Children at School

Ten percent of the population has dyslexia. Based on this, one in every ten children in a classroom will struggle with some form of dyslexic difficulties.

Thus, it is important that every teacher has some knowledge of dyslexia, how to recognise it, and how to go about teaching dyslexic children.

Starting school, children learn to read by using decoding skills such as recognising letters by sight and learning letter sounds. Then they begin to put the letters and sounds together to form words. For children with dyslexia, this decoding process is a challenge. They may be able to hear and see perfectly well but the messages that the brain sends get confused. For example they may be unable to differentiate between certain sounds such as ‘p’ and ‘b’ or see letters correctly spaced.

Dyslexic children often have a good ability to think creatively and abstractly but basic reading and spelling skills can be weak. They can feel stupid because they observe their peers reading and making progress and they feel they cannot keep up. If the child continues to experience failure in the classroom, his/her self-esteem suffers as a result.

Fortunately, most children with dyslexia are able to learn strategies and techniques to cope with these problems. Assisting the child requires the co-operation of parents and teachers, sometimes working in conjunction with specialist tutors.