Inclusive Teaching: Easy-to-Implement Accommodations for Dyslexic Students
/I have helped a few dyslexic professionals who told me early on that they struggled with grammar, speaking fluently, and reading at school when learning English. And as a result, they believed their English to be poorer than that of their colleagues and at a real disadvantage in their professional careers. So in the past, I attended talks and read articles on strategies to help dyslexic students, but the talk I attended by Charlotte Peters on BELTA Day 22 April 2023 was both insightful and impactful, leaving me to challenge my methodology around speaker workshops and communication coaching tools.
It is estimated that 10 to 12% of the population is dyslexic. Dyslexics even represent 20% or more of the population in fields like computer science, maths, economics, mechanics, sports, art, and drama. Wow! Isn’t that amazing?
This can cause around 20 issues, including phoneme recognition and pronunciation (made harder in a language like English where the relationship between the spelling and sounds can be tricky), word recognition, slow reading, grammar issues, smaller range of vocabulary, retrieval of vocabulary (leading to slower speech), a smaller span of working memory, time management, sustained attention, automation of new skills taking 10, 20, 30 times longer to obtain the same result.
Symptoms are often that the individual has to work harder and longer, which leads to fatigue and feelings of stress and frustration. As you probably know, there is a large range from mild dyslexia to severe, including 1 to 20 issues.
And what's important to note is there is no link with IQ. Leonardo da Vinci, Albert Einstein, and Agatha Christie were all dyslexic 😊 And they might even have superior visuospatial processing abilities!
WHO recognizes dyslexia as a disability. However, in Belgium, this is not the case, although the education system has awarded legal rights and obligations to provide accommodation for dyslexic pupils. This was granted in 2015 in Flemish-speaking institutions and in 2018 in French-speaking institutions.
Interestingly, and perhaps not surprising, 91% of dyslexic individuals have another learning difference, such as dyscalculia, and 7% have ADHD.
How can we help dyslexic individuals to learn English and communicate effectively?
Based on research among the dyslexic students of UCLouvain and specialists at the university,
Charlotte shared with us a wealth of practical strategies to help our students.
Provide them with:
· More time for exercises
· Shorter exercises
· Cheat Sheets and access to dictionaries
· Avoiding multiple choice with answers on a grid as it's easier to make mistakes
· Opportunity to ask more questions
· More visuals
· More repetition for regular practice
· Instructions before distributing worksheets and activities as it's tough to multitask.
And similar to sight and hearing-impaired individuals, those with dyslexia prefer to find it easier to assimilate information when the font size on slides is larger and in bold. There are also certain font types (known as accessible fonts) to use.
And lastly, never make dyslexic students read aloud!
As a Communication Coach with a mission to empower as many individuals as possible to share their great ideas regardless of their English level, all my online course material Involves hundreds of slides, large fonts, and many opportunities to practice and repeat.
However, I am keen to learn and improve my methodology for dyslexic clients, so will challenge:
· The redesign of my Google mid-term evaluations to have less multiple-choice grids
· The simplicity of my instructions during activities given in my executive presentation workshops
· The use of reading short passages for vocal exercises in public speaking coaching
Thank you, Charlotte.
Biography
Charlotte Peters teaches English and German for Specific Purposes at the language institute of Université Catholique de Louvain. She focuses on English for Engineering and Bioengineering, as well as Business English. She also prepares students for standardized English proficiency tests.
She has experience with course design, test design, and creating course books and new teaching materials, including online learning modules. She coordinates courses and teaching teams for large student cohorts. She also has experience with training university faculty and co-teaching in the context of Content and Language Integrated Learning.
Charlotte is interested in teaching languages to students with specific learning differences, and particularly in supporting students with dyslexia. At her institute, she is part of a working group that aims to understand better the needs of dyslexic students in language courses and language testing and to support the teaching staff in meeting these needs.
Charlotte holds a Master’s degree in Germanic languages (English and German) from Katholieke Universiteit Leuven and a Master’s degree in European Studies from Université Catholique de Louvain. At the beginning of her career, she worked for an international non-profit organization, before moving into teaching and becoming CELTA-certified. Her mother tongue is German, she has bilingual proficiency in English and French, and she speaks Dutch at an upper-intermediate level, as well as some Swedish.
If you would like to discuss how to public speak for your organisation (especially for those individuals who are perhaps dyslexic, autistic or who are more introverted), I offer free 30-minute consultations through the contact page of my site. I’d love to meet you.