Teachers Working with Dyslexia in the Classroom

As an educator, providing the tools for students who are living with reading disabilities, such as dyslexia, can be challenging. There are so many facets that play a role in helping a student overcome the barriers associated with learning with this condition. Gaining a better understanding of the difficulties your students face in learning with dyslexia, and knowing the tools to support better learning in the classroom, such as literacy technology, will help you be successful in your role as an educator.

Understanding What it’s Like to Learn with Dyslexia

1 in 5 students are living with a language based learning disability, with the most common being dyslexia. Affecting the left temporal lobe of the brain, dyslexia is a lifelong condition making written and oral language difficult. As an educator, it is important to understand that this condition is common and there are many different ways to adapt your teaching styles in order to help students be as successful as they can be. Some common adaptive teaching practices to effectively reach students with dyslexia include:

• Creating an Outline for each Lesson: Students with dyslexia have difficulties understanding sequencing and keeping long term memories. Providing an outline for the lessons being taught helps move information from the short term memory to the long term memory.
• Using Different Colors When Writing Information on the Board: Whether you are using a chalkboard, white board or some other form of written communication, it's important to use different colors for each line when sharing information with the class. This helps students with dyslexia to distinguish the written words easier and more accurately copy them down to their notes.
• Utilizing Literacy Technology Inside the Classroom: Literacy technology, like kurzweil 3000, immensely helps students who have dyslexia excel holistically in the classroom. All learners deserve the tools that help them unlock their potential, and learning technologies help you provide access to your curricula with a powerful, multisensory approach to learning built on innovative, research-based technology.

How Literacy Technology Helps Students Learning with Dyslexia

Integrating tools like kurzweil 3000 helps educators successfully reach students across academic levels, from K-12 and beyond. Literacy technology helps learners at any reading level use the same materials as their counterparts, allowing them to further their academic education as they improve their literacy skills. Educational technology provides the opportunities for teachers to adapt to every student's learning style and has features such as:

• Step-by-Step Instructions for Students Educators can insert student-specific instructions to help guide them to next steps or recall certain memories or actions.
• Digital Classroom Materials: Students with dyslexia often struggle with organization. Literacy technology creates a completely digital hub for assignments, notes, reading materials, and more, eliminating confusion and lost papers.
• Spell Check While Writing: Many learners with dyslexia have extreme difficulties with spelling. Learning technologies help combat that by checking spelling while writing. Kurzweil 3000 allows students to listen to suggested word choices before making changes, letting them make a more informed decision while editing their written work. Educators can activate content and/or strategy specific floating word lists to further help support student spelling and word retrieval difficulties.
• Digital Test Taking: Help improve test scores from students with dyslexia by integrating digital test taking features in your classroom. Educational technology provides tests in a digital format that provides full audible support for reading and re-reading questions as needed.

Funding Educational Technology for Classrooms with Dyslexia

If you are looking to bring assistive technology into your classroom or school, funding these learning tools with grants can be an actionable way to alleviate some of the financial burden. Grants are available to help cover the cost of assistive technology products, and in some cases, the entire amount. This gives schools the ability to focus budgeting on covering the cost of intermittent upgrades versus the entire solution. Public schools at the K-Postsecondary levels and vocational rehabilitation centers for adults are eligible for funding. Visit Kurzweil’s grants & funding page to learn more and apply today!