Because dyslexia makes it hard to remember how words are put together, rhyming and visualization strategies — like turning letters into lively, more concrete characters — are great tools for jogging the memory and helping dyslexics remember word formation. To help your child master many words and fix them better in the mind, try these strategies:
Help your child with short-vowel sounds by having him draw images into the vowels while saying their short sounds. For example, he can create an apple out of a; draw an egg inside the top part of e; convert a pen with a blob of ink on top into i; change o into an octopus; and draw an arrowhead on each of the two top ends of u so it represents up.
Help your child read and spell words like late, hole, and cute by showing him the Bossy e rule: When e is on the end of a short word, it bosses the earlier vowel into saying its name (but stays silent itself).
Help your child read and spell long-vowel words like meet, neat, nail, and boat by teaching him this rule: “When two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking (and says its name).”
