Breathe. Realizing your child is having reading struggles can feel like a big blow. It doesn't have to be, though. 

Tips - 

• Stay positive. Your student is likely as frustrated as you are. Don't add your frustrations to their struggles. Talk to a spouse or friend about your frustrations so you are giving your child all the positivity they need to succeed.
• Go slow. Be gentle with your child, but be gentle with yourself as well. Supporting a student with dyslexia can talk alot of resources. Give both of you grace in the process.
•  Step by step. Continue to pursue support for your student while you both learn about their specific gaps and needs. Learning is hard work. 
• Consistency is a key to treating dyslexia.

Tricks - 

• Make it a game. Giggle together
• Rewards. As we said above, learning is hard work. Have rewards scheduled in for effort rather than arbitrary pacing. Maybe you can toss a football together after a tutoring session.
• Affirm them. Every chance you get point out to them where they're smart, or kind, or diligent. Also affirm their efforts at reading, "I'm so proud of how hard you try." and "I can see what an effort you make. I'm so proud of you." They don't always see themselves as successful compared to other kids who can easily read. So they need to see it through your eyes.

 
Helps - 
So often parents are eager and anxious to help their student learn to read. Here are some wonderful resources. It's a free website specifically for homeschool parents, but these helps for parents of dyslexic children can be applied in a variety of settings. 

• https://www.homeschooling101.net/dyslexia

While structured reading programs like Orton-Gillingham or MSL are the gold standard for teaching children with dyslexia, many students also benefit from speech therapy. A speech-language pathologist (SLP) focuses on the foundations of language: how sounds are made, how words are put together, and how children use and understand spoken language. Strengthening these skills makes reading, spelling, and writing much easier.

Why Speech Therapy Helps

Children with dyslexia often struggle with phonological awareness—the ability to hear, break apart, and blend the sounds in words. They may also have difficulty connecting letters to sounds, remembering sequences, or producing certain sounds clearly. Speech therapy directly targets these challenges using fun, hands-on techniques.

Specific Speech Therapy Techniques for Dyslexic Students

Here are some examples of how speech therapists work on sounds and language skills with children who have dyslexia:

1. Phoneme Awareness and Sound Isolation

• Goal: Help children hear and identify sounds in words.

Example Technique: 

1. Using picture cards, an SLP might ask: “Which word starts with /s/—sun or dog?”
2. Or: “Say the word ‘cat.’ Now, take off the /k/ sound. What’s left?”

This helps children hear individual sounds (phonemes) and build the skills needed for decoding words.

2. Articulation Practice for Tricky Sounds

Some children with dyslexia also mispronounce certain sounds, which can make reading and spelling harder.

Common sounds to target:

• /r/: Practiced by showing tongue placement (“curl your tongue back slightly”) and repeating words like red, rabbit, run.
• /th/: Practiced by gently biting the tongue between the teeth and blowing air (think, this).
• /sh/ vs. /ch/: Practiced with minimal pairs (ship vs. chip) to highlight differences.

Practicing these sounds improves clarity and makes it easier to connect sounds with letters when reading.

3. Sound-Symbol Connection (Phonics with Speech Cues)

• Goal: Link letters with the way they sound and feel when spoken.

​Techniques

1. The SLP might say: “/p/ is the ‘lip-popper’ sound. Let’s feel our lips pop as we say it and write the letter P.”
2. Adding a physical cue (touching lips, tracing the letter, clapping) reinforces learning.

4. Auditory Discrimination

• Goal: Help children hear differences between sounds that look or feel similar.
• Example: Listening to recordings of words like pat and bat and identifying which is which.
• Flashcards, rhyming games, and sorting activities make this practice fun.

5. Memory and Sequencing Games

• Goal: Strengthen short-term memory and the ability to hold sound sequences.
  

Example Activities:

• Repeating increasing strings of sounds (“Say /k/ /a/ /t/… now add /s/ at the end—what’s the word?” → cats).
• Playing “Simon Says” with sound patterns.
• Using rhymes, songs, or mnemonics to make tricky words stick.

6. Reading Aloud and Fluency Work

• Goal: Improve expression, rhythm, and confidence in reading.
• Technique:

1. The child reads aloud with the SLP, who models correct pacing and expression.
   
2. Short passages may be recorded so the child can listen back and practice at home.
   

A Parent’s Role

Speech therapy is most effective when parents reinforce skills at home. Here are a few simple things you can do:

• Make every effort to use correct pronunciation and grammar.
  
• Play sound games in the car (“What rhymes with cat?”).
  
• Encourage your child to practice new sounds in everyday conversation.
  
• Use multi-sensory tricks—like writing words in sand or saying them while clapping.
  
• Celebrate small wins to build confidence.
  

Speech therapy doesn’t replace a structured reading program, but it gives children with dyslexia the tools to hear, say, and understand sounds more clearly. By combining speech therapy with structured literacy instruction, children gain stronger reading, writing, and speaking skills—and more confidence in themselves.

When it comes to teaching children with dyslexia, the UK often turns to a method called Multi-Sensory Structured Language (MSL) Education. This approach is individually tailored for helping students with dyslexia learn language skills.

What MSL Teaches

MSL is a language-based program that covers many areas, including:

• Reading and phonics
• Spelling and handwriting
• Grammar, structure, and syntax
• Vocabulary, meaning, and word parts (morphology)
• Oral and written expression
• Even the history of language

By covering all these areas, MSL gives students a complete foundation for understanding language.

Step-by-Step, Building-Block Style
One of the strengths of MSL is that it’s structured and cumulative. Lessons start with the basics—the simplest and most common parts of language—and gradually move toward more complex skills. A student doesn’t move on until they’ve mastered what came before.
This slow and steady pace helps children with dyslexia because they’re never rushed into new material before they’re ready. If a child struggles with a concept, the teacher reteaches it before introducing something new. This ensures each step builds confidence and success.

Helping Kids Think About Language
MSL doesn’t just teach skills—it helps students understand the why behind language. Teachers explain the logic of spelling rules, grammar patterns, and word meanings. Students are encouraged to ask questions and use reasoning, which strengthens their overall understanding of how language works.

Building Confidence and Reducing Stress
A big benefit of MSL is that it’s emotionally supportive. Students are never tested on material they haven’t been taught yet, which reduces fear and frustration. Because they know what to expect, they feel more confident and motivated to learn.

Why It Works
MSL is effective because it is:

• Diagnostic and prescriptive: Teachers track progress closely and adjust lessons to meet each child’s needs.
• Clear and straightforward: Concepts are explained in simple, logical ways on the students level.
• Multi-sensory: Students learn through sight, sound, touch, and movement. This activates more areas of the brain and helps form strong learning pathways.
  

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Strategies for Learning Foreign Languages with Dyslexia

Because students in Europe are exposed to many languages within a short distance from their home or within their community, dyslexia therapy has to accommodate multiple languages and children and families who are multilingual. Learning a second language can be especially challenging for students with dyslexia, but there are proven strategies that help. Many of these are used in both ESL (English as a Second Language) and foreign language classrooms:

• Metacognitive approach: Teach students why they’re learning something and how they’re learning it. This helps them understand language structure and their own ability to learn more deeply.
• Onsets and rimes: Breaking words into parts (like “c” + “at” = cat) helps students see patterns and organize vocabulary. This works especially well for English but can also apply to some other languages.
• Modeling: Students learn by listening and repeating after a teacher, tutor, or peer. Reading aloud together or using recordings at home are simple but powerful strategies.
• Auditory discrimination: Listening activities—like focusing on the “ch” sound in chat—help students hear and recognize patterns in words. Flash cards and picture cards can support this practice.
• Memory training: Techniques like mnemonics (memory tricks) are especially helpful for students with short-term memory challenges, which is typical of people with dyslexia.
• Supplementary learning: Many tools are available outside the classroom, such as educational websites, apps, CDs, DVDs, and audio guides. These provide extra practice and reinforcement.

​"Assistive technology is a wonderful help to students. Depending on the severity of their dyslexia, many students only need the helps for a time period and can eventually manage independently."

• Games and motivation: Turning lessons into games makes learning fun and builds confidence, especially on tough days.
  

"At Dyslexia Tutor Fort Wayne, we employ many games to teach, reinforce, build confidence, and help diffuse what can be an emotionally charged process children." ~Jenn MacDonald
​

• Different learning styles: Teachers can keep lessons inclusive by mixing group work with individual practice, changing seating, adapting for light sensitivity, or adjusting motivation strategies.

Takeaway for Parents
The MSL approach works because it’s structured, logical, supportive, and multi-sensory. When paired with specific strategies for language learning, it can help children with dyslexia build the skills—and the confidence—they need to succeed.