The role of a teacher in helping a dyslexic learner

A teacher is the frontline of a dyslexic child’s support system. Teachers who understand dyslexia spot it early, adjust how they teach and assess, and change how a child feels about school. Without that understanding, 4 in 5 dyslexic children leave school with their dyslexia never identified. No single adult outside the family matters more.

“Serving students with dyslexia in the general education program requires that the entire staff recognizes the individual needs of each student.” That sentence carries the whole argument. An insightful teacher works with a child with dyslexia on many fronts at once, and the teacher’s perception of the child shapes the child’s entire learning process.

The scale of the ambition here is worth seeing. Made By Dyslexia, a global charity, has set itself the mission of training every teacher to recognise and support every dyslexic mind, aligned with three UN Sustainable Development Goals: Quality Education (SDG 4), Industry and Innovation (SDG 9), and Reduced Inequality (SDG 10), with a target of 2030.

And the world of work is moving in the same direction. The 2021 Dyslexic Dynamic report, produced with ManpowerGroup Talent Solutions, projects that by 2025 humans and machines will split work roughly 50-50, and finds that the “human” half of those skills maps directly onto Dyslexic Thinking. The children being overlooked in classrooms today have exactly the skills the workforce needs.

Why do educators need to understand dyslexia?

1. To redefine what dyslexia means

The stigma around the label keeps dyslexia hidden in most schools; 80 percent of dyslexic children leave school without being identified. But dyslexia can be spotted by its strengths as much as its challenges. When a teacher sees both, the label stops being a verdict and starts being useful information, and the classroom stigma starts to dissolve. Much of that stigma rests on plain myths that a well-informed teacher can dismantle in front of thirty children at once.

A teacher who understands dyslexia changes thirty minds about it at once, starting with the child’s own.

2. To prepare these learners for the workforce that wants them

Dyslexic Thinking includes innovation, problem-solving, creativity, adaptability, leadership and critical thinking. World leaders in business are openly talking about recruiting for these skills. Learners need grooming today for that inclusive workforce tomorrow, and school is where it starts.

3. To create the early, positive impact that only identification allows

Teachers need proper training to identify dyslexia, because early identification changes everything. Recent research found that at around age five, 1 in 3 dyslexic children already know they cannot do what other children can. By seven, it is 2 in 3. Encouragingly, 4 in 5 dyslexic learners felt that being dyslexic helped them develop the perseverance to succeed, but that resilience grows far better in a child who has been identified and supported than one who has simply concluded they are stupid.

Identification helps the teacher just as much. Knowing a child is dyslexic explains why the spellings will not stick and why reading aloud is agony, and it tells you clearly: this child needs extra support, not extra scolding. The early indicators are visible in the classroom years before any formal diagnosis.

4. To understand what equality actually requires

Standardised tests cannot fairly assess dyslexic learners, because spelling, punctuation, grammar, and processing several facts and instructions at once are precisely the dyslexic challenges. Equality here does not mean identical treatment; it means adjustments that let these students demonstrate their real abilities and their readiness for the world beyond school.

What if a teacher feels unqualified?

Many do. But as one educator put it: “Although some teachers may feel they are not equipped to teach reading and writing to students with dyslexia, they are probably very capable of providing intellectual engagement and joy in learning, which are equally important.”

The specialised reading instruction can come from a trained therapist using a structured approach like Orton-Gillingham. What the classroom teacher provides is different and irreplaceable: a wide variety of methods, steady guidance, and a room in which the dyslexic learner feels safe and capable. Dyslexia is a serious and common learning difficulty, and it can be successfully dealt with, most of all when the adult at the front of the room understands it.

I have written a companion piece with the concrete classroom strategies: how teachers can guide students with learning difficulty in a classroom.

Dr. V.S. Gayathri is a Certified Dyslexia Therapist, an Orton-Gillingham trained literacy specialist, and the founder of Flourishing Kids. She has delivered over 4,000 hours of one-to-one reading and spelling intervention, helping children across multiple countries build stronger literacy skills. working alongside schools and teachers. If you are an educator or a parent coordinating with one, get in touch for a free 15-minute conversation.