What About Wednesday's??? Dyslexia

I apologize for the  late posting. The children are away at camp this week, and I have been taking this time to get the house reorganized. So time simply got away from me. However, better late than never right?  I hope you enjoy this weeks post!

This week's What About Wednesday is about Dyslexia. I am not going to spend a lot of time discussing what Dyslexia is, you can read more about it by clicking here..

There are a myriad of Dyslexia resources available, you can spend very little, or spend quite the bundle to find the right resource for your child.

However I want to focus on what Dyslexia resources have helped in our family. For us, AVKO was the beginning of the answer for us! It all started with the book To Teach a Dyslexic, by Don McCabe. Mr. McCabe is a dyslexic, and he explains what is like to grow up as a dyslexic, and then how to teach a dyslexic. This was the key.

We had tried several different popular methods of teaching dyslexics to read, with NO SUCCESS!  After reading To Teach a Dyslexic, I purchased all 7 levels of Sequential Spelling. And herein lies the key to my sons success, once we spent our first 2 weeks using Sequential Spelling, my son was reading with much more ease and understanding.

There are several reasons why Sequential Spelling was the key was for my son. First, one of the hurdles he had was the 'exception' to every rule. Each time an exception was presented, it was like he would completely blank. However, with Sequential Spelling, there is no 'exception'. The words are simply presented in 'clumps' (my word)  of words following like rules. This was huge. This was easier for my son to digest!

Now the interesting thing Sequential Spelling, is that it is not laid out like your typical spelling program. Most programs have your child study all week for the test which is given on Friday. However, with Sequential Spelling they take a test everyday.. and they never study for it.  You, the teacher, simply present the words. Word, then use it in a sentence, and then the word again.  The child then writes down how they think it is spelled. You then write the word correctly on the white board, breaking it up into chunks, each chunk written in different colors.. for instance..  spin win winning.   Notice the in is all in green. And that the ing was put in blue.  This helps the children see the word and understand how to break it up and put it together. And each day builds on the list from the day before.

Putting all of these components together has made all the difference for my son. We actually used this program with all of my children. Both children with dyslexia and without. We began used it before we discovered that my daughter was dyslexic. I believe that she has not been as signifcantly impacted by the dyslexia, because we were teaching her in this fashion.

If you have a dyslexic, or suspect you have a dyslexic, check out AVKO! They offer a one year membership for $25 a year that offers all kinds of resources, including a pdf of To Teach a Dyslexic. There is also a very large resource book, that will help you develop your own spelling program!

PS.. I don't make anything from this! This is an unsolicited endorsement!