Drawings on Words - Teaching the Dyslexic Child Sight Words

4 year ago, my Apple Macbook Pro just died on me.  It was a really great laptop I've had, sadly, he has to go.  It had that NVidia problem and was supposed to be covered by an Apple recall but when I brought it in one of the distributor's of Apple, they said that it was a logic board problem. Bummer! If I brought it earlier before it had the same symptoms of the NVidia issue it showed prior to completely dying out, it would have been replaced.  Fast forward to 2016, I got my old Macbook Pro's files and the 2GB memory to run my son's Macbook 1! Yeah!

As I checked with all my files, I saw several videos of the twins, our old house, our beloved dog and just way too many memories that I didn't know existed.  Then, I came upon this video of my then, 5 year old son. I recorded it using my Nokia E63 (which is btw, still alive and kicking today - I use it as my wireless landline).  So, it's one of those videos on how I taught my Dyslexic son how to read sight words.

The twins can easily process using a whole word approach (meaning, no extra visual aids needed to know a word).  The difference with a normal reader is that they can recall a word even by just looking at it in a glance - but not my Dyslexic son.  So, I've tried making up simple drawings (I am not even good with drawing) on the word, give it a sentence with the actual word on it and have my son read it. Here is the video and I hope you get ideas on how to make for yourself.

I'll be posting a blog on my DIY sight word cards which you can also do for personal use.  I made it thick enough so you can also make some drawings on it if you need to.  This also works for spelling, btw.

I am happy to say that my son was extremely Dyslexic when he was assessed at age 6. He is now 11 and is 2 grade levels up in reading. Woohoo! Indeed, early intervention is best. So, don't be in denial and delay assessment or intervention when you see that your child shows some signs of being different than his peers.  I have embraced the fact that these uniqueness are what makes my child - my own.  There is nothing wrong with being unique, they just think differently.  Some family members may or may not be supportive, but then, who cares? Only you can. Look beyond the child and remind yourself that you are the only person who can help him propel his uniqueness for his future.