Dyslexia Associates of San Antonio

Turning Stumbling Blocks into Stepping Stones for Those With Reading Issues

Become an advocate for your child (or yourself) ...

Start by knowing your rights and the legal parameters of 504 and dyslexia. You may want to start by visiting the Region 10 Dyslexia site, or the Texas Education Agency Website at www.tea.state.tx.us and In the search box type: TEA Dyslexia Handbook. The 2018 handbook was updated October 2021.

Once you understand the law you can work with your school in creating your student's education plan- Any school receiving federal funds is required to have an individual accommodations plan for students with documented reading disorders.

Even private schools may want to help but not be sure how to start. Become familiar with the Section 504 and IDEA (special education) laws and guidelines and be an active part informing others. For instance, students with documented dyslexia can apply for college accommodations at any school that receives public federal funding.

SAT Exams and State Certification Exams, EEOC-

If you have documentation of your teen's dyslexia, you can apply for extended time or other appropriate accommodations by working with his or her school or by applying for those accommodations to College Board yourself. Most state certification exams allow accommodations including extended time for those with documentation of dyslexia.

Equal Employment Opportunity Commission represetatives are available at many places of employment through Human Resources. Dyslexics who need and qualify for accommodations and safeguards on the job can contact the EEOC representative at their workplace.

It It is frustrating, to be sure, to watch your child struggle with reading, but there are some simple things you can do to help, whether he or she is in elementary, middle or high school, or even in college.D.A.S.A can schedule a consultation for you to share guidelines to help your struggling reader.

Teach me to teach my child- Want to learn how to better

help your child with reading? Can't afford an in-home tutor? Become your child's tutor! We can teach you how to teach your child and steer you towards the right program or materials. We look forward to hearing from you.

DASA has activities and ideas for every level from kinder to college. Hands on activities, games, crafts, strategies and reading/spelling tips are provided in every session. We can also help you learn your rights and resources and receive valuable resource links. Our e-newsletter is free to all registered members of D.A.S.A

Real Students. Real change.

Jessica, age 18, passed ALL her End of Course tests and graduated with her class.She had reviously not been able to pass even ONE

Jason's father reports that his son now wants to read and checks out books from the library

"Jo" ( age witheld) used to read at first grade level , and gained 2.5 years of reading level in one year.

Mario, grade 3, raised his word recognition skills from grade 1.8 to grade 4.2 in 6 months!

Andre, age 7, used to cry at the thought of reading but now actually checks out books from the library.

Abby went from a 7 to a 14 on the ACT

Matt's parents won the battle for extra services at his public school after his qualifying assessments were considered.

Abby gained 150 points on the reading section of her SAT exams.

Tutoring + Advocacy + Essteem = Success.

D.A.S.A 210-777-3183

Advocacy: If not you, who? If not now, when?

Be an informed advocate with your child's teacher or school for such things as extended time, reduced answer options to read, highlighted key ideas in handouts, advance notice to read, use of tracking cards or colored overlay cards, oral administration of math, science, or social studies tests, seating near a natural light source, receiving advanced notes for lectures, and more.

HOW AND WHERE TO BEGIN: Emphasize to your child that his or her reading problem has nothing to do with intelligence. Share the stories of dyslexics who are successful business leaders, artists, scientists, and entertainers.

For beginning readers, pick what are called "decodable, leveled books" for your beginning reader and you to read together. These books are called "leveled readers" because they start with basic patterns of reading and build level by level. A great site to visit to learn the basic beginning patterns- www.starfall.com

Try Reading A to Z as well for some great resources.

Bogglesworld ESL also has a large phonics section with free materials

If you type Enchanted Learning word families you will find the most common word families that can be studied by making phonics "flip books"

Best Bet Spelling is a multi-sensory book written by our director. Email for more information

Learn to give multi-sensory support . Multi-sensory learning involves seeing-saying-touching- hearing- doing, one sound or rule at a time, slowly and repetitively. For example:

1) Bake letter cookies that your child can roll out and hand form as letters you both pronounce and use in edible word games: blend letters into words and segment them sound by sound or change them into other words. Color vowels pink or red with food color and leave consonants beige/tan.

2) Trace a letter as you say the sound and use a memory trick: b-b-b- b... letter "b" has a belly in the front.... p-p-p letter "p" is on top of a pole.

Use motions- say "sh-sh-shimmy" and "sh-sh shake" as you both trace the letters "sh" in the air and do the shimmy shake dance

3) Provide preview activities- preview a paragraph for those "stumble" words first before you read. Have the child show you any new or difficult words on the page before reading, and tell him or her how to say them. Then practice saying the word aloud and having the reader find it on the page, etc. before reading.

Study letter patterns and the word families they form: for example, the "oi" (vowel pair syllable) is found in the beginning or middle of words, but the "oy" (same sound) is found at the end.

Skywrite, say, and trace word families for these. Color code the "oi" differently than the rest of the word. Make a flip book of "oy" words ( the beginning letters flip and change.

Learn common suffixes and how to pronounce them: tion, cian /ous, cous, icious/ less, ness and others

Say and trace spelling words in a sandbox or using colored sugar and a cookie tray. Say sounds as you spell or use magnetic letters. Break words into syllables before you spell them.

4) Practice- A simple chart called a "rapid recognition chart " can help your child build automatic recognition of letters sounds and word families, from the simple to the complex.

5) Readers also need to learn syllable rules for how to pronounce longer words and how to understand where to break up multi-syllable words.

6) Did you know that "backwards decoding" is a great way to teach your child to break words into smaller parts? Have the child look at the last part of the word, then the middle and the first. Also ask him or her to break off a prefix or suffix, then think of similar letter patterns in words already familiar to him or her.

D.A.S.A. will be happy to help you find and use the above reading resources- Non-profits such as Learning Ally can help you by providing books on tape; some volunteer agencies or school clubs may also be willing to record books and resources for you. Many educational publishers have online and audio versions of their texts. Finally, most colleges have a student support services division that can work with a dyslexic student.
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TIPS FOR SUCCESS:

DASA workshops and consultations are filled with simple-but-effective ideas ( in more detail)

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ph: 210-777-3183
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