Secondary Special Needs - Dyslexia Friendly Classroom

As the mildly dyslexic Mother of a more severely dyslexic 11 year old two things in this rang all too true.

Time pressured copying from the board, was for me a total nightmare, I can't spell and can't hold long chains of letters in my head.So I am constantly looking up and down and loosing my place.

At least, in this age of photocopiers, my daughter has to do a lot less copying, but when she does it's often what the homework is and when its due in. Deciphering her planer can be interesting.

Also the opener about finding words. I sometimes forget words completely or see something beginning with the right letter and say something else entirely.

My daughter is doing her SATS next week and since she gets a scribe, she was dictating a practice story. It had lots of dialogue and hence lots of punctuation. This caused much frustrated
"Open two liney things in the air, put a little tick on the line. No Mummy that needs one of those things before the s."
(Open speech marks, comma and an apostrophe please.)

I just hope her scribe doesn't mind much hand waving and occasionally having the pencil grabbed from her had so she can put them in herself.

These are some other useful tips that relate to the content of this video:

1. You can copy down from the board without looking at the paper. Keep your eyes focused on the board and just write on the paper. After just a little practice your writing will become quite good and in the case of a pupil with poor handwriting, probably better than normal.

2. When reading move the book from flat on the table, to slighty raised, to raised to about sholder level - you may find that the child's experience is much better when not flat on the table (they are then out of accessing those negative emotions you get when you look down).

Hope this helps, Olive Hickmott, ex-dyslexic and now educator

in response to- Any other suggestions for topics like this?
Submitted by Luke Harvey on August 21, 2006 - 10:56.

Great to hear positive comments about this programme.

Are there other topics that you think Teachers' TV could cover in a similar way?

Luke Harvey, Teachers' TV Associates Producer

this was a good programme would like to see more programmes on specific learning disabilities and different strategies to help support pupils with a SpLD. How to get the support for pupils with SpLD's and their personal take on how their daily lives both in and out of school living with a SpLd.

i have dyslexia and i just wanted to say what it does to me and what i think helps me with it

for me i don't see moveing words and i either recognize what i am seeing or i don't i know a lot of ppl have said brake down the words i can not do this at all when i read i am slower and not long into it starts to hurt me to go on reading and as well as that i miss words out and move back up or down lines with out knowing that i did it the way we Learn in school to read has many faults we should be trying to learn in as many ways as we can to maximize the learning progress things that help me and my dyslexic mates to learn to read more was the use of PCs and things like MSN that can be fun to use with out knowing that you are learning to read and spell and just learning new things as you use tools like this as well as things like word and even better like Firefox that has a spell check that helps us to communicate and learn to read as when we check the word spelling with word or Firefox we learn to recognize what we are seeing tho at first we needed to use a reader like readplease that is free to download and use to know if we are typing the words we think we are given time this works better and better tho at schools they always have MSNs block that's y i think all ppl that are Dyslexic need to have a free laptop to help them to learn as learning to read has to be a at home thing as well as a at school thing or they will never get any better at it this is how it was for me into i was 16 i did not know how to read anything at all but with in a yr of using a PC and MSN i got a lot better and now 2yrs on i am where i am to day most ppl can not tell i am Dyslexic this also workd with my mates and now they are a lot better then they use to i also take OMEGA-3 pills what i think have improved my memory and concentration i think if all kids had them growing up some dyslexics may not have turned out Dyslexic the brain needs certain chemicals to function correctly and from knowing whats in are food i can say i don't think most of us are getting them

This is a particularly good video to help give non-dyslexics insights into how difficult classroom tasks can be. Very useful strategies are suggested. It will be excellent visual, practical support for the new Inclusion Development Program [IDP] materials recently sent to all schools by the DCSF. These IDP DVDs are to help build teachers' confidence in working with students with dyslexia/SpLD and Speech, Language and Communication Needs [SLCN].

I was very interested to see the activities that helped staff to gain meaning from the dyslexic child's difficulties. It was down to earth and enlightening. well done.

I also realised how much morale is lowered by constant tiny failures which we, as teachers, could minimise.

However, I would have liked to see much more of effective classroom strategies and organisational techniques which make for Best Practice.

a very interesting presentation, but the sound system wasn't very good

As an Adult Dyslexic, it was greate to see the dyslexic condition portraied in honest, and constructive way, the quotes from the Boy's were so true that I remember with a shiver, being there doing that, my ple for non dyslexic teachers and TA's, is what you see is what you get, but simple stategies applied with care will let the pupil blosom, and help keep them within society, as it is hard to conform when the class and it feels that the whole School are isolating you, (sorry about the spelling and sintacs but without the tools, you get what you get) Phil Morris Chair of Governors, keep up the good work

I thought that by watching a training course in progress was a very good way of dealing with the topic of dyslexia. I will definitely be using some of the techniques shown in the programme. I particularly liked the spelling credit card holder idea. An excellent programme which would be beneficial for all staff in a school to watch.

An excellent programme that has heightened my understanding of the problems faced by some students. To observe experienced teachers/TAs struggling with the exercises set was extremely valuable and the strategies used will certainly be incorporated in future lessons I plan. First class.