Tips for Teaching Children with Dyslexia

When diagnosed early with dyslexia, young children have a more promising outlook towards their educational experience because this means techniques can be used to help them. While there is no treatment for dyslexia, coping with the condition and learning to work with it are vital for a child's success in school. Early intervention with the condition is very important when it comes to promoting a young child's educational experience.

Alphabet Hopscotch
Alphabet hopscotch is a great activity to help young children cope with dyslexia. To play this game you will need a large, open cement surface to draw a hopscotch course. Draw a regular hopscotch course using chalk. Instead of using numbers in the squares, place letters. There are different rules to playing this form of hopscotch. Have your child jump to the square of the letter sound you make. Do not call out the letter. This will allow them to connect the sound with the correct letter. This is a very fun activity to help them with their reading and language skills.

Wipe Boards
Dry erase wipe boards have shown to be very effective when teaching young children with dyslexia. The colorful dry erase markers allow children to practice writing without the frustration. If they make a mistake, they can simply erase what they have written and start over. This is great for helping them with math, color, numbers, and letters.

Memory Game
Alphabet memory games are a great way for children to learn. Using index cards, write one letter per card in the uppercase form and lower case form. Using half the stack, lay the cards out face down and have the child flip over two at a time until they find matching cards. As they get better with the matching, gradually increase the amount of cards to include the full deck. This method can also be used with numbers. Dyslexic children have found this method of learning to be very helpful and fun in the process.

Animal Match
Young children love animals. To help them learn their sounds and prepare them for reading, you will need a flash card deck with animal pictures and a flash card deck with letters. Hold up an animal card and have your child select which alphabet card is needed to begin spelling or pronouncing the animals name. For example, if a giraffe is held up, the child will need to hold up the letter "G".

Simple games are a great way to help young dyslexic children get on the correct path to a great learning experience. These activities will not only help them but allow them to have fun in the process. Early intervention is key when it comes to a dyslexic child's educational experience.