Sight Word Sign Language
Because written language often bars those with dyslexia from acquiring new words in their vocabularies, many approaches to teaching these children incorporate hand sign or sign language into their curricula. For parents and teachers using hand signs or sign language already with their children, these strategies are excellent for incorporating sight words into their vocabularies.
Strategies for Overcoming Dysgraphia
Many children with dyslexia are dysgraphic. This means that they have difficulty with their handwriting. They struggle to write words and what they produce is often unable to be read even by the child. In situations where teachers or parents are helping children with dysgraphia learn to read sight words, they should focus on reading these words visually and orally rather than writing them. If children do need to write sight words, they should be allowed to and encouraged to use phonetic spelling even if this means that the words are not spelled correctly.
Strategies for Teaching Sight Word Spelling
Spelling is one of the greatest hurdles that children with dyslexia must get over. When teaching these children to spell sight words, it is important that they first be able to read the words in print before working on spelling them. Once they can read the words, teachers and parents encourage children to use phonetic spelling (even if it is not correct) or their understanding of how particular phonemes are spelled to learn to write new sight words. They should also be encouraged to highlight the incorrect letters in their attempts at spelling and focus their learning on those few letters rather than the word as a whole.
Online Resources for Teaching Sight Words to Children with Dyslexia
- http://www.interdys.org
- http://dyslexia.wordpress.com/2006/07/23/sight-words-can-be-puzzling/
- http://www.dyslexia-teacher.com/t15.html
- http://dyslexia.mtsu.edu/modules/articles/displayarticle.jsp?id=47
- http://www.iser.com/resources/dyslexia-early-detection.html