Dyslexia exercises for home, grouped by skill
Fourteen short activities you can do at the kitchen table with no special equipment, from hearing sounds to reading whole sentences. Pick two or three from your child's focus skill, and do them for ten minutes a day.
Updated
Short answer
Which exercises help a child with dyslexia at home?
The most useful home exercises for a child with dyslexia practice the skills behind reading in order: hearing and changing the sounds in words (phonological and phonemic awareness), matching letters to sounds, blending sounds into words, spelling words sound by sound, and re-reading short decodable text for fluency. Systematic phonics has the strongest evidence among reading approaches, and short sessions spread across the week are remembered better than long ones.
- Phonological awareness is one of the strongest predictors of learning to read.
- Systematic phonics was the only approach with a significant effect in a meta-analysis of randomised trials with struggling readers.
- Spaced, short practice is remembered better than the same practice crammed together.
- Practicing rapid naming itself has not been shown to improve reading, so it is not included.
A 10-minute dyslexia exercises routine
Do this on four or five days a week, at a time when your child is not tired. Keep it brisk and stop while it still feels good.
- 1
Warm up with sounds (2 minutes)
Play one quick sound game with no letters: rhyme ping-pong or I spy with first sounds.
- 2
Review known letters (2 minutes)
Flip through the letter-sound cards your child is learning. Put any they hesitate on in a separate pile for tomorrow.
- 3
Blend and build (3 minutes)
Read or build five to eight words from one list, such as short i words. Say each sound, then sweep your finger under the word and blend.
- 4
Spell two words (1 minute)
Say a word from the same list. Your child taps out the sounds, then writes or builds it.
- 5
Read one sentence (2 minutes)
Read one or two short decodable sentences made of the same words, twice. Finish with praise for effort, not speed.
Phonemic awareness activities for dyslexia (sounds only)
Phonological awareness means hearing the sound structure of words: rhymes, syllables and, at the finest level, individual sounds or phonemes. It is one of the strongest predictors of learning to read, and it is usually the first thing to check in a child who is struggling. These activities need no letters at all, so they suit children as young as four and can be done in the car.
Work from bigger units to smaller ones: rhymes and syllables first, then first sounds, then every sound in a short word. Once a child can do an activity easily, attach letters to it, because the approach with the strongest evidence links sounds to letters rather than practicing sounds alone.1,2
1. Rhyme ping-pong
Say a word, such as cat. Your child answers with a rhyme (hat), you add another (mat), and so on until someone is stuck. Made-up rhymes like zat count. Then switch: say three words and ask which one does not rhyme. The rhyming words list has ready-made sets.
2. Syllable clapping
Say a word and clap each syllable together: el-e-phant is three claps. Start with names in the family, then animals. When clapping is easy, ask your child to say the word without its first syllable (elephant without el).
3. First-sound I spy
Play I spy with sounds, not letter names: 'I spy something that starts with /m/'. Say the sound short and clipped, /m/ not 'muh'. Move on to last sounds (something that ends with /t/), which are harder.
4. Sound boxes (segmenting)
Draw three boxes on paper and put a coin or button below them. Say a short word like sun. Your child pushes one coin into a box for each sound: /s/ /u/ /n/. Use two boxes for words like up, four for words like frog.
5. Sound swap
Say a word and change one sound: 'Say cat. Now change /k/ to /h/.' (hat). Then change the last sound, then the middle one. This phonemic awareness activity is hard, so only try it once sound boxes feel easy.
Letter-sound dyslexia exercises
Letter-sound knowledge is the bridge from hearing sounds to reading words. Teach the sound a letter makes, not just its name, and a few letters at a time. Children with dyslexia usually need many more repetitions than their classmates, spread over days and weeks.2,3
6. Letter-sound cards with a review pile
Write one letter or letter team per card. Show a card, your child says the sound. Cards they know instantly go in a 'later' pile you review every few days; cards they hesitate on come back tomorrow. This is the same spaced idea the program uses, and it keeps practice short.
7. Say it and trace it
Your child traces a large letter with a finger on the table, in a tray of salt or on a sandpaper card, saying the sound as they trace. Seeing, saying and moving together helps many children, especially for easily confused letters like b and d.
Blending and decoding exercises for dyslexia
Blending is putting sounds together into a word, and it is where many dyslexic children get stuck: they can say /k/ /a/ /t/ but not hear cat. Decoding new words is how children teach themselves to read, so it is worth lots of short practice.4,2
9. Stretch and slide
Write a short word such as map. Your child says each sound while touching the letter, then slides a finger under the whole word and says the sounds again faster and joined up. Start with words whose first sound can be stretched, like mmm-a-p or sss-u-n. Use the short a words or short u words lists.
10. Word chains
Change one letter at a time and read each new word: cat, cap, map, mop, top. Letter tiles or sticky notes make this quick. Word families such as the an family and ig family are good chains.
11. Alien words
Read a list of made-up words, like zim, blap or fot, and call them the names of aliens. Because they cannot be recognised from memory, they show whether your child is really sounding out. The nonsense words list has graded sets.
Spelling exercises and dyslexia worksheets
Spelling is often harder than reading for a dyslexic child, and it lasts longer into adulthood. Spell by sound first, then learn the tricky parts. Printed worksheets are fine for this, but they work best when your child says the sounds aloud as they write; a silent sheet of copying practices handwriting more than spelling.
Every phonics list on this site has a print button, so you can make your own worksheets from any set, such as silent e words or vowel teams.5
12. Say, tap, write
Say a word. Your child says it back, taps one finger on the table for each sound, then writes one letter or letter team for each tap. Check together by reading back what was written, sound by sound.
13. Word sort
Write eight to twelve words on cards from two patterns, for example short a and silent e (cap, cape, tap, tape). Your child reads each card and sorts it into the right column, then explains the pattern in their own words.
Fluency dyslexia exercises: reading real text
Once a child can decode words, the next goal is reading them smoothly enough that attention is left over for meaning. Short, decodable sentences built from the patterns your child already knows are the best material; a book full of words they cannot yet sound out teaches guessing.
Rapid naming speed, how fast a child can name a grid of colors or objects, is a strong predictor of reading fluency. It is worth knowing, and the free test measures it, but practicing naming faster has not been shown to improve reading, so there is no naming drill here.6
14. Echo, then repeat
Read a short sentence aloud while pointing to each word. Your child reads the same sentence back, then reads it once more on their own. Three readings of one sentence are more useful than one reading of three. Use the example sentences on the first-grade sight words and consonant blends pages.
Choosing dyslexia exercises for your child
Start where your child is, not where their class is. If rhyming and first sounds are still hard, spend most of the time on the sound activities and add letters gradually. If letters are secure but words come out slowly, focus on blending, word chains and alien words.
The free dyslexia test is a quick way to decide. In about 8 minutes it gives a profile of six skills and names a focus skill. The Dyslexia Steps program turns the same idea into daily dyslexia games with spaced review, if you would rather let a game keep track of what needs practice.
Skip exercises that target eyesight rather than sounds. Dyslexia is not a vision problem, and a systematic review found no good evidence that colored overlays or lenses improve reading. Eye-tracking drills and tinted paper may feel like doing something, but the ten minutes are better spent on sounds and letters.
Keep sessions short and positive, and stop before your child is tired. If progress stays slow after a few months of regular practice, talk to your child's school about extra support or a full assessment.3,7,5
