October is Dyslexia Awareness Month! Dyslexia is a neurological condition which makes it difficult for a person to read, write and spell. Throughout this month, our team of Speech-Language Pathologists are going to share how we provide reading support to our friends with Dyslexia! Studies have shown that using a multisensory approach is an effective strategy for reading! But what does this mean? This means that children have shown improved reading skills by incorporating all of their senses! Sight, sound, touch, and movement activate all of the areas of the brain, causing interconnections for learning. We translate this approach into our reading support sessions for our friends with Dyslexia!
Reading Support Activities
Flash Cards- Sight words are shorter, commonly used words that a child should be able to recognize instantly. We use flash cards with these sight words on them as a way to practice recognition faster. Examples of sight words are “the,” “it,” “of,” “and,” etc.
Letter Tiles- Using letter tiles can help with the blending and segmenting of sounds to form words. Each letter has a different sound on it. Our therapist takes the individual sounds to break down tricky words.
Playdoh – Tapping out sounds using playdoh, squares, or even our fingers help improve syllable awareness and individual letter sounds within each syllable.
Story Grammar Marker- A Story Grammar Maker can be anything (a pencil, a bookmark, etc.) that can hold a place in a sentence. For example, we love Braidy the worm by Mind Wing Concepts! Braidy the worm is a story marker that helps children recall important parts of a story or retell it in an organized logical sequence.
