Classroom Accommodations

Students with dyslexia may benefit from classroom accommodations, which simply allow the student to display their academic strengths without lowering grade-level standards. They are not used simply to increase grades; a student must use the accommodations regularly in the classroom to be successful, i.e., they would likely fail without them.

Accommodations should be individualized to fit the unique needs of the student as revealed in the formal testing. These accommodations are discussed and approved by the educational team, parent, and testing specialist at the student's annual 504 or ARD meeting, then listed on their formal IEP or 504 Services Plan. Some accommodations are allowed for all students and do not need to be listed on the formal plan.

Accommodations should be regularly monitored by student, parent, teacher and dyslexia specialist, and can be removed or added to the Services Plan as needed at any time during the school year.

Typical accommodations for dyslexic students are shown below:

Break Instruction into Parts - Sometimes students with dyslexic tendencies become overwhelmed when given too many tasks or steps at one time. Ask the teacher(s) to break things down into manageable portions for your student.

Extra Time for Assignments/Written Work (as needed) - Within reason, asking for a few extra days or until the end of the week to turn in some assignments can be appropriate. The drawback would be to ask for too much time, and the student then falls behind peers in completion of assignments.

Text to Speech or Oral Questions/Answers -  Students must read passages themselves, but they can have questions/answers read to them as many times as needed.

Adjusted Spelling List - If your child is struggling with spelling tests each week, ask if only the first 10-15 words can be graded with the remainder of the words on the weekly list counted as bonus points.  

Preferential Seating - If your child struggles with being independent or lacks confidence, it can be ideal to have him/her seated close to instruction.  

Opportunity to Repeat Instructions/Directions from Teacher – If the student has weak auditory memory (this is the child who has to have directions repeated to them frequently, or who will often ask you “what?” after an oral directive), then the teacher and student can determine a private signal that the student can use if they need the teacher to repeat the oral instructions to them.

Content and Language Support – This designated support allows for various types of assistance (e.g., scaffolded directions, assistance with tracking, graphic organizers, simplified language, graphic representations of vocabulary and concepts) to support a student’s understanding of selections, test questions, and answer choices. For online administration of STAAR, content and language supports are available as pop-ups, rollovers, prereading text, and supplementary materials.

Access to Audio Book Programs -  Learning Ally (www.learningally.org Links to an external site.), formally RFB&D (Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic) is a program for children and adults that gives your student access to over 80,000 audio books. Annual membership for students in public and charter schools who have a certified print disability, or who are below grade-level expectations in reading, is paid for by the Texas Education Agency (TEA). Individual memberships for other students is about $120/year. Membership allows you to download audio books directly to an i-device (iPhone, iPod, iPad), Android device, or Microsoft Windows-based computer. Textbooks, novels, chapter books, etc., are included in their audio library. Many books are text and audio (VoiceTEXT), while others are audio only (Classic Audio). Texas also offers the Talking Book program and Bookshare as similar supports. Contact your campus for more information.

These accommodations are allowed for all students and do not need to be listed on the formal plan:

Whisper Phone - This is a plastic U-shaped tool that allows the student to whisper into the phone and have their voice amplified as they read independently, which can help with comprehension because the student is able to hear the text as they read.

Buddy or Peer - it can be helpful to have a buddy or peer identified in the classroom that your child can count on if the teacher is busy and he needs help pronouncing a word, or needs to ask for guidance that a peer can assist him with.

Low tech/low cost - These are simple adjustments that do not require formal listing on IEP/504 Plans, including highlighters, index card/reading trackers to follow a line of text, and using markers to divide a page into manageable sections.