Removing barriers to learning
Dyslexia is the most common learning disability; approximately 1 in 10 people in the UK alone has some form of it, and 4% of the population have severe dyslexia. Dyslexia doesn’t only impact someone’s reading and writing, but it can significantly impact a person’s memory, resulting in learning problems when using traditional teaching methods.
Children (and adults) often encounter a series of disconnects with popular classroom learning approaches, and lessons can become overwhelming and anxiety-inducing, resulting in less comprehension of the subject matter.
The Chatta approach to teaching overcomes the traditional hurdles that dyslexic students encounter and unlocks their potential with listening, speaking and writing skills.
Aid retention with visual and oral communication.
Dyslexia shouldn’t lock out a pupil from a valuable education. Existing classroom settings and teaching methodologies can compound the issues that dyslexic students have, building additional barriers to learning.
Traditional teaching methods such as rote learning require students to have strong word retrieval and working memory, both of which are areas of difficulty for people with dyslexia.
Chatta’s approach works by combining visual aids with oral practice which helps students commit the subject matter to memory and improves word retrieval skills. By combining these steps, Chatta prepares students for writing exercises in a stress-reducing manner.
Help students focus on lesson subject matter.
One key issue that a pupil with dyslexia encounters is that there is so much more within a class to process as well as the lesson. Often, it can be overwhelming to try to remember the right information or to be able to write the notes needed to get through the class, that the subject matter of the class is lost.
The Chatta method removes barriers to learning by focusing on the lesson subject matter first and then introducing the writing element when pupils have acclimatised themselves with the subject. Chatta’s oracy approach also reduces the stress that people with dyslexia encounter from written lessons.
This reduction of the peripheral stresses that many lessons bring people with dyslexia means that the pupil can focus on the subject matter at hand and thrive thanks to eliminating so many daily obstacles. As a result, we frequently see pupils’ self-esteem improving rapidly.
Organise thoughts easily.
One thing that aids pupils with dyslexia in their studies is organising their thoughts initially, before starting to write anything down.
The Chatta boards enable pupils to organise their thoughts by collating images and then recording a narration before writing anything. Being able to organise their thoughts lets pupils collate their ideas clearly and comfortably and enables retrieval without relying on the stress that written notes bring.
Using Chatta unlocked learning for Daniel, a dyslexic student, at school and home and reduced meltdowns from feeling overloaded.
Using Chatta across the whole of this special school helped students thrive in both curriculum and life skills.