The Dyslexia Research Trust has financed many studies that have shown that children with dyslexia, dyspraxia, ADHD or combinations of these can often benefit from taking fish oil supplements. These provide the long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids that make up 20% of the weight of the brain.

The omega-3 fatty acids EPA and DHA can only be obtained easily from oily fish, but they are particularly essential for sharp brain function.

One double-blind randomised control trial showed that 3 months of supplementing fish oil capsules helped the reading, spelling and concentration of children with dyspraxia; their reading age improved by a massive 9 months in the 3 months of the trial. (1)

Another study measured the whole blood fatty acid content of 493 schoolchildren, aged 7–9 years, from mainstream schools in England. They found that lower blood levels of the omega-3 DHA were associated with poorer reading ability and working memory (2).

Key Actions for Increasing Omega 3

Increasing dietary intake of oily fish such as mackerel, salmon, trout or sardines.  An omega-3 supplement may also help to increase blood omega-3 levels.  Efamol produce supplements in liquid and capsules suitable for children, see https://www.efamol.com/.  Many others are available.  Take as recommended on the box.  For vegans and vegetarians, there are many plant-based omega-3 supplements available derived from algae.

Although there are more than 600,000 words in the English language, only a small number of these appear frequently in the materials we read. In fact, studies have shown that there are only 13 different words that make up 25 percent of the words we read, and there are 100 words that make up 50 percent of the words we read. These words are called high-frequency words.

There are several reasons why students should be explicitly taught high-frequency words.

• One is that many of these words, such as the, is, to and are, do not follow commonly taught phonics rules and cannot be sounded out. The only way a child can read these words is to recognize them by sight.
• A second reason is that knowing the most commonly used words by sight will make a student a faster and more fluent reader. Students who need to pause and attempt to figure out most of the words they read tends to overload their memory. As a result, their understanding of what is read suffers.
• A third reason for teaching high-frequency words is that while many of these words alone don’t carry much meaning, they do affect the meaning of a sentence and help make it understandable.

To get a list of the first 100 high frequency words, please click here.

For the next 200 high frequency words, please click here.

For more information on how to teach the high frequency words, please click here where this quote comes from.

Being able to touch type is an invaluable skill for children (from about the age of 8) and adults with dyslexia.  Once touch typing becomes an unconscious skill the writer has more capacity to process thoughts and think about what they are writing.  Touch typing removes the need to physically move a pen while thinking of how to spell a word, something that those with dyslexia can struggle with.

Touch typing aids spelling as well because fingers learn patterns for common words and so you don’t have to consciously think about how to spell, your fingers just do it for you!

There are both bought and free touch typing tutors for all ages.  However with dyslexic children it is probably best to buy one specifically written for them, such as Englishtype (https://englishtype.com/) or Nessy Fingers (https://www.nessy.com/uk/product/nessy-fingers/).  With older teenagers and adults Kaz Typing Tutor (https://kaz-type.com/) or Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing (http://www.mavisbeaconfree.com/) would be good.  As with all skills practise makes perfect, but the rewards are worth the initial effort.

If your child squints when reading or complains the words move on the page or keep losing their place and need to use their finger under the words, it could be that their eyes are not working properly even if they have 20/20 vision.

Visual processing skills like tracking, eye teaming and visual perception are developmental skills that all children need in addition to seeing clearly.  If these skills don’t develop normally, children can struggle with demanding visual tasks like reading.  Each year as the print gets smaller, school performance drops, and visual fatigue sets in causing children to easily become frustrated and distracted.  All too often these children appear to have a learning disability or attention problems when the real culprit is poor visual processing skills.  Glasses can’t help, but eye exercises can!

There is a brilliant website called Eye Can Learn (http://eyecanlearn.com/) which has exercises for all these difficulties, all based on the computer.  Try them with your child, make them fun not learning, and with repetition your child should gain better eye movement and control. This can help both with reading and sports which require quick eye movements to follow the ball, for example.

International research has shown that primary school children who watched television with subtitles turned on were more likely to reach the expected standards of reading than those who did not.  (The Times, 27 May 2019)

Broadcasters are now considering whether to make same-language subtitles appear automatically on cartoons and other children’s programmes in the light of research showing that this can have a dramatic impact on literacy.  Parents are already able to turn on subtitles manually but few do so. If broadcasters were to supply them by default parents would still be able to disable them but would have to consciously choose to do so.

The take-away message is to switch on the subtitles if your child is watching any TV channel including Sky, YouTube, Amazon and Netflix.  Any opportunity which familiarises your child with words will help improve literacy skills and you don’t have to wait until your child goes to school, start doing this from a very young age.