Teaching vocabulary to dyslexic learners: 9 methods that work

To teach vocabulary to a dyslexic learner, go slow and go rich: introduce only four to six words per lesson, teach through all the senses, and always attach words to context, whether a story, a picture, or an action. Because reading is slower for these children, they meet fewer words on the page, so vocabulary has to be built deliberately.

Building vocabulary is one of the aspects of learning that needs nurturing from an early age. The Yale Center for Dyslexia and Creativity points to National Assessment of Educational Progress findings that reading “for fun” outside school directly correlates with academic achievement, and that no method grows vocabulary better than independent reading.

There lies the catch. Vocabulary comes in two forms: receptive (reading and listening) and expressive (speaking and writing). For many dyslexic learners, reading is harder and slower, so they read less, and a gap opens between their reading level and their intellectual level. The traditional “here is the word list, learn it” approach serves them poorly. These methods serve them well.

Dyslexic learners do not need easier words. They need better routes to the same words.

Nine methods for teaching vocabulary to dyslexic learners

1. Go step by step

Resist teaching a big batch of words at once. Introduce four to six words in a lesson and let each one settle before adding more.

2. Use multisensory methods

Saying or spelling a word aloud is not enough for a dyslexic learner to grasp it. Engage every sense you can: let them trace it, build it, touch something that represents it. This is the same principle behind multisensory teaching generally, and it applies doubly to word learning.

3. Read aloud, often

Reading aloud builds the foundations of comprehension. Children discover new vocabulary, make connections, and, reliably, start asking questions. Every question is a word being negotiated into their vocabulary.

4. Teach in word groups

Show how changing one letter creates new words: cat, mat, bat, sat. A level up, introduce variations of a single word: fresh, refresh, freshen, freshly. Patterns are easier to store than isolated items.

5. Illustrate new words

Have the child draw a symbolic or realistic picture of the word. Drawing forces understanding; you cannot fake a picture. The image then becomes the memory hook for the word.

6. Act words out

Dyslexic learners remember what they see and enjoy. Play charades with the vocabulary list. It is fun, it is physical, and it works especially well for reviewing words in a group.

7. Write a story with the words

Dyslexic learners remember information far better with a narrative attached. Ask them to use all the words on their list in one story. They bring their own imagination, and the context does the memorising for them.

8. Teach in context

For dyslexic students, information sticks when it is attached to a larger idea. A word taught inside a sentence, a topic, or a real situation will outlive twenty words taught as a list.

9. Talk about synonyms

Once a few words are secure, show how different words can carry the same meaning in different contexts. This deepens rather than widens: the child now owns the meaning, not just the word.

Which words should you teach first?

The University of Michigan’s DyslexiaHelp resource offers a useful four-level classification:

• Level one: words of daily language, spoken repeatedly and used many ways: sight words and early-reader basics such as sad and funny.
• Level two: high-frequency words for more mature users, often with multiple meanings, taught deliberately or met in reading: consider, inseparable.
• Level three: vocabulary from specialised disciplines and occupations, including business and academic terms.
• Level four: infrequent, generally obscure words.

Spend your teaching effort on levels one and two. They carry nearly all of a child’s reading and writing, and success there gives the confidence to attack the rest.

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. If vocabulary is a wall your child keeps hitting, get in touch for a free 15-minute conversation.