How to Help Students with Dyslexia

November 1, 2024 byConnections Academy

6 min to read

A group of elementary students reading a book together.

Students with a learning disorder can often find it difficult to keep up with their peers in the classroom, but families can learn how to help students with dyslexia succeed by understanding what dyslexia affects and some of the ways they can help making learning easier and more enjoyable for struggling students.

Some parents make the choice to enroll their child in online school as a way of providing them added flexibility and support with their individual needs. If dyslexia has been identified in your student—or you suspect it could be the cause of learning struggles—there are ways to help them adapt and succeed in online school.

What Is Dyslexia?

Dyslexia is a learning disorder that primarily impairs a person’s ability to read, write, and spell. Exact numbers are hard to pin down, but it’s estimated that as many as one in five people have dyslexia. It’s the most common language-based neuro-cognitive condition—found in 80-90 percent of individuals who have been diagnosed with a learning disorder.

According to the International Dyslexia Association (IDA), the common effects of dyslexia include:

Difficulties with reading and spelling words

Problems with processing and manipulating sounds

Struggles with grammar, comprehension, and complex writing

People with dyslexia may also experience struggles with spoken language that can make it hard for them to clearly communicate and fully understand the speech of others. It can also impact functioning in social situations, self-esteem, and memory.

Dyslexia Symptoms

Dyslexia affects each person uniquely depending on its severity and which symptoms they experience. The Child Mind Institute developed a list of signs that includes:

Showing signs of delayed speech

Leaving out or repeating short words such as “and,” “the,” and “but”

Trouble sounding out new words or spelling out familiar ones

Struggling with understanding directions

Trouble associating sounds with their corresponding letter

Reading slower than their peers

Is Dyslexia Genetic?

The data on whether dyslexia is genetic is not entirely conclusive, but one 2022 study showed that dyslexia has the possibility of being passed on between parent and child of up to 70 percent.

What are the Different Types of Dyslexia?

Opinions from experts vary on the number of types or subtypes of dyslexia there are, but some of the more regularly seen subtypes include:

Phonological dyslexia: Difficulty identifying the individual sounds and syllables of a word and combining them to form one word.

Surface or visual dyslexia: Having trouble recognizing words that don’t sound the way that they’re spelled, such as “subtle” or “yacht.”

Rapid automatic naming dyslexia: Taking a long time to recognize or differentiate between numbers and letters.

Different types of dyslexia can exist together; when this happens, it’s referred to as double- deficit dyslexia. Other learning disabilities such as dysgraphia (affects writing) and dyscalculia (affects math skills) can also exist alongside dyslexia.

A student wearing a green shirt sitting at the table working on an assignment for Connections Academy.

How to Help a Student with Dyslexia

Helping students with dyslexia succeed in online school takes time, patience, and good old-fashioned persistence. If you suspect your child may have dyslexia, the first step is to talk to teachers about the issues you see. It’s also a good idea to talk to the child’s health care provider to rule out medical causes like vision or hearing impairments.

While dyslexia is typically identified under one of the 13 IDEA special educational eligibility categories, called Specific Learning Disability (SLD), some states have specific guidance on dyslexia screenings and intervention. Regardless, any student with this medical diagnosis can be supported through direct research-based instruction and intervention.

5 Strategies for Students with Dyslexia

There are many ways to support educational growth in students with dyslexia—both in class and at home. Below are five strategies Learning Coaches can use to help a child manage the condition.

Ask for dyslexia accommodations in class

It’s common for students with any learning disability to receive accommodations at school as part of their individualized education plan.

Generally speaking, there are four basic types of dyslexia accommodations: presentation, response, setting, and timing/scheduling. Examples include:

Verbal instructions instead of written ones

Text-to-speech software

Fewer test items per page

A distraction-free environment

Extended time or frequent breaks

Since online students tend to have more flexibility, they can adopt any of these accommodations in ways that work for them.

Incorporate Research-based Instructional Strategies

With support, children with dyslexia who are struggling to read can learn to do so more easily using the following methods:

Multi-sensory instruction
As the name suggests, multi-sensory instruction incorporates all the senses (sight, hearing, taste, smell, and movement) in teaching. Instead of simply counting oranges on a worksheet, students might touch, smell, and even taste one while using math skills to add them up. The technique helps students develop the connections needed in their brain.

Sight word practice
Sight words are words that break the spelling rules and need to be memorized by sight. Practicing sight words by using flash cards, tracing words on flash cards with two fingers, and writing words in a notebook or on a keyboard can be helpful.

Decoding strategies
Readers use decoding to sound out words they don’t recognize. To decode a word, the reader first needs to be able to hear and say all the sounds within the word and recognize the sound or sounds each letter or letter combination makes. When learning to decode, students typically first learn to name all the letters in the alphabet and the sounds the letters make. Then, students learn to build and read three-letter words, followed by more complicated spelling patterns.

Help Students with Dyslexia at Home

Making the effort to help a child with dyslexia outside of formal class instruction can make a big difference.

Read together
Experts recommend reading with a child with dyslexia every day to help build learning abilities over time. Take turns reading aloud and talk about the stories.

Get and stay organized
Students with dyslexia can often have a hard time keeping track of homework. Create an organizational system that works for them using calendars, color-coded folders, smartphone alarms, or other technology.

Create a calm space for study
Students with dyslexia can benefit from a calming and distraction-free space to learn and study. Establish a quiet, comfortable space in a home for your student to learn or a clutter-free desk space with headphones.

Be Emotionally Supportive

Little things can mean a lot when it comes to nurturing self-confidence and learning how to help the well-being of students with dyslexia.

Ways to be emotionally supportive include:

Letting your student know what dyslexia is and that learning struggles aren’t their fault

Focusing positive feedback on other strengths such as dance or gaming

Having enjoyable outings “just because” that aren’t tied to academic success

Bring in the Experts

From reading tutors to certified academic language therapists, adding professional expertise in developing individual learning plans for students with dyslexia is an option that works for some.