There are many traits that Dyslexics share but no two people are exactly the same. Here are some common traits:
- Difficulty understanding any concept without starting with the “whole picture”. The right brain learner thinks and understands the world in whole concrete images.
- If the whole concrete image has not been presented first and is available when the student is starting to learn the parts that make up that whole picture, the parts will not make any sense and they will not be able to recall the parts. Their right brain needs to see whole images and whole concepts first, then can understand the separated parts.
- Difficulty with understanding the parts separate from the whole image of the word. If these students cannot see the parts within the whole and the whole image at the same time, they cannot make sense out of pieces or parts of information. For example, demonstrating fractions. Use two oranges, keep one whole, cut the other up first into halves then into quarters, but always have the visual image of the whole orange present. The student must understand that the word fraction stands for the equal parts you have created from the whole.
- Difficulty with the skills of hand printing, spelling, reading and composing sentences correctly. This indicates a right-brained dyslexic student is unable to utilize their visual and kinesthetic strengths to process abstract information like letters, words and numbers. A right-brained thinker has great difficulty learning, analyzing or retaining information without the meaning and context a whole concrete image provides. Although the student is taking in abstract symbolic information and attempting to store it in whole concrete images, they are not able to connect it to their left brain where this type of abstract information is more easily processed. Instead they are memorizing the image of the information and giving it back as a whole image in their answers. They can do this easily if they are expected to give one word answers or complete a sentence, but thinking out cause and effect is next to impossible because this is an abstract task that has little meaning for them and requires proper training to understand and work with it.
- Difficulty with sequencing (put in a logical order) numbers, letters, words, sentences, ideas, thoughts. If the students can neither see the “parts within the whole” in their correct sequence, they cannot spell, read, write sentences and paragraphs, nor do mathematical calculations.
- Difficulty understanding the abstract. Dyslexics do not always understand the abstract words, thoughts and ideas they hear or read as they cannot easily turn them into whole concrete images they can visualize. If a dyslexic student cannot complete a thought in a visual image, they will have problems saving it and storing it in long term memory because it does not make sense. A right-brained thinker attempts to understand what is being read or spoken by catching the concrete nouns and active verbs, or by using intuition to fill in the blanks or reason it out.
- Difficulty with building a memorized word list. It is very important for all students, including dyslexics,to have a memorized sight list of words that is appropriate to their grade level. These words must be memorized beforehand so the brain does not have to lose time figuring out how to decode a word, what it sounds like or what it means. If the student spends too much time in decoding and recognizing the individual words, comprehension of the story is lost. The student is forced to reread the passage over and over to understand what they have just read. Their short-term memory can consequently dump the information when they have struggled too long to decode the words and find context in what they are reading. Therefore, the student will not be able to answer any questions about their reading assignment because they haven't processed the information correctly or stored it in long-term memory.
- Difficulty in following instructions. Dyslexic students need very specific and complete instructions on how to do an assignment, project, test or complete a lesson. Again this is about the necessity to see the whole picture. They need to understand how the assignment starts and ends; where to put their name, date and title; what kind of paper to use; whether to use a pen, pencil or computer; the date to hand it in; how the answers should look (for example: one word answers, a paragraph or a page); and any other issues that may be of concern for the student. Once the student has all the information they require and have the "whole picture" of what to do, they can see the parts and are ready to start the assignment.
- An entire lesson or explanation should be given at one time on the same day if possible. Otherwise, the student will forget what they have learned and will not be able to work on and complete their assignments.
- Dyslexic students should always be allowed and encouraged to ask questions to fill in any gaps they have in understanding what they are required to do. “The Five Steps to Learning“ for dyslexics listed in our Help for Teachers menu shows how and why an assignment should be presented to the dyslexic students if you expect them to learn the material or do the assignment correctly.