Specialist dyslexia and dyscalculia education consultant, Judy Hornigold shares some tips on how to make classrooms friendlier for dyslexic learners.

Coming up in November will be one of the first opportunities in 2021 for educational professionals who would like to network with colleagues and share ideas whilst gaining CPD credits listening to dyslexia thoughts leaders. At the Positive Dyslexia Conference, one of the speakers will be Judy Hornigold an independent education consultant who specialises in dyslexia and dyscalculia.

Judy once delivered a workshop on Dyscalculia at the SEN Jigsaw Conference that I co-organised a few years ago and I found her style of teaching engaging and really informative so I was delighted to see that she also shares resources on her website that teachers can use now.

One of these resources are her comments about how to make classrooms dyslexic friendly.

Judy states on her dyslexia page that people with dyslexia often struggle with:

• Reading

• Writing

• Spelling

• Maths

• Telling the time

• Hearing certain sounds

• Handwriting

• Speech and language

• Remembering instructions

• Organisation

• Getting their ideas on to paper

• Processing information quickly

With the above challenges in mind, how does Judy think teachers can make their classrooms friendlier for dyslexic pupils?

Judy Hornigold’s Top Ten Tips For Making Classrooms Dyslexic Friendly.

1. Use a multisensory approach to teaching: graphics, diagrams, flowcharts, mind maps, colours, video, and sound.

2. Use poster displays to support key vocabulary.

3. Include creative, problem solving activities.

4. Provide tasks in which students can express creativity in their thinking and reward this thinking

5. Avoid copying from the board

6. If pupils can’t spell a word, spell it loud for them and, at the same time, write it on the board- provide key spellings

7. Use coloured dots/ pens if board work cannot be avoided.

8. Check that students have understood instructions.

9. Make learning an active process and interactive process.

10. Vary your style of teaching and be aware of different learning styles.

Whilst a lot of these tips will seem straightforward, we have to remember how busy classrooms are as well as recognise the current challenges of teaching during this time of pandemic so it is useful to see these tips.

What are your thoughts? Do you agree? Disagree? Please comment below and if you like the content you see on The Studying With Dyslexia Blog then please subscribe so that I can keep you up to date on the latest articles.