10 strategies for dealing with dyslexia

10 Strategies for Overcoming Dyslexia

Would you like to have an easy to follow method for helping a child or adult overcome dyslexia?

Navigating the challenges of dyslexia can be difficult for both the child and the parent. It's frustrating for both.

I've seen too many lives affected by it. People who weren't able to live up to their potential. I've also seen many overcome it. Because it is such a life changing thing I'd like to share with you a simple outline for overcoming it.

Following these simple rules will get you and your child back on track and on the path to overcoming dyslexia:

1. Build Self Esteem - I mention this one first for a reason. Most people want to skip over this. I urge you not to.

Depending on how long the problem has gone on the child's self esteem will have been damaged in some way. It's hard to gauge how much. Building self esteem during this process is critical. Here's why.

A child who's self esteem has been damaged will start to undergo stress. If left unchecked this stress will cause all tactics to fail. The stress simply will not allow them to learn. Trying to push them harder will make it worse. More school work will make it worse. Dealing with this stress must be a part of your overall strategy.

Here's how to do it:

Set them up for success. Do this by working at tasks that challenge slightly but not so much they get frustrated. Learning should be fun.

• Frame mistakes as a part of the learning process. They are not their mistakes. Mistakes are simply how we learn. Nothing to be ashamed of.
• Break exercises down into small manageable chunks. Small successes build on each other and build self esteem.
• Be careful of how you praise. Improper praise can backfire. In general you want to praise the effort. Praising a good test score can be beneficial for some but for those that are already stressed it can cause more stress. This is because they now worry about being able to do it again.

It's important to look at self esteem building as a part of the process. Learn how to properly praise, frame mistakes, setup for success, and segment work into manageable chunks.

2. Remember that you are the parent and you know your child best. Remember you have the final say when it comes to your child. Here are a few pitfalls to consider:

• Not all experts have your child's best interest in mind. Schools often have financial incentives to put a child on an IEP. Other experts may also have financial incentives.
• Many experts want to argue the curability of dyslexia. They go on endless debates about neuroscience. Debates don't help. Doing something about it does. There are lots of tactics that have been shown to help. Do them and let the experts sort out why they work later. Don't get caught up in the debate. The truth is that despite scientific advances neuroscience is still in it's infancy. It is making great strides and we've discovered many wonderful things. But there is still much to learn. What's important is that you do what works. Get advice from experts for sure. Just remember you have the final say.
• Remediation is not always best. Remediation can be good or bad. In general you want to look at remediation as an intermediate step not a permanent crutch. Use your judgment.
• Some Programs are based on outdated science. Brain science has come a long ways in the last few years. Many popular programs are based on outdated science.

3. Remember that a diagnosis of dyslexia is a blanket diagnosis. It does not tell you specifics. Every dyslexic is different. Dyslexia is a breakdown in one ore more of the building blocks of learning. You'll need to narrow it down to which.

You can get a complete list of these fundamental learning skills here:
http://www.learningsuccessblog.com/basic-skills-needed-learning

To overcome dyslexia you strengthen these fundamentals of learning. Until you start working on them you won't know which ones are the problem.

To get started on understanding where the problems are you can use our dyslexia test. That will get you started. Once you do that you'll want to dive deeper into the problem by doing exercises that develop each of these foundational learning skills. You'll know when you have hit a problem area. You can download the test here:
http://www.learningsuccessblog.com/dyslexia-test-0

Or for a quick analysis of the problem use our quick analysis

https://www.learningsuccessblog.com/analysis/reading

4. Start with the eye muscles. One of the most common and easiest things to fix is visual tracking. This problem is often caused by weak eye muscles. There are plenty of easy eye exercises that help fix this.

5. Build up learning capacity. As you do exercises to build the fundamental learning skills you'll also want to build the students learning capacity. You do this through what is called neuroplasticity.

Neuroplasticity is the brains ability to grow new neurons. This only happens under certain conditions. Neuroplasticity occurs when a child learns to coordinate their body in new ways while doing physical exercise. The combination of exercise, and the processing needed to learn new ways of moving, cause new neurons to grow. This increases the capacity to learn. The best exercise we know of for causing this is a martial art called Shou' Shu'. You can find online Shou' Shu' classes here:

www.shoushu.com

6. Balance the brain hemispheres. Most children with dyslexia are cross dominant. They are also very typically right brain dominant. Both of these situations can be remedied by exercises that cross the midline. There are many many exercises which do this in different ways. All are helpful in balancing the hemispheres. Shou' Shu' is also very effective for balancing and connecting the hemispheres.

7. Don't forget physical fitness. There is a strong correlation between core body strength, cardiovascular fitness, and learning. Science doesn't know all of the reasons why, but the correlation is too strong to ignore. So don't forget physical fitness.

8. Make sure to vary the exercises. Science has recently found that doing brain exercises only helps if you mix them up. If you don't mix them up the skills get compartmentalized. If you mix them up the skills get generalized and are applied to other types of learning. So make sure to do lots of different exercises. Mix it up.

9. Don't forget handwriting. Cursive writing is becoming a lost skill. Schools are dropping it from their curriculum. This is a mistake. The flowing motion of cursive handwriting is very effective for connecting the eyes, brain, and hand. These are critical skills. Tactile learning is essential. Many successful people will tell you that when they brainstorm or plan they have to "go analog". Handwriting is important for learning and thinking.

10. Don't forget Auditory skills. Just a few years ago science discovered that there is a huge auditory component to dyslexia. Most dyslexics will be weak in fundamental skills such as auditory discrimination or auditory memory. This will affect reading and reading comprehension. Work the auditory skills.

Keep these 10 things in mind as you work your way through overcoming dyslexia. If you would like a complete system that includes all of these tactics in a step by step easy to do at home program you can get it by clicking here.

I hope this helps you and your child get on the path to overcoming dyslexia and living up to their full potential.
Liz Weaver
Learning Success