BS: Things that help people with Dyslexia

Subject: BS: Things that help people with Dyslexia
From: Rasener
Date: 03 Oct 09 - 05:05 AM

There is a lot of arguments going on in the Home teaching Uk thread and it has heavily involved people with Dyslexia.

Thought I would start this thread so that people could post positive things that help people with Dyslexia and also help those who do not have this to understand more how they can help or understand Dyslexia.

Its not meant to be a slagging match again.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that help people with Dyslexia
From: Spleen Cringe
Date: 03 Oct 09 - 05:11 AM

Thanks for starting this thread. Les. Can I echo your plea for people to keep it positive and on-subject?

Cheers

Nigel

Subject: RE: BS: Things that help people with Dyslexia
From: Eric the Viking
Date: 03 Oct 09 - 06:44 AM

Spend some time revisiting phonics to help with de-coding and word formation. Patience !! and small steps. Demonstrate the worth of a person is not decided on whether they can read or write (After all these skills are not the most important skills to have)build up confidence in their ability. A lot of schools up here use "Buff" coloured paper. Use Blue not black on white boards.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that help people with Dyslexia
From: Lizzie Cornish 1
Date: 03 Oct 09 - 09:44 AM

Things that help?

Well, you can ensure that the school uses its own love of testing and examining to ensure that every single teacher who works in a school, no matter at what level, first has to pass an exam on 'The Understanding Of Dyslexia'.



Things that help?

Realising that dyslexia is NOT a disease that can be cured, but a perfectly natural way for the brain to work.


Things that help?

For the Government to compensate every single dyslexic person on the streets, in our prisons, those who've become drug addicts and alcoholics...because of how they were treated at school by teachers who didn't give a f*ck!

Why should they receive compensation? Because they were made to feel, and often told outright, that they were stupid, lazy, troublesome and rude, when all they ever wanted was to be who they are, but were left to struggle in a system that has no time for them, no understanding.

School Damage last a lifetime for many, who are never picked up again, never truly believe that they are actually intelligent 'ordinary' people who simply have extraordinary brains.


Things that help?

For the Discrimination to stop. For companies to go back to interviewing people, not blocking them out 'online' so that many don't even get past the first page!

Things that would help?

For those who, for so long have chosen to belittle, to finally have the guts to stand up and apologise to all those intelligent, innocent souls they have hurt.


That's just for starters...

Oh, and for those who control to realise that Freedom in Education is the most wonderful thing which allows ALL to learn as they are meant to, by Mother Nature herself, instead of being rounded up like cattle and shoved into Factory Farms to 'obey rules'

Subject: RE: BS: Things that help people with Dyslexia
From: s&r
Date: 03 Oct 09 - 11:18 AM

Good try Villan.

Didn't last long...


Stu

Subject: RE: BS: Things that help people with Dyslexia
From: Mrrzy
Date: 03 Oct 09 - 11:41 AM

May be a natural way for the brain to work, but that doesn't mean it's good.

You can only be dyslexic, apparently, in English and French, or other languages with poor phonetic spelling. It doesn't happen with Spanish, Italian, Hungarian, or anything spelled phonetically, nor with languages whose spellings that have nothing to do with pronunciation, like Chinese.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that help people with Dyslexia
From: CarolC
Date: 03 Oct 09 - 12:29 PM

When a person with learning disabilities is encountered who has long lasting scars left from their experiences in a school system, and they express anger over their treatment in that system, trying to suppress what they are saying or judging them for saying it won't shut them up. I will only spur them on to fight harder. Showing some understanding and sympathy for such a person's bad experiences would be a much more effective way of keeping the discussion civil. Just a thought.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that help people with Dyslexia
From: CarolC
Date: 03 Oct 09 - 12:34 PM

Correction-

*It will only spur them on (etc)...

Subject: RE: BS: Things that help people with Dyslexia
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 03 Oct 09 - 12:40 PM

There are various tricks to help compensate, but it must be understood first that there are lots of aspects of learning disabilities that come under the expansive Dyslexia Umbrella.

I found the reiforced spelling rules that Eric mentions to be helpful. And moving around when you're warking on something difficult, read out loud, walk around with a book, write on the chalk board, etc. Moving means a couple of different parts of your brain are laying down the information.

Studies have shown time and again that dyslexia is generally found in very bright people. We learn to compensate for slow or difficult reading.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Things that help people with Dyslexia
From: Emma B
Date: 03 Oct 09 - 01:41 PM

What can be done to help people with dyslexia?

Re examine and dispel some of the popular 'myths' about the condition; they do a diservice to anyone with the condition.


Research has demonstrated that dyslexia can in fact be found across the whole range of intelligence, although it may be more easily recognised in a child who otherwise appears to be highly talented.

Dyslexia is not 'the affliction of geniuses'

Statistically many talented people may also be dyslexic (or suffer from a combination of specific learning difficulties) unfortunately many 'great minds' also suffered from bi polar disorders or clinical depression - I have yet to hear anyone describe thses as 'gifts'

There is little to no proof that some of the historical figures usually quoted as dyslexics actually were, certainly it is unlikely any of them actually took any of the tests that might have determined this.

For example a 30-year-old paper published by the University of North Carolina claimed Einstein had certain traits, such as strephosymbolia, which indicate that he MIGHT have been dyslexic seems to have been the origin of some spurious claims which don't seem to be in accordance with any biography

Although he was slow to begin to talk by the time he was seven his mother wrote "Yesterday Albert received his grades, he was again number one"
In fact Einstein was already 8 and a top student in a Catholic elementary school when the term dyslexia was first used in a monograph by Rudolf Berlin.

What helps me?

That little message on Google that says
'did you mean......' :)
and a spell check set to UK English.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that help people with Dyslexia
From: Emma B
Date: 03 Oct 09 - 02:33 PM

Speaking at the British Dyslexia Association's international conference in 2001, Dr Michael Rice of Darwin College
said that some previous research of dyslexia among prisoners had been flawed.

Researchers from the University of Cambridge say they have disproven suggestions that prisoners are more likely to have dyslexia than the general population.

Instead, Dr Rice, says that a higher incidence of reading difficulties reflects the deprivations of prisoners' backgrounds.

"My research suggests that dyslexia accounts for no more cases than might occur by chance, and that most prisoners' reading problems are associated with social disadvantage?" .

Among the problems with earlier research, he said, was the assumption that dyslexia is the "unique cause of low reading attainment" - and the understating of the impact of environmental influences.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that help people with Dyslexia
From: Cats
Date: 03 Oct 09 - 04:28 PM

If you are using an interective white board always make sure the background is a pale colour and not white,

Always prelearn subject specific words,

understand what type of learner you are and work withing those boundarieds as much as possible,

green or purple on white are the best colours to read,

sometimes coloured overlays, reading rulers and prescription coloured lenses help, but not for all dyslexics, but these must be diagnosed by a specialist ,

extra time is required for processing information,

overlearn things,

Never think you or they are thick or can't do it. They can but in a different way

explore different methods of recording information, writing it down may not be the best way for you

Warm your brain up first thing in the morning e.g. brain gym, just as you would if you were doing exercise, remember to start on one side of the body then cross the centre line gradually

Be positive, they are just different

If in UK make sure yor local school has Dyslexia Friendly School status and if not go and see the Head and the SENCo and push for it be become one.

Hope this helps

Subject: RE: BS: Things that help people with Dyslexia
From: Rasener
Date: 03 Oct 09 - 08:04 PM

Very positive Cats

it's that sort of info thats needed as well as new ideas that help.

Lizzie, I am getting very tired of starting a thread, to have you come on and screw it up and start upsetting other people everytime.

If you can't post some thing different and original then don't post.

please stop posting the same old comments.

You are spoiling every single thread.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that help people with Dyslexia
From: Little Robyn
Date: 03 Oct 09 - 09:29 PM

I was going to suggest Brain Gym too. Cats, we're on the same wave length.
Doing lots of cross-over exercises, even just placing the left hand on the right knee - shoulder - eye etc. and then the opposite with the right hand. How many of the parents announce proudly "My little Johnny didn't crawl, he just stood up and walked!" without realising Johnny has missed out on some important cross patterning.
When kids are trying to learn tables or spelling or even just alphabets, do it with a physical activity such as balancing on a beam or throwing a ball and saying it out loud, all at the same time. The info goes into several different parts of the brain and is much easier to retrieve than if you're just sitting quietly and reading it to yourself.
Robyn

Subject: RE: BS: Things that help people with Dyslexia
From: Lizzie Cornish 1
Date: 04 Oct 09 - 04:25 AM

Sorry, Villan

I'll keep my opinions to myself then, whilst you all put yours down.

Tell me though, why are my opinions any less valid than yours, or others? Why are others permitted to say very similar, if not the same things as me, but you never take them to task over it?

"...Researchers from the University of Cambridge say they have disproven suggestions that prisoners are more likely to have dyslexia than the general population.

Instead, Dr Rice, says that a higher incidence of reading difficulties reflects the deprivations of prisoners' backgrounds.

"My research suggests that dyslexia accounts for no more cases than might occur by chance, and that most prisoners' reading problems are associated with social disadvantage?...."

That's rubbish.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that help people with Dyslexia
From: Rasener
Date: 04 Oct 09 - 05:59 AM

Lizzie
Nothing wrong with you participating, but come up with something new and original.

All you keep on doing is talking about your children and Home Learning and about how crap the schooling system is. Most of that is copied information that has been written by sombody else.

Stop preaching and provide us with tools and ideas that will help parents who have dyslexic children do the best for their children.

Step outside you problems and look at how you can help other people who do not understand Dyslexia, without ramming your self centred doctrination on us all the time.

I realise that you have had a tough time, but then most of us have a tough time, but how do we help people see the wood from the trees.

This is the sort of idea I mean, but is not necessarily related to Dyslexia. This was a person with severe issues.

I have on numerous occasions, had to be involved with teaching people IT skills who clearly have a problem with using the mouse to point and click and that leads to frustration and anger at times.

I remember once when a man who had mental issues and great difficulty holding and using the normal mouse. Before I was involved with this person, people were just forcing him to use the computer without looking at his personal needs to help him achieve.

I watched him for 5 minutes struggling. I had a mouse like this http://www.infogrip.com/product_view.asp?RecordNumber=98 which I had used in the early days for my daughter at home. The next time I saw him, I had installed this mouse on the computer and got him, to try using it. It worked a real treat and instead of anger and frustration, he suddenly had a tool that helped him to use the computer. I then put put a program on the PC that allowed him to use an on screen keyboard, that predicted words and sentences as he clicked on each letter. He used the mouse with it, and suddenly from somebody who could hardly speak more than a sentence clearly, he was able to create word documents that had meaning.
His whole world changed becuase he was now able to communicate with the outside world and make sense. He went on to e-mailing his relatives and getting e-mails back from them.
All I ever got from him was smiles after that.
I gave him the mouse to keep and he was so overjoyed he burst out crying.
The cost of solving that was minimal, but it had a major impact on this person.

Have you got things like that , where other people can benefit from, without involving how good your family is etc etc. I am sure you have.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that help people with Dyslexia
From: GUEST,Helen
Date: 04 Oct 09 - 06:00 AM

I was humiliated in front of my entire post graduate management class (4 years part time while working 70 hour weeks, Masters degree) by the lecturer who laughed at me after my presentation, saying she awarded me the prize for using my hands the most, i.e.gesturing while making my final exam speech.

Gestures help me to seek the right word for the concept I can visualise, but find difficulty in expressing verbally. I didn't go to the graduation ceremony just after that, even though it is one of the achievements I value most in my life, because I was so upset and angry.

If I can "describe" the concept in the air I can usually find the path through my brain to find the right word.

Mrrzy said: "You can only be dyslexic, apparently, in English and French, or other languages with poor phonetic spelling. It doesn't happen with Spanish, Italian, Hungarian, or anything spelled phonetically, nor with languages whose spellings that have nothing to do with pronunciation, like Chinese."

I'd like to know the references to studies about this, because I don't think I agree, based on my own experience. I mix up syllables. So I always have to stop and work through the logic to find the right word, e.g. between superstitious & suspicious "SuPerStiSH" vers "SusPiSh". And I can never remember the name of Staminade. I have to work it through in my brain, and now I have a help word, SomethingAde - So-Me-th-INg-ADE. Sometimes I wonder whether stuttering is related, because I stutter when I am trying to pull the word out of that strange archive in my brain where the words reside.

I studied Latin at school. It's just as easy to mix up Latin words (similar to Italian) as it is to mix up English. Sounding out words works when I am reading, but doesn't help when I am talking and trying to find the right word.

And Lizzie has shared some personal emotions here, which I can relate to. We had a very nice teacher in 3rd Grade but she made me feel like a total loser in that class, especially when I asked what I thought were fair questions. (Give her some slack, though, this was back in 1963. Dyslexia wasn't something teachers were taught to look for.

And befoer soemone says I don't look liek a dylsexic, that's becasue I correct my typos befoer I submit.

Helen

Subject: RE: BS: Things that help people with Dyslexia
From: Rasener
Date: 04 Oct 09 - 06:17 AM

Helen
That was disgraceful from that lecturer. So sorry you had that experience.

Are there things that you use or have used that help you to communicate succesfully, that others may benefit from?

Subject: RE: BS: Things that help people with Dyslexia
From: GUEST,Helen
Date: 04 Oct 09 - 06:23 AM

More from me. I found that playing keyboard-based computer games, where I had to use left & right arrow keys, helped me a lot to remember left & right, i.e. more automatically than having to stop and think about it.

When I was in Primary School I wore a small ring on my left hand to remember which side of the road to ride my bicycle on. (We drive on the correct side here in Oz, not the right side.)

I find I have what I call brain-flips. It's like left and right, and top/bottom flip back and forth. So reading a word like "superstitious", the syllables can flip. I know it starts with "su" and ends in a "shus" sound, but then the middle syllables flip. I am aware of it now, but in childhood it was very confusing, while I was learning to read or learning new words. P's look like 9's, b's look like d's. Word pictures can help. The word "bed" looks like a bed - bedhead, mattress, bed-end. |--| My big numeric problem is a top to bottom flip. Look at the number 5 upside down and it looks like a 2. I'll see a 2, my brain registers 2, and I say 5, and have to correct myself.

Now I'm aware that the first word or number I think I see is possibly not right, so I double-check everything I type, or data I am entering, or words or numbers I am saying. It slows me down but I have extremely high accuracy. I consistently score around high 90's in tests out of 100 for accuracy.

Helen

Subject: RE: BS: Things that help people with Dyslexia
From: Rasener
Date: 04 Oct 09 - 06:32 AM

>>More from me. I found that playing keyboard-based computer games, where I had to use left & right arrow keys, helped me a lot to remember left & right, i.e. more automatically than having to stop and think about it.<<

Yes I can understand that and I think its a very good way of learning left or right.

Just something simple like that can make such a world of difference.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that help people with Dyslexia
From: GUEST,Helen
Date: 04 Oct 09 - 06:35 AM

Sorry, I forgot to say that when I get the brain-flips I get a feeling like a quick free-fall sensation in my gut, like I've fallen out of a high window. It's such a quick reaction that I wonder whether it isn't part of the brain-flips themselves. The gut reaction is simultaneous with the flips. It doesn't come after the flips, not even a split second after.

I panic when someone asks me what time it is. I have an analogue watch so the picture flips back and forth. Is it 10.55 am or is is 1.05 pm? Have I had lunch yet? No, so it must be 10.55 am. Or I know that my watch is on my left hand, so the left side of the dial, near my wrist, is the numbers from 7 to 12, the side of the dial near my hand is the right side, number 1 to 5. etc People look at me like I'm stupid because I can't tell them the time. A simple answer to a simple question. Sometimes I just show them my watch and let them decipher it.

Digital clocks are the pits. Those digital numbers! 2's look like 5's. What hope have I got of deciphering that?

Subject: RE: BS: Things that help people with Dyslexia
From: Rasener
Date: 04 Oct 09 - 06:46 AM

>>Sometimes I just show them my watch and let them decipher it.
<<

Great idea.

Maybe you should have a talking watch.

http://www.shopwiki.co.uk/talking+watch

Subject: RE: BS: Things that help people with Dyslexia
From: Jack Campin
Date: 04 Oct 09 - 07:22 AM

You can only be dyslexic, apparently, in English and French, or other languages with poor phonetic spelling. It doesn't happen with Spanish, Italian, Hungarian, or anything spelled phonetically, nor with languages whose spellings that have nothing to do with pronunciation, like Chinese.

Some time ago I heard a talk by an expert in Islamic calligraphy who had been brought up as a British ex-pat kid in Iran. Her first spoken language was English but her first written language was Persian. She said there was simply no such thing as dyslexia in places that use Arabic-based scripts - her guess as to why was that words have much more distinctive individual shapes than they do in English.

Practically, what that means for the UK is that if a kid is bilingual in Urdu and English and seems to be having problems reading and writing English, a switch to Urdu literacy learning might be in order.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that help people with Dyslexia
From: Rasener
Date: 04 Oct 09 - 07:45 AM

How much does the background colour for text play an important part in helping to read and for those who are dyslexic, what colour suits you best?

Does colour help in any way to stop the brain flips that Helen mentions?

Subject: RE: BS: Things that help people with Dyslexia
From: s&r
Date: 04 Oct 09 - 08:16 AM

One of many articles that suggest links between the amount of testosterone in the womb (meaured by finger length) and various traits including homosexuality and dyslexia

Stu

Subject: RE: BS: Things that help people with Dyslexia
From: Jack Campin
Date: 04 Oct 09 - 08:25 AM

I panic when someone asks me what time it is. I have an analogue watch so the picture flips back and forth. Is it 10.55 am or is is 1.05 pm? Have I had lunch yet? No, so it must be 10.55 am. Or I know that my watch is on my left hand, so the left side of the dial, near my wrist, is the numbers from 7 to 12, the side of the dial near my hand is the right side, number 1 to 5. etc People look at me like I'm stupid because I can't tell them the time. A simple answer to a simple question. Sometimes I just show them my watch and let them decipher it.

Digital clocks are the pits. Those digital numbers! 2's look like 5's. What hope have I got of deciphering that?

Do Roman numerals work any better for you?

IX and XI are going to be liabilities for flipping, but you've got the context of their position on the dial to help - and the Romans seem to have invented IIII just because of this sort of visual processing problem.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that help people with Dyslexia
From: Emma B
Date: 04 Oct 09 - 08:27 AM

Meares-Irlen or Scotopic Sensitivity Syndrome ' refers to visual perceptual disorder(s) affecting primarily reading and writing based activities.
Its existence is not recognized by some major medical organizations including the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Academy of Ophthalmology, and the American Optometric Association.
However, it has been studied in the former Applied Psychology Unit, Cambridge, UK. The Scottish Parliament has also funded a research and treatment centre at the Glasgow Caledonian University.

People who have Irlen Syndrome see the page differently because of distortions of the print or white background

Some people who are labelled "dyslexic/dyspraxic" may actually be sufferers from Irlen

For those with dyslexia however....
What all good web designers are aware of is that creative use of colour and contrast can dramatically enhance the accessibility of a website.

It can be as important for people with sight problems as it is to people who have dyslexia or whose first language is not the main language of the site.

Everyone benefits from text which is both easy on the eye and that is easy to follow.

For example, people with dyslexia benefit from good contrast I find black or dark blue on white the best) as this can help make the structure of words and sentances easier to understand.

This is very true for me as I have a food intolerance and sometimes have had to request shop staff to read some food labels printed in coloured inks on coloured backgrounds - embarassing :)

As for those road atlas that print road numbers in yellow on green - arghhhhhhhhh! :)

Subject: RE: BS: Things that help people with Dyslexia
From: Rasener
Date: 04 Oct 09 - 08:36 AM

Very interesting Em

Ths is not meant to plug my websiteEm, but can you read this page with ease? If not why not (I am refferring primarily to the colour concept). It doesn't mean that I will change things, but would like to use colours that help people to read easily.

http://www.faldingworthlive.co.uk/

I have sensitivity to light and get headaches if I have to stare at a bright white screen, so I use soft colour backgrounds. I am aware that some links on the page may be the wrong or worst colours to use. e.g. red. Do they bother you Em?

Subject: RE: BS: Things that help people with Dyslexia
From: Emma B
Date: 04 Oct 09 - 08:41 AM

Thanks for the link Les I'll take a longer look and PM you

Just another thing - I've enjoyed many different non vocational night classes as an adult and have found that organizing information using colour coding and diagramatic charts - pie charts etc has been a big help.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that help people with Dyslexia
From: Cats
Date: 04 Oct 09 - 08:44 AM

Some forms of Dyslexia, known as Scotopic Sensitivity Syndrome or Meares Irlen Syndrome, show themselves by the characters moving around on the page or falling off the side or spinning around or looking as if they have been built up from the page and even all round letters looking identical [try reading and spelling when a,c, e,m, n, o, r, s u,v,w,x,and z all look the same!]. In these cases using coloured overlays, reading rulers, prescription tinted spectacles or having a coloured background will help but the colour has to be disagnosed. I explain it to my students and their parents by saying the light travels along the nerves until it comes to a synapse and if it meets exactly all is fine but if, for any reason it doesn't, there is a distortion or visual acuity and you need to find which colour has not made a perfect jump. It's a bit like not having a radio tuned in properly. Any pale coloured background will actually help with eye discomfort for everyone, regardless if they are Dyslexic which is why, when using a white board, the background should be changed.

As for the comments running down the state system in the UK, I am an Individual Needs Coordinator in one of the largest secondary schools in Cornwall and I am proud to be in the state system. I am proud of what we do for our young people and of the teachers who spend countless hours of their own time making sure our students get the best provision there is. If you want to home educate that is your choice and I respect that but down run down a system that works well for the majority of children if you have chosen to opt out of it.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that help people with Dyslexia
From: Cats
Date: 04 Oct 09 - 08:50 AM

Sorry, Typo. Last sentence should read 'don't run down a system...'

Subject: RE: BS: Things that help people with Dyslexia
From: Rasener
Date: 04 Oct 09 - 09:04 AM

Ah finally this seems to be settling down into a very useful and informative thread. Hopefully it will remain that way.

Very interesting Cats. Is there a particular font style that IYHO seems to particularly suit dyslexics?

Thanks Em

Subject: RE: BS: Things that help people with Dyslexia
From: Jack Campin
Date: 04 Oct 09 - 09:21 AM

There was somebody who made the national news a couple of years ago for designing a dyslexia-friendly font - it looked pretty nice for other folks as well. Last time I looked there was no way to get it except at considerable expense, which means its impact is likely to be very limited.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that help people with Dyslexia
From: Emma B
Date: 04 Oct 09 - 09:34 AM

'Advice on dyslexia friendly fonts and general layout can be found on the British Dyslexia Association website and on Dyslexic.com. TechDis who appear to do research in this area have a comprehensive guide to style and fonts for website [PDF]. The results of a study of reading speeds and subjective preferences show that Verdana was the best font but this wasn't specifically limited to dyslexia.'

Info from this site
where the links work!

The 'read regular' may be the font you mean Jack - I always use Verdana myself - and I thought it was because I just liked it :)

Subject: RE: BS: Things that help people with Dyslexia
From: Spleen Cringe
Date: 04 Oct 09 - 09:59 AM

Has anyone had any success in getting their local school to become a "dyslexia friendly school"? At my son's school the SENCO & head appear resistant to innovation around special needs (despite getting panned by OFSTED for their inadequacies), cry "poverty" when I try to get adequate and appropriate support (apparently my son's needs aren't "severe" enough for them!) and seem intent on lumping kids with diverse needs together for 20 minutes three times a week and keeping their fingers crossed the rest of the time?

I'm not looking for solutions I can do outside of school (already working on that), diatribes about the education system or glib demands that I home school him. I'm hoping for ideas and practical examples of what I can do to improve things for my son and others in his position at his school (thanks to The Villan for sharing his experiences with me by pm already - I'm looking to broaden out the discussion a little).

Cheers,

Nigel

Subject: RE: BS: Things that help people with Dyslexia
From: Rasener
Date: 04 Oct 09 - 10:09 AM

Thats really interesting.

Most Professional Printers (as in a business not the things that print your documents out) for body text (paragraphs where font sizes are 12 point or less) tend to use Serif fonts because they help the eye to read each character more easily. Serifs for those who don't know are the little feet used at the ends of characters such as X.

However Verdana is a Sans Serif font (without feet at the end of the characters) which is used extensively for headings (larger font styles) in documents. Serif fonts do not lend themselves to large font styles 14 point or more.

Serif fonts are considered more readable for lengthy text printed in books, newspapers and magazines, whereas sans-serif fonts are considered more legible on computer screens. Most web pages employ sans-serif type for this reason.

I find long documents that use Sans Serif fonts for paragraphs difficult and tiring to read. I don't mean 1 or 2 paragraphs.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that help people with Dyslexia
From: Rasener
Date: 04 Oct 09 - 10:23 AM

>>I'm hoping for ideas and practical examples of what I can do to improve things for my son and others in his position at his school<<

Thats exactly what this thread is for Nigel. So if people who are posting can keep that in mind, it would be great.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that help people with Dyslexia
From: Spleen Cringe
Date: 04 Oct 09 - 10:30 AM

Cheers, Les ;-)

Subject: RE: BS: Things that help people with Dyslexia
From: Emma B
Date: 04 Oct 09 - 10:31 AM

Reading with phonetic writing systems is based in part on word shape recognition and part on context - as someone who visualizes words (you may see me exercising 'invisible' finger writing sometimes when struggling to recall one) I find this system suits me best
But - and this is a follow on from fonts - the amount of letter-spacing in text can also affect legibility

Just a thought - this is an interesting thread

Sorry I can't help you Spleen Cringe with any answers with regard to problems with a school, it's been a long time since I was in the system.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that help people with Dyslexia
From: CarolC
Date: 04 Oct 09 - 12:18 PM

I don't have dyslexia, but I do have severe astigmatism and early stage cataracts, and the color combination in the Faldingworth Live website makes it extremely difficult for me to read, even when I wear my glasses that are supposed to correct my astigmatism.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that help people with Dyslexia
From: Rasener
Date: 04 Oct 09 - 12:26 PM

Ah OK Carol
I have astigmatism and it seems OK to me. Is it the background colour or the text colour?
Les

Subject: RE: BS: Things that help people with Dyslexia
From: Rasener
Date: 04 Oct 09 - 12:32 PM

The other question Carol is

What resolution do you have for your monitor and how old is your computer and monitor, as this may provide a clue. As I say, it looks OK on my monitor.

Also is it the size of text possibly?

Subject: RE: BS: Things that help people with Dyslexia
From: CarolC
Date: 04 Oct 09 - 12:38 PM

It's probably the combination of my astigmatism and my early stage cataracts and not the astigmatism alone. The blue is too dark. I'm using a two or three year old iMac with a 21 inch screen. I don't know what the resolution is, but it's very good. I have no trouble reading this thread in the Mudcat, even when the text size is the same as in the Faldingworth Live site, because there is very good contrast between the text and the background. But the background in the Faldingworth Live website is too dark and there's not enough contrast. It almost gives me a headache when I try to read it.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that help people with Dyslexia
From: Rasener
Date: 04 Oct 09 - 12:48 PM

Thats starnge as it is a light blue

Subject: RE: BS: Things that help people with Dyslexia
From: Rasener
Date: 04 Oct 09 - 12:50 PM

The reason I use light blue background is to take the brightness off the screen and give a softpastel effect.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that help people with Dyslexia
From: Rasener
Date: 04 Oct 09 - 01:12 PM

I have just changed my frontpage of my website as an experiment. Can you try it again and see if that is any better please. If not why not?

http://www.faldingworthlive.co.uk/

Subject: RE: BS: Things that help people with Dyslexia
From: CarolC
Date: 04 Oct 09 - 01:18 PM

On my monitor, the color is the same as the blue color that surrounds letters when they are highlighted, and the text is black. I would describe it as being at the dark end of light blue, or the light end of medium blue.

I just now checked it again, and I see it's a darker blue with white letters. That's a little bit easier to read, but not great.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that help people with Dyslexia
From: CarolC
Date: 04 Oct 09 - 01:22 PM

I'm trying to figure out why the darker background with the white letters is not as good as a bright background with dark letters, and I don't know if I can explain it. I always have problems with dark backgrounds. They tend to make me headachy.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that help people with Dyslexia
From: Lizzie Cornish 1
Date: 04 Oct 09 - 01:38 PM

"I have just changed my frontpage of my website as an experiment. Can you try it again and see if that is any better please. If not why not?"

It's dazzling and it makes me want to turn the screen off straight away as it hurts my eyes.

Subject: RE: BS: Things that help people with Dyslexia
From: Lizzie Cornish 1
Date: 04 Oct 09 - 01:42 PM

It makes my head spin, especially the yellow.

My myspace page is black backgrounded....and the yellow's OK on that, so are all the other colours...(I love colours)....but not a blue background...

It makes my head 'swim'....