Dyslexia

Dyslexia is a language-based difficulty of neurological origin that affects the skills involved in the accurate and fluent reading of words. It is one of the most common reading difficulties.

Current research suggests that dyslexia may be caused by a genetic predisposition. It is a persistent, life-long condition and affects students across the range of intellectual abilities.

Some of the common features for people with dyslexia may include difficulties with:
- learning letters and their corresponding sounds
- organising spoken and written language
- reading quickly enough to comprehend spelling
- keeping up with, and following longer assignments.


Aspects of reading

Reading difficulties can be understood from the perspective of how reading is usually learnt. Reading competence develops from the integration of a number of aspects of knowledge including a student’s:
- oral language knowledge and the ability to speak and listen. This includes a student’s vocabulary, their knowledge of how ideas are expressed and organised in sentences and how language is used to communicate with others in a range of ways.
- experiential or episodic knowledge. This includes a student’s bank of stored experiences such as their knowledge of self in relation to others and their knowledge of how to think and learn.
- knowledge and use of a range of symbols. This includes how a student learns to use a range of symbols to think about objects and events such as alphanumeric symbols.
-ability to think about ideas in a range of ways and manage and direct their thinking activity. This includes thinking skills such as retaining and manipulating knowledge in short-term working memory; sequencing and categorising; visualising; framing goals and intentions; learning in everyday contexts; directing and maintaining attention and persisting to complete tasks, and using corrective feedback adaptively.
- attitude to themselves as literacy users and learners. This includes awareness of themselves as learners of literacy and their disposition towards literacy, such as motivation to learn and engage in literacy.

As students move through the years of schooling, these related aspects of knowledge continue to develop and influence literacy learning.

A reciprocal relationship exists between these areas of literacy knowledge; for example, a student’s oral language knowledge influences how well they read and comprehend texts; similarly what a student comprehends during reading can extend their oral language knowledge.

Fact sheet from the Department of Health.
Includes description of symptoms, causes, contributing factors, diagnosis and treatments for dyslexia.

This resource has been developed for secondary students and parents/careers to build their knowledge and understanding of dyslexia.

Includes links to the International Dyslexia Association and AUSPELD websites.

The Australian Dyslexia Association (ADA) is an Incorporated Non-profit Association and Government registered as a Registrable Australian Body. ADA are concerned with the well being, identification and educational intervention of all who struggle with aspects of spoken and written language.

The ADA believes that all individuals with dyslexia or a related difference deserve the right to understand their learning difference and have access to evidence based instruction. The ADA supports and provides accredited training in evidence based instruction with the addition of a multisensory component. Direct, explicit and structured language instruction with a multisensory component can assist all students including those with dyslexia and related difficulties.

Please note that some resources and content on this website can only be accessed with membership to ADA.

Dyslexia Canada is a charity that was formed in 2016 as a way to ensure that there was a national voice and forum to advocate for all Canadian children with dyslexia. By partnering with professional organizations, experts and advocates, Dyslexia Canada strives to drive systemic change by engaging and educating the public and establishing legislation specific to recognizing and remediating dyslexia.

The website includes resource materials and webinars, sample inclusion and intervention plans, online courses, as well as general information about dyslexia.

The Yale Center for Dyslexia & Creativity (YCDC) is the preeminent source of cutting-edge research, informed advocacy and trustworthy resources to help those with dyslexia reach their full potential. The Center’s tools and resources are used widely to advocate for greater recognition and support for dyslexic children and adults. YCDC builds awareness in all communities and mobilises grassroots efforts to close the reading achievement gap for all students, including low-income students, through policies that help dyslexic children succeed. The Center also showcases the remarkable success stories of adults with dyslexia.

YCDC was founded in 2006 by Drs. Sally and Bennett Shaywitz, world-renowned physician-scientists and leaders in the field of dyslexia research and diagnosis.

YCDC mission is to increase awareness of dyslexia and its true nature, specifically to illuminate the creative and intellectual strengths of those with dyslexia, to disseminate the latest scientific research and practical resources, and to transform the treatment of all dyslexic children and adults.

Made by Dyslexia is a global charity, led by successful dyslexics. Their purpose is to help the world to understand, value and support dyslexia. Their mission is to train teachers and help workplaces to identify, support and empower dyslexic minds. This mission is aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

The website has free online training with strategies from the world’s leading dyslexic schools.

Understood is a private operating foundation. Their mission is to help those who learn and think differently to discover their potentials, take control, connect with others, and to stay on positive paths along each stage of life’s journey.

The professionals who advise Understood are all experts in their fields. They include educators, researchers, learning specialists, physicians, psychologists, lawyers and more.

The Dyslexia-SPELD Foundation (DSF) is an independent, not-for-profit organisation that provides a range of services for individuals with persistent learning difficulties and disorders. DSFs services are designed to benefit all children struggling with literacy and/or numeracy acquisition, regardless of whether or not they have been identified with a learning disorder (such as dyslexia).

Their website includes evidence-based teaching strategies, remediation and accommodation strategies, intervention strategies, a library, and an online shop to purchase resources from.

Sound-Write is an evidence-based linguistic phonics program utilising a highly successful approach to the teaching of reading, spelling, and writing.

The website includes downloads and links for teachers.
activities

Beat Dyslexia is a multi-sensory literacy program for children and teenagers with dyslexia, beginning with single letter-sound links and continuing through to blends, digraphs, short and long vowels, and complex spelling patterns.

Based firmly on research and established methods in this field of teaching, Beat Dyslexia can be used by parents, carers, teachers, teaching assistants or tutors working on a one-to-one basis or with small groups, and no specialist training in the teaching of dyslexic children is required.