TOP 10 DYSLEXIA BLOGS

By chance, I discovered that 'dyslexia blog' was nominated as one of the top 10 blogs about dyslexia by blogs.com.

The blogs were chosen by Drs Fernette and Brock Eide ( they are physicians and learning expert authors of The Mislabeled Child 2007) for blogs.com. This site highlights new blogs and identifies some of best blogs on the internet.

Another nominee Techno dys is a blog which I have given a link to on my blog.

www.blogs.com/topten/top-10-dyslexia-blogs

SPEECH PROBLEMS AND DYSLEXIA

Delayed speech and other speech and language difficulties in pre-school children (eg difficulty pronouncing some words especially multi- syllable words) are a strong predicator of a child being at risk of subsequent reading problems.

If parents have any concerns about their child's speech development it is best to seek immediate professional help from a speech therapist and or psychologist.

If your child does have a problem then as a parent will need to try you help your child.Here is a useful resource which you might find useful to give you some ideas :

The Communication Cookbook is a resource book of activities to support children’s language and communication. Developed by I CAN and the BT Better World Campaign, it focuses on 5 essential areas that support children’s communication skills :

Attention and Listening
Vocabulary
Building Sentences
Story Telling
Conversations.

It contains simple ideas to help parents and teachers to develop these in skills in children.

A PDF version of the Communication Cookbook can be downloaded and printed out. It contains useful readymade flashcards.

Free downloadable exercises from the book are available in PDF format and online games are available on this site eg

Picture sequencing
Add an adjective
Good listening
Spot the difference

Before you access the activities, you must register.

www.communicationcookbook.org.uk

LEARNING ENGLISH AND DYSLEXIA

All children at state school or devlet school in Turkey start to take English classes in the 4th grade.Dyslexic children will find English a hard language to learn unlike Turkish which is phonetic. They will most likely need some extra support to assist them in learning English.

Here is programme you could use to help your child if they are struggling with English . This programme is available on the internet and is free. The summer holidays maybe a good time to practice English.

Starfall is a site to help children learn to read. The site can be used for preschool through to second grade.The site has colourful graphics which will appeal to children.

Starfall focuses on letter-sound relationships, word recognition skills, and reading comprehension strategies. Beginning with the short vowel sounds, the programme offers stories along with phonics games and videos.

http://www.starfall.com/

You could try to spend about 20 minutes each day on this type of programme.

In a previous article I talked about ABRACADBRA ( Canada ) which you could also use to help your child learn English.

LEARNING ENGLISH AND DYSLEXIA

All children at state school or devlet school in Turkey start to take English classes in the 4th grade.Dyslexic children will find English a hard language to learn, unlike Turkish which is phonetic. They will most likely need some extra support to assist them in learning English.

Here is a programme you could use to help your child if they are struggling with English . This programme is available on the internet and is free. The summer holidays are maybe a good time to practice English.

Stairway to Reading is a tool to help children who struggle with reading, It is provided by the Society for Quality Education, a Canadian non-profit organization . The programme is completely phonic based.

Stairway to Reading is a one-on-one remedial reading program for students of any age who have already received some reading instruction but who are struggling with reading. It was not developed for beginning readers, although it can be used for this purpose with some small changes.Stairway to Reading comes complete with a diagnostic test, 40 lessons, flashcards, and 128 pages of completely phonetic reading material. In addition, there are games to provide extra practice. All of these materials can be downloaded and printed.

http://www.societyforqualityeducation.org/stairway2.html

NINE TIMES TABLE

Nine times table trick

Dyslexic children, as I have mentioned before often struggle with learning the multiplication tables. Here is a neat way to help them find the answers for the 9 times table.

For example 9 x10

First take 1 away from 10

10- 1 = 9

Then take the answer 9 away from 9

9- 9 = 0

So the answer is 90

Another example : 9 x 7

First take 1 away from 7

7 – 1 = 6

After take the answer 6 away from 9

9-6 = 3

So the answer is 63

Try it out !!!

EFFECT OF SCHOOL HOLIDAYS ON SCHOOL WORK

A long summer vacation does not represent just a pause in student learning but actually causes many students to forget what they have learned. !!

In 1996 researchers analyzed 39 studies of summer vacation’s effect on achievement test scores.
(The Effects of Summer Vacation on Achievement Test ScoresCooper et al. Review of Educational Research - 1996; 66: pages 227-268)

They concluded that, on average, students lose at least one month of learning during the summer. Students lose ground in both reading and math, but the loss typically is greater in maths.

Struggling students are worse effected UNLESS they can use summer to narrow the gap, or they will start the next year even farther behind their peers than they were at the end of the previous year. Without the opportunity to make progress in summer, their chances of ever catching up will get slimmer and slimmer.

Turkish schools have 3 months summer holiday unlike the UK where the holidays are more scattered throughout the year – with only 6 wks summer holiday.
Children, especially those with LD need to read regularly throughout the summer break and also go over topics they have learnt in the yr, especially maths , in order to maintain their progress and to ensure they don’t fall behind.

Of course, it is also important to not to overdo it and also to make sure the children also have a holiday as well!! Try to get your child to practice skills in a more fun way - using games , using the computer etc...

HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO EVERYONE !!

RESEARCH LINKS ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND DYSLEXIA

Research shows that entrepreneurs are five times more likely to suffer from dyslexia in the UK.

The research carried out by Simfonec, a science research centre based at Cass Business School, UK found that 20% of entrepreneurs (business owners employing at least one person) studied were dyslexic.

The research also found that 70% of dyslexic entrepreneurs who participated in the second, more in depth stage of the research, did not succeed at school.

Researcher and Director of Simfonec, Dr Julie Logan notes that some of the UK’s leading entrepreneurs such as Sir Richard Branson, Sir Alan Sugar, Anita Roddick and Sir Norman Foster allegedly suffer from dyslexia.

Simfonec research shows that entrepreneurs have often failed in the school system – it is only through creativity and tenacity that they have been able to succeed in business.Very often the people who make the most brilliant entrepreneurs will respond badly in the typical classroom environment.

Monday, 22 November, 2004 - Case Business School

I wonder which Turkish entrepreneurs have dyslexia .....there must be some out there ??????....