In my practice I have worked with many children with dyslexia, which is referred to by professionals as a ‘specific learning disorder’.
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At LALI Service (Language & Literacy Intervention for children) we focus on explicit phonics instruction using the Sounds-Write Phonics sequence of teaching. Students are shown, through interactive lessons, how words are broken up into small units of sounds, helping them to overcome the difficulty they have with processing sounds, and connecting sounds with the corresponding written symbol. Mastery is developed through the use of specialised tools and repetitive daily practise.
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At LALI students have access to a range of decodable readers and later, levelled texts. This allows dyslexic children to access books at their level of proficiency. The instructor focus’ on helping students overcome common errors, such as omitting or inserting words into the text, and correcting any confusion the child may have with words similar looking words, for example, ‘for/from’. When the student’s reading is fluent, the focus shifts from decoding to comprehension, using the Sharp Reading Program.
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In the early years, children are taught letter formation using ‘sky, grass, dirt’ paper with a special focus on letter reversals. Once they can spell a bank of words they are carefully taught how to plan, write and edit recounts, persuasive texts and reports, using a range of supportive writing devices and carefully selected writing apps. When writing the children are taught how to develop interesting sentences, use a range of sentence starters and sequencing ideas in a logical order, bridging the gap between their oral and written skills.
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At LALI children have access to a range of engaging and fun literacy games that have targeted outcomes to further develop their language skills.
