Tools for Dyslexia

We're all different. Comparison is silly. We all grow and develop in our own way and at our own pace.

Sometimes seen as irregular, these words with a final -TH suffix are a wonderful remnant of Old English.

They're like the antique heirlooms we hold onto. This suffix changes the verbs GROW, WARM, and HEAL into nouns.

STRONG, WIDE, LONG, and DEEP can serve as adjectives. Their noun forms have a grapheme (letter, digraph) change, or in WIDE's case a pronunciation change. Learn more about these words and the -TH suffix on Etymonline.com.

Every spelling has a story.
🔎Meaning (Semantics) is first. Without it, what's the point? We need to know what the word means and how to use it in a spoken or written sentence.

🔎 The Structure (Morphology) is intertwined with the meaning. Different prefixes and suffixes adjust the base element's sense and meaning.

🔎 The Etymology tells us the word's origin and its history. It provides a travel log of its journey from the word's root language to Present-Day English. This often tells us the story behind the word's spelling.

🔎 The way a word is pronounced may have changed over time as well as the graphemes used in the spelling. Phonology is our understanding and expectation of the Sounds represented by letters, digraphs, or trigraphs in a word's spelling. Single letters, digraphs (ck, th) , and trigraphs (tch, ugh) grouped together are called graphemes.

We can notice differences in pronunciation within a word family as well as differences between English speakers in different regions of the world. Yet the spelling remains the same regardless of pronunciation differences.

🎯When we want to understand spelling, especially when we teach spelling to students, we benefit from looking at all four areas of a word's story.

Learning about Structured Word Inquiry (Bowers and Kirby, 2010) and giving attention to these four intertwined aspects of a word's story has been such a benefit to me and to my students. English spelling makes sense.

What our students think about themselves is a Powerful Tool. It can help them try something new and work through the challenges. It can deter them from trying something, deciding they are incapable before they start.

A growth mindset, time doing things they enjoy, our modeling how to positively deal with challenges and mistakes, and praising them for their effort and perseverance could help them Think They Can.

How True This Is! Our kids - Our students epitomize this every day! And Every Day so do the 1 in 5 adults with dyslexia!

Recognize their effort and Praise their effort And Yours!

What a great day for a 9-year-old boy to create! He was the grandson of William Chase, founder of Chase's Annual Calendar of Events. Aren't kids always wanting their parents to be less busy?!

Relaxation Day is day to do just that--slow down, turn off the doom scrolling, disconnect from work for a bit, and just relax.

Relax could be treated as the base. Or we could notice that LAX could be the base with an RE- prefix. It comes from a Latin verb laxare that carries the meaning of "loosen."

It's related to lax, laxity, laxative, and distantly related to release. Relaxation is the goal for today! Enjoy.

When we're talking about morphology, you might hear the term "connecting vowel letter." What's that?

It's a vowel letter that connects
➡two bases like morph + o + loge + y OR une + i + cycle
➡a base to a suffix such as cure + i + ous OR court + e + ous
➡two suffixes as in edit + or + i + al OR flirt + ate + i + ous

Connecting vowel letters are a feature of many words with Latin or Greek origins. Years ago a student who was learning Latin (not from me!) told me these connectors were added by Romans to make the pronunciation flow smoothly. I think he had the right idea. Try saying any of the above words without the connecting vowel letter.

How is this helpful? Understanding the structure of words helps with reading and spelling. So many of our students misread and misspell because they're not noticing the spelling. You may have seen students struggle with spelling gradual. They feel the /ju/ ("you") in the middle and try their best to sound it out with *gradyoual or *gradyual. But after working with the word family including graduate and word sums and practice, they know it's not a or you.

Morphology instruction makes a difference in helping all of us see the structure of words.

Four times as long.

🌞Early intervention is important. If you have an older child, a young adult, or you’re a mature adult, it’s never too late to become a better reader and speller.

As soon you suspect, say something, learn more, and start working on it!🎯

Dyslexia is not one-size-fits-all. Strengths and weaknesses vary as do their feelings about it. I learn new stories and gain new understanding from each student.

Happy Son & Daughter Day! I'm grateful for our four that we adore!