Dyslexia Untied
Providing specialist dyslexia remediation services in the Adelaide Metropolitan area
The Dyslexia Institute Literacy Programme (DILP)
I use the DILP as the foundation for all my teaching. The DILP was developed and refined by the specialist teachers in Dyslexia Action, UK. Its principles are that teaching should be multisensory, structured, cumulative, sequential and phonic. Teaching should be thorough with strategies for memory and over-learning built into it.
The programme consists of:
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A letter order: the sequence for teaching letter-sound links, from single vowels and consonants to less frequently used letter strings such as eu and eigh.
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Reading cards: are accumulated by individual learners to remind them of the letter-sound links already covered in reading, to provide them with a means of practise, to act as a memory aid and to develop automaticity.
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Spelling cards: learners accumulate these cards. Each card represents one sound. Different ways of spelling the sound are added to it as the programme develops.
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Multisensory strategies for spelling: including Echo-Spell-Write Check. A flowing handwriting style is encouraged to ensure that recurring letter patterns become automatic.
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Reading and spelling practise at each teaching point: word lists are organised so that the learner can use pattern and analogy to aid reading and spelling.
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Spelling rules: such as suffixing rules, which can be widely applied.
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High frequency words: which are learned using mnemonics if and where necessary.
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Work on word structure and word attack: but also encompassing work at sentence and prose level.
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Metacognition: or learning about learning. Learners are encouraged to be aware of their own memory and learning strategies. Sentence and text level skills for both reading and spelling are developed as the structured programme progresses.