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Dyslexia

Dyslexia

What is dyslexia?
Dyslexia is a specific learning difficulty which hinders the learning process in relation to reading, writing and spelling. When the ability to recognise and manage numbers is affected it is sometimes called dyscalculia. These difficulties are often called specific learning difficulties. These are lasting difficulties but do not affect all learning skills. In many cases children who have dyslexia can achieve at or above the average level in other areas.
Dyslexia may affect:

What are the learning implications?
Pupils with dyslexic-type difficulties make mistakes in reading and writing. For example, some letters and numbers are swapped or back-to-front. The connection between letter shape and sound is difficult to learn and remember. When they are learning to read, some of the usual ways of working out unknown words are harder for them than others. More able readers will recognise a word through its shape, or by looking at parts of the word, letter groups, syllables or the meaning of the sentence. Dyslexic pupils often have difficulty with one, or more, of these methods. And when they start to write, the letters are often drawn wrongly and writing may not flow.

In addition, pupils with dyslexia can also find problems with directions, map-reading, recognising left and right and reading music.

Dyslexia affects some pupils very little. Others find that they face real difficulties in learning, their confidence and self-esteem are affected and they lose motivation.

Pupils may find that they need help in recording what they know – for example, with the use of dictaphones, charts, diagrams or models.

How might the TA give support?
A TA can:

Where can more information be found?
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