Dyslexia- Toe by Toe and alternative approaches

Orlaporla

Hi,
I am currently teaching 2nd class.

We recently administered Dyslexia Screening Tests (DST) in our school on children that we felt were at risk. There are 3 children in my class who were scored in the 'at risk' or 'strongly at risk' category. This obviously hasn't come as a surprise to me but it has made me conscious that I may not be meeting their needs as specifically as they might need.

Could any teachers offer advice as to how they approach the need in their class room?

A learning support teacher suggested 'toe-by-toe' by Keda Cowling. I was wondering if this is still used or is it out-dated? Are there any other structured/ multi sensory programmes out there?

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks

byhookorbycrook

Toe by Toe is not outdated, but would be difficult for a second class child, it also has to be done 1-1. The Dyslexia Screening Test (DST) should not be taken as a definite diagnosis of dyslexia.I have used it quite a lot and find it isn't really telling me anything I don't know.I would start by testing phonics-the 42 letter sounds. It would amaze the number of children who don't know vowel sounds correctly and call the sound of mmmm "muh" etc.

What phonological awareness programme does your school use?
Does your school do paired/shared reading?
What is the school approach to spelling?

Orlaporla

Thanks very much for your prompt response.
I have to agree that it hasn't told me anything that I didn't already know but it has made me more cognisant of the fact that the gap is widening and that the transition into 3rd class is huge. I want to do as much for them as I can before they leave the junior end.
We use Jolly Phonics from Junior Infants to 2nd. While they have good syllabification skills and they can write to communicate, their spelling is inaccurate in particular with regard to "tricky words".

Our school policy is to use the "Look, say, cover, write, spell, check" approach but I'm not sure if this is implemented strictly across the school.

We did an intensive spelling programme, in the last term, in which we concentrated on "tricky words"; while this seemed to work in isolation it has not transferred to their written work as they constantly revert to phonic based spelling eg "wud, becos, meny, wer, dat etc etc etc

We don't do paired reading in the junior end, but we do peer- tutoring in 3rd and 4th class.



I feel like I'm asking for a "cure" for dyslexia but really I would like some approaches that have genuinely worked.

byhookorbycrook

I'd suggest to the parents that do they do paired reading at home-most educational psychologists will suggest it to children with dyslexia.

We have adopted the Brendan Culligan system of spelling which has helped children with spelling and using the words in context.

Cursive writing has also been proven to help with spelling. To be honest,I'd be focussing more on word analysis that spelling right now. In the Drumcondras have a look to see how they scored in the various sub-tests.

Does the school have SRA reading lab?
Are these children attending learning support?
Sorry for all the qs, just trying to get an idea of where they are.

For tricky spelling words we use mnemonics "said" = Sally-Anne is (according to choice) either dreadful, delightful etc. We have a "picture" of SallyAnne and her S.A.I.D mnemonic on the wall -works quite well,gives them a visual "hook" too.