Dyslexia Remediation & Phonemic Awareness

Teaching Reading to children with dyslexia through phonemic awareness programs at home or in school is critical for overcoming true dyslexia. You may be confused by the different ways people recommend overcoming dyslexia, but how you approach your child's difficulty should be based upon your child's particular areas of deficit. No single program is going to be "best" for every child.

Reading programs can teach in several different ways. Some teach "the rules", others teach by "word families", and some by whole word recognition. Which is best?

Learning by whole word recognition is the least likely to be successful in the long run because it is difficult for anyone to remember every possible words' spelling. There are not many, if any (I haven't seen them), whole word recognition remediation programs.

Teaching by "word families", is a good variation from many programs, but is generally insufficient as a single means of remediation. Teaching through word families alone can cause carry over of spellings to words with similar sounds, but different spellings.

The "best", most universal form, of remediation is through "the rules" governing our language. Beginning with phonemic awareness, the recognition that each word is made up of separate sounds called "phonemes", this type of instruction tries to teach the child language as it relates to printed text from the most basic element up through complex, multisyllable words. This type of instruction is very specific, sequential, multisensory instruction that spells out every detail for reading decoding and encoding (which is spelling). (continued below..)

Which program to begin with will be determined by your child's individual needs. You'll need to determine, or know, if your child has phonemic awareness. You can get an idea which is best by
asking your child how many "sounds" he hears in certain words.. for example "short" has 3 sounds.. /sh/, /or/, /t/ -- that is a tough one though. A simple one would be "see"... it has two sounds.. /s/ and /ee/ or maybe "dog" having 3 sounds.. /d/, /o/, /g/. The key is whether your child can relate letters to spoken sounds.

Because auditory issues can be significant, If your child has little phonemic awareness, I'd lean towards Earobics or FastForWord to begin with. Be aware though, if your child has difficulty with auditory issues, he may find these programs very difficult (mine did) and may not like it initially. You might have to set up some sort of reward system for completion of an activity or certain amount of time. (For example, If you work on the program for 20 minutes, I'll read a book to you).

After the phonemic awareness issues are addressed, whether by using a program like Earobics, or through individualized therapy, you should be freer to choose from among various remediation programs. You may also want to read about Orton-Gillingham methodology by clicking on this sentence, which is a common foundation for reading remediation programs, before you delve into program selection further.

Depending upon your particular circumstances, you may want to use private services, pursue services for your child at school, or help your child at home. (continued below..)

If you plan to do it yourself, check out recommended Reading Programs for Home Use. These programs are fairly inexpensive, based upon Orton-Gillingham methods, but depend upon your own dedication to providing the program. In some cases, you have to create or buy your own supporting materials. These programs are all viable and usable by anyone who can read, comprehend, and follow directions.

If you will pursue services from another provider, you can familiarize yourself with various programs at on our "Proven Packaged Reading Programs" page. These programs are more expensive, CAN be done at home, are complete, comprehensive, and have been proven to work.