Dyslexia Conference – Square Pegs

A Great Dyslexia Conference

What an exciting day it was! About 200 people at the Making Connections Conference on dyslexia in Hobart on Saturday, organised by Square Pegs. “Get it right for dyslexic learners and we get it right for all.” (Neil MacKay)

Jackie French’s opening address was full of enthusiasm and stories. She is the Australian Children’s Laureate, Senior Australian of the Year and is a dyslexic. She has also written over a hundred books. Everyone can learn to read and write but it is not easy. There is a “magic book” that opens the door to reading for every child. This is the book with which they will persevere, that they cannot put down because they are desperate to find out what happens next.

Neil MacKay is the author of a number of books including Total Teaching … and has developed the concept of Dyslexia Friendly Schools. He shared many great, and simple/workable ideas on how to raise the achievement of vulnerable students, and thus everyone, in the classroom.

People on the “dyslexic spectrum” struggle to read and write well. It takes them twice as long to do half as much. Some interesting ideas and ways to help include

• Typing on a computer.
• Paired reading.
• Use an evidence based/validated phonics program.
• Coloured paper.
• A line of highlighting just above the lines on the paper – students write within this allowing b,d,h … g, j, p … to go above and below it.
• “Blu-Tack” dots – put after each word to get spacing.
• Do the illustration before the story to clarify what students want to write.
• Make ability groupings on thinking not reading skills – refuse to associate intelligence with reading ability.
• Look up words on Google or Wikipedia not in a dictionary – they interpret the spelling.
• Offer these alternatives to all students so dyslexic students do not feel “different”.
• Allow alternative assessment – scribe, diagram, Powerpoint presentation …

Dr Lorraine Hammond from Edith Cowan University in Western Australia showed examples of good explicit direct teaching. It is never boring and it works.

The photo shows my friends Byron and Jean Harrison, long-time advocates of teaching phonics and stirrers of governments, and my dear husband, Arthur (on the left), who had my stand packed up and ready to go when I emerged from the day totally exhausted.