Parents, who discover their child is dyslexic often ask the important question: Should my child attend a mainstream school or should he or she be sent to a school specializing in teaching students with learning difficulties? There is no right or wrong answer. Because every child with dyslexia is different and no one will have the exact same struggles, what works for someone else may not work in their case.
Dyslexia School
All school programs that support children with dyslexia must have the goal of preparing them for success. This includes helping students with dyslexia to learn coping strategies and finding accommodations to aid learning difficulties. It also involves recognizing their talents and providing opportunities for them to develop them. Dyslexia can be severe or mild and may impact a student in many different ways.
Is Dyslexia A Disability?
It is possible to learn a lot from a school’s approach toward learning differences through the language they use when raising awareness among students and staff, as well as in public forums.
Dyslexia can still be called a Learning Disability. However, schools, government agencies, and schools use learning problems and learning differentiation. A disability suggests that a person is less competent than his or her peers. A learning problem indicates that there may be challenges that can’t be overcome. A specific learning difference simply indicates that the child is non-neurotypical. Learn more in this article about learning difficulties.
What Are You Looking For In A School?
Teacher Qualifications
Students who are dyslexic may be very smart, but they may have trouble with comprehension, copying, and holding onto information in their short-term memory. This can be a problem in school and requires a dyslexia-friendly approach to instruction. It’s helpful to have staff trained in dyslexia-related remediation. They can empathize and adapt lesson delivery as needed. Printing handouts using a dyslexia-friendly font may be possible. It might include knowing how to avoid putting a child on the spot if they are reading out loud to the class or taking a turn writing on paper.
Teacher Training
Many teachers have not been trained to work with dyslexic students. Is there any support available for teachers not trained in dyslexia? Teachers should also be trained on a regular basis to stay abreast on new research findings and how they impact classroom learning. Local dyslexia groups have been known to sometimes subsidize this training.
Large classes may make it easier for students to slip into the background, allowing them to focus on their skills and less on learning differences. Teachers also have to be more flexible in their teaching methods and adapt to the learners’ needs.
Flexibility
Students with learning problems may need to continue at their own speed, reviewing and repeating material until it is ready for them to move on. This can sometimes be described as “over-learning” so that something is permanently ingrained in the long-term brain. Even gifted learners who have dyslexia can benefit from the ability to move on and explore their interests. How rigid are the school curricula? Do teachers realize that students can have both good and bad days? Students may find it more difficult to cope with schoolwork than their peers.
Read Academy offers a structured program of Phonics that helps students improve their sight reading and decoding skills. They also automate spelling by making it a series of muscle movements. Students feel more confident and self-assured as they learn because the course is designed to make them feel successful.
