Dyslexia tutors see many different symptoms of dyslexia when they work with their students, and I have mentioned many of these in previous posts. One symptom that deserves a mention is a difficulty with “w” and “y”. A dyslexia tutor often spends a significant amount of time working on these letter sounds with their dyslexic students, because they can prove to be particularly problematic for them. During dyslexia tutoring, a student will often mix up the sounds of “w” and “y” when they are working through phonics flash cards. Part of this may be due to the student confusing the shapes of “w” and “y”, and the fact that the sounds of these two letters may sound very similar to them. In addition, further problems may be caused by the fact that both “y” and “w” can be vowels; “y” when it is in the middle of end of a word, and “w” when it follows another vowel. These similarities tend to make these two letters difficult for dyslexics. A good dyslexia tutor spends time having the student say, write and use these letters until they start to be more comfortable with them.
Peter
Definitely I am a diagnosed almost 60 year old, who had teachers try and talk me phonics! I have a word block on W’s at the start and Y’s in the middle of words. I see abbreviations as a random selection of letters that I can’t decided what order to read them in and instantly haven’t got a clue.
Thanks for your comment!