Teach to all of a child's senses. Instruction that is presented to multiple sensory modalities is very effective with dyslexic children. Go beyond basic paper and pencil tasks when you help your students to identify letters and their sounds. Instead of asking them to write letters on paper, have them draw the letters in shaving cream on the table. As they draw each letter, make them say the name of the letter and the sound it makes. This activity is visual, auditory and tactile in nature. The more multi-sensory an activity is, the higher the retention rate of the information presented.
Practice blending exercises. Blending sounds together helps your students learn to read or decode words. Break the sounds of a word apart and say each sound out loud. Have your students identify the word that is made up of those sounds. Raise one finger as you say each sound. Do this during each tutoring session for a series of several words. It's most effective if you focus on one specific word family per tutoring session.
Do segmenting exercises. Segmenting exercises are the opposite of blending exercises. Children with dyslexia learn how to spell words by breaking the sounds apart. Give the students a word out loud. Have them tell you the sounds that make up that word. Repeat the exercise using a series of words from the same word family.
Use decodable stories. These stories typically include short, simple text that targets a specific sound you are teaching. You can find many examples of printable, decodable stories at Hubbard's Cupboard. Include stories that focus on the targeted word family for your tutoring session.
Review sight words. Decoding skills are very important for students with dyslexia, but learning common sight words helps increase their reading fluency as well. Practice common, high-frequency sight words during each tutoring session. Locate high frequency sight words for your students' reading level at Dolch sight words.