USING A THESAURUS

In this dyslexia blog article I want to talk about using a thesaurus.

Many dyslexics find it difficult to find a word in a dictionary because if they don’t know the first few letters then they can’t find the correct word easily. In a earlier article I referred to some specialized dictionaries that might be more useful for the dyslexic student to use than the standard dictionary.

Another useful strategy is to teach your child to use a thesaurus so that they can identify spellings.

What is a thesaurus ?
A thesaurus is a collection of synonyms (words or phrases with a similar meaning ) and antonyms ( words or phrases with a opposite meaning ) .

There are two types of thesaurus one which is like a dictionary were the words are in alphabetical order.The other lists the words in a index form which is in the back of the book.

Microsoft word has its own thesaurus which students can make use of in their studies. There are also some online versions of a thesaurus like :

reference thesaurus com

There is also a Visual Thesaurus available online which gives visual diagrams of all similar meaning words.

Your child must first think of a easier word which they able to spell, but which has a similar meaning to the word they are looking for. Eg sad

After they look in the thesaurus under sad to find a more difficult word that they can’t spell eg morose .

Other examples :
Small – miniscule
Thin – gaunt
Dictionary – thesaurus

Alphabet Arc : Dictionary Skills

Here in this Dyslexia Blog article is a useful strategy if your child has trouble looking words up in dictionaries and other reference books that are arranged in alphabetical order.

Make an alphabet arc using a protractor.

First draw an arc onto a piece of card.Divide the arc into 4 roughly equal sections..

Write the alphabet in the four quarters :
A- F
G- M
N- S
T- Z

You could cut the arc out and fold it along the lines into quarters if you want.

They can carry it with them in their school bag.

It makes looking things up quicker and more accurate, and your child won’t have to start from the beginning of the alphabet for each word.

You could make up a mnemonic to remember the first 4 letters in each section eg : All gorillas need tomatoes

Play some games with them to test their skills.- eg they have to find a word within a certain time.

This can even be used with older students.

Still Blogger is playing up - spent 3 hours just adding one blog article.. Its driving me crazy!! So bear with me ....

Spelling Tips for Dyslexic Students

In this dyslexia blog article here are some tips about learning spellings :

My son this year has started to study English at school. He does find English much harder to learn in comparison to Turkish . Especially,he has difficulty in learning spellings in English.

I am trying to support my son with his learning at home. Here below is some of the activities I have done with him to help him learn spellings.

First of all I ask him to read the words out that need to be learnt.
Later I put the word in a simple sentence for my son to read .
Eg : I went to the market on Tuesday .
(Students need to familiar with the words before they can spell them).

In order to practice spellings you can carry out some of the following activities:

Try to make it as fun as possible and vary tasks from time to time.

Get your child to complete wordsearches and crosswords containing the target words. You can make your own or find some on the internet.

Make up anagrams of the target words – ie reorder the letters and then get your child to to link these to the correct words .

eg mandoy – Monday / udatyes – Tuesday

You could also use scrabble letters or plastic letters to unscramble spellings.

Tracking exercise : Write the words in the letter sequence twice , but between the letters of the word write other letters...
Ask your child to underline the correct letters in the word .After get them to write the word at the end of the line.

Eg : ( Tuesday )

t a h e g y u d e w u s d e a i y d g t i e i u t y p e j s f d w a u y ……

Missing letters :write targeted words but miss out one or two letters. Ask your child to fill in the missing letters.

Eg : mon_ _ _ , _ _ _ day , m _ _ _ _ _

Matching word shapes : Draw a box around each letter and look for patterns ie which letters are tall or hang below the line.

Get you child to close their eyes and imagine the letters of the spelling in their head. Can they say the letters of the word out loud?

Trace the word :
Write the word down in very big writing.Get your child to trace over the word with their finger several times.
Cover the word and after ask your child to write the word.

Look, say, cover, write and check
First ask your child to look at the word carefully. Discuss what stands out in the word / how many syllables etc.
After say the word.
Cover the word . Ask the child to then write the word. After uncover the word and ask your child to check their spelling.
If they make an error – examine where it went wrong, emphasising the letters they have placed in the right place and try again.Do this every day for a few minutes until they are familiar with spellings.

Teach your child to make up spelling mnemonics .Mnenmonics is a memory aid .

Eg T U Eat Sweets DAY / WE Do Not Eat Sweets day

You could adapt a basic board game to practice spellings - so that when they land on certain places they have to spell a word and can move forward or backwards depending if they got the spelling correct.

Play hangman using the spellings you are trying to learn.

Write spellings in cursive handwriting as this helps automatic recall of spellings.

Don’t just use pan and paper -
Use magnetic, plastic or wooden letters ,scrabble tiles ,chalk,coloured felt tip pens,playdough ,sand ,shaving foam etc to learn spellings.

Scrabble letter tiles or plastic letters are good to teach spelling skills as children can easily see how words are built.

Make sure you praise your child for their effort –You could give them stickers or some small reward.

BBC SKILLWISE

I find that often in Turkey topics covered on the school syllabus are often rushed through and not gone over in enough detail in order for all pupils to grasp the subject.

Children especially who have learning disabilities; such as dyslexia will generally take longer to learn new concepts. They need to be more given time to “over- learn “ subjects studied.In other words ,they need plenty of opportunities to practice skills which they have learnt until they are fully compenent .

Skillwise is a useful site for parents to use with their children to help them go over topics already learnt at school and to practice skills.

Skillswise is a BBC website designed to help adults who want to improve their basic skills in reading, writing and maths. The site is aimed at learners as well as tutors.

The site is geared for adults however it is also useful for children as well.

It contains different modules on a variety of topics such as spelling,grammar,writing, measures,shapes and space,fractions, decimals and percentages etc.

It includes very clear factsheets which explain the topic fully, also there are ready made worksheets with answers which can be printed out. In addition quizzes and games are available to test information learnt.

There are also some useful articles about teaching dyslexia and dyscalculia learners for tutors . They explain some of the problems they have with learning and how tutors can help them.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise/

DICTIONARIES FOR DYSLEXIC CHILDREN

If you ask dyslexic children to check spellings in a normal dictionary they find it difficult .To look up a word in a dictionary, you have to know how the word is spelt in the first place – or at least the first part of the word..

The Ace Spelling Dictionary ( David Moseley ) is great for children who cannot use an ordinary dictionary.

Using the unique index ,children need only think how a word sounds to find out how to spell it. By simply identifying the first vowel sound , the speller is instantly sent to the page where the problem word is found.

Children just need a basic knowledge of vowel sounds and to know what a syllable is .There are clear instructions at the beginning explaining how to use the book correctly. The ACE Index has a table of 16 vowel sounds and the A-Z alphabet .It contains animal cartoons which will appeal to children.

If you want to look inside this book go to amazon.com where you can see customer images of the book. Go to Google and type in “Customer images gallery for Ace Spelling”

Another useful item for dyslexic children who have trouble with spelling is the electronic Franklin spellchecker.

It has a built in phonetic spell correction. This feature allows users to type in a word the way it sounds and receive a correction list.
For example :
from "nolij" to "knowledge";from "kaufee" to "coffee" from "fizix" to "physics" and so on.

You can buy Franklin spellcheckers from Amazon.com.

DICEY SPELLING

Dicey Spellıng


Dyslexic children find it difficult to learn spellings.Dicey spelling is a useful technique to try out.It works on the idea that after the spelling has been looked at and thought about, another activity is used to occupy the short term memory but which will also involve the use of the spelling. This means that the brain will internalize it in the LONG TERM MEMORY, not just ‘dump’ the spelling because it doesn’t need it any more.

When children play the game at the beginning you can often find them saying,“What was that word again?” This shows just how quickly the brain removes information it considers irrelevant. After a few attempts at the game, pupils begin to remember better.

Because this game involves recalling memories and is repetitive and fun,this will develop the pupils experiences of memory recall. Use a small number of words only (maybe 6) and play the list through at least twice at each session.

How to play:
Write the words on individual cards.
Study the word.
Remove the word.


Throw the dice. The number you get decides which of the tasks you do.
1. write word with eyes shut
2. write word with opposite hand
3. spell word aloud backwards
4. write word in bubble writing
5. write each letter in different colour
6. write a word with a similar meaning.
(Change these numbers/task around when they become too familiar.Add different tasks)

The game can be adapted in many ways. You can use it to learn subject vocabulary and key terminology .You could use it to teach maths facts eg number bonds ( 8+2 .,7+ 3 , 6 + 4) or multiplication.etc.

This idea came from Sally Raymond.She is a qualified teacher of dyslexic children. Dicey Spellings comes from her book 'Dragonfly Games : Supporting and Developing Dyslexic Learning 7-14 David Fulton.

She runs local groups and a website for dyslexic children and their parents.Sally has written a book called Helping Children Cope with Dyslexia (2nd Ed.) Sheldon Press ISBN: 978-0-85969-875-7

Both books can be obtained from Amazon.com

http://www.amazon.com/