How can a dyslexic learner reduce the overwhelm that comes with exams and increase the probability of doing well? Read on for some tips that help.

It won’t be long and we will find ourselves supporting young people in the summer term of the school year who will be experiencing overwhelm at the thought of having to take exams. In this article I want to share three ideas that could be helpful if you are supporting a young dyslexic learning who is dreading what is coming their way next term.

Firstly let’s take a minute to consider what it is about exams that makes it hard for some students with dyslexia to thrive.

Overwhelm.

Picture this. Imagine you have spent two years studying a number of topics for your G.C.S.E’s and you are close to taking part in exams that are there to test your knowledge about the topics that you have been learning. Not only that, but most of the G.C.S.E exams will also be taking into account your spelling and grammar skills and will mark you down if they are not sharp enough.

We know that no two students with dyslexia will have the same challenges, but broadly, they may have similar experiences and often these experiences will set them apart from their neuro-typical peers.

These two years of learning may well have been exhausting leading up to taking the final exams, maybe some students have had to read content a number of times before they can process the information presented to them, maybe they are aware that their memory for specific dates, facts or figures is not brilliant. These students may feel that the task of revising educational content, may actually feel like a process of having to re-learn it all from scratch again especially when the exams are not far away.

Whatever the challenges of having dyslexia are for students, facing exams could be a trigger for self-defeating thoughts about not being good enough, worrying about failing or about how they will end up on the other side of those exams having received their results.

What can be really hard for a student with dyslexia, is to ask for help from teachers and parents as they may be worried about what others think about them.

Putting all this together, the bottom line could be,the student feeling like they have no control over the process that they are experiencing. The student might view the lead up to exams as a period of time that involves putting in loads of effort with the risk of little return in benefit.

The video below from the British Dyslexia Association gives a great overview on what dyslexia is and what the strengths and weaknesses are that come from being dyslexic. I would encourage you to share this with teachers and parents that you know, but for now it gives a great insight into how a dyslexic student could feel about themselves.

Keep reading for tips on how to help a dyslexic student who is experiencing overwhelm.

Lack of appropriate resources.

Teachers in schools care about how well a child is doing, the trouble is the UK education system lacks the required time and resources to support mainstream dyslexic learning. So a lot of the advice that is given out about revision is often given out from a neuro-typical standpoint rather than that of a dyslexia aware standpoint. Students are given tips on how to revise which may not match the way that they think or learn and so when the tips don’t work, this puts them back into those feelings of overwhelm.

It really doesn’t have to be this way for students with dyslexia. Increasingly there are a number of awesome sources of educational materials and content that makes learning with dyslexia not only effective but also enjoyable and engaging.

Keep reading to check out a great resource for dyslexic learning for Key Stages 3 and 4.

Tackling ‘overwhelm’.

Overwhelm is a feeling of having too much to deal with. A feeling of not having what one needs to be able to tackle a task. With that feeling comes a huge sense of not having control of the situation.

With overwhelm comes behaviour that gets in the way of the student being able to cope. they may start to procrastinate with revision, putting it off in preference for tasks or activities that make the student feel so much better about themselves.

So here are some tips to help a dyslexic student who is feeling overwhelmed.

Recognise the behaviour for what it is, rather than what it can be easily judged as.

Whether you are a teacher or a parent, it is totally understandable if you see a student trying to avoid revising or not engaging with the process resulting in you thinking that they are being lazy or not concentrating. It’s an easy assumption to make and there is a part of the problem. Assumptions about others are easy to make and often assumptions can be misinformed. We risk making harmful judgements that could affect the outcomes of the students that we are supporting. When we make judgements about others, when we try to deal with problems from that original judgement, then the student will feel your judgement from your tone and body language. It is really hard to hide.

We are so often quick to answer the questions about why a student is not engaging when we should simply engage ourselves with the student by helping them to articulate what’s going on.

Make it easy for the student to articulate what is going on for them and to ask for help.

So in putting our assumptions to one side and with an open mind, let us strive to show empathy to students whose behaviour is going to make it hard for them to prepare for their exams. We can start by asking ‘diagnostic’ questions about the behaviour that are objective in nature, given from a spirit of wanting to help.

For example:

“We are doing a revision session in class, but I notice that you are distracted. This is telling me that you are finding it a challenge to engage with the revision? What would make it better for you?”

The question above objectively describes the behaviour being observed, but doesn’t accuse in a negative way and gives the student a chance to articulate what is happening. The student has a choice about how to react to that, but there is a better chance of the student opening up and requesting help as opposed to maybe the following approach:

“We are doing a revision session in class. Will you please stop being lazy and chatty and get on with it!”

The above statement drips with judgement and will cause a defensive reaction from most people let alone young people whose dyslexia makes them acutely aware of their learning differences.

By helping the student to articulate what is going one (and you may need to ask a few times before they react positively and open up), you get the opportunity to find out what they really need rather than force solutions upon them that don’t help. We need our students to feel that they are able to gain some control at this stressful time.

Explore how to revise from their perspective.

People with dyslexia are well known to be non-linear thinkers, perhaps a little ‘illogical’ and so often creative. It maybe that us as parents or teachers may not be like that and so not ‘get’ the way that a young person with dyslexia thinks.

Encourage the student to revise in a way that suits them, even if it seems totally nuts to you at first. Again what is important is to listen to what they think they need rather than for us to tell them. Force a strategy on them and it won’t necessarily work if they are not engaged because you are playing to their weaknesses. See if you can engage a sense of fun in tackling the challenging task of preparing for exams.

For a student to feel that parents and teachers are ‘coming alongside them’ at this challenging time rather than being dictated to them about how to revise, then they will feel more able to tackle the overwhelm and with less overwhelm there is less stress and with less stress comes a better capacity to learn.

I recommend checking out a psychology model called ‘The Triune Brain’ which is a great model for understanding how we can make our brains be in a better position to learn.

In short, if a student can fulfil their ‘Reptillian Brain’ needs (food, drink, warmth, safety) and their ‘Mammalian Brain needs (social connection, values, love etc) then they will be in a better position to learn with their…’Learning Brain’. If a student feels threatened, judged etc then this could have a huge implication in their capacity to revise.

Providing resources that unlock the engagement to revision.

I have already mentioned how a dyslexic brain will think differently to that of a non-dyslexic learner. So as parents or teachers we need to encourage the student to revise in a way that works for them.

Oaka Books has a free resource that you can download that will help you to help the student that you are supporting. The owner of Oaka Books, Bambi Gardiner, has been publishing resources that help dyslexic students for a number of years, as a result of helping her own daughter, who is dyslexic, get through education. Oaka’s content is written by subject teachers and SEN specialists.

In Bambi’s revision guide there are some really helpful tips on planning revision, where to revise that makes it easier and how to prepare the dyslexic learner to be at their best when they are revising.

I hope that you have found this article useful and if you have any comments please do make them below as I would love to hear from you.