One of the in-law kids (10yo boy) shows all signs of dyslexia (smart, but no reading and only a little bit writing skills after 5 years of education).
Any suggestions for a final diagnose as well as "treatment". And yes, I know, there is no "cure" for dyslexia, but learning to deal with it, may help a lot. An organization in Phnom Penh, known with dyslexia would be great.
Thanks !
Dyslexia
What do you consider signs of dyslexia?
Does he show these signs with Khmer script only, or with the ABC too?
In my experience the chances of receiving bad education are larger than dyslexia in Cambodia, so maybe you can elaborate a bit?
Does he show these signs with Khmer script only, or with the ABC too?
In my experience the chances of receiving bad education are larger than dyslexia in Cambodia, so maybe you can elaborate a bit?
For now, Khmer is less of an issue then his English reading/writing. Probably, because the Khmer stuff is still at the Logographic state.
Education at his private school is sufficiently adequate to assume, it's not the school being the problem. His classmates are all much better in reading/writing. Also his other school results are good and in line with classmates (or even much better given he has to do everything from memory, where his classmates do have support from reading/writing abilities). His reading/writing is not only somewhat behind, but shows literally zero's as marks (vs 7-8 on 10 for the other items).
Education at his private school is sufficiently adequate to assume, it's not the school being the problem. His classmates are all much better in reading/writing. Also his other school results are good and in line with classmates (or even much better given he has to do everything from memory, where his classmates do have support from reading/writing abilities). His reading/writing is not only somewhat behind, but shows literally zero's as marks (vs 7-8 on 10 for the other items).
If you provide the kid with a simple word, let's say:
Me
Man
Net
Simple one syllable words, is he able to tell you what the first or the last character of the word should be?
Me
Man
Net
Simple one syllable words, is he able to tell you what the first or the last character of the word should be?
No, he completely fails to add missing characters, even when it's a longer word, with 1 character missing.
He even has problems to distinguish the written lowercase characters s and f, though I am practising on that, by just rote memorization and it seems to work.
Recognition of the other characters does go OK now, though was a problem, 3-4 months ago.
He has become a genius to let his family tell him what to write down for his homework and pretty well memorizes that for a short period, though a little later forgot all about it. So, the scores on his homework are either (nearly) zero or a 10/10 mark.
And of course, he fails on the tests at school, about these things.
He even has problems to distinguish the written lowercase characters s and f, though I am practising on that, by just rote memorization and it seems to work.
Recognition of the other characters does go OK now, though was a problem, 3-4 months ago.
He has become a genius to let his family tell him what to write down for his homework and pretty well memorizes that for a short period, though a little later forgot all about it. So, the scores on his homework are either (nearly) zero or a 10/10 mark.
And of course, he fails on the tests at school, about these things.
Not talking about random characters, talking about first and last characters of short words. Also just talking about clear examples, not the exceptions.
Assuming he knows the word 'duck'.
If you asked him what the first character should be, does he have any clue? Or 'flamingo', or 'worm', or 'luck', or 'sleep'. All clear examples where there should be no doubt about the character used.
If the answer is no, then the problem is probably at school he missed the part where sounds are connected to characters. Schools in Cambodia hardly pay (or do not pay) attention to this detail - but it's very important of beginners to have a connection between a sound and a character.
Assuming he knows the word 'duck'.
If you asked him what the first character should be, does he have any clue? Or 'flamingo', or 'worm', or 'luck', or 'sleep'. All clear examples where there should be no doubt about the character used.
If the answer is no, then the problem is probably at school he missed the part where sounds are connected to characters. Schools in Cambodia hardly pay (or do not pay) attention to this detail - but it's very important of beginners to have a connection between a sound and a character.
Even when the characters aren't missing, he is having huge problems to convert the written text to a spoken word.
And, yes, that's a problem with conversion, etc, though that's called Dyslexia.
He did visit 2 different private English schools, one with 100% white-nose American teachers (complete with accent), did all classes at least 2 times and still is not able to convert a difficult word like "water" to a pronunciation. A word like "cat" is clear, though still takes a lot of time to recognise. Other kids in the family, visiting the same schools, do not have these problems.
So, I don't see any reasons to blame the school(s) for this.
Today, I "drilled" him on the words "water", "work" and "word" and then he starts to know and recognize. I wonder, if he will remember tomorrow and/or next week. It is known, he'll forget these things later on.
And yes, he by far speaks the best English of the whole in-law family.
Back to the original question:
Any suggestions for a final diagnose as well as "treatment". And yes, I know, there is no "cure" for dyslexia, but learning to deal with it, may help a lot. An organization in Phnom Penh, known with dyslexia would be great.
And, yes, that's a problem with conversion, etc, though that's called Dyslexia.
He did visit 2 different private English schools, one with 100% white-nose American teachers (complete with accent), did all classes at least 2 times and still is not able to convert a difficult word like "water" to a pronunciation. A word like "cat" is clear, though still takes a lot of time to recognise. Other kids in the family, visiting the same schools, do not have these problems.
So, I don't see any reasons to blame the school(s) for this.
Today, I "drilled" him on the words "water", "work" and "word" and then he starts to know and recognize. I wonder, if he will remember tomorrow and/or next week. It is known, he'll forget these things later on.
And yes, he by far speaks the best English of the whole in-law family.
Back to the original question:
Any suggestions for a final diagnose as well as "treatment". And yes, I know, there is no "cure" for dyslexia, but learning to deal with it, may help a lot. An organization in Phnom Penh, known with dyslexia would be great.
For now, back to basics. Point out things and ask him what the first character should be.
But before that, teach him what every character sounds like. If he can do it with the first character, ask for the last one of a word. Only ask for simple words, one syllable. 'Duck' for instance is a good one to ask for the first character, but a bad one for the last one because both the c and the k can have that 'k' sound. 'House' is also a bad one to practice the last character, because it ends with an s sound but you write it differently (but a good one for the first character) , so choose your words carefully.
Pretend the world of words is a simple one, with rules. The (loads of) exceptions can come later. By choosing your words carefully the boy can gain some confidence he's actually doing it well and recognizing characters. Keeping kids like these motivated is very very difficult so son't move on to the next step too fast.
After training this for a few weeks he should be able to connect characters to their sound and should be able to read and construct simple words (one syllable words) by himself, and from there you move one. Until then any reading / writing exercise at school will be useless. He will just copy what the teacher wrote without any understanding of what he's actually writing.
But before that, teach him what every character sounds like. If he can do it with the first character, ask for the last one of a word. Only ask for simple words, one syllable. 'Duck' for instance is a good one to ask for the first character, but a bad one for the last one because both the c and the k can have that 'k' sound. 'House' is also a bad one to practice the last character, because it ends with an s sound but you write it differently (but a good one for the first character) , so choose your words carefully.
Pretend the world of words is a simple one, with rules. The (loads of) exceptions can come later. By choosing your words carefully the boy can gain some confidence he's actually doing it well and recognizing characters. Keeping kids like these motivated is very very difficult so son't move on to the next step too fast.
After training this for a few weeks he should be able to connect characters to their sound and should be able to read and construct simple words (one syllable words) by himself, and from there you move one. Until then any reading / writing exercise at school will be useless. He will just copy what the teacher wrote without any understanding of what he's actually writing.
Learning to read and write English is difficult. Our kids have learnt phonics for the last six months, the older one can read almost fluently now. The little one is nearly there. They are taught the letter sounds and then how to blend them.
They have extra English most days of the week with a young woman whose brother works in the Embassy in Phnom Penh and is a fluent Khmer speaker.
How do schools in Cambodia teach English to small children?
They have extra English most days of the week with a young woman whose brother works in the Embassy in Phnom Penh and is a fluent Khmer speaker.
How do schools in Cambodia teach English to small children?
The current school does use Mcgraw-hill methods (Phonetics) supplemented with some more Khmer/English books, to let the children learn the match from Khmer to English characters/sounds. As well as a song-book.
Once a Dyslexia diagnose is confirmed (or bunked), I can work further on this and maybe even get a special English teacher for 3 days a week or so. For now, it's vague what is happening, so I am looking for a Dyslexia specialist/organization to get a better grip which direction to go.
The good news is, that the boy did not seem to have forgotten the words "Water", "Work" and "Word" and instantly recognized the words. Making only the mistake to slightly swallow the k and d of the "Work" and "Word" words. That's very positive and might even debunk the Dyslexia (I hope so).
Once a Dyslexia diagnose is confirmed (or bunked), I can work further on this and maybe even get a special English teacher for 3 days a week or so. For now, it's vague what is happening, so I am looking for a Dyslexia specialist/organization to get a better grip which direction to go.
The good news is, that the boy did not seem to have forgotten the words "Water", "Work" and "Word" and instantly recognized the words. Making only the mistake to slightly swallow the k and d of the "Work" and "Word" words. That's very positive and might even debunk the Dyslexia (I hope so).
Indicative Dyslexia test done and given the diagnose "at risk for Dyslexia".
Looking at the content of subsequent tests, it's quite likely, the boy is getting his dyslexia confirmed.
Looking at the content of subsequent tests, it's quite likely, the boy is getting his dyslexia confirmed.
If confirmed, here's some fonts designed to help dyslexics distinguish letters more easily, could be used to create your own books and reading exercises.v12 wrote:Indicative Dyslexia test done and given the diagnose "at risk for Dyslexia".
Looking at the content of subsequent tests, it's quite likely, the boy is getting his dyslexia confirmed.
https://www.opendyslexic.org/
https://www.dyslexiefont.com/
Thanks !epidemiks wrote:If confirmed, here's some fonts designed to help dyslexics distinguish letters more easily, could be used to create your own books and reading exercises.v12 wrote:Indicative Dyslexia test done and given the diagnose "at risk for Dyslexia".
Looking at the content of subsequent tests, it's quite likely, the boy is getting his dyslexia confirmed.
https://www.opendyslexic.org/
https://www.dyslexiefont.com/
You seem to be (somewhat) knowledgeable on this subject, did you see this article ?
The guardian, neither eye is dominant with Dyslexia.
This (and other) article(s) state(s), that the vision cones in the eye for Dyslexia people are the same in left and right eye, where "normal" people do have different vision cones shapes (distribution) in the left and right eye. The difference in vision codes seems to be the basics of the eye dominance. The no-dominant eye confuses the brain, with the dyslexia as a result.
So, in short: Let the kid read with one eye and the problem might be gone
Not tested yet.
No, I just like typefaces and ran I to these a few mo this ago.v12 wrote:Thanks !epidemiks wrote:If confirmed, here's some fonts designed to help dyslexics distinguish letters more easily, could be used to create your own books and reading exercises.v12 wrote:Indicative Dyslexia test done and given the diagnose "at risk for Dyslexia".
Looking at the content of subsequent tests, it's quite likely, the boy is getting his dyslexia confirmed.
https://www.opendyslexic.org/
https://www.dyslexiefont.com/
You seem to be (somewhat) knowledgeable on this subject, did you see this article ?
The guardian, neither eye is dominant with Dyslexia.
This (and other) article(s) state(s), that the vision cones in the eye for Dyslexia people are the same in left and right eye, where "normal" people do have different vision cones shapes (distribution) in the left and right eye. The difference in vision codes seems to be the basics of the eye dominance. The no-dominant eye confuses the brain, with the dyslexia as a result.
So, in short: Let the kid read with one eye and the problem might be gone
Not tested yet.
Interesting though. Get him a pirate hat and eye patch and it could be fun.