One element of reading that dyslexia tutors spend a lot of time on is punctuation. Punctuation can be very difficult for students with dyslexia. In my work as a dyslexia tutor, I have seen a lot of dyslexic students who disregard punctuation entirely, making any material that they read out loud sound jumbled. Furthermore, a dyslexic student may disregard most punctuation, but then insert punctuation where it does not belong (putting in random pauses, for example). This difficulty with punctuation can make it hard for the dyslexia tutor or anyone else who is listening to understand what the student is reading. In addition, it makes it difficult for the dyslexic student to understand what they are reading as well. This can be a major problem, and it is related to the difficulties that many dyslexic students have with comprehension.
During dyslexia tutoring, I work on punctuation with my students using several different methods, and you can use these at home as well. One good method is to have the student write sentences using proper punctuation; this repetition will give the a better feel for how punctuation works, and also encourage them to pay more attention to it. Dyslexia tutors also emphasize punctuation while reading with the student. If a student reads a sentence and forgets to pause at a comma, or stop at a period, a dyslexia tutor will often have them return and read it again, emphasizing the punctuation. You can help your student progress by doing the same thing at home.
Peter
