How to Teach a Dyslexic Child to Read

 

Note that the program takes the following information at a much slower pace and incorporates each item with reading sentences and word lists, writing words according to their sounds and rules, and writing sentences and doing many exercises to reinforce the material.

 

Step 1

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Start with the short vowel sounds:

Have the child associate the sounds with words with pictures.  Whenever they get stuck on a short vowel, ask them what word goes with that particular vowel.                                                         

 

ă  -  - apple

      ĕ -  - elephant

 ǐ - - igloo

     ŏ -- octopus

     ŭ   -- umbrella 

                                       

 Step 2 

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Go over all of the consonants sounds. 

Make sure your child knows that ‘x’ makes the /ks/ sound.  Then put short vowels and consonants together (do this different ways; write them out, or use letter tiles, or plastic refrigerator letters), having the child read the sounds.  Have them make up sounds and you read them.  Example:  pa, ti, gu, ga, mi, am, ot, it, ud

 

* Note that at this stage all vowels are short, sounds like "do" are not pronounced as "due", instead it should be pronounced with a short 'o' as in "octopus".

 

When this is learned, add a consonant to make a "short vowel sandwich", such as "dag"" or "mab".  Have the child read and write these out.   Remember, these are just sounds, they don't need to be real words.

 

 

Step 3

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Teach the consonant blends:

st                br                sn                cl                 tr                 bl                cr

 

fl                 gr                sc                sp               sm               sl                 pl

 

     dr                pr                sw               tw               gl                 fr                 sk     

 

str               scr               spl

 

Add short vowels to the consonant blends, and have your child read those sounds.  Example:  fla,  stra,  stri,  spla

 

Have them make up words using the blends, a short vowel and another consonant:  Example: flat, strap, strip, splat

 

 

Step 4

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Teach long vowels: a, e, i, o, u

Show words with long vowels. (c = consonant, v = vowel)

 

1.     c-v-v-c  as in pail, green, dream, goal

Here, when 2 vowels are next to each other, the first one is long and the second vowel is usually silent.

 

2.     v-c-v    as in game, time, tune  

Here, when 2 vowels are separated by a consonant, the first vowel (on the left) is usually long.  The second vowel can be any vowel (not just the letter ‘e’).   Example : rhinoceros - here the ‘i’ is made long by the ‘o’. 

 

 

Step 5

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Teach the following sounds.  Put them on index cards for reviewing, have the child write as many words as possible with these sounds, or make up nonsense words.

 

Teach the following sounds; put on index cards and have your child read each sound, using short vowels (except for ‘ang’ and ‘ank’, where the ‘a’ is long as in “bang” and “bank”).

 

* Note that 'er', 'ir' and 'ur' sound the same.

 

'tion' and 'sion' = /shun/

The vowels are long in these, except for ‘ition’ and ‘ision’, where ‘i’ is short:

ation           etion           ition            otion           ution

asion           esion           ision            osion           usion

 

'tial' and 'cial' = /shal/ (again, vowels are long, except for the 'itial' and 'icial', where the 'i' is

short:

atial           etial           itial           otial           utial

acial          ecial          icial           ocial         ucial

 

Put these sounds to words; have the child make words or pick them out of a book. 

 

 

Step 7

Teach the following rules:

1.     When ‘c’ is /s/:  'c' has the /s/ sound when c is followed by an ‘e’, ‘i’ or ‘y’ (this is always true) as in "place" and "chance"

2.     When ‘g’ is /j/:  'j' has the /j/ sound when g is followed by an ‘e’, ‘i’ or ‘y’ (not always true) as in "gem" and "cage"

3.     The letter ‘y’:

·        At the beginning of a word = long ‘e’ as in “yes”

·        In the middle of a word =  short or long ‘i’ as in “myth” or “hyper”

·        At the end of a word = long ‘e’ or ‘i’ as in “happy” and “try”

4.     Words ending in a vowel (or vowels):

·        a = /ah/ as in “Africa”

·        ia = long ‘e’ followed by short ‘a’ as in “dyslexia” and “bacteria”

·        o = long ‘o’ as in “halo”

·        u = long ‘u’ as in “snafu”

 

Step 8:

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Teach the high frequency words, especially the ones that aren’t spelled the way they sound: