8 Dyslexia Strategies for Adults and Children

How to Deal With Dyslexia in Adults and Children

All successful teens and adults with dyslexia have one thing in common. They’ve figured out how to cope with dyslexia – using dyslexia strategies that let them do things in ways that fit their strengths and weaknesses.

Simple tricks, like switching to the right font, can save time and reduce frustration for people with dyslexia. Working in ways that are less taxing on reading and language skills can free up the dyslexic brain to focus better on the task at hand.

It is advisable to help adults with dyslexia using two very different strategies: treating dyslexia and learning how to cope with dyslexia to make life easier day to day.

Programs to Reduce Symptoms. It’s worth working to improve your reading skills so dyslexia interferes with your life as little as possible. Gemm Learning’s neuroscience-based approach addresses the causes of dyslexia and can help at any age – children, teenagers, and adults.

More on how we treat dyslexia in adults here, and dyslexia programs for children here.

How To Cope With Dyslexia

Life hacks. Here are 8 dyslexia strategies for adults and children that can make life easier. Not all of these tips will help everyone, but try applying as many as you can to figure out which ones might work for you.

1. Diagrams

Because people with dyslexia often have difficulty processing language, they are naturally more inclined towards visual and spatial thinking. Whenever possible, a great dyslexia hack is to organize information with diagrams, graphs, maps, charts, and pictures.

Diagrams can also be a helpful study strategy in school. Many dyslexic students will find it helpful to translate the information they read into a visual representation and to review new concepts by drawing them.

2. Highlighting to Cut Down Re-Reading

Highlighters and annotations in the margins of texts are great. They help keep track of important information and essential concepts, and help cut down on re-reading.

To get the most mileage from this hack, try developing a system where different markings mean different things. For example, you can highlight essential concepts in the text and put question marks above passages you want to return to look at in more detail. Some people also like using different-colored highlighters.

3. Audiobooks

Often, the best way to read a book if you have dyslexia is just to cut reading out of the equation entirely. Audiobooks, from Audible, for example, let people with dyslexia experience books without getting caught up in the mechanics of reading.

Other non-written sources of information, like podcasts, radio shows, and movies, are also a godsend for people with dyslexia. These formats make it possible to concentrate on the actual content rather than on the process of decoding it.

4. Text-to-Speech Software

Audiobooks are great. But there’s no getting around the fact that to truly help dyslexia in adults, you’ll need a way to deal with information that’s only available in written format. In these situations, text-to-speech software can help. It translates the text into speech you can listen to.

There are many options for text-to-speech software, some of which are free. Here is a list of test-to-speech programs. Text-to-speech software can be used for a variety of texts, including Word documents, PDFs, and even emails.

5. Breaking Up Tasks

Dyslexia strategies for adults are not confined to getting around reading. One of the most frustrating parts of living with dyslexia can be the sheer amount of time many tasks take. For most people with dyslexia, processing information from listening or reading can be exhausting – inefficient processing is the source of most dyslexia.

The best way to deal with this aspect of having a learning disability is by accepting that some things simply will take a long time and/or get exhausting quickly. Break these tasks into smaller pieces to minimize frustration.

For instance, when you have a text to read, divide it into smaller portions in advance and read one at a time. Then, once you start reading, take a break after getting through each portion. Get up and walk around, grab a quick snack, or do anything else that helps your brain reset and rewards you for getting through that part of the task.

6. Fonts

Many people with dyslexia find that font choice affects their reading speed. One study found that in general, sans serif, monospace, and Roman fonts are easier to read than serif, proportional, and italic fonts for people with dyslexia – but everyone’s different, so try experimenting with several different fonts to see what works best for you.

Font color can also affect ease of reading, so try playing around with both font and background colors. Even wearing colored glasses while reading can be helpful.

Finally, dyslexic-friendly fonts are a more recent arrival on the scene. Although these fonts haven’t yet been scientifically validated as actually being easier to read for those with dyslexia, some people do seem to find them helpful. OpenDyslexic and dyslexia font are the two most popular options.

7. Reading Strategies

Reading aloud is a good trick to keep you focused on what you’re reading. It can help you avoid skipping words and losing your place. It also helps the information you’re reading “sink in.” Finally, it reinforces the connection between how words look and how they sound.

Tracing along as you read by pointing with your finger or a pencil can help for similar reasons. Holding a straightedge, like a ruler or a piece of paper, under the line as you read can help you follow the line and transition smoothly from one line to the next.

Techniques like reading aloud, pointing, and reinforcing the line make reading more “physical” and easier to follow in a more deliberate, steady way.

8. Play to Your Strengths

Perhaps the most important way to help people with dyslexia, whether adults or children, is not just a tip on how to cope with dyslexia, but a more general life hack anyone can use: play to your strengths. If you’re not good at reading, definitely work to improve your reading, but also find ways of doing things that put less burden on your reading skills.

Similarly, if your strengths are more visual and spatial, look for ways of using visual and spatial representations of information and engage in activities that are more oriented towards visual and spatial skills. If you’re good with spoken language, make use of audiobooks, text-to-speech software, and recording devices. Seek out activities that take advantage of your verbal skills.

On the other hand, you also want to play to your strengths and develop strategies to make sure you aren’t putting too much burden on skills that aren’t your strengths

Finding Help

To repeat, while these accommodations and workaround ideas help you cope with dyslexia, they leave the underlying dyslexia untouched. It’s also worth investing time in addressing the underlying processing delays that cause dyslexia.

These skills will respond to exercise and will improve at any age. Check out our exercise demos to learn more.