For families and teachers
How a dyslexic child may experience reading
Dyslexia is about the link between the sounds of speech and the letters on the page. This page describes, plainly and kindly, what reading may feel like from the inside, and what helps.
Three things it is not
- It is not about intelligence.
- It is not about effort.
- It is not about eyesight.
Letters do not jump, swap or swim on the page. That is a common idea, and it is not what dyslexia is.
What is hard is the link between the sounds of speech and the letters that stand for them, and making that link smoothly enough that words come easily. A dyslexic child can be as curious and as capable as any other child.
From the inside
What reading may feel like
Every dyslexic child is different. These are things a child may find, not things every child will.
Sounds and letters do not stay linked
For many children, the link between a letter and its sound soon holds. For a dyslexic child it may not. The child can hear the sound perfectly well. It is the connection to the print that slips away, even after many careful lessons.
Reading words takes great effort
Reading a word accurately and fluently may take a great deal of effort. When so much attention goes into working out each word, there is less left for what the words mean. A child may follow a story perfectly when it is read aloud, and lose the thread when they read it alone.
Spelling is hard too
Spelling asks a child to go the other way, from sounds to letters. For a dyslexic child that may be just as hard, and the same word may be spelled in different ways on the same page.
It runs across a range
Dyslexia is not one thing, and no two children are the same. Some find it hard in a few ways, others in many. A child's strengths in talking, thinking, making and imagining are still their own.
Reading can be tiring
Because reading takes so much effort, a dyslexic child may be worn out by a task that other children finish with ease.
Feelings come with it
A child may feel embarrassed when asked to read aloud, or worried about being seen to find it hard. Some avoid reading, joke their way out of it, or say they do not care. Often that is a child protecting themselves, not a child who is not trying.
What helps
Explicit, systematic, cumulative teaching, from a trained adult
- Explicit
- Nothing is left for a child to guess. The adult says and shows how each sound and letter work.
- Systematic
- The code is taught in a planned order, the simpler parts first.
- Cumulative
- Each step rests on the one before, and earlier steps are visited again and used again.
- A trained adult
- Someone who knows the code and how to teach it, sitting beside the child.
A note on typefaces
Dyslexia-specific typefaces have no reliable effect on reading outcomes. All child reading text, in all our programmes, is set in Andika for its unambiguous letterforms, and we make no outcome claim for it.
A child also needs to hear that trying matters. We teach the sounds, we welcome the feelings, and we praise the trying.
For parents
If you are worried about your child
Talk to your child's school
Say what you have noticed, and ask what their teacher sees.
Seek a qualified assessment
If you are still worried, ask the school about an assessment by a qualified professional. They can tell you far more than a web page can. Phonido does not diagnose, and nothing on this page is a diagnosis.
Keep stories in the day
Read aloud together and talk about what you read. Praise the trying, and not only the reading.
Phonido Lighthouse
A second chance at learning to read
Lighthouse is the Phonido programme for a child who needs a second chance. A trained teacher places the child at the right step and works forward with them, one sound at a time, in a calm, structured way.
Lighthouse is a teaching programme. It does not diagnose dyslexia.
This page is a plain-language description for families and teachers. It is not medical or educational advice, and it is not a diagnosis.