Top Tips for Dyslexia-friendly Learning Environments
- Backgrounds – Change your smartboard backgrounds and/or font colour to another colour to make it easier for everyone. If you have a child who already has a preference, use that, otherwise, opt for a whole school colour. Light blue is a popular choice.
- Books and overlays – Some pupils may find it easier to write in books with coloured backgrounds and have a coloured overlay.
- Dyslexic-friendly fonts – There are fonts specifically designed for dyslexia that everyone can read. https://opendyslexic.org/. Alternatives are Ariel, Comic Sans, Verdana, Century Gothic, Tahoma, and Calibri.
- Visuals – All children benefit from visual processing. It improves retention and supports retrieval. We do this well and know to use a range of visuals.
- Graphic organisers – Graphic organisers are fantastic to support learners’ thinking, processing, understanding and organisation. This includes using writing frames, but also mind maps and flow diagrams.
Try this link for older students where you can sign up for free https://www.mindomo.com/ or to create simple to more complex ones for all students: https://www.canva.com/graphic-organizers/templates/
- Speaking – ensure we are breaking down information into smaller chunks.
- Don’t ‘pick’ on them to read – This can be seriously demotivating and traumatic in a whole class situation and may be detrimental to their reading progress. They can read to you on their own or with a trusted peer at any time.
- The usual strategies – Such as natural brain breaks to avoid cognitive overload, memory aids such as word mats, a clear line of sight to the teacher and a seat close to the front to aid non-verbal communication.
- Mark positively – Start with what they can do and build on that. You don’t want to stifle amazing ideas on account of worrying about grammar and punctuation.
- Spelling – if students can’t spell a word, spell it aloud for them, and at the same time, write it on the board – provide key spellings for them to refer to. You can also use the RWI sound board so students can ‘try out’ spellings with alternative phonemes (ee, ea, etc). If using the computer, having the spelling and grammar aids on is good!
- Limit the copying they have to do – give them copies of the learning that they can have in front of them and present with appropriate fonts, backgrounds and sizing in manageable chunks.
- Technology – Explore advances in technology with your dyslexic learners. Is there a use for a reading pen, a smartpen or some text-to-speech software? Microsoft accessibility has many free features to explore. When using chrome books or iPads, there is accessibility software available with fantastic programmes such as ‘Immersive Reader’.
Pupils with dyslexia also have skills such as a strong memory for stories, a wonderful imagination, great spatial reasoning and can think outside the box! You can find more details at Dyslexia Help.
