What are dyslexia schools?

When it comes to education for dyslexic students, dyslexia schools represent the best option. Here’s what you need to know about those schools.

Students with dyslexia have traditionally faced many challenges within traditional school systems. The main reason was that school systems didn’t have learning assistance solutions for students with specific learning disabilities. This issue became quite significant since Sally Shaywitz from the Yale Center for Dyslexia reports that up to 90% of learning disabilities are due to dyslexia.

Of course, with the systems unready to accommodate students with reading problems, ADHD, dyslexia, or other learning differences, the challenges for dyslexic children transferred to every level of education. This included enrollment in high school or college and impacted the student’s self-esteem.

Luckily, awareness of learning disabilities has grown in the past decades. In particular, students with dyslexia gained a chance at better education through dyslexia schools. This article will explain what dyslexia schools are and offer helpful tips on choosing the right one.

What is a dyslexia school?

Dyslexia schools are a type of special education school focusing on dyslexic students. These institutions are most often private schools with a curriculum adjusted for the particular needs of their students.

Dyslexia schools usually feature classes with fewer students and one-on-one tuition. Specialized assistance is available throughout the entire school day, and specific tools are integrated into every learning experience. Plus, dyslexia schools have a flexible approach to cater to various learning styles. This includes IEPs, or Individualized Education Plans, which are tailored for dyslexic students.

When it comes to the tools used in dyslexia schools, these may include software and hardware tools that often use the latest technology. This aspect of learning assistance can help students with dyslexia to remedy their symptoms, ensure proper text decoding, and improve in other aspects of education.

One of the most essential aspects of dyslexia schools is that students are in an accepting and safe environment. Since all students in the school have a form of learning disability, none will stand out in a negative way due to underdeveloped writing or reading skills.

It’s worth noting that certain mainstream schools also have excellent inclusive programs intended to help dyslexic students thrive. However, students with dyslexia might find it challenging to stay on equal footing with others since mainstream schools aren’t optimized for special education.

Blending in and finding common ground with other students are probably among the greatest benefits of dyslexia schools. Since all students share relatively similar circumstances and learning methods are adjusted according to their needs, there’s no additional stress associated with the school environment.

As a result, dyslexic students can thrive in specialized schools and gain more confidence and motivation. Dyslexia schools use different learning and motivational tools to create these positive effects.

How do dyslexia schools help learners?

Dyslexia schools employ many techniques to assist students with learning disabilities. In addition to specialized learning tools, these schools take a different approach to teaching, personalizing plans according to individual students, and, more importantly, hiring experts who have undergone specific teacher training.

Rather than only reading and writing, dyslexia schools use multisensory techniques for better student engagement. These techniques engage several senses at the same time, combining touch, hearing, sight, and movement.

Learning activities based on the multisensory approach may include sandpaper letters, word building, sand writing, and more. Best of all, these techniques aren’t useful only when studying language arts. They help with other subjects as well.

Regarding learning plans, dyslexic schools have the advantage of smaller classes. Teachers can devote plenty of time to each student and adjust teaching materials and methods to their needs.

The flexible education program ensures better accuracy with teaching methods. For example, a student with word recognition issues will receive appropriate assistance for their grade level, which will be different than the method used with a student who has difficulties with phonics.

Trained teachers are a crucial component of dyslexia schools. Since they’re experts in the field, these teachers can recognize individual students’ needs and choose an appropriate method to help them learn more effectively.

Tips for finding a good dyslexia school

When looking for a good dyslexia school, it’s helpful to look for some crucial traits:

• Staff qualifications
• Assistive technology
• Class sizes
• Individualized education plans
• Handouts
• Classroom tools
• Orton-Gillingham certification
• IDA (the International Dyslexia Association) certification

It can be useful to go through a list of prominent dyslexia schools to understand better what such schools should offer. Great examples would include the Riverside School in Chesterfield, Virginia, Lab School in Baltimore, Maryland, or Jemicy School in Owings Mills, Maryland.

Use Speechify to enhance your child’s learning outcomes

Text to speech software can significantly improve learning for dyslexic students. Rather than reading, students can listen to the learning material, which helps them focus and retain information better.

Speechify is a great solution for just that. The service can be used in combination with the special education that a dyslexia school can provide. Speechify uses advanced AI algorithms to turn any text into speech. This includes various documents like Google docs and PDFs.

With Speechify, users can choose the language, narrator voice, and reading speed, customizing the experience to fit their needs the best.

You can try out Speechify for free right now. Simply visit the app’s website at www.speechify.com and see the powerful text to speech tool in action.

FAQ

How do public schools treat dyslexia?

Public schools aren’t always very well-equipped for dyslexic students. However, some can have excellent inclusion programs.

Why do schools ignore dyslexia?

Some community schools had difficulties providing the best education for dyslexic students. As a result, they often avoided mentioning the issue. However, this essentially changed after the Department of Education gave instruction to schools to improve inclusion and pay more attention to dyslexic students.

Does dyslexia require special education?

Special education for dyslexia isn’t necessary, but it can improve the student’s academic performance significantly. The advantage of dyslexia schools lies in specialized methods and tools that common schools might not have.

What are the symptoms of dyslexia?

Symptoms of dyslexia include, among others, difficulties when writing, reading, and spelling, issues in word pronunciation, and struggling to solve math problems.