Hello everyone!

I've been teaching a dyslexic kid for more than a year & having problems encouraging him to keep his eyes on score & reading his notes. I've already used a red pen to draw over the 'G' line for treble clef and 'f' line for the bass clef & he still doesn't like reading his notes especially new pieces. I've used flash cards with notes to help him learn his notes. I've used sticker table (collect 10 stickers & he will get a gift from me) to encourage him when his score improves for the note flash cards. I must say her mum helps & guides him a lot at home. Only recently he returned to school, he has been home-schooled for about 1.5 years.

Well, if any of you have similar experience teaching dyslexic child, please share with me....I'm feeling disapointed in myself that I can't help him & interest him in reading & learning the new pieces himself. (basic intervallic approach like step/skip/4th/5th stuff has been taught & reinforced). I really don't know what holds him back? dyslexia or plain inertia & laziness (oops! hope the last word isn't too strong). I need motivation as a teacher myself.

Ask yourself, how is this pupil going to appreciate music.

Try teaching using their aural skills, and don't get hung up on notation.

A dyslexic pupil is likely to have the self-esteem of an ant, so forcing them to read music may not be the right way.

Sing the music to him, using the letter names with the score in front of him. You may find your pupil has a terrific musical memory to compensate for the dyslexia. Play to his strong points , then onece enthused try introducing notation again.

You need lots of patience - hang on in there! I have been teaching a lad for about 2 yeard now ( didn't know that he was dyslexic to begin with) and it has been a slow process. He was supposed to be taking his Grade 1 exam next month but has just broken his arm! Have you read Sheila Ogglethorpe's book on teaching music to dyslexics? It's full of ideas + if you get the chance to hear her speak she is inspirational.

Yes, I would endorse what both the above posters have said. I teach a very musical dyslexic flautist. She is also a singer, so we choose lyrical pieces fo her to play on the flute as she can remember these better. We work slowly and persistently with scales, which are a real problem area for her. It takes lots of patience and understanding, and hard work for her, but we were both delighted last term when she got a merit in Grade 4 flute, with 28/30 for one of her pieces. She also passed Grade 5 singing with distinction in the same exam session.

Try using a variety of music so when one method book/ study book whatever grinds to a halt, you can use something else. At least that keeps the spirits up.

Go back to easier music from a different book for "sight reading practise", but it also works as a quick revision method too.

Also the layout of different editions can be easier than others - too squashed up, too many markings around the music, too many words added to tunes in beginner books which space the music so far apart it's hard to read both lines at once.

Sometimes matching the note on the score on the keyboard itself is not so hard, or naming the note in theory is not so hard, but if you ask the name of it as well as playing it, then the time delay begins.

I don't always expect scales to perfection before moving on. We come back to them again as legato or staccato or crescendo scales etc but then they look as if they are something different rather than "oh that scale that I can't get right".

Most of all, don't keep sticking to the simple stuff all the time. It's demoralising. Often as many mistakes will be made on harder music as on simpler music. eg playing a 3 part hymn has had fewer mistakes than C major scale, sight reading piano time 1 has had more mistakes than sightreading a Bach 2 part invention.

Hi

Check with him which music is easier on the eye for him, if the page colour is too white or shiney he may get a glare shining off it which makes it far worse to try and read. Some dyslexics find putting coloured translucent sheets over the music can help (although the scientific advise on this is mixed)

Also spend time, aurally and on paper looking at the shape of the music, I have a dyslexic pupil who can work out the starting note then plays everything by shape, his scales are very good so he is well established in his keys. But couldn't easily tell you which notes he has played in between.

Good luck

Hi everyone!

Thanks for all the GREAT tips! Before I answer everyone. Just one question: this dyslexic boy has a younger sister who is not dyslexic that is learning under me too. Of course, the little one moves faster than the boy. And the dyslexic boy is feeling down because of the possibility that the sister will catch up with him (sis started 1 year later), I want to use another series for the younger sis so that that dyslexic boy doesn't feel so threatened....what do all of you think?

Jod, we do some singing every lesson but may not be enough. He has a strong sense of pulse, so when I give him short music to clap pulse (like G1 aural), he doesn't have problems at all. Yes, may be I should try using letter names with the score before him & sing the music to him. Um....yes...play on his strength first...

Parkere, is Sheila Ogglethorpe book on music teaching in general or on piano teaching? Btw, what's the title?

Andante in C, Wow! Your G4 flautist pupil's Merit is really giving me the drive & motivation to continue helping my dyslexic pupil. May I know if she played her pieces via memory or looking at the score? Did you teach her singing too?

Greentone, I'm using Hal Leonard series. What other series or books do you recommend that materials are not presented in a squashed up manner? I totally agree that matching note on score on the keyboard is easy, naming the note in theory is easy, it is the naming & playing together that slows down everything....I always experience this...every week...He always has problems with fingerings for scales...he never perfect any scale except C major and we move on because with my expectation on normal child, I think he probably could do only 1 scale in 2 months! Yes...should take your advice to move on as simple things may make feel demoralised.

Digby, we enlarged copies of his pieces so that he can see better. You are right to check with him which music is easier on eyes for him. I think the 'asking' part is important...because I think both his mum & I made a lot of decision for him without actually asking him which is better way for him to read. Your coloured translucent sheets are like those papers we see in the plastic holders when we buy plastic holder files? Guess your reading of shape has some link with intervallic approach?

Cheers!!! Have a great Sunday!

Yes anything that is coloured that you can see through - Green seems to work quite well, not sure why.

The Hal Leonard series is great for reading with intervals and is similar to what I used with my dyslexic student (I had't discovered Hal Leonard when he started unfortunately.)

Definately use different material for the little sister - I find some siblings don't want to play the same as the other anyway, or if they do, they have heard the other play it so many time they regurgitate it by ear, making all the same mistakes and get so far without really reading the music.

The only problem you may have is when they take benchmarkable things like exams and she skips ahead of him.

Good luck

anything that is coloured that you can see through - Green seems to work quite well, not sure why.

The Hal Leonard series is great for reading with intervals and is similar to what I used with my dyslexic student (I had't discovered Hal Leonard when he started unfortunately.)

Definately use different material for the little sister - I find some siblings don't want to play the same as the other anyway, or if they do, they have heard the other play it so many time they regurgitate it by ear, making all the same mistakes and get so far without really reading the music.

The only problem you may have is when they take benchmarkable things like exams and she skips ahead of him.

Good luck
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Thanks! Will try the green-coloured papers first. He may be taking Grade 1 together with his sis who is 4 years younger next year. Well, no choice....unless his mum decide to encourage him to participate in Piano Festival in Singapore than taking the exams.

I know very little about dyslexia. However, there is an article entitled Dyslexia and Sight-reading in the ISM Music Journal this month. It is four pages long and might be helpful to you, if you can hold of it.

.


This is a good idea as they can both participate in different age groups and then whilst I am sure he will be aware of the difference in standard between then it won't be so blatent.

In all honesty though you are not going to hide the fact that his sister is progressing faster than him forever and is possibly worth having a word with the mum to establish the best way forward for him. He certainly doesn't have to do exams and with the dyslexia the mum may be persuaded that it is an unnecessary stress for him to go through, he may as well just learn and enjoy his playing.

Hi Digby

How do you do that quote dingy? I thought I was successful yesterday in my reply to you...just re-read my reply & I made a mess of it..... Did you highlight that line in my reply then click on quote button & go into add reply??? Sorry...I'm still very new at this.

Hi JohnS

Thanks for your reply... What does ISM stand for? Can it be read over the net or must it be purchased? Oh dear, don't think this is available in Singapore.

Oh BTW Sheila Oglethorpe did an article for Libretto (the ABRSM magazine) fairly recently - 2004 or 2005. You can download back issues from http://www.abrsm.org/?page=newsArticles/libretto - I think you need adobe or acrobat reader or something as they're in pdf format. There's also an article by Ros Carver in the same issue.

Chocalatedog

Yeap! think last year Libretto had a few articles on dyslexia...but couldn't remember the writer. Ok, will try that web page you mentioned. Thanks!!!

Cellona

ISM is the Incorporated Society of Musicians. Their address is

www.ism.org


They might be able to send you the article maybe?

Cellona,

I just get lots of books from the library and try different styles of printing. Saves buying them all. Here is a selection of comments.

He does like the lay out of the ABRSM music, so he plays old exam pieces and also on the whole the lay out of the Piano Time books which he used for revision/sightreading

Gail Smiths Great Literature for Piano is pretty much okay.

Romantic Sketchbook - we choose the ones that haven't got too many phrasings and markings otherwise the phrasing on the top of one stave gets too close to the phrasing for the bottom stave above..

He definitely did not like Piano Forté nor Rhythm Builders as the music was quite pale and long and thin and spidery.

Carol Barrett was okay if the pieces weren't too heavily annotated.

Leigh Kaplan ( which looks remarkably similiar to a newish John Thompson) was a bit more awkward with all the words to songs and phrasing marks etc. It got a bit confusing.

I couldn't find the Bastien books in the library and I've never seen Hal Leonard.

However I'd really suggest just letting him try different music that you have as to what style he finds the easiest to read.

For theory, he started off on the Lina Ng books for little children, did 2 Leila Fletcher books and then moved on to ABRSM books

By the way, do you know if the "specimen Papers for the theory of music" by Guy Cremnitz, pub by Penerbit Muzikal are available for grades 6-8?

As far as comparing siblings goes, he has a brother who is not dyslexic. They have different material and yes, the rate of learning scales etc is different but they each enjoy their own music. They choose it themselves on the whole ( from a range of suggestions).


There is also an article on music/dyslexia by Sue Wriglesworth AMBDA April 2005. I think I just googled on music/dyslexia to get to it. The ISM article mentioned today was online and I just printed it from their site.


Does the Sheila Oglethorpe book have constructive comments to make other than general comments about dyslexia? The reviews on Amazon seem to indicate that it tells music teachers about dyslexia but if you already know about dyslexia, does it have many practical suggestions??

Hi JohnS,

Thanks for the expansion of ISM! According to greentone, this article is available on the website. Shall try after this.

Hi greentone,

I don't quite get you...you had so many quotes...are they case studies from various books you found in the library? Yes...I shall google music/dyslexia to find out article by Sue Wriglesworth. Incidentally, what's AMBDA?

I don't remember Guy Cremnitz had G6-8 specimen papers. Um....I don't know if I should say this...have you noticed that the lower grades had mistakes & these mistakes not corrected for years so I stopped using them. Anyway, if you compare the difficulty level between GC's books & the actual ABRSM Exam papers, there is a disparity...think his set of books need revamp. Hope I didn't offend anyone here. In my another topic regarding the new sticker books by Ng Ying Ying, I like them more than Lina Ng's now because the materials are more closely related to that latest questions in the G1 exam papers. But the only drawback I feel is that Ying Ying's books are TOO colourful, definitely not for dylslexic child where as Lina's books are white base with colourful objects/pictures. Well, normal kids will adapt well to Ying Ying's books.

Cellona,

You asked in a previous post which books I found too squashed up or had too many markings. So I just had a quick look through my books and those in the library to see some of the books we've used in the past. The comments were from a range of books that he has tried. Those aren't the only books we've used - I was trying to find a variety of music printing styles.

Each child though will have their own ideas as to what they find a confusing layout or what they find good. Some will find heavy bold notes close together best, others might find thin, well spaced out notes better. Some might find that all the phrase marks help them get a grip on the music, others might find that the phrase marks are distracting from the notes.

Sometimes I can find 2 different editions of the same music and then ask him which he finds easier to read.

If you have several different books yourself, I would still suggest showing him a couple of different books at the level you want to work at, and ask him which is the easiest to read from.

Greentone,

Need your help. I went into ISM website. Signed up as member. But I don't seem to be able to find that article that JohnS mentioned (the one you managed to print). Which section should I go into?

Ok...those names are authors of tutor books....they didn't ring a bell because we don't have those in Singapore.

To reply your earlier question, have not read Shiela Ogglethorpe book, so don't know if it is as you have described it.

Oh yes...if it is not too troublesome...how do you guys highlight the earlier replies that appear as quotes...I tried 3 times & made a mess of the last attempt... I'm pretty at this.

Cellona,

On the ISM site , below the pictures, they have a "latest ISM news" box.
In there it has something about the February journal. I clicked on that
In the new page that comes up, there is the index for February and I clicked on the dyslexia article

Be cautious about articles concerning dyslexia. Challenges to the traditional ideas about it have been growing in strength and credibility over the last two decades. Some expert academics and experienced teachers of reading at Primary level now believe that the majority of the children diagnosed as dyslexic are indistinguishable in their reading habits from other poor readers, and that the large increase in its incidence over recent decades is the result of poor teaching strategies. That is not to say that these children do not have specific reading difficulties: they do, but they are the result of bad habits ("whole word", "context", etc., otherwise known as "guessing") which they are taught to use by current inferior methods.

A quote from Dr. Hilde Mosse, psychoanalyst/physician, employed by the New York City schools, who wrote The Complete Handbook of Children's Reading Disorders (1982):

"When a disability exceeds more than 1 to 2% in a population (as do so-called reading disabilities), the cause cannot be found in the individuals, but only in the environment."