Mayo Clinic Health Manager
Get free personalized health guidance for you and your family.
Get Started
About our e-newsletters
- Free e-newsletters
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- We do not share your e-mail address
Housecall, our weekly general-interest e-newsletter, keeps you up to date on a wide variety of health topics with timely, reliable, practical information, recipes, blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts and more. Our biweekly topic-specific e-newsletters also include blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts, and other useful information that will help you manage your health.
Housecall Archives
Mayo Clinic Housecall
Stay up to date on the latest health information.
What you get
- Free weekly e-newsletter
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- Recipes, tools and other helpful information
- We do not share your e-mail address
Coping and support
By Mayo Clinic staffEmotional support and opportunities for achievement in activities that don't involve reading are important for children with dyslexia.
If your child has dyslexia:
- Be supportive. Having difficulty learning to read may affect your child's self-esteem. Be sure to provide love and to support his or her talents and strengths.
- Talk to your child. Explain to your child what dyslexia is and that it's not a failure on his or her part. The better your child understands this, the more likely he or she will cope with and compensate for this learning disability.
- Take steps at home to make it easier for your child to study. Provide a clean, quiet, organized place for your child to study, and designate a study time. Also, make sure your child gets enough rest, good nutrition and family support — through outings and activities — to provide a better environment in which he or she can learn.
- Work with your child's school. Talk with teachers frequently to make sure your child is able to stay on track. Be sure your child gets extra time for tests that require reading, if needed. Ask your child's teacher if it would help your child to record the day's lessons to playback later. If available, tutoring sessions with a reading-disorders specialist can be very helpful for many children with dyslexia.
You may also want to consider joining a support group to stay in contact with parents who face similar learning disabilities in their children. Belonging to a support group can provide you with both good information and emotional support. Check with your doctor or your child's reading specialist to find out if there are any support groups in your area.
- Lyon GR. Specific language and learning disabilities. In: Kliegman RM. Nelson Textbook of Pediatrics. 18th ed. Philadelphia, Pa.; Saunders Elsevier: 2007. http://www.mdconsult.com/das/book/body/142934465-3/0/1608/82.html?printing=true. Accessed June 11, 2009.
- NINDS dyslexia information page. National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/dyslexia/dyslexia.htm. Accessed June 11, 2009.
- Learning disabilities. The Merck Manuals: The Merck Manual for Healthcare Professionals. http://www.merck.com/mmpe/print/sec19/ch299/ch299d.html. Accessed June 11, 2009.
- Dyslexia. National Center for Learning Disabilities. http://www.ncld.org/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=454. Accessed June 11, 2009.
- What are the signs of dyslexia? International Dyslexia Association. http://www.interdys.org/SignsofDyslexiaCombined.htm. Accessed June 11, 2009.
- Grizzle KL. Developmental dyslexia. Pediatric Clinics of North America. 2007;54:507.
- Hamilton SS. Interventions for children with reading difficulty. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed May 22, 2009.
