelling
Putting letters and figures the wrong way round
Reading slowly or making errors when reading aloud
Visual disturbances when reading such as letters and words moving around or appearing blurred
Answering questions well verbally, but having difficulty when writing the answers down
Struggling to learn sequences, such as the days of the week or the order of the alphabet

Impact on Phonological Awareness

Phonological awareness is the ability to recognise that words are made up of smaller units of sound, and that changing those sounds can create new words with new meanings. This is a key symptom of dyslexia, and helps to identify whether a pupil has dyslexia (a special need which requires reasonable adjustments to be made) or is struggling academically for another reason.

A child with poor phonological awareness may not be able to correctly answer the following questions:

What sounds make up the word “hot”, and are these different from the sounds that make up the word “hat”?
What word would you have if you changed the “p” sound in “pot” to a “h” sound?
How many words can you think of that rhyme with the word cat?

Dyslexia in Teenagers and Adults

Sometimes, dyslexia goes undiagnosed in a pupil until secondary school or even into adulthood. Some of the symptoms of dyslexia in older children and adults can include:

Poorly organised written work that lacks expression (for example, even though they may be very knowledgeable about a certain subject, they may have problems expressing that knowledge in writing)
Difficulty planning and writing essays, letters or reports
Difficulties revising for examinations
Trying to avoid reading and writing whenever possible
Difficulty taking notes or copying
Poor spelling
Struggling to remember things such as a PIN or telephone number
Struggling to meet deadlines

Strategies for Supporting Dyslexic Students

If you suspect that a pupil has undiagnosed dyslexia, there are a number of things you can do to make sure the child gets the assistance they need. You can either speak to the senior leaders at your school, another teacher who has experience with dyslexic children, or the pupil’s parents - if you feel comfortable to do so.

Whether or not a pupil has a diagnosis, the below strategies can help any school child who struggles with reading and writing.

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Effective Teaching Strategies

Dyslexic students can still thrive in a classroom environment with the right support from teachers. Understanding the limitations dyslexia can cause is a great way of creating strategies that give dyslexics the confidence they need to grow and learn in school.

Teach in small steps: Due to the problems with short-term memory that dyslexia can create, pupils can struggle with tasks if the instructions are too long and complex, as they may have difficulty retaining all the information. Therefore, tasks should be broken down into small and manageable steps, with each step clearly written down and placed into a sequence for the pupil to refer to.
Use fonts for dyslexics: Technology offers numerous innovative tools to help those who live with dyslexia. For reading strategies for dyslexia, font add-ons make words more legible. One of these fonts is Dyslexie. This font can be used for word processors or can be used as a browser plugin
Encourage computer use: Letting a pupil with dyslexia submit work on a computer for every lesson is advised, as handwriting can be torturous for pupils. A computer lets the pupil use spellchecker and helps with grammar and punctuation, while you can still see the quality of the content outside of dyslexia.
Boost confidence: Children with dyslexia can lack confidence as they struggle with different things from other students. As a teacher, you can build this confidence by praising their hard work, not asking them to read aloud or copy the text on the board and never criticising their difficulties.
Create a supportive classroom culture: encourage your students to collaborate and get to know each other. This will ensure dyslexic students feel comfortable when asking questions.
Multisensory activities: flashcards, puppets, videos and objects in the classroom help dyslexics engage and learn rather than through traditional methods.
Teach exam strategies: it’s important for dyslexics to know exactly what to expect when sitting an exam. Break down exams into a series of simple steps in order to avoid overwhelming students.
Dyslexia writing strategies: there are several tools you can use to help dyslexic students with writing. From line readers, coloured keyboards, pocket spell checkers and text-to-speech software, these tools are invaluable to dyslexics.
Mark work based on effort and ideas: whilst dyslexic students may struggle with spelling and grammar, their thinking and creativity deserve to be recognised. Make sure you praise their work and avoid using a red pen to point out spelling mistakes.
Work with parents: meet regularly with parents to discuss how their child is doing in school and ask about any strategies that are working well at home. Every dyslexic child is different and some strategies may work better for others.

Creating a Dyslexia-Friendly Classroom

Making your classroom more accessible to dyslexics is a great way to ensure that they thrive and feel comfortable in a learning environment. Here are some top tips for your classroom:

Post visual schedules on walls and read them aloud
Offer coloured bookmarks so students can focus on a line of text
Provide letter and number guides so students know how to write correctly
Use large text print for handouts
Use audiobooks and videos in lesson plans
Use text-to-speech software
Provide a laptop/computer for typing up work
Give students with dyslexia extra time on tasks/homework
Give students extra time to read text in class
Provide study buddies to help dyslexic students with reading and writing
Have multisensory tools in your classroom such as flashcards and puppets to help teach

Simple Strategies to Support Struggling Readers

Waiting for test results before putting accommodations in place for students who were struggling in class is not necessary. Start putting help in place for the student right away.

For many years, teachers identify a student who is having problems, make some basic observations about what was particularly difficult for him, and then request further information about the student in the form of screening, special tests, and/or a learning evaluation.

Teachers are greatly assisted by the critical information that testing and evaluations yield. Outside testing provided by learning specialists offers a unique opportunity to isolate many classroom variables and specifically reveal and identify students’ academic strengths and weaknesses.

Suggest listening to audiobooks or identify a willing adult to read the assigned book to the student.
Recommend that students read along with the audiobook version or to follow the words alongside the reader. The more often a struggling reader is exposed to the way they words look, the better.
Offer extra time to finish reading assignments.
Provide class syllabuses in advance.
Allow the student to read assignments ahead over the school breaks and the summer.
Recommend books that may be shorter or less dense but equally rich in ideas and story for independent reading time.
Recommend graphic novels. Graphic novels provide struggling readers with a way of strengthening their vocabularies, build their reading confidence, and foster their appreciation of story. Graphic novels can also help support a reader’s understanding of everything from Greek Mythology to Shakespheare.
Dictating ideas to an adult can help a student get started with their writing by generating an idea bank that they can draw from.
Suggest that the student dictate an outline or brainstorm ideas to another adult (teacher or parent) who can record them.
Offer an opportunity to do work on a keyboard.
If students are so labored in their handwriting and/or symbolic memory that everything they write is minimalist and/or incomplete, keyboarding can free up expression.
Suggest and/or provide the use of assistive technologies and software for help with spelling.
Something as basic as Microsoft Word can help with regularly misspelled words. It is a huge relief for students not to have to worry about the correct spelling of every word. It corrects basic words automatically.
If the classroom has access to iPads or other tablets with speech-to-text capabilities, encourage struggling writers to use speech-to-text apps to help them get their words down on the page. They can brainstorm or do the actual composing without being hung up about spelling and the mechanical struggle of writing.
Encourage the student to find a personal spelling strategy that doesn’t depend on memorization of word lists.
Some students are never going to be spellers, regardless of their heroic outcomes on Friday tests. Take the time to reassure those students that spelling is a mechanical, not an intellectual, skill.
Because misspelled words do negatively impact clarity, students need to understand that it is important to find ways to identify misspellings and correct them.
Editing may involve using the spell check on a computer, a handheld speller, or a helpful peer or adult in their lives.
Every poor speller needs to find his/her most efficient and effective proofreading strategies.
Experiment with offering ways to provide EXTRA TIME… .
Students who struggle often need extra time. In fact, sometimes, extra time is all they need.
Aside from timed tests that are designed to check automaticity of a special skill, there are few instances that justify making speed more important than giving a student a full opportunity to express understanding.
Make it transparent to the student what is being assessed.
Is it automaticity? Is it a spelling test? Is it understanding of the material? Is it a measure of writing skills? The student should be clear about what is being evaluated and so should the teacher.
Provide typed class notes for students who can’t listen and write at the same time. This is not cheating.
Some students need to focus all their attention on listening and attending to the information being explained. Writing impedes their ability to take the information in.
Sharing notes can liberate struggling students to concentrate in class, while note-taking helps others consolidate the information through another modality.
Another modified option is to provide the whole class with a structured outline of the main ideas with room for students to fill in the rest (it also helps to model a note-taking format).

Material Accommodations to Enhance Learning

Students spend a large portion of the school day interacting with materials. Most instructional materials give teachers few activities or directions for teaching a large class of students who learn at different rates and in various ways. Paraprofessionals, volunteers, and students can help develop and implement various accommodations.

Clarify or simplify written directions. Some directions are written in paragraph form and contain many units of information. These can be overwhelming to some students. The teacher can help by underlining or highlighting the significant parts of the directions.
Present a small amount of work. The teacher can tear pages from workbooks and materials to present small assignments to students who are anxious about the amount of work to be done.
Block out extraneous stimuli. If a student is easily distracted by visual stimuli on a full worksheet or page, a blank sheet of paper can be used to cover sections of the page not being worked on at the time.
Line markers can be used to aid reading, and windows can be used to display individual math problems.
Highlight essential information.
Use a placeholder in consumable material. In consumable materials in which students progress sequentially (such as workbooks), the student can make a diagonal cut across the lower right-hand corner of the pages as they are completed.
Provide additional practice activities. Some materials do not provide enough practice activities for students with learning problems to acquire mastery on selected skills. Teachers then must supplement the material with practice activities.
Provide a glossary in content areas.
Develop reading guides. A reading guide helps the reader understand the main ideas and sort out the numerous details related to the main ideas.
Use an audio recording device. Directions, stories, and specific lessons can be recorded. The student can replay the tape to clarify understanding of directions or concepts.
Use of assistive technology.

Effective Teaching Practices

The task of gaining students’ attention and engaging them for a period of time requires many teaching and managing skills. Teaching and interactions should provide successful learning experiences for each student.

Use explicit teaching procedures.
Many commercial materials do not cue teachers to use explicit teaching procedures; thus, the teacher often must adapt a material to include these procedures.
Repeat directions.
The student can repeat the directions to a peer when the teacher is unavailable. If directions contain several steps, break down the directions into subsets.
Simplify directions by presenting only one portion at a time and by writing each portion on the chalkboard as well as stating it orally.
Maintain daily routines.
Provide a copy of lesson notes.
Provide students with a graphic organizer. An outline, chart, or blank web can be given to students to fill in during presentations.
Use step-by-step instruction. New or difficult information can be presented in small sequential steps.
Simultaneously combine verbal and visual information. Write key points or words on the chalkboard/whiteboard.
Use balanced presentations and activities. An effort should be made to balance oral presentations with visual information and participatory activities.
Use mnemonic instruction.
Emphasize daily review.
Students vary significantly in their ability to respond in different modes. For example, students vary in their ability to give oral presentations; participate in discussions; write letters and numbers; write paragraphs; draw objects; spell; work in noisy or cluttered settings; and read, write, or speak at a fast pace. Moreover, students vary in their ability to process information presented in visual or auditory formats.
Change response mode.
Provide an outline of the lesson. An outline enables some students to follow the lesson successfully and make appropriate notes.
Encourage use of graphic organizers. A graphic organizer involves organizing material into a visual format.
Place students close to the teacher.
Encourage use of assignment books or calendars. Students can use calendars to record assignment due dates, list school related activities, record test dates, and schedule timelines for schoolwork.
Have students turn lined paper vertically for math.
Use cues to denote important items. Asterisks or bullets can denote questions or activities that count heavily in evaluation.
Design hierarchical worksheets. The teacher can design worksheets with problems arranged from easiest to hardest.
Allow use of instructional aids. Students can be provided with letter and number strips to help them write correctly.
Display work samples.
Use peer-mediated learning. The teacher can pair peers of different ability levels to review their notes, study for a test, read aloud to each other, write stories, or conduct laboratory experiments.
Use flexible work times.
Provide additional practice. Students require different amounts of practice to master skills or content.
Use assignment substitutions or adjustments. Students can be allowed to complete projects instead of oral reports or vice versa.

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