ABOUT DYSLEXIA TECHNIQUES

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                                                                About me

 I have taught over a thousand dyslexic pupils, first as an English teacher and later as a SENCO. After this I went on to teach over a thousand dyslexic university students (working for Student Finance England). Every single one of them has either taught me more about voice techniques or enabled me to fine-tune what I have developed. When I began teaching English at the age of 30, I quickly realised how much distress my dyslexic pupils were in and realised that the special needs department didn’t know how to help them, so I sent myself on the RSA dyslexia course. I returned, having learnt a number of not particularly useful things but with one miraculous piece of research strongly in my mind. I had discovered (Paulesu et al 1996) that dyslexics were using only one part of their language area to process non-verbal, semantic information and another part for sound (non-word rhyming). What this meant was that every word a dyslexic heard or read was being processed either as a sound or as a sound-free unit of meaning: two separate circuits as compared to one integrated circuit for everyone else. This explained the comprehension problems because there were either sounds that had no meaning or meanings that had no sound. I persuaded my headteacher to let me do a tour of the neighbouring schools in Islington to see how other teachers were working with their dyslexic pupils which is when I discovered the other half of the miracle: pupils were reciting onto tape- recorders words they couldn’t read, then listening to them, then writing those words from dictation. These were dyslexic pupils for whom nothing had worked before and yet now they were learning to read. There had to be a connection with the Paulesu research. Was it the listening? No. It turned out to be the bit where the pupil recited material onto the recorder but it had to be recited, not read: as soon as the dyslexics said a sentence aloud in their own words (so not reading it), they were processing both the sounds and meanings at the same time . Later I was to realise that sound and meaning can only be processed together as part of the natural voice. Reading aloud doesn’t work. The reason is that the processing speeds required to integrate sound and meaning can only be reached through the natural voice, not through reading aloud.  So, you see, for the past thirty four years, I have been in the enviable position of being able to apply research to thousands of dyslexics, fine-tuning techniques and then discovering others. To give you an example, for years I would tell my students to use their voice to help them write but it wasn’t until I got them to try out specific tasks that they fully understood what their voice could do for their writing. You can hear more about this from the Charlita recording.

I live in North London with my husband and two cats. Dyslexia is my passion and I have only one ambition: to propagate the voice techniques I have developed to a point where there is nobody anywhere on this planet who does not have access to them.

Why did I stop teaching in schools just when I had found a way to fast-track non-readers into being readers within two terms? The answer is in the Sunday Times and Special Educational Needs articles I wrote at the time I stepped down from teaching in schools.

Why have  I  made the decision not to charge anyone who is either trying to learn to read or who is teaching someone else to read. I am especially keen to teach these techniques to SENCOs and teaching assistants. There is a great deal of starter material for beginner readers on the Junior section.  

In 2005 I was Education Officer for Haringey's Youth Offending Services.  If you look at the scans below you will understand that, if we neglect a dyslexic person and then turn them loose on the world they will very often fall into the power of people who use them for their own ends.  This is why I want to see an end to all dyslexic difficulties in the UK.  If every non-reader had someone who could show them the techniques (and I am one of those people), they will be empowered.

                                                                  What I teach 

The techniques listed below are explained more fully on downloadable pdf or you can book a session with me (I charge £45 per hour).

1. Learning sounds and blends: a teacher can tell the dyslexic what the sound of a letter of blend is many times, in vain. The dyslexic will learn in the short-term but forget by the next day. This is because it is the dyslexic who must say these sounds in their own natural ways while simultaneously looking at them on paper. Only when something has been processed by the natural (not rehearsed) voice is it sufficiently processed to gain entry into the long-term memory.

2. Scanning technique: the phonological dyslexic with no techniques finds it impossible to read a long word they have never seen before, even if they know all the sounds in the word. The scanning technique is a technique that enables them to successfully tackle any long word they don’t know.

3. Reading comprehension: at the essence of dyslexia is an inability to process sound and meaning at the same time. Not surprisingly, then, all dyslexics have comprehension problems. For this there is a technique which is so effective that I have seen students on the brink of giving up law because it is so difficult for them to understand their law books change their minds and then achieve excellent exam results . 3b There is a part b to this which enables a dyslexic in an exam room to use the reading comprehension method without disturbing anyone.

4. Revision: Years ago, when in the presence of a dyslexic student with a first class honours degree, I asked her how she managed to memorise exam information (this is difficult for the dyslexic who doesn’t have this revision technique). “I talk to the wall,” she replied. I have taught over one thousand dyslexic students this technique. All of them graduated with a 2.1 or first. Not one went lower.

5. Spelling: there is a fast voice technique to be combined with a visual technique for spelling.

6. Note taking: there are two kinds of note-taking, one for one-to-one information, the other for taking notes from lectures. Both require recording equipment which can be Voice Memos on your iPhone.

7. Transcribing words from a book or the white board with maximum speed.

8. Essay writing: how to write in an organised way, quickly and with fluency. There is an easy exercise anyone can do to prove to themselves how easily using their own voice will substantiate what would  otherwise be a sequence of statements.

9. Summarising text without losing important information.

10.Organising notes and other information.

11.Notes squares for the perfectly composed paper or essay, dissertation, PhD or book (like painting by numbers but extremely rapid).

12.Proof reading: this is not just a case of reading your work back aloud. There is more to it than that.

13.Going blank in exams and when speaking The most important thing for the dyslexic student to understand is why they go blank in exams or when speaking and what to do when that happens.

14.Oral presentations: what the dyslexic needs to know to make impressive oral presentations.

15.Mind mapping and why it is crucial for good exam results to learn this skill.

16.Exam technique: for example what to substitute for mind mapping.

17.Organisational skills.

18.Scotopic sensitivity.

19.Word pronunciations: how to learn securely.

20.Dyspraxia: what is it and do dyspraxics benefit from voice techniques (yes, they do).

• BA Hons. English Literature, Reading University
• Postgraduate Diploma in Psychology, London Guildhall University
• Postgraduate Certificate in Education Kings College
• OCR Teacher of Learners with Specific Learning Difficulties
• Certificate of Diagnostic Assessment/Management of Literacy

                   Difficulties UCL (University College London)

• Certificate of Adult Dyslexia Support, South Bank University
• Maths Programme Certificate, Dyslexia Institute W1
• Certificate of Person-Centred Counselling Skills
• Certificate of Intensive Counselling (250-hours, BAC approved) City University.