Dyslexia -The Shut Down Learner – Book review.

A few of you have been asking me to recommend books and I thought it will be a good idea to review books for my readers.

Dyslexia - Recognizing the genius sitting next to you...

I requested one of my readers to write an article on her personal experience with dyslexics and the following is what she wrote.

Dyslexia and Meares-Irlen Syndrome

I have been reading a few articles on dyslexia where it says that some children see words jumping around thus making it difficult for children to read. Not one of my students had complained about words jumping around.

Read to your children, whatever their ages

 

One of my readers, Heidi, left this comment on an earlier article about dyslexia:

“I read to my son every night since he was a baby. He grew up to be dyslexic. He is awful with punctuation, but I never have to change his grammar or sentence structure. It is always correct. He also likes to write stories (just for years they weren’t spelled right). Now I know the reading must have really helped his correct usage of word structure, and probably his love for writing stories.”

Notice what she emphasises: even though her son struggles with spelling and punctuation, his grammar and sentence structure are consistently strong. She attributes that foundation to the years she spent reading aloud to him from infancy.

Teach your dyslexic child to read - Phonics vs Whole word

How do we read unfamiliar words?

In English, fluent reading requires both phonics and rote memorization of high-frequency words. Phonics helps us decode unfamiliar words that follow phonetic patterns. However, many English words are not phonetic, so we must memorize them.

This is why debates over which single method to use when teaching children to read English make little sense. We should use every useful tool available.

Teaching reading without phonics reduces an alphabetic language to something more like a pictorial one from ancient times. Alphabets were invented precisely to make reading simpler and to allow us to figure out unfamiliar words.

Who says dyslexic children are phonologically unaware? & Lesson 26

Many of the articles on dyslexia say that dyslexics are phonologically unaware. A little thought will clearly reveal that this statement cannot be true.

Dyslexics - Can they become writers and authors? & Lesson 25

Many people confuse difficulties in reading and the ability to write. Many of the well known writers are dyslexic. Dyslexia affects one’s ability to read and spell (in orthographically inconsistent language) but it does not affect one’s imagination and creativity.

Dyslexia and iPhone & Lesson 24

Recently there has been a lot of articles on dyslexia and iPhones. A dyslexic had said that he could read easier on an iPhone and that has triggered many articles on how iPhones can help solve the problems of a dyslexic.