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Dyslexia Awareness Week 2018
1st – 7th October 2018
#21stCenturyDyslexia
Sunday 7th October 2018
Today, the theme is about looking to the future, what new technology is on the horizon? What challenges would you like to find a solution to through technology?
Saturday 6th October 2018
Today, the theme is about skill development. What software and apps are out there to develop and support reading, spelling, organisation and writing? Can peer support help here? This needs to go right through from pre-school to the workplace.
Friday 5th October 2018
Today, the theme is about assessments, exams and recruitment. We need to look at how we can use technology in exams and assessments, to ‘level the playing field’ for those with dyslexia. What reasonable adjustments can be made?
Thursday 4th October 2018
Today is World Dyslexia Awareness Day! Let’s use today to try to overcome barriers to learning. What is available across the world?
Wednesday 3rd October 2018
Today, the theme is about creating a dyslexia friendly environment. How can we achieve this for all ages? Can we make information more accessible? Do we try to think about alternative formats? In school we try to make sure that we change the background colour of the Smart Boards, so that there is not a glare from the black writing on a white background.
Also, it's 'pen's down for dyslexia' today...is there a task you can do that does not need to be written? Let me know.
Tuesday 2nd October 2018
Today, the theme is: ‘Technology at your fingertips’.
Thinking about technology that is built-in to mobiles, tablets, websites and computers that can help in everyday activities, such as personal organisation. Technologies that can be fun; practical or useful…How about reminders we can set for PE days? Homework reminders? Using the readers available on computers and mobile devices?…the list goes on. The following link has got some good, free resources that can help:
The highly accessible and brilliant Nessy website, has some excellent ideas for how technology can support those with dyslexia. Take a look at:
They have lots of useful links, including training for professionals; their free e-book, explaining what dyslexia is and how it can impact upon learning and everyday life; the free online screener for 5-7 year olds and just during National Dyslexia Awareness Week, the Dyslexia Quest Screener and even (just this week) a free trial of the Nessy reading and spelling programme.
The website encourages us all to: go and get information; go and get tested and go and get help. Give it a go!
Monday 1st October 2018
2018s overall theme for National Dyslexia week, is ‘Going Green for Dyslexia’. By this, they are not talking about recycling, but thinking more about how assistive technology can help those with dyslexia.
They are also thinking about how technology can help dyslexic learners to become more independent, empowering learners and raising self-esteem, boosting self-confidence. We need to think about how all children can fulfil their potential. Finally, what reasonable adjustments can be made within the classroom to support those with dyslexia?
Check out the following websites to see what support is out there:
- British Dyslexia Association: https://www.bdadyslexia.org.uk/events/view/name/dyslexia-awareness-week-1-7-october-2018
- British Dyslexia Association Technology: https://bdatech.org/
- Take a look at this mind map, showing the different ways that technology can support people in the classroom, when they have a specific learning difficulty, such as dyslexia: https://bdanewtechnologies.files.wordpress.com/2018/09/mind-map-final-colour-cyan-and-cream.jpg
For Teachers:
Here are five tips and hints for using technology to support children with dyslexia in the classroom:
Want advice on how to start supporting your learners with technology? Here are five tips from BDA New Technologies member Victoria Crivelli for Dyslexia Awareness Week:
1. Find out what technology is available and working in the school or classrooms – hardware, software, apps or hand-held gadgets. Create an inventory to share with all staff, label the pupil options beside or on the hardware for all users. Every user needs to be aware of and know which IT tools are available and how to use them.
2. Explore the built-in accessibility features that are freely available and can make a huge difference, like text to speech tools (TTS) or voice recognition (VR) for those who find reading information or recording written information challenging. Reading, writing and understanding new, technical or subject vocabulary can create barriers to learning.
3. Ensure pupils and support staff know how to access personal settings and how to save them, such as options for colour background, font style and size, line spacing and speech settings for TTS.
4. If funding is an issue, find out what is freely available for support in free apps and tools like talking spellcheckers, or that enable TTS to be used for web pages or accessible formats of educational texts such as found in RNIB bookshare.
5. Many pupils may be entitled to use technology for reading and/or recording in exams, depending on access arrangements. They will need to be using the technology routinely in the classroom. This could have a huge impact on pupil success and save schools precious funding for readers or scribes. Is this happening in your school?
National Dyslexia Awareness Week
2nd-8th October 2017
This week is National Dyslexia Awareness Week, today (4th October), we had an assembly for the whole school. We thought about what dyslexia was and how we can help ourselves with things we find tricky. You can find a copy of the online book that we had a little look at in this section of the website. It’s definitely worth a look, you never know, you might find out something new!
We looked at how complicated the English language is and how it is made up of lots of words from other languages. It makes it really interesting, but really TRICKY when we are trying to spell words.
Finally, we looked at a great ‘You Tube’ video, created by a twelve year old girl in Australia. She made the video about having dyslexia and about all of the amazing things she could be when she is older, with her dyslexia. You may be surprised to find out some of the famous faces that also have dyslexia, give it a go!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHCkpLsIs4E
