Hello, I'm totally new to this posting business so hope someone will reply with some helpful advice!

I've been teaching the oboe for about a year and am just about to start teaching a child with dyslexia. I've spoken to her mother on the phone and she's very keen that oboe lessons should be 'like a holiday' for her daughters brain... what does she mean?! Having had no experience of teaching children with dyslexia I'm a bit worried about the best way to approach her lessons...

Can anyone help?

Ta

oboegirl

There is a big argument going on about dyslexia at present, with several academic experts on reading and its acquisition claiming that dyslexic children and ordinary slow readers show indistinguishable reading characteristics. The dyslexics differ mainly in being more intelligent, on average, and/or having pushier parents, since the diagnosis is one of the few reliable ways of ensuring adequate teaching of reading in England and Wales.* In this country, the University of Durham has taken the lead; other work has been done at Oxford and in Canada, New Zealand and the US. Channel 4 did a documentary on this subject recently and there is more information here and here.

One of the experts on the Channel 4 programme claimed that the best predictor of future difficulty in a child not yet reading was the inability to identify phonemes in a spoken word, and we saw a test to determine this in about 10 minutes (far cheaper than the several hours of tests that are needed to get a child classified as dyslexic). The two influences on this deficiency are heredity and the early (0 to 4 year) aural environment.

* Living in Cumbria is another, with Yorkshire shortly to follow in using synthetic phonics as the prescribed reading method. The Reading Reform Foundation has taken the lead in promulgating synthetic phonics as the most reliably successful method (as demonstrated by the best comparative studies so far) for teaching reading.

I teach loads of dyslexics (for some reason they all end up wanting to play the saxophone, but I have one SEVERELY dyslexic clarinettist as well). If their reading is poor, then their note reading can be slow as well, so you need to adjust the pace of teaching/ learning if that's the case. Just as in non-dyslexics, some of them will have a good ear, or a good kinaesthetic memory, which can help with learning tunes and scale patterns - and others won't. I try to find their strengths and play to those. One girl can't read well and has a terrible memory - but recently got 18/18 in her grade 1 aural tests. It took her nearly 3 years to pass grade 1 clarinet, but when she did, it was one of the proudest days of my life, and hers! If their dyslexia is bad enough to warrant lots of extra help/ funding at school you can ask the school to write a letter to the ABRSM to apply for extra time and large print sight reading tests for exams. I did this recently and it helped.

One of the most helpful things I've found out is that some dyslexics can't read black on white very well as the notes "jump" up and down. You can buy clear plastic folders and poly pockets in various colours to place over the music, and this can really help. The pupil needs to experiment and work out which colour is best. Some are prescribed tinted glasses to help with this problem. I've also enlarged music at times.

I do teach some dyslexic children who progress on their instruments as fast as anyone else, but not all of them do - one or two require a lot of patience, but I can honestly say it's really rewarding to work with them, and playing an instrument can be brilliant for their confidence.

Sometimes a little more reading time is the thing that helps most.

Despite doing generally well at school, my daughter often had disappointing exam results. It was only after changing schools that dyslexia was diagnosed at age 15. As a result, she was given a bit of extra time in exams - got good results at GCSE, three A levels and has just started at uni.

There seems to be quite a lot in place now to help dyslexic students. (As part of having her dyslexia re-assessed prior to starting uni, they discovered that she reads best from very pale blue.)

One of the difficulties it seems to me, is with young children who seem to be slow or inaccurate readers: none of my pupils is, as far as I know, officially diagnosed as dyslexic, yet one or two seem to have mild problems reading notes, and I often wonder ... not an easy subject to raise with parents.

Thanks for the advice - am feeling much more confident about my first lesson with new pupil tomorrow!

oboegirl

ps. I wish I'd discovered this forum sooner - very good idea!

There was an article on teaching dyslexic pupils in a previous copy of Libretto (ABRSM magazine newsletter) a while back read it here Hope this helps!

There is also an article by Sue Wriglesworth, AMBDA, April 2005 called "Music and Dyslexia" which has 1 1/2 pages of references as well.

I have " number dyslexia" or discalculia as it is called. I really struggle with numbers, rhythms,patterns and shapes. I read the clock "back to front" and even sometimes get left and right muddled. I took up piano about 6 years ago and find it really helps straighten my brain although I am very slow at learning and have to work twice as hard as everyone else just to reach the same standard.

Unfortunately, this condition in adults is hard to diagnose so therefore I would not be able to give my ABRSM examiner a doctors note requesting extra time or large print in the sight reading exam. This would help me so much but suppose I will just have to get on with it.

If you've got to grade 7 piano you're doing absolutely brilliantly (and have got further than me, and I teach piano to kids - although at a lowish level). Well done!

My thing is really the clarinet.

I may have got to Grade 7 but only because the scales/ pieces can be learnt inside out. All I long for is to be able to sit down at the piano and play more or less anything ( within reason) which I am ciompetely unable to do. I can't even sight read a grade 2 piece without getting it wrong.

I'm glad you enjoy it though (your siggy says so!)

I think ABRSM tries really hard to work on behalf of those with special needs. If you are an adult dyslexic, do contact the special needs co-ordinator at Portland Place and ask what can be done to help you. I cannot believe that ABRSM takes such an interest in young dyslexic candidates (extra sight-reading time etc) but, once you've turned 18, thinks the problem has gone away. Try them and see what they suggest.

Best of luck anyway.