I think as a dyslexic myself, that poetry can be more accessible than a large thick book full of text. I am not a reader unless I have to. I don’t choose to read at all. But poetry is often short, broken up into small stanzas of short sections to read. I feel it is quite overwhelming to be faced with a page full of text. Then you turn over and there’s another full page of text and another and another.
Something to consider here, if text is overwhelming like this; is the use of a coloured overlay to support reading. Many children, young people and adults struggle with the tracking of text. Sometimes words or letters move, or the white paper is so bright in the spaces between words. All sorts of issues can be seen, lines on the page, lines of words moving like rivers, etc. This of course can make reading so very difficult. It is worth getting an assessment for visual difficulties for the use of a coloured overlay as once the right colour is chosen it can be extremely supportive.
I offer these visual difficulties assessments so please see my website for details.
I feel a shorter rhyming piece of writing may be a good way into reading for those who have dyslexia. Authors like Dr Seuss and Roald Dhal are masters of the art. I love anything my Seuss and Roald Dhals Dirty Beasts are just delicious examples of prose.
Another of the poems from my book Parent days is all about choosing a name. It was not easy for my husband and I to chose names. As a teacher of course I have hundreds of names in my head, some I just could not chose. We had to think of four names if we were going to include middle names, so here is my poem What’s in a name?
What’s in a name?
We need to choose,
what do you think,
we need to choose a name.
We’ll make a list for a girl
and a list for a boy,
we may even have some the same!
I like Henry or Rosie,
Matthew or Liz,
Jonathan is also nice.
Matilda or Simon,
Charlotte, or Sam,
oh no, I put that down twice.
Lilly or Mark, Molly or Ben,
Katrina, William or Jane?
O.K. so that’s the first one chosen,
now for the middle name!
