Dyslexia: What Does Good Intervention Look Like?
In our last post, we discussed what Dyslexia is and who is best qualified to treat it. Children with dyslexia can learn to read without tears or screams, and can learn efficiently without falling multiple grade levels behind. They can also close gaps, and even learn to love reading! However, in order to meet these goals, they need to have the right people, and the right plans. For information on what to look for in a tutor/specialist, see our last post - Dyslexia: Will Any Tutor Do?
Once you’ve found a strong therapist or professional to work with your child, what exactly are they going to do that’s so special? Well, a good therapist will pull from a variety of sources, customizing their approach directly to your child’s needs and playing to your child’s strengths. Some reading specialists follow one singular approach such as Orton-Gillingham (O-G), which is better than nothing. But a therapist that can make a custom approach for your child, using principals from O-G, LiPS, Structured Literacy, and more, will be great.
So what should high quality dyslexia based instruction include?
Multi-Sensory Instruction. We cannot stress this enough! Remember, the basis of dyslexia is in difficulty processing sensory information from the ears and eyes. So to best help your child, you need to use other senses! They may have children trace letters in sand or hold 3D letter blocks in order to “feel” while seeing and build sensory neural connections. A really good therapist might nickname what sounds feel like - such as a “lip popper” or “tounge tapping” sound. They may encourage your child to feel sensations in their mouth, or touch their throat to feel vocal chords vibrating.*
*These more complex sensory approaches are why we feel speech-language pathologists (SLPs or speech therapists) are the best at teaching children with dyslexia. SLPs thoroughly understand the structure, sensation, and anatomical basis of all phonemes involved in speech, language, and therefore reading. There are 26 letters…but 41 English sounds. Most tutors don’t know this and often miss the mark!
Thinking Outside The Box. The dyslexic brain is not an “in the box thinker.” Most teachers and tutors follow instructional patterns that work for most children, but might not serve dyslexic children. A good therapist/specialist will need to think, speak, and instruct outside-the-box. They’ll need to get creative and not be afraid to change gears or try something new, vs. repeating the same phrases and methods that work for the masses. At Top Sail Therapy, our therapists have shared silly ways they’ve helped a child understand, such as referring to the “ng” sound as a “gong sound” and smacking a garbage can pretending it was a gong! “NNGGG!” Or perhaps drawing faces on letters that might be screaming “OW!” They don’t teach you that in school!
Structure and Incremental Growth. A good dyslexia-informed therapist knows the danger of skipping steps, making assumpitons, or taking what our neurotypical brains do for granted. You maybe didn’t need to fully understand that there are two versions of “th” (voiced and voiceless of course!) in order to get the gyst of it reading both, but a dyslexic child might need that explicitly stated or they’ll miss the pattern. Sight words and whole-word reading approaches are usually not helpful to a dyslexic child. Instead, focus on structure, incremental growth, and rule-based instruction. See more on that below!
Rule Based Instruction. At Top Sail, we try to avoid using “rule breakers” at all costs! We instead share that there is almost always a rule, it’s just a weird one that we haven’t learned yet. Believe it or not, there are few true rule breakers. We love focusing on decoding skills before relying on rote memorization of sight words. One classic trick at Top Sail Therapy is using a “fake word” to teach the child to truly understand the decoding rule vs. trying to memorize and guess. Reading isn’t guessing. A good dyslexia-informed specialist knows that guessing words by looking at pictures and using context clues are not addressing the dyslexic child’s true needs or setting them up for long-term success.
Compassion and Patience. Frustration and fear isn’t going to help any reader, especially a dyslexic child who is trying their best. A big red flag for anyone working with your child is someone who isn’t being compassionate, patient, and meeting the child where they are. At Top Sail Therapy, we believe this is a non-negotiable trait of a good dyslexia-informed instructor.