Why It Is Important

There are three simple steps you can take to make a very positive change for your struggling reader. Reading struggles are traumatizing for children. It not only lowers their self esteem but subjects them to embarrassment and ridicule at school. I know this first hand. My dad was dyslexic, I was, and my son was. I remember the embarrassment of being called on to read in class. I haven’t forgotten the cold sweats and hot face while feeling everyone was snickering behind my back. I stumbled through reading words incorrectly and losing my place over and over again. However, it doesn’t have to be like this. There are three things I have learned through experience and 5 years of research that ended in my son reversing his dyslexia.

1. No Aloud Reading in Class

This is a big one, nor reading in front of other children until they have done enough intervention exercises to read somewhat smoothly.  Children are extremely sensitive to what others think of them, especially struggling readers. They are extremely intuitive. They are so fearful about public reading that it actually kicks their ‘fight-or-flight’ response into high gear. This is an uncontrollable reaction of the lower part of the brain to extreme fear. It gives them the cold sweats and drains the blood from their head and sends it out to their extremities. Furthermore, it also disengages parts of the brain used for reading while in this state. Talk about agony! You have the right as a parent to ask teachers for accommodations and this is one of the best to ask for.

2. Spend more time doing reading intervention activities than reading

Make your at-home time count.  I spoke to a neurologist who specializes in learning disabilities. He recommended splitting up whatever time you have with them into 80/20. This is 80% of the time on intervention and 20% of the time working on phonics and reading. This will feel opposite to your plan, but the interventions will actually stimulate the parts of the brain for reading to higher function. As their word recognition and phonics area connects better, reading will automatically come easier. Learn more of that on our Free Training Videos.

3. Require less work.

Ask your child’s teacher to reduce the amount of work expected, such as shorter reading requirements and half the problems on worksheets. Struggling readers should not be expected to do the amount of assignments typical readers do. They work twice as long and ten times harder to get the same assignments completed. Completing assignments quicker will give them a sense of accomplishment and give you more time in the evening to spend on interventions instead of homework.

How Will The Teacher Feel About This?

I have found teachers to be extremely willing to help. They want to see these kids succeed too. Furthermore, they are usually the first to see that the child is not learning in the same way the other children are. In our district, you don’t need an official diagnosis of Dyslexia to get reading accommodations such as these. But if your school requires it, learn about official dyslexia testing.

Summary

Get these kids feeling better about themselves and stop the trauma. They do not have to be humiliated in class. Moreover, they do not have to have endless frustrating hours of homework and phonics to succeed. They are brilliant kids and learn differently. Our Free Video series has a whole video on the difference in how they read. Check it out.

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Because it is so important to help a Dyslexic find success early on, we have created a Dyslexia video training. It teaches about different Dyslexia discoveries and interventions, cool hacks and accommodations to help them start to improve right away, as well as the newest intervention that helped our son reverse his Dyslexia. Subscribe to our Email below and as a ‘thank you’ get our Dyslexia Video Training in your email. You will instantly get access to the first video. The others will follow every couple of days.

“I Knew Something Great Was Happening.”

The first time my son said ‘I don’t think I am Dyslexic anymore’, I knew something great was happening. I had already noticed that it was like a light had switched on in him.’ He had struggled for years with through any subject that included reading (that’s about all of them). He had been in an IEP for years with all kinds of accommodations. His self-esteem was shot. He was withdrawing socially. He thought that he just wasn’t as smart as the other kids. So when I heard this, I worked hard to choke back my tears.

We had been trying an intervention approach that was new, but not well known yet. Until then, I felt like I was taking a leap of faith. I had read many accounts of how much they had helped other children. But, I wasn’t sure if I was doing them right. I’m a busy person and didn’t want to waste time if I was doing them wrong.  Do they really work? Was I doing them enough? Was I doing them correctly? Turned out ‘yes’ to all three.

We had also scoured the internet, books, trainings and anything else we could find to get the most effective hacks and accommodations to help our struggling reader. Every child is different, but we did find which ones work better than others for Dyslexics. We have included them in our Dyslexia Training Videos. We are sharing our years of experience with you. Check out Our Story.

Children with Dyslexia are very bright. There is no better time than the present to help them succeed. 

We have a lot of other resources for you. Visit our Dyslexia FAQ page or our common Dyslexia Symptoms.

Dyslexia Treatment

There are many options when it comes to dyslexia treatment. But before choosing a treatment, you need to find out what kind of dyslexia your child has. We have information on dyslexia testing with a free sample dyslexia test to check out.

Once tested, you will have a better idea as to what dyslexia treatment is more appropriate for your child. Is their reading disability centered more around visual processing issues, auditory processing disorders, phonetic and word lexicon issues, or attention deficit issues? Many have a combination of these. Knowing this will affect the decision on dyslexia treatment as well as their IEP plan at school.

Visual Issues

Dyslexia treatment of visual issues is handled best by a Behavioral Optometrist. They are scarce but worth it. My son used one and improved much after 12 weeks. You can find one at the COVD website. Be sure to click the ‘Vision Therapist’ box at the bottom.

Auditory Issues

Auditory Processing deficits can exacerbate reading issues. It inhibits their ability for language processing. A good place to start with auditory issues are with an Audiologist. To learn more about that, see our Auditory and Dyslexia post.

Phonetic Issues

Both attention issues and phonetic weakness can be helped with a newer kind of treatment that stimulates and rewires parts of the brain to function on a higher level. We talk about this in our free 3 Part Video Series on Dyslexia. It is easy enough to do right at home as a dyslexia treatment. Therefore, we added this to my son’s visual treatments, and it worked miracles!

Dyslexia Treatment Centers

There are a lot of dyslexia treatment centers. Most focus on pounding more phonetic and decoding strategies into them. It is slow progress but is effective to some extent over time. Furthermore, many don’t really deal with the underlying issue of the brain needing stimulation to certain parts of the brain.  This is why we love the Brain Balance Centers. Our Dyslexia Course also teaches the brain stim approach.

You got this! Every child is different. But, no one can help a struggling reader more than someone who cares enough to find the right treatment and approaches.