Hello,

I've recently agreed to take on an 11 year old who has sung in his local church choir for some time but is lagging behind others his age. His mum believes that it is dyslexia that holds him back, but she's not an education specialist. I've now given him four lessons and I'm finding my teaching experience and expertise is struggling to meet his needs.

In purely technical work, I have to give him very simple instructions, pigeon steps at a time - which he'll act upon but have forgotten again within just a few minutes.
In singing songs, he really struggles to read words under music (which I've partially got around by typing out the words seperately and going through them with him before we sing them) but he also seems unable to hear the difference between how I pronounce a word and how he pronounces (distorts) it and he often gets the words in the wrong order or guesses at them. I'm trying really hard not to be critical but to build his confidence so I don't like to correct him every time.

His mum says he loves his lessons and he is clearly devoting time to practice. His memory for melody is far better than his memory for language.

Is there anyone here who has experience of teaching pupils with quite serious dyslexia (or similar learning difficulties) who can offer me some advice please? Or point me in the direction of useful literature for me to read?

Thank you!

Sheila Oglethorpe's book would help you - Instrumental Music for Dyslexics - expensive, but worth it (maybe Mum would contribute?)

This is another good one : Music and Dyslexia - a Positive approach

Hope these help. Sounds like your pupil has potential. There can be problems with processing information that is taken in both visually and aurally. Hence difficulty following instructions, hearing differences between your pronounciation and his own etc. Lots of stuff in these books that could help you. Good luck.

Do coloured overlays help him? If so, you could encourage him to bring them along to a lesson.
Could you tackle the words separately - that is, speaking them first in the rhythm of the song without the note pitches? That's how some of my dyslexics work. You say you type the words out - could you enlarge them for him?
Yes, it's true that you need to be constantly repeating yourself. It's quite a challenge, so I try and find ten different ways of saying the same thing. One will eventually click.
Hope this helps. I'm not an expert, but do have several dyslexic students who make good progress. They are so individual, though, each one has different needs, so don't be afraid to experiment. Also ask questions about what helps him at school, and you can adapt that to your teaching.

Thank you for your replies.

I'll check out the book. I hope the library can find it for me! I've asked what helps at school but I don't think Mum is really able to process the information herself and relay it to me. I don't suppose the school would be allowed to discuss a pupil with me (nor have the time to).

Meanwhile, thanks again for your suggestions and encouragement.

Any other ideas are always welcome as food for thought!

Alcie

Has he been assessed for dyslexia? If so, Mum might agree to your having sight of the report. I have just been given one to forward to the Board prior to a grade exam, and it contains a lot of information about how the student can be helped. I found it really useful and will adapt my teaching accordingly (for her, because dyslexics are all different and have different needs).

I've just finished reading those two books - they were inspirational, and have made me feel more positive about how much I have to repeat stuff and build confidence - thank you for recommending them. I'm beginning to think that this lad's issues are quite probably more complicated than the term dyslexia led me to imagine. I suspect there may be other learning difficulties implicated too.

I've asked Mum if she can provide coloured reading overlays (apparently he uses yellow ones at school) but three weeks later... none have materialised. I think Mum has similar issues to son and finds it hard to remember and/or have the confidence to ask.

I'd already blown up the words I typed out, to 16point. Is that big enough? Reading them in rhythm is proving a very difficult task, but we're having a go, one phrase at a time. Sadly, once we've moved on to the next phrase, once we try to stitch two together, the first one is back where we started - but I guess that's to be expected whilst building up a new skill. He is beginning to sound a little more confident when he tries to read so my encouragment seems to be working.

The good news today is that following a note in his homework diary (which he happened to have with him last week at his lesson) his learning support tutor has passed on a home telephone number - I plan to telephone her tomorrow to talk about things that might help.

At his age, it would be essential for you to check with his mum as to how far he has been assessed by his school. She can ask for a full educational assessment, which would include input from an educational psychologist as well as SENCos. It could be dyslexia, or a variation on this, and at his age particularly if he is keen on learning something, this can be used to draw him into other areas of the curriculum if he is struggling or demotivated. If he is disruptive in formal educational classes, this can be an indicator of an underlying problem. I'm not making excuses for bad behaviour, but if you are struggling to learn, it is commonplace to give up and become a focus of poor behaviour. This is not always the case, but needs to born in mind.

Your approach sounds pretty good to me, bite sized chunks, accentuate the positive, and try offering the difficult bits in different formats. It can be very individual. As far as the speech is concerned, speech therapy can help. What my daughter found helpful was marking words with indicators showing which letters were vowels and which were consonants



c v c cvc
CAT SAT ON THE MAT

and so on, give an example and get him to try a line a day at home with support if possible.

Finding rhyming couplets to help remember pronounciation could work too.

Good luck.

I have no experience with pupils with dyslexia, but how about giving him recordings of the songs he is working on. Listening to them between lessons means he could engage with them far more frequently than a once a week lesson, perhaps the constant repetition of words and rhythm would help reinforce the work. You could always make your own simple versions if commercial recordings aren't suitable.

I have also read Sheila Oglethorpe's book, it really hepled me understand that dyslexia is a wide term that can cover all sorts of difficulties. I have an adult student whose organisational skills are not great and who has difficulty with proprioception matters at the piano. It has certainly helped me be much more patient with things like that. Curiously, that adult is a special needs teacher, and I imagine she is perfectly placed to understand her pupils and help find ways round things because of her own problems.

Colour prompts. Very very useful. It helps when writing notes to write certain things in diffirent colours. Rhyms and riddles. For example when using notes make up little rhymes or poems to help him remember. Since it sounds like it is his recall that is suffering (he can not recall the knowlage) repetion is important. Of course making the lessons fun will make it easier for him to remember. It can be frustrating for both pupil and tutor, but it sounds like your doing well.
Just be patient with him, don't correct him every time (which you already do) and revise over things you did regulary.
I hope this helps.