Specialist tuition is not just phonics! Struggling readers and writers need to be explicitly taught the rules relating to phonics, morphology and syllables which other children pick up and retain more naturally.

Specialist tuition is tailored to each child’s needs, uses an individual’s strengths and identifies gaps in the following areas:

• Phonological awareness
• Alphabetical understanding
• Phonics knowledge
• Spelling and reading high frequency/irregular words
• Non-word reading (decoding and blending)

Tuition could also include work on literacy skills such as sentence structure; vocabulary; reading comprehension; working memory; dyscalculia and mathematics tuition.

Principles of specialist tuition

• A multisensory approach avoids relying solely on areas where children have a difficulty. Using auditory, visual and kinaesthetic activities enables links to form, and makes it easier to recall information.
• A structured, sequential and cumulative approach ensures a skill is mastered before moving on to a new skill without gaps in learning and ensures linkages can be made.
• Overlearning helps commit words to memory. Overlearning means we work on the same objective but in different ways.
• Memory strategies and alternative methods for recording are used to help compensate for working memory issues

Children learn best when they enjoy their learning and this is particularly important when being asked to work on skills they naturally find challenging. Lots of games are used plus tactile resources such as Lego, magnetic letters and sensory materials. Children’s own interests are built in whenever possible to keep the learning fun and relevant.

Please get in touch if you have any questions or wish to discuss tuition further

info@shiningstarsdyslexiaservices.co.uk or 07891558033.