A dyslexic child will not usually
‘pick up’ reading skills.
work out the structure of words and regularities on his/her own.
generalise a spelling rule or pattern learned in one word and apply it to other words.
learn to spell words correctly just because he/she has seen them several times.
remember a pattern or rule even though it was initially understood.
Specialist Online Tuition for Children
Principles of Specialist Teaching
structured and sequential - to make it more logical to understand.
cumulative - previously learned materials are constantly revisited.
multi-sensory - to stimulate as many pathways in the brain as possible.
phonic-based - to gain a thorough knowledge of the correspondence between letters and sounds.
practice and over-learning - to store in long term memory.
regularity and routine - to encourage independent learning.
Our expert specialist tuition for children and young people supports all those who struggle with the attainment of literacy skills (dyslexic or not!). We recognise that each learner is unique and requires individual, targeted support in a non-competitive environment to succeed. Teaching is structured, cumulative and multi-sensory and moves at the pace of the learner. Our aim is to improve literacy skills, boost self-confidence and develop independent learning.
Many students with literacy difficulties struggle to keep up in a normal classroom environment and can be overwhelmed by the expectations placed upon them. Once students realise that they can learn at their own pace, their confidence increases.
Pre-reading skills
It is essential to build a solid base on which to build literacy skills and so the initial aim for young children is to learn accurate and fluent alphabet skills. Once secure, they move onto more challenging activities to improve auditory discrimination. Carefully structured activities cover phonological awareness, word recognition, phonics, graphic knowledge and spelling. When the child is ready, it’s time to move on to the next stage.
units of sound
At the core of our teaching is the Units of Sound, a structured, cumulative literacy intervention program which teaches reading (emphasis on decoding), spelling and writing skills. It starts with all 26 letters of the alphabet and basic cvc words, e.g. dog and progresses onto blends, digraphs and multi-syllabic words.
There are separate placement tests for reading and spelling and students are placed where they are working comfortably, not where they are struggling. Units of Sound focuses on teaching auditory and visual patterns, rather than individual words. Revisiting is a guiding principle so that students learn in the most natural way. Each unit of sound occurs in all four programs, so the student meets the words and sounds in different settings. By the time any word appears in dictation, the student should feel confident in reading, spelling and writing it.
Reading for comprehension and speed
Supplementary activities
Each lesson starts with a warm-up activity and ends with a fun game with the teacher. During the lesson, each child works on their own individual programme, which has been set by the Specialist Teacher. Supplementary activities encourage independent learning as many are self-checking and empower the child to take control of their learning and build confidence in a fun way. The activities cover such skills as reading comprehension, reading at speed, verb tenses, grammar and punctuation.