Teaching dyslexic students.

marie josey · Post by **marie josey** » Wed Apr 02, 2014 12:45 pm

Hi,
Am relevantly new to ESL teaching(Jan 2014).
Am about to start teaching a student who has dyslexia and who goes to higher education in Sept(engineering). His sister will start later.
Have no experience with teaching dyslexic students.
Any ideas would be appreciated, what materials do I use, how do I assess them? HELP!!

France, marie-josey.

Sally,
Thanks for the reply.
Live beside Lorient.

Sally Olsen · Post by **Sally Olsen** » Wed Apr 02, 2014 3:15 pm

Ask him. If he has made it to Engineering he has developed some strategies. Everyone with dyslexia is different so he will have some different ways of learning but obviously he is successful.

You can look on the many sites for dyslexia for tips. There is an organization for teachers with tips and ideas. Patience and willingness to experiment are the main criteria for a good teacher.

You could ask him if he has ever heard of Irlen Syndrome. It sometimes helps overcome the symptoms of dyslexia. There are people who will test for it but it depends where you are. Just for fun, try to get many different colours of plastic covers and use them to cover a page of dense and small writing. See if any of them help him see the words more clearly. You can tell by having him read out loud. If a colour helps him, his reading will be smooth and he will read with meaning. He will know right away if it helps him. It not only affects vision but hearing as well because the brain is so occupied with interpreting what you see that you don't process sound as well.

Remember that he is seeing the world completely individually from what you see and be understanding. Sometimes seeing the world differently will mean he will discover things no one else thought of.

Where in Brittany? I taught in Perros Guirec.