Why do children with dyslexia guess at words? Is this harmful? How can it be fixed? Find more information on this topic, as well as our online dyslexia tutoring and treatment program at www.dyslexiaconnect.com .
Children with dyslexia tend to guess a lot at words. This is a very common and widespread issue with dyslexics. To give you an example, one of the students in our online tutoring program was recently reading a comprehension section about the Mississippi River. He read a sentence that said, "The Mississippi River flows north to south." However, when he read the word "flows", he said "follows" instead. This dyslexic student saw the letters F and L in the word, and guessed that it was "follows". This, of course, led to the sentence being nonsensical.
Is guessing at words a problem? There are some people who think that it isn't a problem, unless the dyslexic student is guessing at a lot of words. They state that as long as the student understands the basic meaning of the sentence, that is enough. In fact, this is not true. Guessing at words is a huge problem, and the ill effects of it become worse as the dyslexic child gets older! By guessing at words, the dyslexic child's reading accuracy is going to suffer. If reading accuracy suffers, then reading comprehension suffers. This gets worse as the child ages. If a dyslexic child gets used to guessing at words, they will guess more and more as time goes on, especially as they get older, and the level of their reading material increases. This leads to increasing difficulty in reading accuracy and reading comprehension.
So, why do kids with dyslexia do this? They guess at words as a coping mechanism. If a dyslexic child has not received the proper training in a phonics based approach to reading and spelling, guessing at words is the only approach they have to words that they do not recognize by sight. Without phonics knowledge, they are unable to properly break the word down into syllables and sound it out. Additionally, a dyslexic child may be in the habit of guessing, because they have been encouraged to do this at school. Some reading methods that are not based on phonics suggest having a child guess if they do not know the word. If a dyslexic child gets used to using this as a coping mechanism, it becomes more difficult to break the older they become.
How do you correct this issue? The first step is to enroll the dyslexic child in a dyslexia tutoring program that uses a phonics- based approach such as the Orton-Gillingham Method. This is important as the first step, because the dyslexic child needs to have an alternative to guessing, and dyslexia tutoring will provide them with that alternative. The child will learn phonics and how to properly sound out a word, even if they have never seen it before. Once they are getting the proper training that they need, you can have a dyslexic child read out loud to you at home for practice. When they mix up a word, have them go back and sound the word out with the techniques that they are learning in their dyslexia tutoring. As they make progress in tutoring, they will have an easier time doing this.
There is no quick fix to breaking the bad habit of guessing at words, but with patience and the right approach, it can be done. It's worth it!
Peter Groth
CEO
Dyslexia Connect Online Tutoring