Have you ever wondered what your dyslexic child may be dealing with? Take a Dyslexia Simulation and experience what it is like to be dyslexic.
This post has been updated to include working links and a few additional resources!
Kids and adults with dyslexia are super smart and capable in many ways despite their struggles with reading, writing, and spelling. More and more is being written about the strengths of dyslexia.
However, dyslexia affects many areas other than language; areas such as processing, memory, and attention to name just a few.
To learn more about why dyslexia is such a complex diagnosis, read this article.
If you’re not dyslexic, you probably don’t realize how daily struggles with language, memory, organization, and attention impact people with dyslexia. Kids with dyslexia struggle incredibly with many aspects of traditional forms of education and therefore are often falling below the expectations of their teachers, whether they are homeschooled or not. If they are learning alongside other kids their age, comparison, leading to embarrassment, is added to the mix.
What is it Like to be Dyslexic?
Any person that teaches dyslexic students in any capacity can benefit by having a better understanding of what that student is dealing with every. single. day.
If you’ve been around Homeschooling With Dyslexia for long, you know that 7 of our 8 kids have dyslexia. I, however, am not dyslexic which makes for an interesting homeschool, for sure! It wasn’t until I completed my Orton-Gillingham Dyslexia Training that I experienced a tiny bit of the agony that a dyslexic person feels when reading. I experienced what it was like to be dyslexic by participating in the following simulations.
Note: If you don’t have time to watch these simulations now, please bookmark this post. Experiencing, even to a small degree, what it is like to be dyslexic is so important!
Simulation 1 – Read like a dyslexic
The first simulation is from the PBS website and simulates what it is like for a dyslexic to read. Click {here} to try the reading simulation.
How did that make you feel? Could you feel the frustration of figuring out the words? How was your reading comprehension? I know for me that I was trying so hard to decode the words, that I couldn’t remember what I had just read. Sound familiar? How eager were you to read after this experience? I know that I, an avid reader, didn’t feel it was worth the effort to read the passage. If you thought that was eye-opening, try this next simulation.
Simulation 2 – Write like a dyslexic
This short video is an excerpt from the Dyslexia Training Institute’s Dyslexia for a Day Simulation.
Writing for dyslexic students can be difficult. Try writing quickly with your opposite hand. I found the comments of the people participating in the simulation very telling. This simulation illustrates how important accommodations are in helping a dyslexic student to achieve success.
Simulation 3: Processing, Visual Perception, Comprehension and More
The following video from The F.A.T. City Workshop is older but is still used in dyslexia training programs because it is such a powerful example of what it is like to be dyslexic in the classroom.
The following time stamps can help you navigate the video:
Experiencing Frustration, Anxiety, and Tension @3:44
Processing @8:32
Risk Taking @13:48
Visual Perception @16:20
Reading Comprehension @23:10
Effects of Perception on Behavior @27:20
Visual Motor Coordination @31:42
Oral Expression @34:36
Reading and Decoding @45:06
Fairness @55:50Show less
Understanding Leads to Compassion
Hopefully, you have a better understanding of what it is like to be dyslexic now. Understanding leads to compassion and our dyslexic students need that.
Dyslexics learn differently. We as parents and teachers need to educate ourselves about how dyslexics learn and how to motivate these bright, creative kids to push past their daily difficulties and access their substantial higher-order thinking skills.
Take some time to think about what you have experienced here today by participating in the dyslexia simulations. Talk about them with your dyslexic students. I know that when I shared the utter frustration I experienced during these simulations with my dyslexic kids, there were some tears at our newfound understanding.
The Importance of Parent Education
This site exists to educate and encourage families with dyslexia. Dyslexia does not need to be a disability if the teacher understands how dyslexics learn and the right teaching methods are used. For a more in-depth understanding of teaching kids with dyslexia, consider taking one of my parent dyslexia courses.
to the 1ST video at the end she asked what would make it easyer. Wrighting it in on the borded is the best way, for me to take notes.
Thank you!
Ya well that helps tell the flipping teacher erases it because i am not fast enough! Just a head’s up.
I won’t to lear how to do computer programming, and the thought of school/college terrifies me.
Thank you so much for this! A couple of years ago we realized that my husband is dyslexic and this gives me a much better idea of what’s going on in his head. Despite no one realizing his struggles, he has gone on to love reading (he just goes more slowly), become an engineer (there’s that right brained ness for ya!), and he has discovered that typing instead of writing makes things a million times easier for him. Good luck with your kiddos. Some of ours may end up bing dyslexic as it seems to run in his family so I will keep checking in on your blog.
I agree. I have found that typing is really, really helpful.
Thanks for this post! Choked up almost to tears right now. My 10 year old son was JUST diagnosed as dyslexic, and I found your site through a search on Pinterest. (Though I’m fairly certain I’ve seen you elsewhere. 😉 ) Knowing little to nothing (and mostly stereotypes and hearsay, admittedly) about dyslexia, this is tremendously helpful to me. I appreciate your taking the time to put it together, and I will be subscribing to your blog. Blessings!
Thank you so much for this post. I have 2 kids who are dyslexic, and I get frustrated that they “just don’t get it” sometimes as I teach them. Now I can see why they don’t get. I did horrible on all the tests.
The Writing Like a Dyslexic video just brought me to tears. I have two children recently diagnosed as dyslexic. I was astounded last school year that their teachers had absolutely no concept of what dyslexia is and therefore making accommodations was very difficult. Consequently, this year I am homeschooling them. I’d like to do an in service for all the teachers to share this post – maybe it could help other children at the school whose parents aren’t able to homeschool. Thank you for your blog!
Extremely eye-opening! I almost started crying, because I truly had NO idea how difficult dyslexia was until I tried to read that page. I really couldn’t read it. I gave up!
Late last year I started to get a “feeling” my son had dyslexia. After watching hours of Susan Barton’s free seminars online, I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that he did. We’ve since then gone on to use Barton Reading and Spelling. I cannot recommend this program enough! It’s so unlike anything else we ever used. We even used All About Reading after attempts with numerous other programs/curriculum, and he just hit a major wall and kept making numerous mistakes.
Thank you for sharing your experiences and providing this website! Though I know we are on the right path to get him reading, writing, and spelling, it’s super nice to have someone who has gone before you in a similar journey! God bless! 🙂
Hi,
My son is in first grade. Hes amazing at math and anything having ti do with building, sound, and people skills, and he;s incredibly articulate, and can write beautifully, but ask him to write a word or read, and he acts just like this.
He has two big sisters who were very advanced in reading so I’m a total newbie at this. How do I find out of he is dyslexic and if he is, how do I get him the help he needs without being negatively labelled in a public school system that uses the ultra retro, absolutely abysmal Core Curriculum?
Hi and thank you for your site, wonderful to see people engaging in this very common issue
they say that in Sweden where I come from there is about 10% of the children suffering from this
keep up with the good work! 🙂
Thomas Sahlin
Thank you for posting this i am dyslexic and was wanting a way to show people what it was and still like for me to be able to understand and get threw normal everyday stuff. When i watch the videos it reminds me of how i struggled threw school and how i felt so imberressed and so stupid. i know now i am not and am proud of everything i accomplished and would not change anything about it now because it made me who i am today. Although i still struggle i now can find ways to get threw it and understand. Thank you 🙂
this is so true i’m dyslexia and this is how i feel i get so mad that i drow book. but know i have a record that help me
I am going to use this at a workshop I am doing for moms homeschooling kids with (possible) dyslexia to help them understand better how hard the task is and how hard their kids are working. THANK-YOU for making it available!!!!!!
You are welcome! I am happy to have the information shared. 🙂
I have two dyslexic grandkids that I homeschool. I also tutor dyslexic kids. My grandkids are 1st and 2nd grade. I use Barton and All About Reading, AAA Spelling, Explode the Code, and other phonetic readers that compliment where they are at in Barton and AAR. I started them in Kindergarten with these programs. They are learning and eliminating some of the typical dyslexic problems soon after they show them. 1st grader just started Barton Lev. 3 and is on Les. 36 in AAR. on the 3rd reading book. 2nd grader is on Barton Lev.3 Les. 6 and AAR just finished Lev. 1 and is starting Lev. 2. I only teach sight words that we are using ,which is not much in the phonetic extra reading books. I use the same materials for the kids I tutor. They are at various places. I have or are tutoring kids in grades 10th – 12 grade, 2 in 2nd-4th gr., 2nd gr., 4th gr. , 1 in Kind., 1 in Kind-1st.gr., 1 in 1st. and 1 (3 yr. old) young brother of 1st grader. I use different material. All are progressing , some faster than others.
The video with man yelling about it being “easy” was very stressful for me as it condensed my life’s experiences down to a short period of time, but it helped me understand myself a little better. Having lived with dyslexia for 55 years, I have experienced all of these problems. While the simulations didn’t exactly fit my experiences, the frustrations I have felt were the same. The worst for me has been dealing with people being impatient when I can’t find the right word or learn the same way as others.
Hi Larry,
Yes, I think the reason that teachers and others are impatient with people with dyslexia is because dyslexics are so bright. It doesn’t make sense that they struggle to read, write, spell and remember. There are more and more organizations that are trying to get the correct information out there though so I am hopeful that soon, this won’t be such a problem. Thanks for stopping by!
Thank you so much for this! I now realize just how incredibly difficult reading is for my youngest son. As we have begun to research dyslexia, a friend of mine suggested we look into Irlen Syndrome, the glasses and overlays to help. Have you looked into those, and if so, what are your thoughts on them? The videos really helped me to realize a number of things, not only about my son’s dyslexia, but also about my own attitude toward him as he struggles. Thank you for sharing what you know about this.
My son has severe dyslexia and severe Irlen Syndrome. The filter glasses have changed his life! I would suggest you go to the Irlen.com website and have your child look at the samples and ask if that is how print looks to your child. You can even change the background color of the website to see if there is a color that is more comfortable for viewing the computer screen. On the website, you can also find diagnostician who can help you find the right colors that need to be filtered.
I watched the video where the guy gets the parents to read as they were dyslexic. I became so emotional and it wasn’t long before I was sobbing. .I’m dyslexic. That’s what it was like for me and my son is dyslexic. Jusr started to homeschool him. People just don’t understand
Oh Liza! I know! As much as I thought I understood, I was still shocked at the simulation. I’m so glad you are homeschooling! Dyslexic parents make the best homeschool parents for dyslexic kids because they really know what works and what doesn’t! My husband is always reminding me of how our kids learn. 🙂
The How Difficult Can This Be? documentary is on youtube again: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIoVDiLpsMs
I could not see stimulation 2 or 3. I will check the library for the 2nd one but what about the 3rd one?
Love this website! I am a teacher and have a few students that have dyslexia. It sure helps to be able to teach them when you understand what they have. 🙂
I’ll check into it Katie. Thanks for letting me know!
This article captures a great deal of what people without dyslexia do not understand about it. While going through kindergarten and up to approximately the eighth grade, words were pinched, and often included the letter b and d reversed for me. Math was also an issue for me. Albeit, my difficulty in reading continued to be a challenge through the 12th grade and part of college. Many people heard the word dyslexia when I tried to relate my reading and spelling issues, and quickly distanced themselves from me; it was as if they thought it was contagious or that I was not intelligent. After years of tutoring, and working on learning issues from a multitude of disciplines, math, reading and writing are no longer an issues for me. I wrote a book called, LD Just Means Learn Differently, which reflects some of my own learning obsticles with dyslexia, and addresses a number of other issues.
Sincerely,
John Toker, M.Ed. LD K-12, M.A.
Thank you for this, although I was only able to access the first two videos, I have been changed forever by this. My son is in public school, but very fortunately has an amazing teacher who has been totally on board for our journey with our son and dyslexia. She has made many adjustments in his classroom and is always helping him to get out all the great ideas and knowledge he has in his head.
My son was only officially diagnosed recently although we knew at least for the past couple of years what was going on with him. Before we realized and I started my own journey to figure out how to be his advocate and help him at home in whatever ways I can, I made lots of mistakes trying to get him to read and write at his grade level, and I was so confused why he wasn’t advancing despite all our practice and extra help. Of course we were not helping him in the ways he needed, so much lost time doing the wrong things, so many days of tears and frustration!
I too have apologized to my son, he is 9, I think he was taken aback while through my tears I told him how I wish I had done things differently and had a better knowledge of dyslexia to have figured what was going on with him earlier, to have been able to help him how he needed.
I appreciate all your wonderful information you have provided me with so far.
I feel that the public school system should be educating their teachers in dyslexia and how to help these very intelligent kids as early in their school years as possible, every teacher should have professional development in this area, too many kids are getting labeled as slow learners, or kids that are just not trying, which is terrible!
I feel a lot of guilt for not knowing more information about dyslexia and for not helping my son in the ways he needed earlier. I also feel I empowered by people like you who are helping people like me to turn it all around and get on the right path, and thankful for all the great technology that exists today that can help him to express how smart he really is!
Thank you!
I have several people close to me who have dyslexia. I stumbled upon this because I wanted to understand. I was so frustrated trying to read that paragraph that I cried. I spent 30 minutes trying to experience life though the eyes of a person with dyslexia, and I can’t imagine what my boyfriend has gone through for 40 years. Thank you so much for this eye opening experience.
Hi Jade. I had a similar experience when I did the simulation. I’m glad for you because the world needs to know that people with dyslexia are beautifully intelligent but truly struggle with the written word. They are the inventors and explorers and artists of the world!