Spotting the signs of Dyslexia early

Jacquelyn Davis shares with us both her personal experience as a parent of a child with dyslexia and her professional knowledge. Jacquelyn explains that learning to read is not a natural process, it is a learning process, and that building a culture of reading, building language and having a dialogue around what you're reading with a child is vital.

Also in this episode our host, Angelica Celinska, questions whether we are testing children for dyslexia before they even learn to read and write, as well as opening up dialogue around whether structured phonics is a suitable way of teaching young children to read. This is where Jacquelyn and Angelica discuss children learning through play, and Jacquelyn points out that play should be 'based on the science of reading'...

Episode breakdown:

01:05 - A parent's experience of their child's dyslexia struggle
05:55 - Misinformation around dyslexia
07:54 - Dyslexia should not be seen as a permanent state
09:00 - The importance of repetition and practice
10:00 - Early screening of dyslexia and diagnosis is important
12:20 - Challenging behaviours which manifest with dyslexia
13:10 - Are we testing children before they even learn to read and write?
14:20 - Early indicators of dyslexia
15:35 - Dyslexic children not presenting as dyslexic
18:25 - Is explicit structured phonics suitable for young children?

20:58 - Whole language and balanced literacy strategies

23:28 - Should we teach the alphabet as well as phonics?

26:20 - Is phonics taking the joy out of reading?

27:05 - Learning to read or reading to learn?

28:45 - Fostering a culture of reading pre-phonics

33:24 - Audiobooks for dyslexic children

36:47 - Using technology to support reading

46:45 - The importance of being research informed

50:10 - Reading is vital for future success and life outcomes

52:56 - Policy makers and 'The reading wars'

Hear and read more on The Voice of Early Childhood website: www.thevoiceofearlychildhood.com