This week is Dyslexia Awareness Week. So Small Steps have kindly invited me to write about this important subject. The British Dyslexia Association who work tirelessly to help, seek to empower teachers by encouraging more training during the early stages of qualification. Currently the only training initially is from working directly with pupils affected and tailoring their tasks to help them succeed, when a pupil with dyslexia is part of that student teacher's class. 

Dyslexia is thought to affect 10% of the British population i.e 6200,000 people! This vast number of capable people are challenged to varying degrees in their daily lives, 4% are severely affected which can make reading, writing and speech difficult. This is because it causes a breakdown of understanding. It makes the skill of reading difficult to master because of the difficulty identifying the words or interpreting their meaning. 

Despite the challenges faced, there are many successful dyslexic professionals and children, across the world overcoming their learning challenges. In my experience, they are always highly intelligent. Experts say "measures used evaluate for dyslexia reveal that it occurs in individuals of average to superior intelligence a". I have worked with an excellent dyslexic Senior Teacher during my training year at Oxford and know of a very successful Engineer and well-respected minister who are both affected and yet are flourishing in their chosen careers. 

Whilst teaching a year five class I was blessed to work with a delightful girl who began the year lacking in confidence because of its impact on her learning. She was a delight to teach, conscientious and thoughtful. She worked well and slowly began to excel, developing more confidence to make contributions, becoming less shy. Thankfully, I was pleased to see her achieve National Curriculum standards and surpass expectations. She joined the top of her class, with her peers, in the core subjects. 

So if your child is finding reading, comprehension and articulation hard and appears to be below NC standards for his/her year don't be disheartened. There are many ways to help him or her to learn. It can make writing a sentence really slow and spelling much more difficult. So that child will need lots more patience and encouragement. Try not to judge them by mistakes that may appear "silly" if possible spend time prompting them by giving them alternative answers to questions. Whilst spelling words with them sound them out and break them down phonically. Ask your child's classroom teacher how you can help support their learning and please bear with them often they have classes with 30% special needs. Many teachers spend hours researching and tailoring work to help children affected and more is known now than ever before. 

Extra tuition can help to extend and develop your child. A patient, encouraging tutor can be a real blessing as it normally affects children's behaviour it can make them feel like giving up and misbehaving or it can make them become more shy. Especially if the tutor collaborates with the child's classroom teacher. Everyone though, is unique in the way it affects them. I have worked with many conscientious children who work hard, which helps to compensate against the challenges they face. I cannot emphasise enough that its no indicator of intelligence, Einstein was also thought to be impacted by it too! 

There are many valuable sources of information about Dyslexia, Schools have contact details of Speech and Language Therapists and The Learning Differences Sourcebook by Nancy S.Boyles, M.Ed and Darlene Contadino M.S.W is helpful. If you are concerned or have any questions about how to help your child please feel free to get in touch with me, Lisa d'Rozario my contact details are available at www.skillstutor.co.uk.