In the not too distant past, children with dyslexia were often shunned by the school system and misunderstood. They’d be classed as lazy, troublemakers or even worse, as being ‘simple’. Thankfully we’ve since come to understand a lot more about the difficulties children with dyslexia face when entering the school system.
Whilst many still go undiagnosed, even until they reach University level, there are an increasing number of tools, games and educational materials being created to help primary school children, their parents and their teachers. These new technologies can help children to understand why they find things difficult, develop methods of overcoming said difficulties and ensuring they can continue learning alongside their peers without feeling left behind or ‘different’.
That being said, we’re still dealing with children here. They want to be entertained, excited and engaged as they learn. To that end, we’ve put together a short round-up of our seven top games and apps to support learning for primary school children with dyslexia.
Nessy are one of the leading providers of software for children, trusted by thousands of teachers and students worldwide. Dyslexia Quest is just one of their fun, educational games.
Dyslexia Quest is designed specifically to help the parents and teachers of children with dyslexia assess their different learning abilities, strengths and weaknesses. It’s a great tool to help understand where children may experience difficulty learning. Gamifying the process means children will feel at ease and can express any difficulties in a natural, rather than clinical, setting.
The truly awesome thing that differentiates Dyslexia Quest is it suggests ways for children to make good use of their strengths to overcome any weaknesses. This ensures their learning difficulty is framed positively and not as a shortcoming in an educational setting.
https://www.nessy.com/uk/apps/dyslexia-quest/
The Huevos Rancheros Gang stole the gold and they are hiding out amongst the good citizens of Word Town. Your Mission: Help the sheriff, a friendly and curious little ghost, recover the missing gold and catch the outlaws.
Mystery Word Town is a highly customisable, visually appealing and engaging game. Available on both iOS and Android, the app helps children aged 6+ with improving their spelling abilities. In typical spelling game fashion, words appear on screen with letters missing and the player must type in the missing characters.
To assist children with dyslexia, the game also offers the functionality to speak the word that requires spelling allowing them to associate audial phonics with visual spellings. Custom words can also be recorded and added to the game so that children can focus on improving specific spellings.
https://artgigapps.com/apps/mystery-word-town
Phrasalstein is a great addition to this list as it focusses on such a niche area of the English language, but one that we use every single day! The app teaches children all about phrasal verbs and the multiple meanings they can have – like ‘back up’ and pass out’.
For children with dyslexia, it can sometimes be difficult understanding the root words of these phrases, nevermind the alternative meanings that come along with them. Learning these words and phrases in a fun, gamified environment gives them a safe space to take their time to understand 100s of different phrasal verbs and the many meanings they can have.
https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/phrasalstein/id722736985?mt=8
Spelling City is a combined web and mobile app designed to help kids improve their spelling, comprehension and speaking abilities. Parents and teachers can use the website to create customised word lists for children to focus on specific areas of their spelling, vocabulary and grammar.
Kids can then access these personalised lists through the companion app, allowing them to practice in their own time. Once a list is accessed, the learner can play six different ‘game modes’ including hangman, sentence unscramble and a spelling test.
This customisation option means the app is continuously useful throughout a child’s school life, unlike most apps whose content will be designed for one specific age group. Plus, similarly to Mystery Word Town, Spelling City also provides alternative options such as pre-recorded audio for children who need additional support when learning how to spell.
Another great entry from Nessy, this app contains hundreds of lessons, games and videos designed to help dyslexic children improve their reading, writing and spelling.
Alongside helping children learn, this app also helps parents and teachers track students performance on an individual basis. This allows them to understand which activity types and areas children are struggling with on a personal level, in turn allowing the tutor to create a personalised programme to improve on these areas.
The game also supports children as and when they struggle, reinforcing positivity, building their self-confidence and helping them understand dyslexia.
http://www.nessy.com/us/product/nessy-reading
Knoword is a fun little web application that allows children to test their spelling ability, vocabulary and typing skills all in one.
The game provides a definition of a word, along with the letter it begins with and ask the player to type the full word. Sounds easy, right? In reality it actually puts your vocabulary and ability to associate definitions with words to the test!
Different difficulty settings are available meaning Knoword is applicable beyond just primary school age. Creating an account also allows children to track their progress and see incremental improvements in their abilities, providing great positive reinforcement.
Starfall is another wonderful web browser based application designed to help younger primary school children with learning to read, speak, improve their vocabulary and engage with the world around them.
Consisting of a series of different games, videos and songs, Starfall uses a combination of audio and visual cues within their interactive activities. Combining the two helps children of all abilities, including those with dyslexia and other learning difficulties, quickly develop their English language skills.
The website offers a wide array of free content to get children started. A paid membership is also available to gain access to an even larger volume of content including maths skills, learning to tell the time and more.
So that was our series of 7 educational apps and games designed to help primary school children with dyslexia. There’s a such a wide variety of entertainment options now available to assist dyslexic students that it’s difficult to single only a few out. However all of these stand out due to their unique approaches and designs to engage children who face difficulties during their early years at school.
Tools like these are also really accessible to teachers as well as parents. As such with a bit of negotiation and planning, it can be really simple to integrate these into their school life as well as at home.
Do you have any recommendations for outstanding games/apps for dyslexic children? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
By Giorgio Cassella at Tutora
Giorgio is excited by everything to do with marketing, growth, startups and entrepreneurship. He loves helping people gain access to education and has worked as a marketer within educational settings for years, initially with an innovative provider of online learning degrees and now with Tutora. Elsewhere, Giorgio organises Startup Weekend events, enjoys bouldering and board games (though not at the same time!) and can often be found in a pub, craft ale in hand, regaling tales of his adventures around Iceland.
