If your child has dyslexia — or you suspect it — take a deep breath. Homeschooling is one of the best things that can happen to a child who learns to read differently. At home you can move at your child’s pace, teach the way their brain actually learns, and protect the confidence that a busy classroom so often chips away.
What dyslexia is (and what it isn’t)
Dyslexia is a difference in how the brain processes written language. It makes decoding words, spelling, and reading fluently harder — but it has nothing to do with intelligence or effort. In fact, many dyslexic thinkers are gifted problem-solvers, storytellers, artists, and entrepreneurs. By some estimates as many as one in five children shows signs of dyslexia, so if this is your child, you are in very good and very large company.
Signs of dyslexia to watch for
Every child is different, but common signs include trouble rhyming or hearing the sounds in words, slow and effortful reading, frequent guessing, reversing letters well past the early years, spelling the same word several ways on one page, and avoiding reading aloud. A child who is bright and verbal but “just won’t read” is often a dyslexic child working twice as hard as everyone around them.
Why homeschooling is a gift for dyslexic kids
In a classroom, a struggling reader is compared to twenty-five peers every single day. At home there is no one to fall behind. You can spend three weeks on a skill instead of three days, weave in audiobooks and hands-on learning, and let your child shine in the subjects they love while reading catches up. Most importantly, you can keep the relationship warm — which is the single biggest predictor of a dyslexic child staying motivated.
How to teach a child with dyslexia at home
The gold standard is structured, multisensory literacy — approaches in the Orton-Gillingham tradition that teach the sounds of English explicitly and systematically, using sight, sound, and touch together. Beyond the reading program itself, a few things make an enormous difference: lean on audiobooks and text-to-speech so learning doesn’t stall while reading develops, separate the skill of composing ideas from the mechanics of writing them down, keep lessons short and encouraging, and build the day around your child’s strengths, not just their struggle.
You’re the right teacher for this
You don’t need to be a reading specialist to help your child thrive — you need the right tools, a little training, and the patience that already comes from loving them. Thomas Edison, Albert Einstein, and Agatha Christie were all dyslexic. Your child’s story is still being written, and homeschooling gives you the pen.
Tech Tool for Dyslexia: How Lexercise Can Help Homeschoolers
From Homeschooling with Technology — press play, then explore more episodes below.
Dyslexia episodes from across our shows
Understanding dyslexia
The Dyslexia DilemmaDiscovering Dyslexia & Reading Issues in Your ChildExecutive Function & Dyslexia: What Parents Need to KnowTeaching reading & helpful tools
The Best Way to Teach ReadingMaking Reading EasierA Tech Tool for Dyslexia: How Lexercise Can HelpHelp for Distracted & Struggling ReadersSound Strategies: Boosting Success with Auditory ProcessingA New Label on the Block: CAPDRelated guides: homeschooling a struggling learner and homeschooling with special needs.
Explore more guides in the Homeschool Help Hub →
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Do you think you are homeschooling a child with dyslexia? Join Fletch and Kendra as they interview Maryann Sunderland.
Maryann is the author of Dyslexia 101 and an expert at the subject of homeschooling with dyslexia. She is a homeschool mom of 7 kids (and 6 of them have been diagnosed with dyslexia). This is a great discussion and we think you will love it.
1:00 – Introduction
13:10 – Part One – Interview with Maryann Sunderland
40:09 – Part Two –Interview with Maryann Sunderland
Homeschooling with Dyslexia
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The post Homeschooling With Dyslexia – HIRL Episode 71 appeared first on Ultimate Homeschool Podcast Network.
