How to teach kids with dyslexia to read

What’s the best way to teach kids with dyslexia how to read? Dyslexia treatment doesn’t have to involve fancy equipment or tutors. Learn what teachers can do and how families can help work on reading skills at home.

Dyslexia treatment for kids

The most effective dyslexia treatment is a teaching approach called structured literacy. This way of teaching reading helps all students but is extra helpful for kids with dyslexia.

Structured literacy teaches reading in three key ways:

• Systematic: Reading skills are taught in a logical order. Kids have to master the basics before moving on to more complex skills. For instance, a teacher makes sure kids can blend two letter-sounds before asking them to find those blends in words.

• Explicit: Teaching is clear and direct. There’s no guesswork. Example: A teacher points to each letter in the word sit and says, “The first sound is /s/, the next sound is /ĭ/, and the last sound is /t/.” 

• Diagnostic: Teachers test to make sure students are mastering concepts before moving on. And the teaching can be tailored as needed. For instance, after working on blending sounds, a teacher may notice a student needs more practice. 

Structured literacy helps all kids learn to read. But it’s extra helpful for kids with dyslexia, who often have trouble with the basic skills of reading. Structured literacy helps kids build a solid foundation so they can develop more advanced reading skills. 

Video: See a structured-literacy lesson

Step inside a reading intervention. This half-hour video shows how teachers are using structured literacy with struggling readers in grade school and middle school.

The video shows students working on the core skills needed for reading:

• Identifying the sounds in spoken words

• Connecting sounds to letters

• Dividing words into syllables

• Studying meaningful parts of words, like prefixes and suffixes

• Understanding sentence structure and the order of words

• Understanding the meaning of words and sentences

Kids with dyslexia often have trouble with the first two skills — breaking down the sounds of language (phonological awareness) and matching those sounds with written symbols (decoding). Learn more about phonological awareness and decoding.

Orton–Gillingham and multisensory reading

Many structured literacy programs use sight, sound, movement, and touch to help kids connect spoken language to written words. Engaging different senses can help make the information “stick.” Here are three examples:

• Orton–Gillingham: Kids see the letter s, say its name, and sound it out while writing it with their finger in shaving cream.

• Wilson Reading System: Kids tap out each sound in a word with their fingers and thumb.

• Barton Reading Program: Kids use color-coded tiles to build words with yellow vowels and blue consonants.

5 ways parents and caregivers can help

You don’t have to be an expert in structured literacy to help your child with dyslexia. Here are five ways families can help work on reading skills at home:

1. Make reading multisensory.

Help connect letters and sounds by engaging the senses, like writing a word in sand while sounding it out. Explore multisensory reading techniques.

2. Use a whisper phone.

Help readers hear subtle differences by making or buying a phone-shaped tube to amplify the sounds as they read aloud. Watch a video on how to use a whisper phone.

3. Help with multisyllabic words.

Say a long word out loud and tap out each syllable. This can help readers focus on and remember each syllable. Get dyslexia tips to help with long words.

4. “Scoop” words into phrases.

Instead of reading word by word, try pausing between short, meaningful phrases: “The gray cat / jumped / on the red ball.” Learn how this can help with reading fluency.

5. Listen to audiobooks.

Use free tools that read text out loud. Audiobooks and text-to-speech (TTS) can help kids become better readers. Learn more about assistive technology for reading.