Dyslexia is a specific learning disorder primarily affecting reading. It disrupts the ability to recognise and decode words fluently, leading to difficulties with spelling and reading comprehension. Dyslexia does not affect intelligence but rather the way the brain processes language.
Early Indicators:
- Preschool-age children: Struggles with recognising rhymes, difficulty remembering names of letters or colours, delayed speech, and a lack of interest in letter-sound games.
- Early school-age children: Trouble learning letters and sounds, inconsistent memory of words and letters, avoidance of reading, and confusion with similar letters or words.
Importance of Early Intervention:
Early identification and support can significantly improve literacy outcomes for children with dyslexia. Research indicates that targeted support can help them build foundational skills and minimise later academic struggles.
Speech Therapy’s Role in Dyslexia Support
- Language Skills Foundation: Speech pathologists play a key role in helping children with early language skills, which are foundational for reading. They focus on areas like phonological awareness, vocabulary, grammar, and syntax, all of which support literacy.
- Multidisciplinary Collaboration: Speech therapy for dyslexia works best in collaboration with teachers, educational psychologists, occupational therapists, and families. Each professional can contribute unique insights, creating a comprehensive support system that addresses various aspects of dyslexia.
- Tailored Intervention: Since dyslexia presents differently in each child, speech pathologists develop individualised programs. They assess each child’s strengths and weaknesses to provide targeted activities that maximise reading success.
Phonological Awareness Training
Explanation:
Phonological awareness is a child’s ability to recognise and manipulate sounds within spoken language. This skill is a key predictor of reading success and encompasses a range of abilities, from recognising syllables to identifying individual phonemes.
Key Activities:
- Rhyming Games: These can involve matching or creating rhyming words and are often introduced through songs, nursery rhymes, and poems.
- Syllable Clapping: Encouraging children to clap out syllables in words can help them understand word structure. This can be reinforced by using visual aids like blocks or tokens.
- Sound Blending and Segmenting: Simple activities like saying the individual sounds in a word (e.g., /c/ /a/ /t/) and asking the child to blend them into a whole word help build decoding skills.
Phonemic Awareness Interventions
Importance:
Phonemic awareness, the understanding of individual sounds in words, is essential for learning to read and spell. Difficulties with phonemic awareness are one of the core indicators of dyslexia.
Intervention Techniques:
- Phoneme Isolation: Identifying individual sounds within words (e.g., asking what sound starts in “cat”) helps children notice sounds in specific word positions.
- Blending Exercises: Practice combining sounds to form words, beginning with simple consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) words like “cat,” “dog,” and “bus.”
- Manipulation Activities: Using visual aids like letter tiles, have children change one letter in a word (e.g., changing “cat” to “bat”) to help them understand how altering sounds creates new words.
Decoding and Letter-Sound Correspondence Activities
Explanation:
Decoding is the ability to apply knowledge of letter-sound relationships to correctly pronounce written words. For children with dyslexia, this often requires explicit, structured instruction.
Strategies:
- Letter-Sound Flashcards: Using flashcards to teach specific letter sounds, including common grapheme clusters like “ch,” “sh,” and “th.”
- Sound Mapping Activities: Visual aids, like Elkonin boxes, help children map each sound in a word to a corresponding letter or group of letters.
- Blending Practice: Once individual sounds are learned, children can be guided in blending them into whole words, with the support of tactile tools like letter blocks or magnetic letters.
Vocabulary Building Strategies
Significance of Vocabulary:
A robust vocabulary supports both comprehension and word recognition. Children with dyslexia often benefit from explicit vocabulary instruction to support reading comprehension.
Intervention Techniques:
- Shared Reading: Reading aloud with children and discussing the meaning of new words. Choosing books with rich vocabulary and repeating words in different contexts reinforces learning.
- Interactive Storytelling: Using picture books and storytelling sessions to introduce new words in a fun, memorable way. Adding visuals and actions can strengthen word recall.
- Semantic Mapping: Visual tools like word maps can help children categorise words by meaning, forming associations that support retention.
Fluency Development through Guided Reading
Fluency:
Fluent reading is the ability to read accurately and with natural rhythm and expression. For children with dyslexia, fluency can be challenging due to difficulties in decoding and word recognition.
Guided Reading Techniques:
- Repeated Reading: Practice reading the same text multiple times helps build confidence and familiarity with words. Start with short, repetitive texts to ease children into fluency.
- Paired and Choral Reading: Reading alongside a more skilled reader or in a group helps children follow along at an appropriate pace and imitate fluent reading.
- Monitoring Progress: A speech pathologist can track progress in fluency, noting any improvements in speed, accuracy, and expression, and adjusting strategies as needed.
Orthographic Knowledge and Spelling Skills
Understanding Orthographic Knowledge:
This is the awareness of spelling patterns, word structures, and conventions. It allows children to move beyond decoding individual letters to recognising familiar spelling patterns.
Spelling Activities:
- Word Building: Activities that involve constructing words using letter tiles or blocks can help children learn spelling patterns in a hands-on way.
- Word Families and Patterns: Teaching word families (e.g., “cat,” “bat,” “hat”) allows children to see similarities in spelling, making it easier to remember words.
- Spelling Games: Simple games like “Hangman” or “Scrabble” adapted for young learners can make spelling practice engaging and enjoyable.
Multisensory Learning Techniques
What is Multisensory Learning?
Multisensory methods engage multiple senses—visual, auditory, tactile, and kinesthetic—to reinforce learning. This approach can be especially helpful for children with dyslexia, as it provides multiple ways to connect with the material.
Effective Techniques:
- Tactile and Kinesthetic Approaches: Using textured letters, tracing letters in sand, or writing in the air to help reinforce letter shapes and sounds.
- Auditory and Visual Reinforcement: Reading aloud while pointing to each word or using colour-coded letters to distinguish vowels and consonants.
- Tools for Engagement: Multi-sensory tools like magnetic letters, clay for shaping letters, and letter stamps help children connect physical sensations with learning, improving memory retention.
Parent and Educator Collaboration
Importance of a Supportive Environment:
Consistency across home and school is crucial for reinforcing skills learned in speech therapy. Parents and educators play a significant role in a child’s literacy development by reinforcing skills in day-to-day activities.
Strategies for Parents and Teachers:
- Home Activities: Encouraging regular reading at home, using vocabulary games, and integrating phonemic awareness activities into daily routines.
- Teacher Support: Classroom strategies like using visual aids, providing extra reading time, and differentiating instruction for students who need extra support.
- Resources: Sharing resources with parents and teachers, such as online games, flashcards, and apps that support phonological awareness, phonics, and vocabulary skills. Tools like decodable readers, phonics-based apps, and educational games can extend learning outside of therapy sessions.
Conclusion
The importance of early intervention cannot be overstated. Speech therapy provides essential support for foundational literacy skills, laying the groundwork for reading success. These structured, multisensory approaches allow children to develop reading skills in an engaging and supportive way.
Encouragement for a Long-Term Approach: Dyslexia support is a gradual process. By creating a consistent, supportive environment tailored to a child’s unique learning pace, parents, educators, and speech pathologists can work together to help children with dyslexia become confident readers and learners.
Next Steps:
If you would like support with literacy or written communication support it may be helpful to have consult with one of our speech pathologist (SP) for a formal evaluation and intervention support.
Transform Life is a NDIS registered organisation that provide support for you and your family.
Book your consult with an experienced Therapist at Transform Life to explore how Positive Behavioural Support, Occupational Therapy and Speech Therapy can support you and your family.
