Many teachers are asking me about dyslexia, more so than I have come across before. As in my previous blog about the culture of autism, dyslexia doesn't seem to be on the radar too much right now.
Nessy have a really useful screening tool called Dyslexia Quest and the children that we have used it with LOVE IT! The play games on the computer, but not just any games. Games that Educational Psychologists and specialist teachers have created in order to look at the areas most likely linked with dyslexia.
Now, this isn't an assessment tool, what it is is a tool to help you see if the child may have difficulty in certain areas, and then you can put supports in place to work on these areas.
Something that we had started using is Mind Maps. For some of the children they find it hard to translate knowledge and thinking from the starter into the main part of the lesson and are reliant on adult support. Tony Buzan has a brilliant book Mind Maps for Kids where he offers support and guidance for using this as a strategy.
We got this up and running by using an example that he provides of a house. See below for our example. For most children, a confident adult modelling this strategy to make links with learning will be needed for the first few occasions (remember, that for effective modelling the child needs to be watching, and then the model removed, otherwise they are simply copying!).
As adult's we use visuals all the time, we have diaries, shopping lists etc. and so we need to be encouraging children to use strategies to support them in their learning.
If you use any Mind Maps, send us some pictures, we are going to do a follow up blog post on this soon and would love some examples that are not just ours! @wearetheSENco
Happy teaching,
Kate
Nessy have a really useful screening tool called Dyslexia Quest and the children that we have used it with LOVE IT! The play games on the computer, but not just any games. Games that Educational Psychologists and specialist teachers have created in order to look at the areas most likely linked with dyslexia.
Now, this isn't an assessment tool, what it is is a tool to help you see if the child may have difficulty in certain areas, and then you can put supports in place to work on these areas.
Something that we had started using is Mind Maps. For some of the children they find it hard to translate knowledge and thinking from the starter into the main part of the lesson and are reliant on adult support. Tony Buzan has a brilliant book Mind Maps for Kids where he offers support and guidance for using this as a strategy.
We got this up and running by using an example that he provides of a house. See below for our example. For most children, a confident adult modelling this strategy to make links with learning will be needed for the first few occasions (remember, that for effective modelling the child needs to be watching, and then the model removed, otherwise they are simply copying!).
As adult's we use visuals all the time, we have diaries, shopping lists etc. and so we need to be encouraging children to use strategies to support them in their learning.
If you use any Mind Maps, send us some pictures, we are going to do a follow up blog post on this soon and would love some examples that are not just ours! @wearetheSENco
Happy teaching,
Kate
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