Tag Archives: dyslexia

Overcoming Dyslexia: Reading Tools for Improved Comprehension and Confidence

Dyslexia can impact a person’s reading, writing, and spelling abilities, but with the right support and customized strategies, individuals can effectively manage it. Early detection, specialized teaching methods, and ongoing encouragement are crucial in helping those with dyslexia gain confidence and succeed. By emphasizing individual strengths and utilizing personalized learning approaches, people with dyslexia can improve their skills and excel in both academic and daily life situations.

Reading tools can help individuals with dyslexia improve comprehension and confidence. Below are several effective options for support:

Reading Strips

Reading strips assist individuals with dyslexia by highlighting one line of text at a time. They help to reduce distractions and enhance focus, making it easier for readers to follow along with the text. By narrowing the visual field and isolating the line being read, these strips can significantly improve reading speed and comprehension. The use of reading strips also helps reduce visual stress and fatigue, which are often experienced by individuals with dyslexia.

Memory Aids for Retention

By helping individuals better process and organize what they have read, these aids contribute to a deeper understanding of the material and improve overall learning outcomes. They include techniques or devices designed to enhance memory by creating associations or visual cues. This helps in recalling information and connecting new knowledge with existing knowledge, thereby reinforcing learning and making it easier to retain important details.

Digital Tools

Digital reading tools provide an interactive experience that engages individuals with dyslexia, making reading more accessible. These tools guide users through the text in a way that improves comprehension and maintains focus, offering a more dynamic approach to managing digital content. They include features such as text-to-speech, adjustable text size, and customizable background colors, which cater to different reading preferences and needs.

Spelling Tools

Spelling aids provide visual cues and interactive elements that reinforce correct spelling patterns. By offering clear and consistent visual support, they help users recognize and remember how words are spelled. Over time, these aids lead to improved spelling accuracy and contributes to stronger writing skills. They include features such as color-coded letters, phonetic guidance, and visual memory prompts, which make learning to spell more engaging and effective.

Color-Coded Organizers

Color-coded tagging tools assist individuals with dyslexia in organizing and highlighting important information within a text. By assigning different colors to various types of content, such as key concepts, definitions, or main ideas, these tools help to visually differentiate and categorize information. The tools break down complex material into manageable sections, making the reading process more structured and intuitive.

For more information about reading tools for dyslexics, visit  www.see-n-read.com

The Benefits of Using See-N-Read Tools for Individuals with Dyslexia

Dyslexia is a neurological condition that affects an individual’s ability to read and process language. Individuals with dyslexia may have trouble with decoding words, recognizing sight words, and understanding the meaning of written text. However, with the right support and interventions they can achieve great success in their academic and personal lives. See-N-Read tools are reading aids that can help individuals with dyslexia improve their reading skills and comprehension. These tools are designed to enhance visual tracking, reduce distractions, and improve focus, making it easier for individuals with dyslexia to read and understand written text.

Listed below are some key benefits of using See-N-Read tools for individuals with dyslexia:

Improves Visual Tracking
Our research-based tools help individuals with dyslexia with better visual tracking and reduced word skipping. Visual tracking refers to the ability to follow a line of text from one word to the next. It is an essential skill for reading, as it allows readers to move their eyes smoothly across the page and process written text quickly and accurately. The reading guides feature a tinted window that highlights the line of text being read, while also reducing the contrast of the surrounding text, making it easier to focus on the current line.

Reduces Distractions
See-N-Read tools like Memory Mark can help reduce distractions by helping the reader isolate the line of text being read and underline or highlight key text. It is a great tool for helping readers of all age groups to improve focus and comprehension. The tool makes it easier to read for longer durations by reducing eye strain and fatigue.

Improves Reading Speed and Accuracy
Individuals with dyslexia may struggle with reading speed and accuracy. Reading can be a slow process for them and this may also reduce comprehension levels. See-N-Read’s reading strip can help improve reading speed and accuracy by guiding the reader’s eyes across the page and reducing distractions. This can help improve the speed and accuracy of reading, making it easier to process and understand written text.

Enhances Reading Comprehension
Another significant benefit of using See-N-Read tools for individuals with dyslexia is that they can help enhance reading comprehension. Tools like the ColorTag Study Recall System can help enhance reading comprehension by helping the reader to retrieve key information while reading while distinguishing between essential and non-essential information.

Improves Confidence and Self-Esteem
Finally, using See-N-Read tools can help improve confidence and self-esteem for individuals with dyslexia. The tools can provide a sense of support and encouragement by making reading a more accessible and manageable task. By improving reading speed and accuracy, and enhancing comprehension, individuals with dyslexia can gain confidence in their abilities and feel more positive about their reading skills. This can have a ripple effect on other areas of their lives, leading to increased self-esteem and a greater sense of accomplishment.

See-N-Read tools can provide numerous benefits for individuals with dyslexia. The tools are U.S. Patent Awarded and made of toxic-free materials. They can be used with any reading material/curriculum. To know more about the See-N-Read tools, you can visit 2533 Sutton Lane, Aurora, IL 60502-9461 or call at 1-630-236-5592. You can also browse the learning tools at www.see-n-read.com or connect on Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus and YouTube.

Dyslexia vs. Struggling to Read Correctly

Kids struggle with reading for a variety of reasons, from difficulties with processing to attention issues like ADHD that prevent a child from truly focusing on the task at hand. Understanding which issue is triggering the difficulty can help you come up with strategies that help the struggling reader succeed and make the most of their abilities.

If you suspect that a disability like dyslexia is involved, it is important to encourage the child’s family to seek out an evaluation by a professional. If diagnosed, specific strategies designed to help people with this condition can be incorporated into your teaching and routine. Since dyslexia impacts performance in a variety of ways, a reader with this condition may not improve with the strategies you’d typically use.

Learning more about dyslexia can help you to aid a struggling reader in the classroom and at home.

What is Dyslexia?

More than just a simple reversal of letters or numbers, dyslexia is a brain based issue that causes a child to wrestle with spelling, writing, reading and even speaking. With this condition, students strain to process or identify some types of information, from identifying letter sounds or the actual symbols to understanding blends and comprehending what they are reading.

Dyslexia can’t be outgrown or cured, but accommodations can be made via an IEP (individualized education plan) to help students with this condition. Some states have laws designed to protect students with dyslexia that offer more than the Federal IDEA law and can be used to assist students diagnosed with this learning disability.

Signs of Dyslexia

  • The most well-known symptom is letter reversal
  • Above-average difficulty pairing letters with sounds or matching sounds to letters
  • Switching beginning sounds when pronouncing words or phrases, like using “mawn lower” in place of “lawn mower” in conversation
  • Trouble reading aloud or grouping phrases or words
  • Inability or difficulty with sounding out new words
  • Difficulties with handwriting or getting letters in the wrong order when writing
  • Trouble with rhymes and rhyming words

Learning How to Read vs Dyslexia

A child who is wrestling with a new concept or process will likely learn it eventually; a child with dyslexia may not unless strategies designed to particularly target that condition are used. As a child with dyslexia works and struggles to process and comprehend words, his inability to pair letters with sounds or sounds with letters stands in the way of improvement.

Getting Help for a Struggling Reader

One of the most difficult things about helping readers is determining which kids are simply in the process of discovering new concepts and/or finding their best learning style and which children are actually coping with a disability or condition that impacts the way that they learn.

Providing support for a developing reader is an ideal first step, with strategies designed to engage and help a new reader “get it”. Simple changes like reading aloud each day and incorporating a research-based tool such as the See-N-Read® reading strip to isolate specific text without hiding the rest of the passage can help the developing reader succeed and may have a positive impact on the child with dyslexia.

If traditional, tried and true strategies are simply not working and the child is working hard but making little progress, it may be time to look at the possibility of a learning disability like dyslexia. Diagnosis of a condition like this will not only make it easier for the child to learn in a supportive environment, it will provide key protections and opportunities under IDEA and any dyslexia-specific state laws.

Understanding the signs of dyslexia and why some kids cannot improve without specific strategies and intervention can enable teachers to help struggling readers succeed. Learning more about “invisible” disabilities like dyslexia provides teachers with more tools to ensure success and help those students who are struggling with reading to succeed.

The “Language” Barrier: Why Students Struggle to Read Correctly and What You Can Do To Help

When a child has difficulty reading, it’s important to understand that it isn’t necessarily because they’re not reading fast enough or they’re having a hard time discerning the meaning of the words. Oftentimes, issues develop with the physical act of reading itself. Kids can have a hard time staying on the proper line as their eyes move across a paragraph (thus changing the order of the words), or may accidentally switch words around in their heads.

This “Language” barrier (that is to say, a barrier not with any particular idea, but with language as a form of visual communication) is very real and is affecting millions of kids right now.

The Language Barrier: Facts and Figures

According to one study, more than $2 billion is spent every year to help students who are forced to repeat their current grade for no other reason than that they have a reading problem. A distressing fact from the National Research Council’s Committee on Preventing Reading Difficulties in Young Children is that the education of an estimated 25 to 40 percent of kids in the United States is in danger because, for a variety of reasons, they find reading too difficult.

According to a report commissioned by the National Institutes of Health, up to 10 percent of people across the country of all ages have these types of specific, brain-based reading difficulties – including those who are characterized as having average or above average intelligence. 

It’s particularly important to address this situation in young children because taking corrective measures while someone is still in their formative years has a profound positive impact on the rest of their lives.

Finding a Solution

Addressing this issue requires a certain change in perspective. A student who is struggling to read correctly for these types of reasons does not have a problem to be “fixed” or “eliminated”. They have a problem that must be solved. It’s about finding a solution to the issue, which is why assistive devices like those available from See-N-Read® Learning Tools are so essential.

At their core, the learning tools from See-N-Read® are designed to give readers the ability to support the cognitive and visual skills required to not only read faster and more effectively, but to also process and remember that information more easily. They don’t address the symptoms a person may be experiencing, but instead offer a solution by way of improved and supported fluency – that is, the ability for a person to read text at a natural, accurate pace.

The See-N-Read® reading strip, for just one example, uses a clear strip to essentially “highlight” a full line of text on a page WITHOUT visually blocking other lines that may be valuable for context. The text is essentially emphasized, allowing a reader with difficulties to focus on the current line while still improving fluency and overall comprehension.

When students suffer from reading difficulties, it can be overwhelming for everyone involved – from parents to teachers to, most importantly, the students themselves. Teachers who utilize research-based, classroom-tested products to students that support natural reading processes will improve student performance in multiple subject areas. Such research-based tools offer functional solutions that create an environment where students can truly flourish.

4 Reasons Kids Have Reading Problems and How You Can Help

As a classroom teacher, you know how important reading is to the success of your students. For those that struggle with this skill, though, the causes might not be as clear. Some of the most common reasons that make it difficult for youngsters to read include:

1. Attention-deficit disorder (ADD) and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)

A brain-based condition, attention-deficit disorder (ADD) is the most common one identified in children. Its core symptom is a lack of focus that can make it difficult for kids to stay on task. In many children, this lack of focus is coupled with hyperactivity — attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) — which can lead to fidgeting and/or acting out in class.  Too often, these kids are merely labelled as ‘behavior problems’.

2. Dyslexia

Dyslexia is another brain-based condition that can make it difficult for children to learn to read. Youngsters with dyslexia often find recognizing letters and their accompanying sounds laborious. Recognizing and sounding out new words and connecting rhyming can be challenging for these kids. Skipping words and losing their place while reading are other common issues seen in children who have dyslexia, partly because they’re spending so much effort on decoding. Dyslexia can also make reading comprehension exhausting.

3. Visual processing disorder

A child with a visual processing disorder could struggle with recognizing the differences between shapes and/or letters. The order in which the letters appear might be jumbled. Word and line-skipping is common due to visual processing or eye control issues. Kids with visual processing disorder often complain of seeing double or that their vision is blurry.

4. Auditory processing disorder (APD)

Students who have auditory processing disorder (APD) have difficulty processing what they hear. This makes it difficult for them to understand directions or grasp the plot of a story that is read aloud to them. Because reading involves successfully connecting each letter with its appropriate sounds, APD makes it challenging for kids to hear the subtle differences between letters that are essential for reading.

How You Can Help

Whether your struggling students have been formally diagnosed with one of the above conditions, they are undergoing testing to determine if there is a medical explanation for their struggles or they exhibit some telltale signs, there is a practical solution you can offer in your classroom to help them now. See-N-Read® Learning Tools were developed based on the latest research. Classroom tested, simple to implement in the learning program of any child and affordable, See-N-Read® Reading Tools help children stay focused on specific lines of text. This invaluable resource helps the child keep the place on the page to improve reading performance, reduce frustration and increase confidence