Dyslexia (Cathy Baines)

Objective -
To improve and maintain handwriting skills to a level of accuracy, fluency and automaticity.

Dyslexic brain has no variation in left and right side brain. 2 types of dyslexia, phonological and surface
dyslexia - you can hear and isolate sounds but not able to write them down.

They struggle in a written word world. They can operate well when they don’t have to write.
They try to use their right brain but should use their left.

Struggling to write - Do writing bigger - get the shoulder moving to connect to motor cortex.
(Example; Big movements with writing) Don’t switch on the frontal cortex by praising a correct letter/word.

Use visual aid to make sure they are writing the correct letter. E.g. bed in top of books.

When they write they need to be 90 degrees and arms swinging above the table.

You have to be like a doctor looking at child’s grip - You have to look at yourself as a doctor/practitioner
How can I help. What can we do:
- If their grip is too closed you can use a peg - for them to hold to open the gap in their hand
- Too close to the grip draw a line for where they hold it
- If you have a child who is pressing to hard - give them a mechanical pencil - it will break.

If you have the same neurological pathway (right hand, right eye) - If you are dominant either way,
you need to turn your paper - Fold the corner up for the right angle. If you are cross-dominant you
can have your paper straight.

Abcdefghijk - Do they know the sound? - they don't need to know it in order.
Use pure sound Think about scissors and cut the sounds off. X the pure sound is the end of box
- like soft ‘kiss’

Look at children’s writing - what do I need to teach and fix up?

Check the sounds in your class - name at top of a long piece of paper
- say the pure sounds and see who can write the letter.
These can feed into your deliberate acts of teaching.

Consonants and vowels.