THE REDFERN METHOD of TEACHING
WORKING WITH A DYSLEXIC CHILD or ADULT
The tutor needs to realize that dyslexic individuals may have had years of trying to learn to read by traditional methods, frustrating years in which their classmates seemed to get what was being taught but they did not. It was like watching a football game, one that they saw others enjoying, but they couldn’t tell where the ball was or what was happening on the field.
With The Redfern Method, it’s as if the football game of reading is slowed down, and instant replay” helps people make sense of what’s going on. Part of the tutor’s job is to build students’ self-esteem, helping them realize that they can actually learn to read.
Dyslexic people are NOT dumb, although earlier unhappy experiences in trying to learn to read may have made them think so. They may have even been called dummy, by people who don’t know better. But when they realize they CAN learn to read—in fact, that they are actually quite smart—dyslexic individuals become confident and happy.
When a dyslexic person looks at a word—black, for instance—he does not see the word as most people do. Instead, it is all jumbled up. He may see it as ldcak or some other spelling, with letters turned backwards or upside down, or with letters arranged differently. So is it any wonder that he can’t identify the word as black?
Even worse, the letters may not stay the same way that he first sees them, but may keep changing their shape and position as he looks at them. (Dyslexic persons sometimes grab at a page of printed material, to try to keep letters from moving around.)
THE REDFERN METHOD
The heart of the Redfern Method is that a word is separated into sounds, and the student learns one sound at a time and how to form sounds into a word. As the tutor leads the student through lots of practice with sounds, letters, and words, the student absorbs the fact that reading always goes from left to right.
A. Reading – Reading is very hard for dyslexic students, because the dyslexia messes them up. So the tutor does a lot of word drills (described on “Method in Practice” page) first, before asking the student to read aloud. Repetition reinforces the lesson that is being studied, and lets the student know that by learning the one sound-letter combination that he’s studying, he can decode many other words. Soon, the student begins to realize that he really can learn to read, and this realization helps him feel good about himself.
The sessions begin with short-vowel words, then go to long-vowel words, then to other sounds and the spellings for these.
B. Writing – When the student becomes adept at naming words that he hears the tutor sound out, he is ready for writing (described on “Method in Practice” page), still combined with hearing and reading. As soon as the student can read a few simple words, he begins using them in simple sentences. He practices writing words, then sentences, along with practice in reading.
When dictating words, the tutor should take care that the student correctly forms the lower-case letters (which are used much more than capital letters). Often, students make the small a and the small o too similarly, also the uand v. Or students may fail to make the “tall” letters and the capital letters any taller than other letters. They may make a w look the same as a series of the undotted i. And they may have no idea how to make rarely used letters, such as q or x.
The tutor should be sure to not only teach students how to form each letter but also to make sure they aren’t crowding the letters together too much.
Once the student is forming letters well, and can write words well, the writing sessions should add simple sentences, such as “Get the red hat.”
Each session includes a word drill, practice in writing (letters, then words, and finally, sentences), new learning (whatever sound-letter combination is being introduced), and shared reading (described on “Method in Practice” page).
White space is important when working with a dyslexic person. The more that words are crowded together, the harder they are for a student to read. Books for children in first grade use plenty of white space. Note the difference in these sentences:
Ben is at the park.
Ben is at the park.
The second sentence is more easily read, either by a small child or a dyslexic person. At the beginning stage, a dyslexic adult is similar to a young child in this respect.
STUDENTS CAN "TEACH" THEMSELVES
Once the student has begun to read—and being able to read sentences makes even a small child feel grown up—the tutor must not overwhelm him. It’s wise to just do five sentences at first, and stop if he seems to be growing tired or frustrated.
When dictating simple sentences for the student to write, the tutor should read the sentence for him at normal speed, not trying to go slowly, one word at a time. But the tutor reads each sentence as many times as the student needs it.
The idea is to give students as little help as they need, and to let them work out as much as they can by themselves. During shared reading (when the student reads one sentence and the tutor the next), the tutor should go no faster than the student reads as he is struggling along. The tutor should not hurry the student, or tell him a word while he is still in the process of thinking about it, because that can make him feel frustrated. But also the tutor shouldn’t allow him to sit looking at a word for an unduly long time, because he then loses the sense of what he had been reading. If the word is one that he can decode from what he has learned about sounds and letters, he should sound out the word’s parts until he gets the word. If the word is one that he can’t decode, the tutor should simply tell him the word after giving him a few seconds to fix its appearance in his mind. With this method, a student can usually identify the word after encountering it a few times.
During shared reading, the tutor should not let a mistake go uncorrected while the student is reading. When reading becomes somewhat easier for him, he will want to go faster. But then students often get careless with the little words that they can read easily. For example, if the sentence is “He found a flower in the box,” a student might say “He found the flower in a box.” The tutor would says, “That’s not the right word.” The student would take another look and say, “Oh, that’s ‘the,’” or “Oh, that’s an ‘a.’”
The tutor should watch for signs of fatigue in the student, because reading is hard for someone who’s dyslexic. To force a student to continue when he’s tired is useless. If the tutor notices a student is tiring, it’s time to either take a break or quit the lesson entirely.
The student also learns to correct his own work, using the scratch-out method (described on the “Method in Practice” page). If the sentence dictated is That man has no gas, but the child writes Tat man has on gas (for example), the tutor should say, “I said that but you wrote tat. How do we make it that?” The student can then say that and add the h. (Nearly all people recognize the word no and know how to spell it. If a student does not, the tutor simply tells him.)
The LESSONS page on this site gives specific details about sound-letter combinations to teach in the various sessions.
WHAT THE REDFERN LESSONS TEACH
The Redfern lessons—besides helping the child decode words and sentences—train a student to do these things:
- Pay attention.
- Follow directions.
- Improve handwriting.
- Build confidence.
POSSIBLE ADJUSTMENTS TO LESSONS
The tutor may need to make changes in some lessons to make them appropriate for each student. For instance, if teaching a very young child who hasn’t yet learned the alphabet, the tutor should drill him in alphabetical order. A chart of the alphabet, placed on a wall or other permanent location in the room, is helpful for this. The tutor should read the letters slowly and have the child repeat each letter, progressing from a to z through the entire alphabet.
If a child is very disabled with dyslexia, it is good to stop each three words and have him read them again. He may have to sound them out many times, but he learns that the way to sound out a word is to begin at the left and proceed right. The tutor must remember that reading and writing words may be very hard work for a student, especially at first.
If teaching in a classroom situation with fairly short class periods, students will probably not need breaks during the lessons. But even in a classroom situation, a restless child could be allowed to do his work while standing up.
If working with one child for a longer period, the student may sometimes tire and need a break to do some physical activity. The child could be told to run to the end of a sidewalk (trying to run faster than on previous attempts) or to bounce a ball as many times as possible without dropping it. Such physical activity provides a better break than allowing the child to watch TV or just sit.
WHY? Parts of the lessons may be hard work for students, because the dyslexia messes them up. Physical activity rests people by letting them focus on something totally different from their lessons. Also, it can let them feel successful at an activity, even when they’re having a hard time with the lessons.
USE HUMOR AS APPROPRIATE
The tutor should use humor during the lessons, when it fits to do so. When tutor and student can laugh together, that not only lightens the mood of a lesson, makes it more enjoyable, but it can also help a student remember a lesson better.
For example, when talking about the igh spelling of the i sound, the tutor could talk about the right family, who act stuck-up because they think they are always right.
ENJOY THE LESSONS!
The good news about teaching a dyslexic person is that those with dyslexia are often smarter than the average person. With the right kind of teaching, they can learn rapidly and can go on to real success in life. They will no longer be non-readers, forever set apart from those who are “in on” the key that unlocks all the great information, instruction, and enjoyment that is available to those who can READ!