How to Help a Dyslexic Child

Dyslexia is one of those problems which easily lead to frustration and start a vicious cicle:

Frustration -> Losing Desire to Learn -> More Mistakes -> Frustration

So what can we, the friends, parents or teachers, do to help children who suffer from dyslexia?

First of all, strengthen the child's self-esteem. Focus on the things he's good at. Maybe even start with things which have nothing to do with writing or reading at all.

Rule of thumb: Praise the child even for small successes but do not chide him for his mistakes!

Dyslexia is a learning disorder. It has nothing to do with being lazy or dumb. Thus, it doesn't help to force the child to do excercises over and over again as long as he doesn't understand the rules behind them.

The most important part: Talk to the child!

You need to find out how he thinks, which rules he understands and where exactly his problems are. No two dyslexic children have exactly the same problems. Question everything he writes, his mistakes and, even more important, the words he wrote correctly. Check whether it was learning by heart, pure chance at guessing or real understanding which led to the correct spelling.

Lead by example!

Dyslexic children often have no interest in reading. No wonder, it means hard work and even more frustration for them. However, reading can play a great part in learning how to spell correctly. Try to awake your child's interest in reading. Children are curious by nature, and books are such a great source of enjoyment and knowledge. Thus said, read yourself. Show him that reading can be a pleasure by doing it yourself. Look for books which might be interesting for him and offer to read them aloud. After a time, you can take turns. The child's turns should be very short in the beginning while your turns are longer so that the child really gets an incentive to read: "If I read this short sentence, my mother/father/friend will read the whole next page to me." Slowly, as the child gets better, make his turns longer. However, always watch out that he still has fun. By no means, make reading a strain or a duty!

Answer questions!

Whenever the child comes to you to ask how a word is spelled/read aloud, help him. Show him that asking for help and posing questions is good and that you are willing to help him. If the child asks you about topics of interest to him but you can't tell him much, show him where he can find more information: in the library, in the internet, in books you have at home.

When you manage to turn the frustration into desire to learn again, you have won. Granted, the child will still need help and will most likely always have problems with reading and writing, but you have turned the vicious circle into a positive circle:

Desire to Learn -> Spending Time Reading and Writing -> Rewards (better grades, information, pleasure) -> Desire to Learn