Dyslexia Teaching Strategies: Practical Ways to Support Learners
Teaching a child with dyslexia can sometimes require a different approach to instruction and practice. A strategy that seems straightforward to one learner may leave another confused, frustrated, or unable to remember what was taught.
The good news is that struggling with a particular way of learning does not mean a child cannot learn the skill.
Children with dyslexia benefit from clear, explicit instruction, systematic practice, and plenty of opportunities to apply what they are learning. Some learners also benefit from meaningful visual, auditory, tactile, and kinesthetic supports that help make abstract information more concrete and memorable.
The key is to understand both what needs to be taught and what helps the individual child understand, remember, and apply it.
Here are practical dyslexia teaching strategies parents and teachers can use across reading, spelling, writing, math, and everyday learning.
1. Use Explicit, Systematic Instruction
Children shouldn't have to figure out important academic concepts on their own.
Explicit instruction means clearly showing the learner:
What they are learning
How it works
How to do it
When to use it
A simple instructional sequence might look like this:
Explain → Model → Practice Together → Practice Independently → Review
In reading, for example, explicitly teach the relationship between sounds and the spellings that represent them. Model how to blend those sounds into words and give the child guided opportunities to practice before expecting independent application.
In math, explicitly demonstrate what an operation means rather than teaching only a procedure to memorize.
Instruction should also be systematic and cumulative. New learning builds on previously taught skills, and earlier skills are regularly reviewed and applied.
This creates a stronger foundation than presenting disconnected rules and expecting the child to remember them later.
2. Make Learning Meaningfully Multisensory
Multisensory learning combines different ways of interacting with information.
Depending on the lesson, a child might:
See it — a word, image, spelling pattern, diagram, number relationship, or visual model
Hear and say it — sounds, words, explanations, or verbal reasoning
Touch or build it — letter tiles, manipulatives, tracing, writing, sorting, or constructing
Move with it — a purposeful body motion connected with the concept
The important word is meaningfully.
Movement or hands-on activity should not simply keep a child busy. Whenever possible, it should reinforce the concept being learned.
For example, a child learning a sound-spelling pattern might see the spelling, say its sound, build words containing it, write those words, and read them in sentences.
Each activity reinforces the same underlying skill.
Related reading: What Is Multisensory Learning? Why Is It So Effective?
3. Use Meaningful Visual Supports
Visuals can help make abstract information more concrete.
But there's a difference between decoration and a meaningful visual support.
A meaningful visual carries information.
Consider:
- diagrams that show relationships;
- pictures connected directly with meaning;
- visual representations of math quantities;
- timelines;
- graphic organizers;
- charts;
- maps;
- illustrated spelling patterns;
- color used purposefully to distinguish information; and
- visual anchors that help a learner recall a concept.
For example, a visual associated with a word or spelling pattern can initially draw a child's attention to important information. With instruction and practice, the learner should increasingly apply the skill without depending on the visual support.
The goal is for the visual to serve as a bridge to learning, not something the learner must rely on permanently.
4. Break Complex Tasks Into Manageable Steps
A long set of directions can become overwhelming.
Instead of:
“Read the chapter, answer the questions, write a paragraph about the main idea, and check your spelling.”
break the assignment into visible steps:
1. Read the first section.
2. Tell me the main idea.
3. Answer questions 1–3.
4. Plan your paragraph.
5. Write your paragraph.
6. Check it using this checklist.
Written directions, checklists, visual schedules, and examples can reduce the amount of information a learner needs to hold in mind at one time.
The same strategy can be useful for:
- writing assignments;
- multi-step math problems;
- spelling practice;
- projects;
- daily routines; and
- independent work.
As the child becomes more confident with a process, gradually reduce the amount of support.
5. Show How the Parts Fit Into the Whole
Some learners benefit from understanding the big picture before focusing on individual details.
Think about assembling a 1,000-piece jigsaw puzzle.
Seeing the completed picture on the box gives you a framework for understanding where all those individual pieces belong.
Learning can work similarly.
Explicit instruction in individual skills is important, but it can also help children understand how those skills connect to a meaningful whole.
In reading, for example, explicitly teach sounds and spelling patterns while also helping children see how those patterns function within real words, sentences, and connected text.
In writing, show a child an example of a completed paragraph before teaching the individual steps involved in constructing one.
In math, demonstrate the overall quantity or relationship before expecting a child to manipulate abstract symbols.
The goal isn't to choose between parts or whole.
It's to help the learner understand the parts and how they fit together.
6. Provide Guided and Repeated Practice
Understanding something during a lesson doesn't necessarily mean a child will remember or independently apply it tomorrow.
Learners need repeated opportunities to retrieve and use what they've learned.
But repetition doesn't have to mean doing the same worksheet again and again.
A child practicing a spelling pattern could:
- build words;
- read words;
- sort words by pattern;
- write words;
- identify the pattern within unfamiliar words;
- read sentences containing the pattern; and
- encounter it again in connected text.
The concept is repeated, but the learner interacts with it in multiple meaningful ways.
This type of practice helps skills become increasingly accurate and automatic.
7. Support Reading With Explicit Skill Instruction and Practice
Reading difficulties are common among children with dyslexia, so reading instruction deserves particular attention.
Important foundational skills include:
- phonemic awareness;
- phonics and sound-spelling relationships;
- decoding;
- encoding/spelling;
- high-frequency word recognition;
- fluency;
- vocabulary; and
- comprehension.
Children need direct instruction and plenty of opportunities to apply developing skills in words, sentences, and connected text.
If a child is working so hard to decode individual words that meaning gets lost, pause periodically and talk about what was read.
Ask:
What just happened?
What do you picture?
What do you think will happen next?
What was the most important idea?
The goal isn't merely to pronounce the words correctly. Ultimately, reading is about meaning.
Looking specifically for help teaching reading?
We've created a separate guide devoted entirely to this subject:
How to Teach a Child with Dyslexia to Read: 8 Helpful Strategies
8. Teach Visualization for Comprehension
Struggling readers can devote so much attention to figuring out words that they lose track of what those words mean. Help children intentionally create a mental picture as they read.
After a sentence or short section, ask:
“What do you see happening in your mind?”
A child can:
- describe the picture;
- draw it;
- act it out;
- choose an image that represents it; or
- explain how the mental picture changed as more information was added.
Over time, encourage the child to do this internally.
Visualization should support comprehension rather than replace careful attention to the text. The mental image needs to come from what the author actually wrote.
9. Support Spelling by Teaching Patterns and Connections
Spelling can be particularly frustrating when it is approached primarily as memorizing lists of isolated words.
Instead, help children understand the relationships between sounds and spellings.
For example:
Say the word.
Identify its sounds.
Connect those sounds with their spellings.
Notice meaningful spelling patterns.
Build or write the word.
Compare it with related words.
Use it in context.
When appropriate, group words that share a sound-spelling pattern so children can see the relationship among them.
Meaningful visual supports can also draw attention to a spelling pattern that has been difficult to remember.
The goal is not simply to memorize how one word looks. It is to develop knowledge the learner can increasingly apply to other words.
Sound Spelling/Right-Brained Phonics & Spelling
10. Give Writing a Visible Structure
Writing requires many skills at once.
A child may be trying to think of an idea while simultaneously remembering spelling, punctuation, capitalization, handwriting, sentence structure, organization, and what they wanted to say next.
Reduce that load by separating the process.
For example:
Step 1: Talk about the idea.
Step 2: Make a visual organizer.
Step 3: Write the main idea.
Step 4: Add supporting details.
Step 5: Review the content.
Step 6: Edit spelling and mechanics.
Graphic organizers can be particularly useful because they make the structure of writing visible before the child has to turn it into sentences and paragraphs.
And when the purpose of an activity is idea generation or comprehension, consider whether every spelling error really needs to be corrected at that moment.
Sometimes it is more productive to focus on one learning objective at a time.
11. Make Math Concrete Before It Becomes Abstract
Math is filled with symbols.
To an experienced learner:
7 + 3 = 10
carries immediate meaning.
But a child needs to understand what those symbols represent.
Use manipulatives and visual models to demonstrate quantities and relationships before relying exclusively on written equations.
A child can physically create seven objects, add three more, and see that the resulting quantity is ten.
Then connect the concrete experience to:
7 + 3 = 10
This principle can be used with:
- addition and subtraction;
- multiplication and division;
- place value;
- fractions;
- measurement; and
- other mathematical relationships.
Patterns can also be powerful. Help children notice relationships among numbers rather than treating every math fact as an isolated piece of information to memorize.
12. Help Children Organize and Remember Information
Sometimes the difficulty isn't understanding something the first time.
It's remembering and retrieving it later.
Try providing external supports such as:
- checklists;
- visual schedules;
- written directions;
- graphic organizers;
- reference cards;
- anchor charts;
- examples;
- calendars; and
- organized notebooks or folders.
Also build retrieval into practice.
Instead of always showing the child the answer again, occasionally ask:
“What do you remember about this?”
Give them time to retrieve it.
Then provide a prompt or visual support if needed.
The goal is to gradually move from supported recall toward independent recall.
13. Read Aloud—and Listen to the Child Read
Reading aloud can serve several purposes.
An adult reading aloud exposes a child to:
- vocabulary;
- sentence structure;
- stories and information above the child's independent reading level; and
- the rhythm and expression of fluent reading.
A child reading aloud also gives the parent or teacher valuable information.
You can hear whether the learner:
- blends accurately;
- guesses at unfamiliar words;
- misses endings;
- struggles with particular spelling patterns;
- reads word-by-word; or
- reads accurately but without understanding.
Reading aloud shouldn't become a performance or source of embarrassment. Use it as one instructional window into what the learner can do and where additional support is needed.
14. Build on Strengths While Developing Needed Skills
A child should not have to fit neatly into one learning category before we decide how to teach them.
Pay attention to the individual learner.
What helps this child understand?
What helps them remember?
Where does the learning process break down?
What can they do independently?
Where do they need explicit modeling or additional practice?
What strengths can help them access a difficult skill?
This doesn't mean avoiding areas that are challenging.
A child who struggles with decoding still needs to learn to decode.
A child who finds spelling difficult still needs spelling instruction.
A child who struggles to follow sequential directions still needs opportunities to develop that skill.
The difference is that we can use existing strengths as bridges while explicitly developing the skills that are less secure.
That is central to the Child1st philosophy.
Put the Child First
Child1st grew from Sarah Major's experience working directly with children who struggled with traditional approaches to learning. Observing individual learners—what helped them understand, what helped them remember, and where they became confused—shaped the philosophy behind the company.
The name Child1st reflects that philosophy.
Good teaching isn't simply about completing a lesson or following a program exactly as written.
It's about knowing the learning objective, providing sound instruction, observing the child's response, and making thoughtful adjustments when additional support is needed.
As Sarah put it:
“We teach the child, not a lesson and not a system.”
Finding the Right Support for Your Child
You don't need to implement every strategy on this page at once.
Start by identifying where your learner is struggling.
If the primary difficulty is learning to read, see:
How to Teach a Child with Dyslexia to Read: 8 Helpful Strategies
If you're trying to determine which reading resources to use, see:
Reading Materials for Children with Dyslexia: What to Look For
If you're looking for ways to support learning across reading, spelling, writing, math, memory, and everyday instruction, use the strategies on this page as a starting point.
Observe.
Teach explicitly.
Practice.
Notice what helps.
Adjust when necessary.
And continue building both the skills the child needs and the strengths they already bring to learning.
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