Mum Launches Revision Guides for Dyslexic Children
Chichester, West Sussex (PRWEB UK) 30 July 2013 -- What do you do if you have a dyslexic child and cannot find the right revision material?
One mother found herself in this position last year and decided to create her own range of revision booklets for children aged 10-13 years. Oaka Books Revision Guides launches its first 9 History topics (for KS3 and Common Entrance) this month.
"Finding revision books and a revision method suitable for our dyslexic daughter was pretty impossible," explains Bambi Gardiner, creator of Oaka Books. "Revision for most children is difficult. For many dyslexic students those problems are magnified and for visual learners pages of written information don't do the trick. Revision needs to be engaging or they won’t revise, then they get low marks, have low self esteem and the self perpetuating downward spiral begins."
"Our daughter had reached that point. She had important exams coming up but all the revision guides were big books of text which were totally off putting. I began breaking down all the information and turning it into cartoons, making everything highly visual. We then worked through the stories using little characters to act out events and it began to work."
"She gained her first ever ‘A’ grade in her history exam and she was so thrilled. More importantly she actually believed she could do it and began to build some self confidence. Mums at school asked for my revision notes and I began to work them up into a better format and the Oaka Revision Guides were born."
The guides come as packs with four learning strategies. There is a full colour illustrated Revision Booklet which outlines key points that the students need to know for Common Entrance and KS3. Students can then use the Active Revision Map which asks questions and shows what happened and where. A Character Sheet enables the user to ‘act out’ the story using cut out characters to re-enact the events alongside the map. Also part of the pack is an illustrated Notes Booklet for the student to write their own revision notes.
"Each set covers a single topic to ensure that the student can focus on one thing at a time rather than being overwhelmed with too much information at once," explains Bambi. "We have also included Memory Maps (or Spider Diagrams) to highlight key points as well as a Glossary of key terms. The point of the Oaka System is to help children visualise what they are learning by acting out the events so they are not simply looking at pages of text without taking anything in."
The booklets are designed with pale blue and pale yellow backgrounds for text, colour illustrations, an easy to read font and a bullet point style to make the information clear and concise.
"We have had a great response from a number of schools and have been working with a group of learning support specialists as well as subject teachers to ensure that the guides are meeting the needs of the students. With 9 History topics completed so far, we are now working on Geography, Science and English topics."
Oaka Books is a real family project as it has been inspired by Bambi’s daughter’s needs and all the illustrations have been drawn by her mother Joy Gardiner.
"It is exciting to see the project take off and would be great to think that our efforts might be able to help some other children who are struggling with their learning or simply like to learn in a visual way," explains Bambi.
The Oaka Books Revision guides will be available from 10 August 2013 from http://www.oakabooks.co.uk and cost £5.99 each. There are special packs available for schools.
Bambi Gardiner, Oaka Books, http://www.oakabooks.co.uk, +44 2392221133, [email protected]
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