7 activities for children with dyslexia

Dyslexia is a disorder that affects reading; the boys and girls who present it are usually quite misunderstood, and have trouble expressing their feelings. emotions about their situation because they feel ashamed or afraid of not meeting adult expectations.

In this article We are going to see various activities for children with dyslexia, which apart from helping them improve their reading skills are also effective in improving their quality of life in general terms. In addition, we will review the concept of dyslexia to dispel any doubts about what it consists of.

• Related article: "Dyslexia: 10 intervention guidelines for educators"

What exactly is dyslexia?

This learning disorder primarily affects reading ability., but as side effects it has other implications; alterations in the ability to write and in reading comprehension, mainly. Sometimes it also occurs together with other learning and development disorders, such as dyscalculia.

The process of relating the letters with their respective sounds in phonemes is damaged or slowed down, this implies a limitation when trying to understand written words.

Many people mistakenly assume that dyslexia is a visual problem, when it really has nothing to do with it. This disorder only affects aspects related to language, and there is no organic damage to the brain that explains its presence.

Although dyslexia does not completely disappear as the child gets older, there are several ways to control and educate the little ones so that they have a better academic and social development, both at school and at school home.

7 activities for boys and girls with dyslexia

The following list is made up of a series of psychoeducational resources that will help you provide support to children with dyslexia.

1. Mastery of one's own body

It is common for younger children with dyslexia to have complications in learning about their own bodies; this should be the first area we focus on to help. A good idea to do this is to show the parts of the body in drawings, so that the child is able to associate them to labels in which the names of each one are written.

2. Help with spatial-temporal orientation

Young children with dyslexia often have trouble drawing spatiotemporal relationships. For example, it is difficult for them to remember when to say up and when to say down, when it is in front and when it is behind, and the same happens with notions of time such as before or after.

A good idea to improve this aspect in children is to use playful activities with cubes, asking them to place the cubes in a specific order that we will indicate, so that through our indications the child can adequately internalize the notions space-time.

The directions should be quite specific. For example, you can ask him to place one cube in front of another, then behind, and then ask him which cubes he ordered first, so that he can properly establish the differences between before and after.

3. Promote the habit of reading

Dyslexic children usually they do not like to participate in activities related to reading for fear of having to face their limitations. It is essential that we take it upon ourselves to help the child overcome this fear and help him begin to become more involved in reading.

The idea is that together you can begin to read and analyze the text read. The correct way to read to a child with sislexia is to tell him step by step what is going on. happening in the plot as we ask him questions about what he thinks might happen to continuation. The purpose is for the infant to leave behind the fear that he feels for reading and become more actively involved in this activity

Once we have finished narrating, we can ask him to do the search for main ideas or to tell us about a different ending for the story.

4. Crossword puzzles and word searches

It is important that children do not feel forced to do things well by an imposition of the adult, or because they feel that they must meet all the expectations that we place on them. To do this, a playful component must be added to these activities for children with dyslexia, something that reveals that learning and progressing at every step is not the only purpose of these actions.

Word games, such as crossword puzzles and word search puzzles, among others, work well for children to learn while playing.

5. Spell words

Spelling helps children with pronunciation and the order in which they must arrange the letters. The recommended thing is do it as if it were a game so that the little one does not feel pressured or angry when he does not do it well.

6. rhyming activities

Helping them rhyme words is a way for them to make their own associations between the meanings of different terms. You could ask him to use words familiar to him and try make rhymes with some new words that you give him in writing.

7. Meaning and synonyms

Synonyms are another way to make the boy or girl begin to become familiar with and properly internalize the correct use of relating letters and phonemes. We must let the little one tell us what the words that we will indicate to him mean to him. We can use the words of the reading material that is used in the school.