SAISD 504/Dyslexia Newsletter

Thank you to all our 504 coordinators for your crucial role in managing annual 504 meetings and ensuring that our students receive the correct classroom and testing accommodations. You are truly valued by the 504/Dyslexia Department.

Please join us in recognizing these remarkable coordinators below who do an exemplary job handling this important task!

Students with dyslexia can find themselves drawn to art because it allows them to express their creativity and outside-the-box thinking. Vivid imaginations, three-dimensional thinking, and making connections are strengths that play into the artistic field. Many famous artists with dyslexia have changed the art world forever by utilizing their dyslexic strengths.

All SAISD employees are eligible to enter this month's giveaway for art supplies you can utilize with your dyslexic students. Click here to enter.

Dyslexia Myths and Facts - University of Michigan

Before he became a legendary artist and illustrator of children’s books, gentle Jerry Pinkney was a little boy with a lot to do. By first grade he’d already figured out two important things: he had a gift with lines when it came to creating art, but an awful lag when those same lines formed letters for language.

To read more about this successful dyslexic, please click the following link: https://dyslexia.yale.edu/story/jerry-pinkney/

In addition to offering valuable information about dyslexia and its characteristics, this handbook provides information on assessments, effective teaching approaches, self-advocacy ideas, and a vast array of resources. Further, the handbook contains information that will be useful throughout a child’s life, from elementary school through college.

This handbook is courtesy of the International Dyslexia Association, IDA. Download a copy by clicking on the following link: https://dyslexiaida.org/ida-dyslexia-handbook/

Your dyslexic reader can do more with your help. Read to your child every single day. Hearing someone else read has the amazing ability of sparking creativity and interest and also offers a chance to work on comprehension without the battle of decoding the text. When you read aloud or have your child read along with audiobooks, he/she has the opportunity to focus on the meaning of the words and content. They develop background knowledge and it allows them to use their imagination. Reading books to your child or having your child read along with audiobooks allows them to get into books that his peers are reading and will hold their interest because the books are age-appropriate.

By Sally E. Shaywitz, M.D

Modified from Overcoming Dyslexia

Early good practices enrich learning and develop a foundation for later reading. Try these reading-readiness steps to engage your child. Have fun with them. Make them into a game! Activities should be short and enjoyable so your child stays involved. When your child is paying attention, learning is happening.

• Speak directly to your child. Speak slowly and clearly, pronouncing each sound very carefully; you want him to notice each word or word part you say.
• Exaggerate sounds—for example, mmmman—and have him do the same when he repeats back to you.
• Read to your child daily. Choose high-interest books. Click here for some book suggestions.
• Don’t shy away from speaking with a rich vocabulary and even making learning new words a game. It will help your child build her vocabulary, and word recognition, too.

• Play rhyming games. Example: Have her pick objects that rhyme with a common word, such as selecting a shoe for a word that rhymes with “two.”
• Make up your own jingles, rhymes, or silly stories to highlight a particular sound, or even sing a song together. Funny and visually absurd rhymes and alliterations often work best in making a sound more memorable to the child. To highlight the “ssss” sound, for example, sing with her, “Sally sells seashells at the seashore.”
• Use concrete objects (blocks or coins) to represent the sounds in words. Your child should indicate how many sounds he hears in a word by the number of coins (or blocks) he places on the table. For example, for the two-phoneme word zoo, he would say each sound (“zzzz” “oo”) as he lays out first one and then a second coin.

Information courtesy of The Yale Center for Dyslexia & Creativity

https://dyslexia.yale.edu/resources/parents/what-parents-can-do/developing-a-foundation-for-reading/

If you missed one of our monthly newsletters, no worries. Previous newsletters can be found by clicking on the following link:

https://www.saisd.net/page/dyslexia-newsletters

Email: csosa2@saisd.net
Website: https://www.saisd.net/page/dyslexia-home
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Phone: 210-554-2570