Extend Reach To Dyslexia Children

The Beginning Of My Journey...

I remember the day that I graduated from Dyslexia Literacy Teaching. I was excited and it felt like I had all this power of knowledge in me, and it was time to have an impact in society. Or rather, this is the day that I thought I turned Superman!

Very quickly, I got a role in teaching group classes of 3 to 5 dyslexic students.

They were grouped according to their current literacy level instead of age.

But they are normally, less than 3 years apart. In a classroom setting, I organized group learning activities such as role-playing or WORDS bingo.

However, after some months, I noticed that the literacy level started to gap within each of the classes that I was teaching. For example, I may have started to teach suffixes, but some students were still struggling with the letter sounds.

Unfortunately in a school setting, I need to progress my curriculum with the majority of the learners, while slower learners get left behind. Quality of my lessons took a hit. I was not able to pace the students as they were all at different stages at one time. If I slow down the faster learners, I lose their attention. If I progress with the faster learners, the slower learners get left behind learning nothing.

I was in a dilemma.

After some time, I thought. I know I can help these children and they can definitely benefit from my lessons! But what is the use, if I cannot deliver my teachings to them? I decided to move on to 1 on 1 lesson, where I can unload all my shimmering quality knowledge onto my students.

In a 1 on 1 setting, things were different. I carefully assess my students one by one,

and identify where they need more help. Both my students and I can take our time to fully understand and practice the techniques to perfection! The lessons were effective as they were prescribed exactly to what they needed and how they received it.

So this was how Superman must have felt! Quality help on what they actually need!

New Focused Approach

I began to recruit more students to set out what I had wanted to do. Then one day while I was arranging the schedules, I realized a limitation. For each student, I teach an hour per lesson, twice a week. Lessons can only start after school in the afternoon or over the weekends. A typical weekday only allows a maximum of 3 lessons per day. This also means that I can have up to 15 different students per week. And that is if all of their 2nd lessons were scheduled on weekends.

The maximum I had was 10 different students.

To do a really good job of executing and planning customized lessons,

10 students was too much! I couldn’t handle!

I reduced the number of students I had from 10 to 7 and continued to deliver quality lessons like I was taught. Children with Dyslexia can take a longer time to learn especially when they are building their foundation. It can easily take 2 years or more before they graduate from the self-learning expansion techniques that they learned from my lessons. If my students stick with me till they are ready, it means that in 2 years, I can ONLY teach 7 dyslexic children? That is barely the tip of the iceberg from the 10 to 20% of children around the world diagnosed with Dyslexia.

This was the moment that I realized I am not Superman, and I cannot help everyone!

Or can I? It got me thinking.

To get to the sweet spot of high-quality lessons and high outreach to dyslexic children,

there is only one way. Deliver lessons through parent-teachers, who want the best interest of their child!

I believe no matter how outstanding a teacher can be we can never give the kind of love and understanding that a dyslexic child needs from their parent. We are also not able to spend the same amount of time that a dyslexic child needs, which is to be constantly reminded of the techniques and learning, they receive in the early stage.

Having the knowledge about what and how your child learns or even better, Teach your child! So that more children can be reached with the right education! Be actively present for them so that they can gain confidence at this early stage and learn effectively!

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HEY, I’M ALVIN

@ Specialist Teacher on Literacy Support to Children with Learning Differences

ABOUT ME

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