When a dyslexia tutor begins tutoring a new student, the dyslexic student sometimes possesses bad habits that the dyslexia tutor must help them break. One of these habits is guessing at words.
Due to their reading challenges, dyslexic students students often get in a bad habit of guessing at words which they don’t understand or find too difficult. This is understandable, because if a student has not been trained in a dyslexia program, it is the only way that a student with dyslexia can actually read something without getting bogged down every sentence. Most of the time, these students have not received the phonetic training necessary for them to approach and decode words that they do not immediately recognize, so they guess or avoid these words.
With proper training from a dyslexia tutor in a phonics-based approach, a dyslexic child can learn to properly sound out and decode these words accurately instead of guessing. This is the first step towards breaking the habit of guessing; however, the habit is often so ingrained that it still takes time to break the habit even after the student has learned a system that allows them to read the word.
Here at Dyslexia Connect Online Tutoring, all of our dyslexia tutors focus on helping our students build good habits that will help them become great readers and successful students overall. During the reading portion of each online session, our tutors help the student become used to approaching every confusing word with the intention of decoding it, rather than guessing at it and moving on. If a student does guess at a word, the tutor has them return to that word and read it again, applying their knowledge of phonics and syllable rules. This way, the student will develop positive habits that will stay with them every time they read.
Peter
