About Me
I have been a fully qualified teacher for over thirty years. I started teaching as a specialist English teacher and so have taught all levels of English from KS1 to GCSE. More recently I have become a specialist dyslexic teacher and I am an Associate Member of the British Dyslexia Association (AMBDA). I can, therefore, help with all levels of English, from reading and spelling to the more formal writing of GCSE and beyond. The youngest pupil I have taught was four years old and the oldest was 60+.
I also teach Study Skills and have, for over 25 years, prepared children for 11+ entrance examinations, including verbal/non verbal reasoning and mathematics.
I am Criminal Record Bureau checked.
Signs of Dyslexia
The list of problems associated with dyslexia is almost endless and not every dyslexic child will show them all, but some of the more common ones are listed below. I have used the masculine pronoun throughout this assignment as I find s/he clumsy. I hope I cause no offense by using “he” when I could just as easily have used “she”.
Reading
- missing a line, or repeating the same line twice
- losing his place or using a finger as a marker
- confusing short words (of, for, from)
- guessing wildly at words (but often choosing a word which starts with the same letter)
- showing a confusion for visually similar words
- Having read something his comprehension may be poor and he may have difficulty picking up the most important points from a passage
- confusing short vowels
Spelling
- A dyslexics spelling may also be poor, ranging from spellings that have all the right letters, but in the wrong order (time spelt tiem) to spellings that bear hardly any resemblance to the sound of the word (may spelt mook)
- He may spell the same word different ways in the same sentence/on the same page
- He may misspell words even when copying from a correct version
- He may say one letter/word and write another
- He may invert letters e.g. n for u or m for w
- He may reverse letters e.g. b for d or p for q
Handwriting
- The dyslexic often has poor handwriting with badly formed letters
- It can be badly set out and messy
- He may have a poor pen/pencil grip
Writing
- His grammar and punctuation could be poor
- He may write hardly anything at all or write a great deal but to no purpose
Time
- Shows poor time keeping and general awareness
- Difficulty with concepts - before, after
- He could be weak at estimating time intervals
Numeracy
- He may show confusion with number order e.g. ten, units, thousands
- Can be confused with symbols such as + and x
- Has difficulty remembering anything in a sequential order e.g. tables, days of week, months of year
- He will probably perform poorly on tests of verbal memory
- He may be slow at tasks which involve the processing of symbols at speed
- His short term memory problems could cause him to forget what he is supposed to do doing in the problem i.e. where he has reached in solving it, and what he needs to do next
General
- distinguishing left and right
- learning to tell the time
- organising himself - higher up the school this could show itself as difficulties with classification and categorisation
- concentrating
- Some dyslexic pupils show a lack of fluency in expressing their ideas or have word finding difficulties
- His short term memory problems could cause him to forget teachers' instructions, to have difficulty in remembering his timetable, appointments, lessons changes, homework, games bag etc.
- He may appear to have poor concentration
- Has poor motor skills, leading to weakness in speed, control and accuracy with pencil/pen
- Has a limited understanding of non-verbal communication
- Is confused by the differences between left and right, up and down, east and west
- May find difficulty in carrying out two or more instructions at the same time, but is fine if tasks are presented in smaller units
- Finds difficulty cutting, sticking and crayoning in comparison to peer group
Behaviour
- Employs work avoidance tactics such as sharpening pencils, looking for books, going to the toilet
- Seems to dream
- Does not seem to listen
- Is easily distracted
- A dyslexic child will often have low self-esteem
There is not one specific symptom of dyslexia and most children at some stage in their development will display some of the symptoms associated with dyslexia, but most children grow out of them. What we are looking for is a cluster of symptoms that is out of synchronisation with age, experience and education.