Activities that help from a mom therapist~KH As a general rule, all those with dyslexia/dysgraphia/dyscalculia will learn and be able to hold onto information if they use more of their senses. Experiential/kinesthetic learning and 3D objects are very important for teaching. We live in a world with only flat symbols on a page. This rote memorization style of just hearing something or showing flashcards won’t work. If you want to teach ANY concept, challenge yourself to see how many different ways the child can EXPERIENCE that concept. For instance learning left vs right: Directionality • Have child lie on floor and make snow angels with right arm, then left arm, etc. • Have the child dip fingers into different foods and taste it with left hand or right randomly. • Tell a story about left vs. right. Give the characters names and let them act the story out with those sides of the body. • Place feet on the floor on the right and left sides of the child and have them jump when you call out a direction. • Place an object on the left side and an object at the right side of the child’s page if they are writing. Allow them to imagine that object every time they write to know which side of the page to start on and where to finish. • Have the child tap out the beat of the music as you call out right or left and they have to switch hands. • Go on a bike ride and call out directions where the child has to practice turning that way. Phonological Awareness • Call out objects as you drive along the road. Ask what sound is at the beginning of these words….move to what sound is at the end of the word…..then move to what sound is in the middle of the word • Use some good programs that teach phonological awareness like Sounds in Motion or Barton Level One. • Arrange objects on a table and talk about how each letter makes its own sound just like each animal makes a sound. So you could put a cow first, a pig second, and a sheep third. Talk about how the name of the animal is different from its sound, but the sounds are the most important part to how we talk. We have to be able to break apart big words into small sounds. • Look at the free internet program “A Rhyme a Week.” Rhyming is an important skill in phonological awareness because you are deciphering if sounds are the same or different. • Play a keyboard and see if the child can pick up when you change the tone by raising their hand. Then move to sounds of letters and have them raise their hand when they hear a different sound. • Check out buying EAROBICS on ebay. It is computer games that work on phonological awareness, blending, auditory memory, etc. Dicephering Sequences • Use objects to teach sequencing…..like fork, fork, spoon, fork, fork, spoon • Use objects or their body to teach 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc. Arrange objects in order. • Tell a story. Ask them what happened 1st, next, last in the story. Have pictures to represent the different parts of the story…like a boy getting out of bed, brushing teeth, getting on the bus. • Look up some other multi-sensory ways to teach sequencing on the internet • Use different colored m&ms to represent different sounds in words. Ask the child questions about the order of the sounds (what sound comes first? What’s the last sound?) Handwriting Please emphasize the sound more than the letter when writing. When we write and read we use sounds, we don’t use names of letters. Always begin without a pencil and paper. Use body and hands before paper and pencils. • Write letter and say sound in shaving cream on table. • Build letter and say sound with wiki sticks on wall, window, or table. • Write letter and say sound in pudding with pointer finger then lick pudding off. • Write letters with favored/dyed corn syrup in a small squeeze bottle on a thick piece of glass • Use thin sand in a cookie sheet or jelly roll pan to draw letters with pointer finger • Use tweezers to pick up small objects for use of thumb • Build letters with legos • Trace raised letters written in puff paint on an index card they can take home. • Have a 3D object and a picture that stays consistent and goes with each letter/sound. Show it, draw it, every time (an apple for “a” sound, a motion for “a” sound). • Write letters with a dry erase marker on glass. Once they can do all these things well, move to paper and pencil with a grip or a twist and write and talk about formation. Continue using their senses and their bodies to teach tall vs. small and spacing. Have them arrange all letters sounds into tall letters one color, medium sized letters one color, dip below the line letters one color. Use real life examples to talk about capital and lowercase ( A is big like big daddy. Lower case a is small like child, but they are both in the same family so we call them both a’s). They are used differently. Big daddies have to start at the beginning of a sentence to protect all the little small children. (o: Memory • Earobics • The game “memory.” • Dictate a sentence and have them repeat it back word for word. • Have cards with numbers and practice going back and forth saying 3-4 numbers and waiting a few seconds then seeing if they can remember the numbers each other said in order. • Look up other memory games. Remember visual memory is different from auditory memory. Reading Don’t mess around with this one. It is not open for experimentation or debate. The only proven methods that long-term change the way the brain learns to read in those with dyslexia are multi-sensory structured language programs. Look at methodology page at thedyslexiaproject for examples of these types of programs. Organization • Color code things • Use pictures to help the child know what will happen during the day. • Prepare for the next day so there is not chaos: lay out clothes, fix lunch, have backpack by door. • Have the child use a recorder for the teacher to speak directions for homework so he/she can re-play them numerous times for understanding later. • Give directions one step at a time instead of multiple directions at once. • Give time. Give enough time. Always give the gift of time! The child will be so much more relaxed if they don’t feel rushed.
Posted on: Thu, 01 Aug 2013 19:13:04 +0000