Materials for Parents

Materials for Parents

In this blog, we will be sharing a wide variety of materials that parents can use to support their children with dyslexia at home. The materials listed are for a wide range of age groups. Whether your child is at the beginning of their educational journey or preparing to graduate high school, there are some useful resources that can be used to support them as they grow as learners.

Parent Materials

Sight Words

Reading with fluency and prosody allows students to focus on the meaning of the text as they are putting in less effort to read each word (Young et al., 2018). Helping students to build a bank of sight words is important to fluency. Sight words are words that often do not follow phonics rules, therefore, making decoding difficult (Young et al., 2018). When parents can reinforce sight word practice at home teachers can use time at school to embed sight word practice while focusing on other key parts of literacy instruction.

Try Sight words with an Artistic Flair

1. On an index card write a sight word on both sides of the card.

2. On one side, let your child add their art to help them remember the word; for example, the word through could have a cave going through the letter o.

Phonological Awareness

Students that struggle to learn to read and struggle with phonological awareness may show a developmental delay, but those with dyslexia have an atypical development in this area (Kuppen & Goswami, 2016). Creating fun games to help children build phonological awareness skills can support readers with dyslexia in this area by offering engaging but intense practice. Parents can assist teachers in this area by providing at-home practice for a student with dyslexia. This PreKinders site has free downloads that parents can use to create games at home.

(Cox et al., 2020)

Self-Confidence

We often forget the important role that self-confidence plays in supporting our students with learning difficulties. The challenges of learning can wear our students with dyslexia down; therefore, it is vital that we do all that we can in order to help them build confidence and self-esteem (Shaywitz, 2020). The I am Awesome: A 90 Day Empowerment Workbook for Kids is a great resource for helping children feel grateful for who they are and their ability to overcome the obstacles they may face. Each activity takes children (ages 6-12) about three minutes per day to complete. The workbook allows students to draw or write and even provides them with a word bank to support them in putting their thoughts into words.

$7.99

Letter Recognition

Early in school prekindergarten and kindergarten students move through clearly defined stages of reading development that is obvious by shifts of knowledge as new skills are used by students. Students have reached the full-alphabetic phase when they can accurately read words using letter and sound knowledge (Handsfield, 2016). At home, parents can support literacy learning by practicing letter and sound knowledge to help their child become accurate word readers. Lakeshore has a fun-filled family game to practice just this! This hands-on game will increase the ability to identify letters. This game includes instructions, a game board, 52 fish tiles, a timer, and two bags.

$29.99

Decoding

Once early readers have grasped the full-alphabetic phase the speed and accuracy of reading will increase as students gain phonics skills (Handsfield, 2016). This Phonics Grab-and-Play game from Lakeshore includes three memory-style phonics challenges in which players turn over cards to match pictures with their correct word. Skills practice with this game are consonant-vowel-consonant words (cat, dug), short and long vowel sounds, digraphs (/sh/, /th/, etc.), and blends (/tr/, /bl/, etc.). Everything is in the box to enjoy this game. You can expect a game board, 60 cards, an answer card, and an activity guide. This game is best with 2-4 players.

Spelling

By using larger units of letter-sound correspondence to read words students are beginning to recognize and use spelling patterns in the consolidated-alphabetic phase (orthographic phase) (Handsfield, 2016). This is an important step to becoming an automatic reader. Word Scramble is a fun way to repeatedly practice spelling patterns of words using manipulative letters that parents can engage children in quick and daily practice. Parents should pick a pattern and focus on some words and practice until those are mastered before moving to a new spelling pattern. If your child brings home a spelling list use those lists as your guide for what to practice (Alex, 2021).

Additionally, These magnetic letters are found on the WalMart website. I like them because both lowercase and uppercase letters can be purchased in one set; however, there are a variety of options. Magnetic letters are a great way to help children practice spelling at home.

Activities, Printables & Games

The Dyslexia and Literacy International website offers a plethora of free and ready-to-use materials for parents to support their children with dyslexia. All of the resources are evidence based and non-commercial. This source links to activities and games, printable materials, and even e-books. It is truly a treasure trove of free materials for anyone needing resources that will help learners with dyslexia.

Text-to-Speech Converters & E-Books

Additionally, the Dyslexia and Literacy International website links to some wonderful assistive technology sources. Research shows that students who use e-books with audio support as well as traditional books developed into stronger readers (Fox, 2014). Especially as students get older and the amount of reading required for students multiplies, text to speech converters give students with dyslexia a means to digest all of the words needed to be successful in their courses. One of the free speech converters that this site includes is NaturalReader, which has a free version as well a paid version with more options. Dspeech is another speech converter that can be incredibly helpful for students with dyslexia. Furthermore, this site has links to several e-books site such as E-books for All, which is a wonderful free and legal site with hundreds of e-books.  Reading Planet offers great free e-books to our younger readers. When using assistive technologies, it is important to remember that there is a learning curve, and students should start practicing using them before a school year begins (Shaywitz, 2020).

Organization and Planning

As students with dyslexia get older and are transitioning into adulthood, organization and planning become vital skills. It is important for students to start practicing these skills before they leave the nest (Shaywitz, 2020). Good Sensory Learning offers a variety of materials that will allow students with dyslexia more opportunities to focus on those skills that are most challenging for them. For instance, this planning and time management organizer is a great resource to help students with dyslexia stay organized. Organization can be a key skill set when it comes to thriving as a student.

$29.97

Bibliography