Dyslexia courses to discuss key topics

Maidenhead: Online sessions help adults understand the condition

An online course is being run by a charity to help parents, teachers and guardians understand dyslexia.

Run by the Maidenhead-based Adult Dyslexia Centre, the series of six sessions held via Zoom sill discuss a wide range of topics relating to the condition.

Topics covered include understanding dyslexia in children, dyslexia in maths and strategies to enhance learning as well as creating a positive learning environment.

The course costs £60 with virtual sessions held every Monday from 7.30pm to 9pm beginning on January 17.

Judith Raeburn, volunteer course co-ordinator at ADC, said a number of the adults who sought support from the charity also had children with dyslexia due to its genetic nature.

She said: “[The adults] could see that their children also had dyslexia, and they were asking for some advice in terms of what they could do to help their children, hence the course was started.

“Up until COVID, it was always face-to-face, but over the past couple of years we moved it online because the issues in fact escalated with parents having to teach their children in a much more hands-on way.

“We found that we gained some things from [moving the course online], in the sense that people didn’t have to physically come along to the sessions – they could do them from the comfort of their own homes.

“The sessions start with understanding your dyslexic child, because so many very well-known entrepreneurs are dyslexic. “It’s something where when you first recognise that your child is dyslexic, it’s an awful heartsink moment.

“This course is something where we aim to celebrate the positive aspects of dyslexia, and offer strategies and tips to parents, carers or SENCOs, to teach children how to learn how to function in today’s world the best they can.”

For more information, visit www.adc.org.uk, or email Judith Raeburn at courses@adc.org.uk to take part.

The Adult Dyslexia Centre received £1,000 from The Louis Baylis Trust, the Advertiser’s owner, in the July 2021 round of donations.