Dyslexia Learning Styles

Learning should be:

structured and multisensory - this bypasses the organisational difficulties in the brain; integrating all learning pathways helps to ensure automatic memory.

Overlearning is vital:

practice till automatic: adults with dyslexia have short-term memory difficulties.

Use a variety of ways to practice spelling:

let adults choose the ones, which work best for them.

Work on one problem at a time.

Adults with Dyslexia often "overload":

Tune into this and you'll save a lot of time!

Use Right Brain skills:

like imagination, patterns, colour and visualisation to augment learning.

New Information needs to be given more than once:

even if the adult appears to understand it - dyslexics often have distractibility and short-term memory problems.

Dyslexics often find it difficult to generalise.

Develop a holistic approach:

another right brain strength - adults with dyslexia like to know the whole and then are happy to tackle the part.

Work to the adult's strengths:

avoid reinforcing failure, e.g., seeing incorrect spellings or making him do dictation or words he cannot spell.

Remind dyslexic, if necessary, of a spelling strategy for as long as they need you to:

that's "not cheating, but learning".

Give time:

for the dyslexic to organise their thoughts.

Encourage use of technology:

spelling dictionaries, memory aids, to get round the problem - why rub two sticks together when you can throw a switch!

Present learning material:

in a variety of different ways to help student generalise - some dyslexics find this difficult.

Adults who are dyslexic:

need to concentrate much more than other students because of their difficulties.

By recognising and discussing the nature of their difficulties with them:

we can enable them to come to terms with the condition, put it in perspective and take control of their learning.

Source and Copyright: Jenny Lee - Associate Member of the Adult Dyslexia Organisation