Dyslexia Awareness Month is coming up in October. It’s a time for us to think about dyslexia, how it affects people and how we canAn illustration of a person’s face up close. They are reading a book and their eyes are moving from side to side. There are letters of the alphabet around them. make the world a kinder and more inclusive place for everyone. You can learn more about Dyslexia Awareness Month on the International Dyslexia Association website.

This month, we highlight what it can be like for students with dyslexia, and what their parents, carers and teachers can do to support them.

What is dyslexia?

When a person has dyslexia, there is difficulty in connecting letters on a page to the sounds that are part of words. This can make it hard for people with dyslexia to read, write or do maths. Between 10 and 20% of Australians live with mild to severe dyslexia. But research shows that dyslexia is not related to a person’s intelligence or work ethic – it is simply different wiring in the brain.

How reading works

If you stop and think about it, reading is a very complex process. And some people’s brains just find this task more difficult
than others.

For example, take the word 'joy'. Each letter in this word is a symbol for a particular sound we can make with our mouths. There is a 'j' sound, an 'o' sound and a 'y' sound. To read the word, you need to connect all those smaller sounds in perfect order to produce a single word: 'joy'. But the written word 'joy' itself is a symbol for a certain syllable we can make with our mouths. And that syllable we make with our mouths is also a symbol for an intense feeling of happiness.

So, even reading a single word requires the brain to recognise and connect symbols and sounds at multiple levels. When you string words together into a sentence at rapid speed, the brain undergoes a deeply intensive process of recognition, connection and visualisation.

It’s quite remarkable that any of us can read at all.

Dyslexia in schools

Unfortunately, school environments are not suited to students with dyslexia because schools tend to teach and test students in writing. This can lead to students with dyslexia feeling frustrated that they can’t understand what’s on the board. It can make them feel different to everyone else, that they’re dumb or somehow missing something everyone else just 'gets'. Unfortunately, most schools don’t utilise other learning practices that involve sound, rhythm, movement and touch.

It’s common for students with dyslexia to face bullying at school. Teachers who don’t understand dyslexia might also treat these students badly. This can lead to students with dyslexia feeling isolated, confused and discouraged.

You can hear from students between years 1 to 12 talk about what it’s like for them to have trouble reading and writing on the Understood website.

Supporting students with dyslexia

There are ways parents, carers and teachers can support students with dyslexia. It’s vital to stop using words that imply people with dyslexia are less than. For example, it's vital to use supportive language as criticism can make students feel worse about learning. It’s also important that parents, carers and teachers do their own research to understand what dyslexia is and how to support students who live with it.

There are effective interventions you can use. For example, you can carefully teach students the relationship between letters and sounds. This can be even more effective if you use a sensory approach. You could have the student draw letters in sand, or clap a rhythm, while they sound out each letter of a word.

You can also encourage children to build their skills in other areas like science, visual art, music or design. This can help them feel that they can excel in other areas, even if they find it exhausting to read and write. Reading apps, audiobooks and text-to-speech software are also excellent resources for people with dyslexia to understand written material.

You can learn more about dyslexia on the Child Mind Institute website.