How Can I Teach My Child to Read If He/She Has Dyslexia?

Are you struggling with your child because he or she has Dyslexia? If you are I know exactly how you feel. About four years ago, I found out my son has Dyslexia. I never understood why he was struggling so much in reading. As he read, I noticed he were mixing the letters in the words up (starting from the middle and sometimes at the end of the word). He got really frustrated and didn't want to continue reading. I also noticed he start writing on the back of the page in the notebook instead of the front.

I explained to my husband, how our son was reading and the things he were doing. He (husband) noticed the signs were similar to the way he use to read. He explained to me that he were diagnosed with Dyslexia when he were in school. What is Dyslexia? A learning disorder characterized by difficulty reading.

I did exactly what a parent would do. I went to his school and talked to the counselor. I asked her, could my son get tested for Dyslexia? They agreed to test him and I would know the results back in a couple of weeks. After the testing process was over with, it came back positive for Dyslexia.

At this point I didn't know what I could do to help improve his reading. So, I did my mommy research. I read books and a few articles on how to improve my child learning disability. It didn't give me the information I was looking for so, I decided to get things done with my thinking.

• First, I went back to his school and asked the teacher how can she help my child since he has Dyslexia. She mentioned to me a learning program. This particular program is called the 504 Plan. Section 504 of the U.S. Rehabilitation Act of 1973 is designed to help parents of students with physical or mental impairments in public Schools, or publicly funded private schools,work with educators to design customized educational plan. So now he's eligible for an I.A.P. This program is strongly student center and offers a small class size with much Individualization. So when he take the LEAP Test, he is put into a small group of kids just like him and the teacher reads to them. Plus they get extra time to finish.
• After I got him situated in school, I had to find a way to teach him while he's at home. I went to the library and found some books designed for kids that has Dyslexia. Just to name a few books: Henry Wrinkler, Taking Dyslexia to school, and Corey Stories. I also give him five words to study every night. I give him the words and tell him to write them down 5 times each, so that it can stay in his head. Then we play a game with the words. How do the game go? Well he have to rearrange the words so that they form a complete sentence. If its not enough words to form a sentence, then he has to look around the house and find something that will help him make a sentence. You can always add words like and, but, why, and etc. For example: I give him five words. The words are: water, wants, good, some, and juice. He wouldn't be able to make a complete sentence because it would be missing a subject. So he would look around the house and find a subject. New sentence would be: Brittney wants some good juice and water. I found doing this really helps him enjoy learning. I even do this with the words his teacher give him to study.

Now, when I help him study his definition it's a lot different. My son loves to sing and rap. So this is how I teach him, with singing and rapping. With the definitions his teacher gives him to study, I tell him to take a portion of the meaning and make a rap out of it. For example: The word to study is Electrical. The word means operating by or producing electricity. So he would create a rap. It would go something like: I'm feeling kind of skeptical, my word is electrical, tired of the publicity, because its producing electricity.