With up to 10,000 families in the UK with dyslexic children who have chosen to home educate, it is important that those parents get the information that they need to help their children to discover their potential. Educational consultant, researcher and dyslexia assessor/tutor, Sarah Gillie is our guest writer in this article sharing essential resources and information for parents who have taken that step.

Home Educating With Dyslexia

With Sarah Gillie.

Just look at the numbers of families home educating their dyslexic children.

UK government statistics estimate that around 10% of the UK population has dyslexia and indicate that approximately 60,500 children were known to be home educated in England and Wales in 2018.

Given that…

• dyslexia prevalence rates in English-speaking countries are debated to be up to 20%, and

• UK home education figures, including children who flexi-school have been estimated at over 150,000,

it seems reasonable to estimate that at least 6,000 and possibly over 10,000 UK families with dyslexia are involved in home education at least part-time.

How do parents and carers do it?

Parents may not be qualified in specific learning difficulties, but they are the experts on their own children. Many parents say that, once school is out of the equation children begin to flourish.

For most children, until the late nineteenth century, all learning took place at home or within the local community. Free secondary education became available only after the second world war.

Build a support network

In 1977 a group of like-minded families established a co-operative for home educating families, naming it Education Otherwise, after the wording of the Education Act:

The parent of every child of compulsory school age shall cause him to receive efficient full-time education suitable -

a)   to his age, ability and aptitude, and

b)   to any special educational needs he may have, either by regular attendance at school or otherwise.

Now, the Internet means that families are able to find and join local groups, in some cases attending a number of groups on different weeks or even days. Groups can provide many things including a support network, opportunities to socialise and reduced costs for educational visits or activities.

Multi-sensory methods

Multisensory learning underpins dyslexia-friendly teaching and can be helpful for everyone, so siblings can learn together regardless of support needs. As the name implies, it employs more than one sense at a time. This can be something as simple as chanting and marching, which can help embed the words and moves more quickly.

Writing in a tray of rice, sand or shaving foam means that children feel the letter shape as they see the letters appear. Encouraging them to sound out as they write adds to the multi-sensory experience.

A wooden lower-case alphabet is a staple of any dyslexia-friendly toolkit. Trace the letters to build familiarity, sort them into vowels and consonants, arrange them in an arc in alphabetical order, while reciting the alphabet to help build automaticity. You’ll find some games here.

Everyday literacy

Conversations are powerful learning experiences. From them, children can pick up turn-taking, sequencing and listening skills, as well as fascinating facts. Hearing a rich and varied vocabulary prepares children for seeing the words in print, and empowers them to use these words in their own speaking and writing. Some ideas to adapt for home are here.

Sharing books can bring the whole family together. As well as old favourites and classics, look out for new publications and inspiring non-fiction titles. Join a local library, talk to the librarians and find out whether they run activities suitable for your children.

Audiobooks are great for extending children’s vocabulary knowledge, too, and these may also be available at your library. The RNIB Overdrive talking book service is free for young people with dyslexia and works with the Dolphin Easy Reader app.

Reading and writing

Phonological knowledge helps us to recognise sounds and predict how words will be spelt. It allows us to see the letter in words and sound them out. This is usually the first of the skills needed for reading, writing and spelling in English to develop, and it is considered the easiest to support through activities, exercises and games. You can find some examples here and here.

Orthography relates to the rules of written language, including spelling patterns. English has a relatively irregular (deep/opaque) orthography compared with other languages. This is one reason why dyslexia seems to cause more problems sooner for children in English-speaking countries. More information and activities are here.

Older learners can sometimes find an understanding of morphology really useful when it comes to understanding, reading and writing complex scientific or topic-related vocabulary. Morphology relates to the shape of words, including root words, prefixes and suffixes. More details are here and reading tips are here and here.

Resources.

There is no legal requirement for home educators to follow a national curriculum, but some families choose to do so. Others follow children’s developing interests. You will find vast quantities of materials online, and it’s sometimes hard to know what is best (or even good). Oaka Books resources are dyslexia-friendly and available for a wide range of ages and topics, as well as offering excellent study skills and revision tips.

There’s an overwhelming range of subscription services available, too. It’s often possible to get discounts as a home educator, or via your local home-educators’ group, or a national online group such as PopArt Home Education on Facebook.

GCSEs and beyond.

There is no requirement for young people to sit public exams, but many choose to do this. A few things to consider:

• Research your nearest exam centres for external candidates;

• GCSE courses are designed to take two years;

• Exam centres typically require exam fees to be paid during the autumn term of the academic year when exams will be taken;

• Many schools and sixth form colleges require A level candidates to have at least five GCSEs;

• Check

  • costs;

  • exam boards;

  • arrangements for practical exams, and

  • access arrangements (e.g. extra time, scribe, reader, rest breaks)

Some further education and sixth-form colleges accept students from age 14 – details for 2019-20 are here.

There are a number of online options for GCSE and A level tuition. One of the longest established distance learning options is the National Extension College.

Sarah Gillie

https://beaconsunique.com/