Dyslexia Treatment:
 Hints and Tips for
 Parents

  Dyslexia Parents Resource

Shaving Foam Letters

When I was working with SM I noticed that she was not keen to even attempt writing down her spelling words. I reviewed her words and made some adjustments as the words were far beyond her ability and she could not sound out any of them. I looked at her reader and selected six phonic words. I then got a tin of shaving foam and sprayed some into a baking pan.

She was intrigued by what I was doing; I mentioned that we were going to write in a different way than usual. She automatically started giving suggestions as to how she could use the foam on paper. When I told her that I was the only one who would be using paper she was puzzled and eager to start the activity.

I mentioned that she was going to use her pointing finger from her left hand (as she is left handed) and that we would say a word, sound it out and then say and write the individual letters to write the word into the foam. SM was reassured that I would work with her and that she would not have to just write herself.

The first word “jump” was said by myself and then we said it together. I then began sounding out the individual sounds “j – u – m – p”, SM was asked to slowly say them in an echo and then to write them into the foam. The foam would stick to her fingers and she would laugh because it was smooth and smelly.

We worked our way through the six words and she was thrilled to see that she had spelt them all correctly (errors were smoothed over and she was given the opportunity to continue on, with support until the word was correct). Then I said, “great S, let’s tally that one down” and I made a list on the record sheet where I wrote down the spelling word with a tick mark next to it. She was awarded 6/6.

Even though this exercise took a long time it was well worth it. SM had been successful, she had used a number of senses in order to achieve and had fun while learning. I will definitely do this again.

(Hazel, NSW, Australia)