While one in 10 children has dyslexia, many teachers may be unfamiliar with learning strategies to help support these students, particularly since many students remain undiagnosed. This guide from Scholastic dispels some common misconceptions as well as offers some best practices that educators can implement. Students with dyslexia are very strong learners, and strategies that support them are also high-level teaching methods that support all students. Here are a couple of highlights from this resource:
- Have students write letters in sand or another material to engage kinesthetic learners. One teacher recommends using “glitter letters, so that they can feel the bumpiness with their fingers.”
- Teach spelling with rhymes and other mnemonic devices to better aid auditory learners.
- Allow students to submit work in a variety of mediums – reading comprehension can be shown not only through a writing task, but also through a drawing, skit, video or song.
- Increase the amount of high-quality professional development around best practices for dyslexic learners. States that are implementing policy to support these efforts are seeing success.
