Resources

Introduction

We make no attempt to duplicate these established and comprehensive resources here.

However, in the course of our business, we occasionally find (or write) articles, which, we believe, complement the information available from the BDA and Dyslexia Scotland, and may be of interest to our visitors.

So, there's a Dyslexic in the House.

If you are a parent, it is very important that you find out about dyslexia before discussing it with your child because they will need your informed support to help them realise that the problems they are experiencing are well understood and common to lots of people, that there is nothing wrong with them and that with appropriate help they can be successful.

You will also want to tell them that many famous people are, or were dyslexic and that being dyslexic is not all bad. People with dyslexia are often more artistic, more inventive or more perceptive than non-dyslexics.

Rather than say more here, we now defer to the experts; Dr Gavin Reid (Senior Lecturer, Educational Studies, Moray House School of Education, Edinburgh University) is a well known authority on dyslexia who has written several books on the subject.  He presented, at Dyslexia Scotland's 2004 Annual Conference, an encyclopaedic, yet accessible and informative paper on dyslexia, which he has very kindly allowed us to reproduce here. Further papers written by Dr Reid are available at www.gavinreid.co.uk.

We have put together this description of the typical behaviours of a dyslexic child at various ages.  It may make for depressingly familiar reading, but we have annotated it with various suggestions that we hope will help you to help your child.

If you would like to make a very basic check for dyslexic tendencies in your child, try the The Ann Arbor Dyslexia Checklist.  A similar Adult Dyslexia Checklist can be found on the Adult Dyslexia Organization website.

These more general reading and spelling tests are not specifically for identifying dyslexic tendencies, but you may find them useful,

• Free test to diagnose reading deficits, with on-line report. From age 6 - adult.
• Free reading and spelling tests
• Useful set of tests from the DfES

Books

The books we stock are titles that we have read and found to be accessible, informative and accurate, titles that are often recommended by recognised experts in the field or titles that are a little unusual.

For example, So, you think you've got problems? by Rosalind Birkett, which is intended to be read by young children with dyslexia, and is therefore formatted like a child's book with brightly coloured illustrations and a large clear font.

Audio books are widely available and are ideal for people with dyslexia because they give access to material that would otherwise be, quite literally, a closed book due to reading difficulties. In addition, dyslexics are often auditory learners and can benefit immensely from being able to listen repeatedly to the material.

We do not stock audio books, simply because the choice is massive and the need is already extremely well served by most mainstream highstreet and online book sellers.

We do however, stock SmartPass Audio Guides. These take the audio book concept a stage further to deliver audio education by providing guided audio dramas of the plays, novels and poetry that form the backbone of the schools' English literature curriculum across the UK. The dramas are performed by a cast of top actors, whilst an audio commentary teaches the student everything they need to understand the text and to develop the skills and strategy to do well in exams and coursework. They are intended for general use, but will be of particular value to people with dyslexia.

Schools, Teachers and Educational Psychologists

If your child is referred to the Support for Learning Teacher, he will initially be tested, using Teachers' tests, to measure his potential (IQ) and assess his level of achievement.  The teacher is looking for a discrepancy between IQ and achievement; that is, the child knows the answers orally, but cannot express them on paper. For some reason the child is not reaching their full potential.

The Support for Learning Teacher will assess where the weaknesses lie (e.g. visual and/or auditory memory weaknesses) and either provide support for the child or recommend a learning plan for the class teacher to follow.

The Support for Learning Teacher may decide that a fuller assessment of the child is required and refer the child to the Educational Psychologist.

Do not be alarmed if the school suggests that an Educational Psychologist should see your child. This is the best way to find out more accurately your child's difficulties, weaknesses and strengths. Educational, medical and social histories are obtained to eliminate conditions that can mimic dyslexic characteristics.

The Educational Psychologist will assess your child with more accurate tests than a teacher has access to or is trained to perform. Intelligence tests eliminate slow learning or low intelligence as being a cause of writing difficulties, by obtaining a measure of the intellectual level (or IQ). Discrepancies between the child's IQ, chronological age and attainment scores in reading, spelling, mathematics, writing and comprehension are assessed. The tests are usually fun and do not place the child in a stressful examination setting.

The Educational Psychologist will write a report highlighting the child's weaknesses, strengths and list recommendations. The recommendations may include aids (for example, a laptop computer, photocopied notes, an audio recorder), additional lessons, more time in examinations, scribes, readers, the use of a calculator in a non-calculator Maths examination etc. Ideally, the school should then put the recommendations into practice.

You should be aware that the school Educational Psychologist may be under difficult financial and time constraints when they assess your child. The Education Authority is not only paying for the Educational Psychologist to assess your child but also then has to bear the cost of implementing the report recommendations with limited resources. A full assessment can take up to two hours to perform. The school educational psychologist, faced with many pupils to assess, may find it difficult to allocate a full two hours per pupil.

It is possible to arrange for a private Educational Psychologist to assess your child, but be aware that some schools may not accept their findings. Private reports can be expensive and prices are rising (due, we suspect, to demand!).

Here are some further resources that you may find useful.

• Education Authority Contacts: If, having spoken with the Class Teacher, the Support for Learning Teacher and the Head Teacher, you feel that the school is proving reluctant to take action to help your child, you may wish to contact the Education Authority.  This list gives the Parent Contact for most of the Scottish Councils.

• Moira Thomson (Formerly Learning Support for Special Needs, Broughton High School, Edinburgh): Moira has written an extremely informative and practical paper on 'Dyslexia and Exams.' and has very kindly allowed The Dyslexia Shop to reproduce her paper here.

• Neil Mackay (Independent Consultant & Trainer): Neil presented an amusing, inspiring and thought provoking paper, 'Removing Dyslexia as a barrier to achievement- strategies for the mainstream classroom.' at Dyslexia Scotland's 2004 Annual Conference.  Neil Mackay suggested positive marking strategies, praise for asking questions and adjusting teaching styles to incorporate kinaesthetic, auditory and visual preferences and accepting work in different formats.  Neil has reviewed and approved our interpretation of his talk, and has very kindly allowed us to add it to our website.

Diet

Fish oils, which are rich in these fatty acids, taken as a food supplement, can help reduce the visual perceptual, attention and concentration problems that are characteristic of dyslexia.

Here is some background reading...

• "Omega 3 and all that" an introductory paper by Pat Grieve, Director of The Dyslexia Shop.

• Dr Alexandra Richardson has written an excellent article, Dyslexia, Dyspraxia and ADHD: Can Nutrition help? that clearly explains the significance of these supplements.

• The Dyslexia Research Trust's web-site www.dyslexic.org.uk also has excellent information on the current Dyslexia research.

• The Food and Behaviour Web site have interesting articles: www.fabresearch.org

• “They are what you feed them.” By Dr Alex Richardson

• “The LCP Solution-the remarkable nutritional treatment for ADHD, Dyslexia and Dyspraxia” by Dr Jacqueline Stordy and Malcolm Nicholl

• The Equazen web site has easy-to-understand explanations on everything you could ever want to know about fatty acids and their effects on learning difficulties. The Facts page has the latest research available for downloading www.equazen.com.

• Research has also shown that mothers, who were supplemented with Long Chain Fatty Acids during pregnancy and breast feeding, had children with improved intelligence when tested at 4 years of age. 'Maternal Supplementation With Very-Long-Chain n-3 Fatty Acids During Pregnancy and Lactation Augments Children's IQ at 4 Years of Age' Ingrid B. Helland, Lars Smith, Kristin Saarem, Ola D. Saugstad, Christian A. Drevn. Pediatrics Vol. 111 No.1 January 2003.

• Marianne Haag, MSc, DSc has written a very comprehensive article on 'Essential Fatty Acids and the Brain'.

Minerals

Zinc deficiency is prevalent in the general population. The average zinc intake is well below the minimum dietary recommended level. Zinc is needed for cell division and replication (problems for the foetus if the mother is zinc deficient) and the immune system. Stretch marks on the skin during puberty are thought to be caused by zinc deficiency.

Here is some background reading...

• See the British Medical Journal paper that answers the question 'What does Zinc do?'.

• Bernard Gesch found that supplementing prisoners' diets with vitamins, minerals and essential fatty acids caused a reduction in antisocial behaviour.  'Influence of Supplementary Vitamins, Minerals and Essential Fatty Acids on the Antisocial Behaviour of Young Adult Prisoners.' C. Bernard Gesch, Sean M. Hammond, Sarah E. Hampson, Anita Eves and Martin J. Crowder.

Exercise

The part of the brain known to be associated with these motor skills is the cerebellum.

There is evidence that the cerebellum is also involved in language and cognitive skills, including reading, and it is self-evident that handwriting is, in part, a motor skill.

Research has shown that the cerebellum in people with dyslexia is not as active when performing  tasks involving motor skills, which suggests that the neurological development of the cerebellum may be different in people with dyslexia. This is consistent with the observation that dyslexic children need to experience much greater levels of repetition before a skill becomes automatic.

There are a number of exercise programs available which are based on the theory that carefully chosen exercises can encourage development of the neural pathways in the cerebellum, and that this can result in a general improvement in motor skills thus causing an improvement in the higher-level cognitive processes that depend upon them.

There is growing acceptance of this theory in the research community, and early results from independent trials are encouraging, but the benefits have not yet been conclusively demonstrated.  There is apparently compelling anecdotal evidence, but beware of vested interests, some of these programs are expensive.

The prudent course of action at present is to regard exercise as a complementary therapy to more traditional and proven techniques such as multi-sensory teaching.  Encouraging your child to perform some light exercises certainly cannot do any harm.

There are a number of alternatives you may wish to consider.

• Occupational Therapist.  Your GP can refer your child to an Occupational Therapist specialising in exercises for children with Learning Difficulties.

• Brain Gym® UK.  Take a look at their research papers.

• Brain Gym® Edinburgh Centre

• Dore Achievement Centres formerly known as the Dyslexia, Dyspraxia and Attention deficit Treatment (DDAT) Centre.

• Institute for Neuro-Physiological Psychology (INPP)

Eyes

The condition is thought to be neurological, rather than due to an ocular defect. Put simply, the part of the brain that deals with vision is thought to incorrectly process the information coming from the eye, adversely affecting what the person "sees".

The main symptoms are:

• Light Sensitivity caused by bright sunlight, glare, bright lights, fluorescent lighting glare from lights and night vision.

• Contrast problems occur when the difference between light and dark is very pronounced, e.g. Black print on white paper can cause the print to appear to 'move'. Vertical or horizontal window blinds, striped and bold patterns can appear to move. These effects make reading anything from text, music, graphs, maps much more difficult to read. That is why this website uses a cream coloured background.

• Restricted field of clear vision. Only the few letters directly in the field of vision are in focus, the peripheral words are out of focus. As a consequence, the reader is more likely to lose his/her place, skip words and lines and be unable to read a passage at speed.

• Depth Perception is the ability to judge a distance accurately. Poor depth perception causes difficuties with ball sports, stairs, walking and bumping into objects, driving/cycling and judging heights.

People who suffer from this syndrome find it hard to read printed text.  The effort involved can result in tiredness and discomfort which causes reduced attention and concentration.

Fortunately it has been demonstrated that for many people, the use of coloured overlays or precision tinted glasses while reading can mitigate these effects substantially.  It is not entirely understood why this is the case, but the benefit has been verified by clinical trials.  The only caution is that before considering the use of colour to address reading difficulties, it is essential to establish, by means of a professional eye examination, that there are no undiagnosed ocular problems requiring conventional correction or training.

In particular, an eye examination should be performed by an optician before your child is assessed by an Educational Psychologist to eliminate ocular problems as the cause of the child difficulties with learning to read and write. The standard sight tests do not detect Scotopic Sensitivity Syndrome.

For further information:

• http://www.blackandlizars.com

• http://www.specsavers.co.uk  (Some branches do scotopic sensitivity screening tests)

• http://www.essex.ac.uk/psychology/overlays/overlaysM1.htm

• http://www.ceriumvistech.co.uk

• http://www.harrisdyslexia.com

An optician has to charge a private fee for the colourimeter testing and the coloured glasses. It may be possible to ask your GP to refer you to a unit that carries out Scotopic Sensitivity Testing under the NHS. Here is a list of units that perform scotopic sensitivity testing, but before making an appointment check whether the testing is carried out under the NHS or privately.

Ears

Pure tone audiometry assesses hearing loss by air and bone conduction. This is carried out by passing pure tone signals between 125Hz and 12kHz and at varying intensities via a vibrator behind the ear - for bone conduction - or via earphones - for air conduction. By plotting the patient’s hearing thresholds on an audiogram it can be easily seen which speech sounds can and cannot be heard.

Pure Tone Audiometry should be performed before your child is assessed by an Educational Psychologist to rule out hearing problems.

Sound Therapy

Sounds and speech are captured by the ears, converted into electrical signals, which then travel along nerves to reach the brain for processing. Sounds heard in the right ear are predominantly interpreted in the left side of the brain and vice versa.

In non-dyslexics, the right ear is better at interpreting speech sounds due to the nerve pathways that connect the right ear to the language centre in the left side of the brain. The left-ear-to-right-side of brain connection is better at interpreting non-verbal noises. E.g. dripping taps, slamming doors and music.

Dyslexics often analyse speech sounds entering their left ear and have no preferential ear when listening to verbal material. Dyslexics' language centres are not predominately in the left side of the brain. In the Dyslexic brain, language is analysed in both sides of the brain simultaneously. As a consequence, language and sound processing problems result.

Sound Therapy is designed to stimulate the nerve pathways between the right ear and left side of the brain and encourage sound processing in the left-brain language areas. The treatment, which lasts approximately 9 months, involves listening to specially recorded music tapes for 10 minutes a day. Hearing and language are assessed before and after treatment.

More information on Sound Therapy and a list of Speech and Language Therapists offering Sound Therapy Treatment can be found at: http://www.johansensoundtherapy.com/

Alternatively, ask your GP for a referral to a Speech and Language Therapist.

'A Scottish Executive Review of Speech and Language Therapy, Physiotherapy and Occupational Therapy for Children and Speech and Language Therapy for Adults with Learning Disabilities and Autistic Spectrum Disorder http://www.scotland.gov.uk/library5/health/rsltm-00.asp

Tutors

Dyslexia Scotland Helpline number: 08448 00 84 84 (lo-call rate)

Email: info@dyslexiascotland.org.uk

Dyslexia Action (formerly The Dyslexia Institute) provides an assessment and tutoring service for Dyslexic children and adults.

Desktop, Laptop and Pocket PCs, Portable Note Takers and PDAs

AbilityNet maintain a website called my computer my way!  that provides high value guidance on how to make your PC more accessible. The sections entitled "Help with Seeing the Screen" and "Help with Language and Reading" will be particularly relevant to dyslexics; and it is worth the effort, because, with appropriate software, a computer can be of great assistance in the education, personal organisation and achievement of someone with dyslexia.

So, what should I get?

We are often asked for recommendations on what to buy.

Unfortunately, there is no one right answer.  In general, you will want to have a "mobile device", that is, something you carry everywhere you go, and a "home device" that stays permanently on the desk at home.

School-age Children

For school-age children, our suggestion for their mobile device is the AlphaSmart Neo Portable Note Taker.

On the negative side, it is NOT a personal computer, it is essentially a full-sized keyboard with a 6-line display that has basic text entry / editing capability and can store what you typed until you can get to your home computer to upload it, or to a printer to print it out. (The Neo can drive a printer directly).

We suggest the Neo as the mobile device for school-age chidren because,

• it is lightweight (less than 30% of the weight of a typical laptop PC)
• it is robust
• it is very simple to use
• it has a full-size keyboard, so it's suitable for touch typing
• it offers no "distractions" such as games, graphics or instant messaging
• it is ready to go as soon as it is switched on
• it has a battery life measured in months (a laptop PC will not last for a full school day on one charge of its batteries).
• it is inexpensive (relative to a laptop PC) should it be damaged or lost.

For school-age children, our suggestion for their home device is a desktop computer.  A desktop computer is considerably less expensive than a laptop computer of equivalent performance.  Desktop computers are more easily upgraded and have fewer software compatibility problems, particularly with  games.  Unless you have significant space constraints at home, the size and portability of a laptop computer are of little advantage, especially if you are planning to attach peripherals such as an external display, a "proper" keyboard and mouse, document scanner or printer.

Students

For students at futher education, our suggestion is a laptop computer serving as both home and mobile device.

Students are likely to have accommodation space constraints, and are also likely to be using a broader range of software that they may wish to have access to when they are in lectures or laboratories.  Furthermore, many university campuses have wireless local area networks, which the student can connect to for web access and email with a wireless enabled laptop computer.

Adults

For adults the right choice is very dependent on their circumstances, the nature of their employment and so on.  However, our default suggession would be a PDA or pocket PC as the "mobile" device and a desktop computer as the "home" device, suitably configured so that the information (address book, appointments, notes etc.) in the PDA or PocketPC can be regularly "synchronised" with the equivalent information on the desktop computer.

Other Electronic Aids

Electronic Dictionary / Thesaurus

Typically these are pocket-sized calculator-like devices that fit easily and discreetly into a jacket or handbag.  The user can check the spelling and meaning of words.  If the device has a thesaurus capability, they will also have access to synonyms and antonyms.  They are ideal for those "dyslexic moments" when you cannot remember how to spell pneumatic, cannot think of another word for lovely, or are wondering how to pronounce obstreperous.

The selection of devices from the Franklin range that we stock in our online shop all feature Franklin's phonetic spelling correction (type "nolij" and it finds "knowledge"), as well as their confusables™ feature, which identifies and defines commonly confused words e.g. rain, reign and rein.  Both these features are particularly valuable to people with dyslexia.

Digital Voice Recorders

Digital voice recorders are small, lightweight and robust.  They can also record continuously for much longer than tape-based recorders (typically for several hours).  They are ideal for convenient and discreet voice memos, personal notes and other memory assisting audio recordings in lieu of making written notes, for example, in lectures and presentations.

The digital recorders that we stock in our online shop have been selected for ease of use, length of recording time available, high audio quality, and their ability to connect with a PC so that recordings can be downloaded for storing, or for transcription using voice recognition software. (Note: Voice recognition software is trained to a specific voice so transcription is only possible for recordings of that voice, it will not be able to transcribe other speakers.)

Software

The titles that we stock in our online store are all intended to teach or at least reinforce skills that children with dyslexia typically find difficult to automate.

None of the software packages in this category require a particularly high specification computer to run and they are compatible with most of the recent versions of Windows™.

Assistive Software

There is a wide range of assistive software available to help people with dyslexia achieve their full potential.

With suitable equipment, paper documents can be scanned and text-recognised to create an electronic equivalent. Electronic documents, whether generated by scanning, prepared in a word processor or even downloaded from the web can be "read out loud" by means of speech synthesis.

Ideas can be captured by speech recognition, mind-mapping, or simply by typing into a word processor, perhaps using word prediction to guide or accelerate the process and spelling correction to ensure that the end result is accurate.

Other tools can help with the collation and interpretation of information, and personal organisation.

However, a word of warning.  As we have said, there is a wide range of products available and some are very expensive.  Before spending your hard-earned money, try to see a demonstration of the software your are interested in, to verify that it meets your expectations and will fulfil your needs. 

AbilityNet provides information and advice, individual assessment of technology needs, the supply of assistive technology with free support, a programme of awareness education and consultancy for employers on system and workstation adaptations.

Typing Tutor Software

If a Dyslexic child has illegible writing or is slow at writing, it may be a good idea to ensure your child gains keyboard skills. Dyslexic children are allowed to use laptop computers for classwork and in examinations if their keyboard skills are superior to their handwriting skills. Do not wait until a few weeks before a major examination before you start looking for typing or computer classes.

A Dyslexic child, when copying from notes, often skips lines, misses out words and looses his place. Imagine the scenario: a child reads the notes, looks at the keyboard, tries to remember how to spell the word he is copying, tries to find the correct key, finds the key, but then forgets the original word, looks back at the text and can not find his original place. One can see the advantages of being able touch-typing. If the child knows how to touch-type, he can use his kinaesthetic memory to find the correct key on the computer keyboard without having to take his eyes off the text. This will enable work to be completed more accurately, neatly and without frustration.