Part 2. The Orthographic Face of Dyslexia

Abstract

Introduction - After the reading difficulties have been resolved most dyslexics still have residual spelling problems. Some dyslexics do not have any reading problems (dysorthographia) and may have learned to read self taught because of very good visual memories. Their severe spelling problems are seldom dealt with because they read so well. With hard work my students had gained enough GCSEs and A/levels to apply for a range of university programmes and in this case for the teacher education courses. In order to help them with their writing a series of voluntary clinic tutorials was arranged as part of their Learning Difficulties/SEN course. At interview their spelling correcting strategies were found to be limited to rote learning of the correct versions, visualisation, look-cover-write-check, ‘does it look right’ and asking a friend to proof read what they had written before they handed work in. It was in exams that they became most vulnerable to detection for their own proof reading too often missed the errors.