Dyslexia Outside-the-Box

Prewriting
° Brainstorm using mind maps, lists, etc.
° Select your topic: What is the subject of my writing?
° Determine your audience: Who will read the writing? What are their needs, biases, and prior knowledge?
° Determine your purpose: Why am I writing? What is my goal?
° Select your writing type: What type of writing is appropriate for this piece?

top 1,000 most frequently used words make up 90 percent of written English, and the top 3,000 make up 97 percent.

Orton-Gillingham phonics-based approach

Davis Sweep-Sweep-Spell strategy

Games to play to expand vocabulary:
° Rummy Roots™ vocabulary-building games teach Latin and Greek word roots borrowed by the English language.
° A fun, free resource for vocabulary building is www.freerice.com.
° Play various matching games using synonyms and antonyms to build vocabulary, such as Concentration, Old Maid, and Go Fish.
° Use any generic board game and move one space for each synonym or antonym a player can give for the vocabulary word-card that is drawn.

The Davis Picture-at-Punctuation strategy encourages students to use their strong picture-thinking skills to create a picture in their mind each time they reach a punctuation mark. This is to ensure that they understand what’s been read.

Students should master all five areas of reading: phonological and phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension.

Thomas West’s book In The Mind’s Eye: Creative Visual Thinkers, Gifted Dyslexics, and the Rise of Visual Technologies

l Strong social skills and high levels of empathy
l Excellent big-picture thinkers
l Good at making connections
l Three-dimensional thinking
l Strong narrative reasoning
l Inaccurate and/or non-fluent word recognition
l Poor spelling and decoding abilities
l Difficulty with organization of sounds to process language
l Slow or inaccurate reading, including mixing up similar words
l Poor written composition
l Difficulty understanding math word problems

Consider the differences between the two sides of the chart on the following page – flip-side strengths on the left compared to deficits on the right.
Flip-Side-Strengths Perspective2
Deficits Perspective3
l Good problem solvers
l Creative
l Observant