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Dyslexia

admin — Fri, 27 Apr 2018 11:56:58 +0000

What is Dyslexia?

Dyslexia is a specific learning disability that is neurological in origin. It is characterized by difficulties with accurate and/or fluent word recognition and by poor spelling and decoding abilities.

Children with dyslexia have normal intelligence – It’s just that their brain processes language differently to other children.

Many children I teach, who have been diagnosed with dyslexia, are bright and enthusiastic and incredibly switched on.

It is very frustrating for them and for their parents to understand why it is so hard for them to learn to read.

They therefore need support and specific strategies to help them process language… this is where Sallyteach comes in.

Dyslexia is more common than many people think!

It is estimated that between 5%-10% of children have some form of dyslexia but some sources say it can be up to 17%.

In an average classroom in Victoria (say 25 children) there will be at least three children who have dyslexia and who are at risk of becoming illiterate if not supported appropriately!

What are the characteristics of Dyslexia?

Difficulty learning to read and often reading well below the expected age level
Problems processing and understanding what they hear
Difficulty following instructions, both oral and written
Trouble staying on task
Confusion with sequencing of letters and symbols. Reversals are common when reading … b for d, was for saw, of for for, come for
Problems in the sequencing of letters in words …wnet for went, form for from.
Continued confusion with pronouns like it, is, if

Inability to sound out an unfamiliar word
Avoidance of reading aloud
Difficulty learning to spell… trouble remembering which sounds match which the letters
Difficulty learning to write
Finds it hard to stay on task and is easily distracted
Poor short term and/or long term memory
Spending an unusually long time completing a task involving reading or writing.
Feeling stressed and anxious in a testing situation

How dyslexia affects your child’s learning

Your child’s ability to read is critical to their success at school across all areas of the curriculum.

If dyslexia is not acknowledge and attended to through the correct teaching methods by use of a synthetic, systematic and sequential phonics program and decodable readers, their reading will not improve and their self -confidence will suffer.

Children with dyslexia often have low self- esteem. They may experience behavioural problems, anxiety, sometimes aggression and withdrawal from their friends, teachers and parents.

Dyslexia is also associated with an increased risk of having ADHD (Attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder).

This can make Dyslexia harder to treat as ADHD can cause difficulty sustaining attention as well as hyperactivity and impulsive behaviour.

ADD and ADHD

admin — Mon, 22 Jul 2019 06:31:37 +0000

What is ADD and ADHD?

ADD and ADHD are neurological disorders characterised by inattention, impulsivity and hyperactivity.

ADD stands for Attention deficit disorder.

This is characterised by inattention and is the quieter presentation of the disorder.

ADHD stands for Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

This is characterised by inattention, hyperactivity and impulsivity.

Both ADD and ADHD vary from mild to severe and can have a significant impact on your child’s ability to learn.

The term ADD is often referred to as inattentive ADHD and is not a recognised term as such by some organisations.

What are the characteristics of ADD?

Trouble staying focused and easily distracted
Appears not to listen when spoken to
Has difficulty remembering things and following instructions
Has trouble being organised

What are the characteristics of ADHD?

Trouble staying focused and easily distracted
Appears not to listen when spoken to
Has difficulty remembering things and following instructions
Has trouble being organised
Constantly fidgets and cannot sit still
Talks excessively
Guesses rather than taking time to solve a problem
Blurts out answers in class without thinking them through

How ADD and ADHD affects your child’s learning

ADD and ADHD mean that your child is missing out on a large proportion of information and teaching of skills by the teacher because they are not tuning in to instruction.

This will affect all areas of development in reading, writing and spelling and they will probably be significantly behind in what is expected for a child their age, at least one year – depending on the severity of the ADD or ADHD.

Children with ADD and ADHD are at greater risk of having dyslexia than the child who does not.

Dysgraphia

admin — Mon, 22 Jul 2019 08:17:55 +0000

What is Dysgraphia?

Dysgraphia is a learning difficulty that affects written expression and can present itself in ways associated with words such as handwriting and spelling.

What are the characteristics of Dysgraphia?

Difficulty planning and organising a piece of writing
Difficulty writing their thoughts down on paper
Difficulty with handwriting

How Dysgraphia can affect your child’s learning

Difficulty getting their thoughts down on paper…”I don’t know what to write!”
Difficulty organising their writing on paper so as their thoughts are logical and fluent and make sense to the reader.
Their stories have no fluency, their ideas don’t flow. They may leave out important details or their sentences may be jumbled up and out of sequence.
Difficulty maintaining a train of thought so they lose their spot and are unable to complete a paragraph or written text that is age appropriate.
Trouble with Grammar. This may include not understanding how words work and how words fit together to make sentences.
Confusion with verb tenses.
Problems with punctuation.
Problems with spelling. Children with dyspraxia may not only misspell words but will misspell words a number of different ways in the same text.

Poor fine-motor-co-ordination so learning to write is really hard for them.
Holding a pencil may be a challenge or positioning the body correctly when writing.
They may have trouble with the formation of letters, where to start and what direction to go in.
They may not leave spaces between words or alternatively leave too bigger spaces between letters.
Words may not sit on the line or start at the margin of the page.
Letters may be different sizes and they may interchange capital and lowercase letters in one word.
Their handwriting may be illegible or very hard to read….not just for another person but for themselves when they re-read it upon completion.

Auditory Processing Disorder

admin — Mon, 22 Jul 2019 05:47:16 +0000

What is Auditory Processing Disorders (APD)?

Auditory processing disorder (APD) is also known as Central Auditory processing disorder (CAPD). APD is a hearing problem that affects about 5%-7% of school-aged children.

It is a neurological processing disorder.

It means that children can’t process what they hear in the same way as other children because their ears and brains don’t fully co-ordinate.

Something interferes with the way that their brain recognises and interprets sounds, particularly speech sounds.

What are the characteristics of APD?

Easily distracted or upset by loud and sudden noises
Difficulty following instructions or directions, whether simple or complicated
Difficulty with reading, writing or spelling
Difficulty recognising slight differences in sounds in words

Find it hard to hear in noisy environments such as social situations, parties, sporting events.
Disorganised or forgetful
Find it hard to follow conversations

How APD affects your child’s learning

Children with APD can hear sounds that are delivered one by one in a quiet environment.

Add a noisy classroom environment or an open learning situation which has lots of background noise and they will likely have a problem hearing what is said.

This means they may miss out on imp0rtant information when receiving instruction, forming concepts and developing skills.

As a flow on, their grades will suffer and they will be behind in all areas of literacy compared to their peers.

Short Term Memory Disorder

admin — Mon, 22 Jul 2019 07:58:12 +0000

What is Short Term Memory disorder (STM)?

STM also known as STAM (which stands for short term auditory memory span) is a memory disorder that involves problems recalling words, verbal items and language based memory.

Short term memory (or working memory) involves the ability to pay sufficient attention to information given and the ability to encode this information properly when it goes into short term memory.

If this information is not encoded properly then it will not go into short term memory to be retrieved when needed and therefore will not get passed into long term memory to be used in the future.

What are the characteristics of STM?

A brief duration that can only last up to 20 seconds
Its capacity is limited to 7+ chunks of independent information (Miller’s Law)
It is vulnerable to interference and interruption

How Short term memory problems affect your child’s learning

They may forget information read the day before
Difficulty remembering a sentence they have just read or the sentence they have read previous to this sentence
Comprehension problems resulting from this.
Difficulty absorbing new words, their meanings, their sounds and how they look.
Forget instructions related to a set task
Forget what the teacher has said while searching their short term memory for the answer
Find it hard to remember what the question is while looking through a complex text for an answer

Not remember what others have said in a group conversation about a text
Writing can be very difficult because it is hard to write down ideas while remembering information as well as think about punctuation, spelling, and grammar as the same time.
Tune in and out of lessons so only get chunks of what the teacher is saying and not be able to form whole main ideas or concepts
Find higher order thinking skills such as problem solving really difficult as they require holding parts of the problem in short term memory while thinking about solutions, and weighing up ideas.
Forget spelling patterns and high frequency words.

Dyspraxia

admin — Mon, 22 Jul 2019 08:34:57 +0000

What is Dyspraxia?

Dyspraxia is a neurological disorder that affects fine and gross motor coordination.

Children who have dyspraxia have problems planning, organising and carrying out movements in the right order in everyday situations.

Verbal dyspraxia affects the ability of a child to speak, perceive and think effectively.

What are the characteristics of Dyspraxia?

Difficulty with handwriting
Immature drawing or copying skills
Difficulty with sporting activities or any activity involving gross motor co-ordination
Inability to remember more than 3 instructions at a time
Limited concentration skills and poor listening skills
Very literal use of language
High levels of motor activity which may include swinging of feet and tapping when seated, clapping or twisting of hands

High levels of excitability including a loud and piercing voice
May be easily upset and distressed
If they have verbal dyspraxia, they may have difficulty making sounds and sequences of sounds in words as well as intonation patterns. Vocabulary can be very limited and they may speak more slowly than other children.

How Dyspraxia affects your child’s learning

Difficulty settling into a structured school routine
School work not completed due to slow speed in all tasks
Poor concentration and listening skills will adversely affect progress in reading, writing, spelling so your child will be behind what is expected for a child their age

Poor or illegible handwriting
Trouble copying from the board because of their poor handwriting skills
Difficulty organising work and poor time keeping
If they are suffering from anxiety of emotional stress then all areas of learning will be affected.