LEARNING DIFFICULTIES:

The difference between a learning difficulty and a learning disability

Factsheet 1: The difference between a learning

difficulty and a learning disability
The terms used to describe the unexpected and persistent learning problems experienced by
some students, in specific academic domains, vary both nationally and internationally. In the
United States students are identified with ‘Learning Disabilities’ or ‘Learning Disorders’, whereas
in the United Kingdom there is a preference for the term ‘Learning Difficulty’. Some Australian
States and Territories encourage the use of the term ‘Learning Difficulties’ for all students
struggling to develop skills in literacy and/or numeracy, while others separate this quite large
body of students into a number of categories.
Learning Difficulties

Dyslexia is a specific learning difficulty that is neurological in origin. It is characterised by difficulties

with accurate and / or fluent word recognition and by poor spelling and decoding abilities.
These difficulties typically result from a deficit in the phonological component of language that is
often unexpected in relation to other cognitive abilities and the provision of effective classroom
instruction. Secondary consequences may include problems in reading comprehension and reduced
reading experience that can impede growth of vocabulary and background knowledge.
For the purposes of this Fact Sheet, ‘Learning Disabilities’ will be viewed as a sub-set of the larger
group of students generally referred to as experiencing learning difficulties. This is in line with the
Australian National Health and Medical Research Council, the Australian Disability Discrimination
Act (1992) and the Australian Disability Standards for Education (2005).
Students with learning difficulties underachieve academically for a wide range of reasons,
including factors such as: sensory impairment (weaknesses in vision or hearing); severe behavioural,
psychological or emotional issues; English as a second language or dialect (ESL or ESD); high
absenteeism; ineffective instruction; or, inadequate curricula. These students have the potential
to achieve at age-appropriate levels once provided with programs that incorporate appropriate
support and evidence-based instruction.
Students with learning disabilities have difficulties in specific areas of academic achievement as
a result of impairment in one or more of the cognitive processes related to learning. One of the
defining features of a specific learning disability is that the difficulty continues to exist, despite
appropriate instruction and intervention.
A learning disability has nothing to do with a student’s intelligence. Students with a learning
disability:

• have difficulties which are inherent to the child and are lifelong

• can occur across the range of intellectual ability

• often have a family member with learning difficulties

• do not respond to intervention in the expected way.

Left unidentified, without appropriate intervention, a learning disability puts students at significant
disadvantage, with little likelihood of achieving at levels close to their academic potential.

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 LEARNING DIFFICULTIES:
Factsheet 2: What do we know about Dyslexia?
Dyslexia is the most common form of learning difficulty. Problems with reading and related
difficulties with comprehension, spelling and writing are common for these students.
Many people with dyslexia also experience difficulties with working memory, attention and
organisational skills.

An internationally recognised definition of dyslexia appears below:

Dyslexia is a specific learning difficulty that is neurological in origin. It is characterised by difficulties
What do we know about Dyslexia?

with accurate and / or fluent word recognition and by poor spelling and decoding abilities.
These difficulties typically result from a deficit in the phonological component of language that is
Learning Difficulties

often unexpected in relation to other cognitive abilities and the provision of effective classroom
instruction. Secondary consequences may include problems in reading comprehension and reduced
reading experience that can impede growth of vocabulary and background knowledge.

What you might see in the classroom

Lower Primary School Upper Primary School Secondary School
• Difficulties with oral rhyming, • Reduced ability to isolate and • Poor reading fluency
syllabification, blending a manipulate individual sounds • Reduced reading
nd segmenting of sounds in in words comprehension (may need to
words. • Difficulties holding verbal re-read material many times to
• Delayed speech and language information (e.g. instructions) comprehend)
development in working memory • Poor spelling, including lack
• Limited spoken vocabulary • Slow to complete literacy- of knowledge of patterns in
• Poor understanding of related tasks words and morphological
lettersound correspondences • Reading is slow and dysfluent knowledge (affixes and base
words)
• Difficulty in the acquisition of • Visually similar words are often
letter knowledge confused when reading • Poor writing fluency

• Slow and inaccurate word • Trouble decoding unfamiliar • Difficulties writing in a

recognition words structured manner (i.e. poor
sentence and paragraph
• Inability to read nonsense word • Poor reading comprehension
construction, unable to
• Poor spelling • Limited retention of structure essays)
• Difficulty understanding orthographic knowledge
• Slow speed of writing
reading material including spelling patterns
• Disorganisation and difficulties
• Difficulties with tasks requiring • Numerous spelling errors
with planning
reasonable working memory (phonetic or non-phonetic)
• Limited working memory
capacity - such as following • Significant discrepancy
instructions or remembering between verbal ability and • Word finding difficulties
sequential information written skills • A lack of interest in or
• A lack of interest in or avoidance of reading and
avoidance of reading and writing tasks
writing tasks • Working memory difficulties
• Ongoing difficulties in working may become more pronounced
memory as the demands of schooling
increase

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 LEARNING DIFFICULTIES:
Factsheet 3: What do we know about Dysgraphia?
A specific learning difficulty in Written Expression
Dysgraphia is a specific learning difficulty that often remains undiagnosed. It is a persistent
difficulty with written expression, handwriting and/or spelling that may occur in isolation or in
addition to dyslexia.

A formal definition of Dysgraphia appears below:

What do we know about Dysgraphia?

Dysgraphia is a specific learning difficulty that is neurological in origin. It is characterised by

difficulties with accurate and / or fluent written expression and by poor spelling and handwriting
skills. These difficulties typically result from a deficit in the phonological component of language,
Learning Difficulties

frequently related to difficulties in the speed and efficiency of language processing. These ongoing
delays in writing are often unexpected in relation to other cognitive abilities and the provision of
effective classroom instruction.
It is commonly recognised that Dysgraphia can be separated into 2 subtypes: Motor-based
Dysgraphia and Language-based Dysgraphia. Both subtypes of dysgraphia are likely to have a
detrimental impact on the writing process and both will result in the student facing a number of
writing challenges.
Motor-based dysgraphia can be viewed as difficulties with the mechanical aspects of writing. Often
students with this type of dysgraphia are able to structure and sequence their ideas effectively,
but struggle with the manual aspects of handwriting. This results in writing becoming a tiring,
laborious and sometimes painful process for the student.
Language-based dysgraphia is more consistent with delays in processing and sequencing ideas in
writing. The content of the writing is well below the level expected, despite students being able
to present their ideas clearly and concisely orally. Often there is no difficulty in the handwriting
aspects of writing in a student with language-based dysgraphia.
When handwriting, spelling and composition of sentences and texts are explicitly taught, students
have a greater chance of achieving an acceptable standard of writing. Automaticity in handwriting,
and a solid understanding of English orthography, allow students to reduce cognitive overload and
‘free up’ their working memory to concentrate on high order writing skills, such as the planning of
both content and structure.
While explicit instruction can benefit students with dysgraphia, weaknesses in writing fluency are
likely to endure. Students with dysgraphia often have to work much harder and longer to produce
written work to the same standard as an individual with typically developing writing skills.
What you might see in the classroom
Lower Primary School Upper Primary School Secondary School
• Reading appears adequate but • Writing is slow and dysfluent • Legibility of handwriting is poor
difficulties with writing are apparent • Difficulties are more apparent as • Difficulties writing at the same speed
• Avoids writing tasks demands on writing ability increase as their peers
• Letters are poorly formed through middle and upper primary • Great difficulties noted in transferring
school thoughts into written words
• Handwriting shows poor spacing and
sizing of letters and words • Process of writing is effortful and • Apparent gap between oral and
tiring written language skills
• Letter forms are frequently confused
• Handwriting is immature • Knowledge and application of essay
• Poor spelling
• Poor orthographic knowledge and structure is underdeveloped
• Difficulties learning basic sentence
lack of automaticity in spelling • Lack of detail in written expression
structure and grammar
• Difficulty choosing correct spelling • Written output is limited with far less
alternatives work being produced in allocated
• Sentence and paragraph structure is writing time
poor • Writing and spelling skills do not
• Significant discrepancy between appear automatic
verbal ability and written skills

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Learning Difficulties: Factsheet 3: What do we know about Dysgraphia

 LEARNING DIFFICULTIES:
Factsheet 4: What do we know about Dyscalculia?
A specific learning difficulty in Mathematics
Dyscalculia is an innate difficulty in learning or comprehending mathematics. Students with
Dyscalculia have trouble understanding numbers, learning how to manipulate numbers, learning
mathematical facts, and a number of other related difficulties.

Currently there is no single widely accepted specific definition of Dyscalculia, but a number of
What do we know about Dyscalculia?

definitions exist.

One example appears below:

Learning Difficulties

Dyscalculia is a condition that affects the ability to acquire arithmetical skills. Dyscalculic learners
may have difficulty understanding simple number concepts, lack an intuitive grasp of numbers,
and have problems learning number facts and procedures. Even if they produce a correct answer
or use a correct method, they may do so mechanically and without confidence.
The severity of mathematical impairment differs depending on the individual. Although it can
be argued that many of the defining features of Dyscalculia can also be seen in students who
do poorly in mathematics, it is the degree of these difficulties and the resistance to remedial
intervention that set students with Dyscalculia apart from others with learning difficulties.

What you might see in the classroom

Lower Primary School Upper Primary School Secondary School
• Difficulties organising objects • Counting skills mastered but • Difficulties learning maths
and sets of items in a logical continues to use ineffective concepts beyond basic number
way strategies for calculation facts
• Difficulties recognising printed • Difficulty telling the time and • Difficulties with mental maths
numbers recalling times tables • Difficulties finding more than
• Poor counting skills and • Delays in the retrieval of one way to solve a maths
knowledge of counting overlearned maths facts problem
strategies • Difficulties with inattention • Delays in learning and
• Difficulties using counting to numerical operator (e.g. recognising maths vocabulary
strategies (counting in 2’s, S’s +,-,x.-;.) • Difficulties in reading and
etc) • Delays in applying concepts of interpreting graphs, charts and
• Difficulties with mastering borrowing and carrying (place maps
number knowledge value) • Poor perception of the passage
(recognising how many items • Difficulties with measurement of time and difficulties sticking
• make a set without counting) and understanding spatial to a schedule
• Delays in using effective relationships • Poor budgeting skills
counting strategies for • Difficulties with multi-step • Delays in spatial directions
addition (counting all instead calculation procedures
of counting on) • Increased anxiety and negative
• Difficulties decomposing attitude towards maths
numbers
• Difficulties remembering
arithmetic facts

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 LEARNING DIFFICULTIES:
Factsheet 5: What is working memory?
Students with learning difficulties generally have difficulties processing information accurately
and automatically, and many students have a weakness in working memory.

Working Memory is the ability to hold information in mind and manipulate it as necessary for a
brief period. It is a person’s mental workspace. A student’s working memory capacity depends on
their age and innate abilities. Lower primary students are only able to hold, manipulate and recall
a small number of items or ‘chunks’ of information (e.g. two or three items) whereas secondary
students can deal with more (e.g. four or five items). Working memory capacity increases with age
until approximately 16 years, although no matter what the age, there will be some students with
Learning Difficulties

larger working memory capacities than others. Working memory is highly correlated with both
What is working memory?

literacy and numeracy achievement levels and is resistant to change. Students with poor working
memory at the beginning of their schooling are likely to have poor working memory as teenagers
and adults.
Examples of classroom tasks that place a heavy load on working memory:

• Remembering multi-step instructions

• Performing mental maths sums

• Reading comprehension

• Constructing written expression

• Spelling a long or complex word

• Recalling details from a spoken passage or story.

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 LEARNING DIFFICULTIES:
Factsheet 6: What is phonological processing?
A key component in the definition of Dyslexia and Dysgraphia is a deficit in the phonological
component of language.

Phonological processing comprises of three areas of functioning:

1. Phonological Awareness
2. Phonological Memory
3. Rapid Automatised Naming
What is phonological processing?

Students who have a weakness in one or more of these areas are more likely to experience literacy-
Learning Difficulties

learning difficulties.

Phonological and Phonemic Awareness

Many students with learning difficulties have difficulty attending to the sounds and oral language
patterns within words. This ability is called phonological awareness. In the early years of schooling,
students may show difficulties in:

• detecting and creating rhyming words

• breaking words into syllables

• identifying the phonemes (individual sounds) at the beginning and end of words

• isolating, deleting and substituting phonemes within words.

Frequently, older students with dyslexia also demonstrate difficulties in some of these more
complex phonological processes (especially in accurate and efficient phoneme identification and
manipulation).
The ability to work with syllables, and to blend and segment phonemes in words, is critical to
the development of good reading and spelling skills. Students need to learn that the sounds they
are making when they speak relate directly to the letters they use when reading and writing.
Essentially, we blend to read and we segment to spell.
Phoneme blending requires listening to a sequence of separately spoken sounds and combining
them to form a recognisable word, for example, the sounds /sh/ /o/ /p/ form the word shop.
Phoneme segmentation requires breaking a word into its sounds by tapping out or counting the
sounds, for example, “How many phonemes in block?” (four: /b/ /l/ /o/ /ck/).

Phonological Memory
The ability to hold on to speech-based information in short-term memory is called phonological
memory. We rely heavily on our phonological memory when reading and spelling.
This skill is assessed by asking students to remember strings of numbers or to repeat nonsense
words of increasing length and complexity. Students with poor phonological memory are unable to
hold as much phonological information in mind as their age-matched peers. When recalling nonsense words, they
tend to forget parts of the word and/or confuse the sounds and sequence of sounds in the word.
Students with dyslexia and/or dysgraphia often have weaknesses in phonological memory.

Rapid Automatised Naming

A skill that is commonly assessed in the identification of both Dyslexia and Dysgraphia is referred to as Rapid
Automatised Naming (RAN). It requires an individual to quickly identify and name a series of common stimuli (e.g.
letters, numbers, colours, objects). People with learning Difficulties – particularly dysgraphia – often take longer to
name these items when compared to their peers.
RAN provides information about an individual’s ability to retrieve words quickly and easily from long term memory.
Students with a poor RAN score (and, therefore, difficulties with rapid word retrieval) tend to have weaknesses in
reading and writing fluency. These difficulties often become apparent later in a student’s education.

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Learning Difficulties: Factsheet 6: What is phonological processing

 LEARNING DIFFICULTIES:
Factsheet 7: What is orthographic processing?
Becoming a fluent reader requires both the capacity to utilise sound-based decoding strategies
and the ability to accurately recognise familiar letter patterns either as whole words (e.g. was)
or within words (e.g. night). The ability to rely less heavily on sound-based decoding strategies is
very much dependent on the development of orthographic processing.

Orthography refers to the conventional spelling system of any given language and includes rules
around letter order and combinations as well as capitalisation, hyphenation and punctuation.
Orthographic processing is the ability to understand and recognise these writing conventions as
What is orthographic processing?

well as recognising when words contain correct and incorrect spellings.

Learning Difficulties

Students with weak orthographic processing rely very heavily on sounding out common words that
should be in memory, leading to a choppy and laborious style of decoding. These students are also
more likely to have difficulty applying knowledge of root words in order to decode a variation of a
word and confuse simple words like ‘on’ and ‘to’ when reading.
Delays in orthographic processing are also linked to ongoing difficulties in letter recognition and
letter reversals. If the shape and orientation of a letter is not fully consolidated and stored in visual
memory, then students are more likely to make reversal errors and be unable to recognise when
they have made a mistake.
As skilled readers need to recognise words automatically, there is a heavy reliance on orthographic
processing in the development of reading fluency. Delays in this area are likely to inhibit a student’s
applied reading skills and ultimately affect his/her reading comprehension skills.
In addition, poor orthographic processing will
almost certainly result in both a high rate of
spelling errors and poor written expression.
Students find it difficult to remember the correct
spelling pattern for a particular word and don’t
seem to benefit from the editing tool, “Does
it look right?” Rather, they demonstrate the
tendency to over-rely on phonological information,
writing words like ‘rough’ as ‘ruff ’ and ‘night’ as
‘nite’.

Delays in orthographic
processing are also linked to
ongoing difficulties in letter
recognition and letter reversals.

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 LEARNING DIFFICULTIES:
Factsheet 8: Identifying and Diagnosing Specific
Learning Difficulties
Identifying and Diagnosing Specific Learning Difficulties

The diagnosis of a learning difficulty is a complex process that requires a deep understanding of
the individual’s learning challenges, the quality of intervention that they have received, and the
profile of strengths and weaknesses that are common to specific learning difficulties.

A learning difficulty is widely-understood to be a processing disorder - neurobiological in origin.

In the case of Dyslexia, there is a high degree of research evidence linking poor phonological
processing with inadequate reading development. In Dysgraphia, the primary processing
Learning Difficulties

impairment is also phonological in nature but frequently relates to speed of language retrieval from
long term memory (RAN).
In Dyscalculia, the ability to process the concept of number is frequently implicated, as is working
memory capacity. The most commonly diagnosed learning difficulty is Dyslexia, accounting for
approximately 80% of all identified students. Dysgraphia and Dyscalculia tend to be diagnosed
later than Dyslexia, especially once the academic demands of school increase.

Who can diagnose a Specific Learning Difficulty?

Although teachers are well positioned to observe firsthand the struggles and challenges that
a student has in any given academic area, it is important that the actual diagnostic process be
undertaken by a specialist in the area. This generally involves:

• a psychologist (preferably with educational and/or developmental training) in the identification

of Dyslexia, Language-based Dysgraphia and Dyscalculia;

• an Occupational Therapist in the diagnosis of Motor-based Dysgraphia or Developmental

Coordination Disorder; and,

• a Speech Pathologist for difficulties related to a Specific Language Impairments (SLI) and Verbal
Dyspraxia

It is important that the diagnosis is made by a practitioner who is qualified to administer the range
of standardised assessment tools required to make a clinical diagnosis. These tests generally include
standardised measures of: intellectual ability and cognitive skills; expressive and receptive language
ability; underlying processing strengths and weaknesses; and, academic achievement across a
range of domains. In order to administer these tests, additional training in test administration
and registration with a regulatory body such as the Australian Health Practitioners Registration
Authority is required. The diagnosis of Dyslexia, or any other specific learning difficulty, cannot be
made by someone who assesses vision, hearing, movement or any other skill in isolation.

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 LEARNING DIFFICULTIES:
Factsheet 9: Use of Assistive Technology
When considering the processing difficulties frequently evident in the profiles of students with
learning difficulty, it is not surprising that the challenges to participate becomes even more
difficult as the demands of schooling increase.

Whilst remediation and good quality literacy instruction go some way towards improving the
students underlying skills, the use of assistive technology not only allows students the opportunity
to improve their understanding and engagement in the learning process, it also allows them
to better demonstrate their skills and knowledge more independently and at a level more
commensurate with their overall understanding.
Learning Difficulties
Use of Assistive Technology

What is Assistive Technology?

The term ‘Assistive Technology’ is usually applied to electronic devices and computer hardware
and software that increase or maintain the capabilities of an individual with a difficulty. Assistive
technology (AT) includes those devices that assist all students, regardless of the presence of
a difficulty, and those devices that have been specifically designed to assist individuals with a
difficulty (adaptive technology).
For students with learning difficulties, the opportunity to use AT to support and reinforce the
learning process along with reducing the functional impact of their learning difficulty, means that
their overall level of success is greatly improved. As with other classroom accommodations, the
purpose of using AT is not to provide the student with an advantage but rather, it reduces some of
the burden of lower literacy or numeracy proficiency.
All students, including those without a learning difficulty, can benefit from using some of the
assistive technologies available. AT can be used in a variety of manners within the classroom
environment to support the general teaching process and to provide additional remedial support
as it allows for repetition and rehearsal of learnt skills. AT use for general classroom instruction
also allows for multisensory teaching opportunities that will not only benefit the student with a
learning difficulty, but all students within the classroom.
The applications of AT are far and wide and for each student the usefulness of AT will vary
depending on their ease at using the AT and depending on their individual needs and difficulties.
Examples of effective AT options for the student with a learning difficulty include:

• The use of multimedia and electronic information allows students with reading difficulties to
improve their comprehension of a topic or idea without being dependent on their reading
ability

• Computers and word processors can reduce the burden of editing and re-writing assignments,
making the writing process faster and students can work more independently

• A photo taken with any device that has a camera may be used instead of copying information
from a whiteboard. This information can be stored digitally and in some cases converted to
text

• An MP3 recorder on any device can record ideas and help overcome short term memory
difficulties
What are some examples of assistive technology?
Assistive technologies include, but are not limited to the following:

Text to Speech Allows any electronic text that can be highlighted to be read aloud by a computer or
mobile device.
Voice Recognition Allows a computer or enabled hand held device, to be trained in how you speak, and once
trained, to write down everything you dictate into any active textbox.
Digital Recorders Enables students to recall, plan, practise speeches, practise pronunciations, and dictate
information.
iPads and Tablets Provides a multisensory learning experience and there are a large number of apps that can
be used to support students across a variety of learning areas.
Electronic Spell checkers Uses phonetic patterns to suggest words for a poor speller when a computer is not
available.
Word Prediction software Uses phonetic and grammar patterns to suggest words as each letter/word is typed.
Visual Search Engines Displays a picture of a page rather than the text headings or written content of a webpage.
Literacy Specific Software Used to support reading and writing that includes templates for writing, graphic
organisers, grammar checkers, and study tools.
Educational Software Provides support for the development of phonological awareness and phonics.
Electronic Resources and Can be used with reading software and mp3 players/ipods.
books

When should Assistive Technology be introduced?

Some students will find it very beneficial to use assistive technology and educational software to support the early
development of literacy skills and letter-sound awareness. Other students will find that their need for AT does not
emerge until much later in their education.
Matching students’ needs with the use of assistive technology should happen when the need arises.
Early on in Primary school, students are more likely to benefit from the use of educational software and online
learning programs to help support reading and spelling development. Students at this level are also likely to benefit
from the multisensory nature of iPads, tablets and the interactive whiteboard.
In Upper Primary and Secondary school, the use of AT may be extended to the provision of assistive technology to
accommodate for the difficulties that the student may be experiencing. Software such as Text to Speech allow for
better comprehension of information and independent learning, whilst software to support the writing process can
be introduced to assist with the high demand on writing in the later years of school.
Technology to assist with organisation, study skills, time management and memory can be introduced at any stage.

Once I was given the opportunity to use

a ‘talk-to-text’ program in many of my subjects,
my academic results improved dramatically!’
Katie - Aged 16 years

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Learning Difficulties: Factsheet 9: Use of Assistive Technology

 LEARNING DIFFICULTIES:
Factsheet 10: Explaining Dyslexia to your child
Most children who experience difficulties with learning at school feel that there is something
different about them compared to the other students in their class. The knowledge that the
child is experiencing difficulties with reading and writing due to the neurological differences
underlying a Specific Learning Difficulty such as Dyslexia is valuable for both the child and his/
her parents. Finding out that there is a reason behind why they are struggling can be very
empowering. For a child with dyslexia, it means...“I am not dumb!” Their difficulties do not
come from lack of trying.
Explaining Dyslexia to your Child

It is important to explain to the child what Dyslexia is and what it means for them. While such an
Learning Difficulties

explanation should be tailored to the child’s age and level of development, it is generally better to
provide factual information rather than to leave the child wondering why they are struggling at
school. An explanation of the diagnosis helps the child to understand why they have to work extra
hard at certain tasks (like reading and spelling), why they may have to attend tutoring sessions, or
remember particular strategies.
It should be made clear that having Dyslexia is no one’s fault and the child should not feel
ashamed. With extra support and persistence, there is no reason why the child should not achieve
to his or her potential.
It’s likely that other students in the class or school, or family members also have Dyslexia.
Maybe one of these individuals could act as a role model for your child. There are plenty of good
role models in the community who have utilised their “big picture” or “out-of-the-box” thinking
to great advantage despite significant reading difficulties.
Famous Dyslexics include: (and many others can be discovered through an internet search)

• Actress Kiera Knightley

• Entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson

• TV Chef Jamie Oliver

Emphasise in your discussion that every person has strengths and difficulties. Some students may
be excellent at solving mathematical problems but struggle to kick a football straight. Dyslexic
students have significant difficulties with reading and writing but are likely to have strengths in a
range of other areas such as visual art, sport or music. It depends on the individual. Explore with
your child what their own personal strengths are (and that can include personal characteristics like
kindness, generosity or friendliness).
One way to do this is to have a scrapbook or bulletin board dedicated to all the things the child
loves to do and excels at. Add items that remind the child of their strengths (e.g. drawings, merit
certificates, or graphs tracking the child’s improvements in certain areas). These act as a concrete
visual representation of everything the child can do – especially important for children with
learning difficulties who sometimes feel like they can’t do anything right!
Some of this information was inspired by: http://dsf.net.au/explaining-dyslexia/

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