Have you heard of Set for Variability (SFV)? It’s a powerful tool which can transform the reading experience for learners. I first heard this phrase at a British Dyslexia Association International Conference several years ago. Like many things in the world of teaching, it sounds more complicated than it is. SFV takes place after phonemic […]

Dyslexics are in the main visual thinkers. Most knowledge and thoughts are stored as pictures or in image form and time is needed to translate these into words.  People with dyslexia typically forget what they hear and are poor auditory learners, however, they remember what they see and once something is known it is not […]

Learning to tell analogue time is a persistent difficulty for dyslexic learners. Why is it so tricky? For one, it is hard to differentiate between the two hands. In addition, counting is typically done on number lines or tape measures – straight lines – yet this number line is circular and NEVER STOPS! Moreover, time […]

People that are good spellers can picture how words look. Whilst dyslexics typically have strong visual abilities (in design and creative fields) this does not extend to orthographic memory (memory for how words look). There are lots of ways you can try to tap into a strong visual skill: Mindmapping words connected by a shared […]

A few years ago, I took a job as a Reading TA with Reception children. I hadn’t worked extensively with this age group before and I was studying (in the final year) of my Masters in SpLD (dyslexia). I was particularly interested in the Reception phase as research shows this is particularly important – students […]

The above is the Frayer model, developed in 1969 by Dorothy Frayer at the University of Wisconsin. It has been championed by Alex Quigley and it is perfectly fine for the majority of students. However, for students with low working memory, this method is insufficient to enable new vocabulary to stick. This is the eternal […]

Metacognition is not new and is simply thinking about thinking. ‘Metacognition means “thinking about one’sown thinking”. There are two aspects of metacognition: –reflection- thinking about what we know and self-regulation managing how we go about learning. Taking together, theseprocesses make up an important aspect of learning anddevelopment. Developing these metacognitive abilities is notsimply about becoming […]

I’ve been following the ongoing phonics debate in Australia with interest. Many parents are calling for the introduction of the Phonics Screening Check (PSC) and state Education Ministers are opposing it. Is phonics a panacea? Introduced in 2012, can we categorically say the PSC has been a success? Children are still failing to learn to […]

  Guided spelling or ‘Spelling between the desks’, is a new concept of mine! Informed in part by mine and others’ approaches to maths. We are essentially trying to get inside the mind of the student to help to guide and explore their own thinking, in order to model HOW to think analytically about spelling. […]

It can be difficult for Primary schools to identify dyslexia, one of the reasons is that emphasis is on development and some students not being ‘ready’. How to spot dyslexia: The suggestion is that given time and opportunity to catch up, they will. Dyslexia is, however, a specific difficulty and students do not typically catch […]