ABSTRACT
To teach syllable division effectively it is necessary to consider the age of the individual, background knowledge and stage of development in spelling skills. It is important to establish awareness and knowledge about syllables as an oral activity before using them in written work. Many individuals with dyslexia have difficulties with expressive and receptive language, including word retrieval and word naming difficulties. Definitions can be memorised by using crib cards for the vocabulary, using index cards or the computer, thus using a multi-sensory approach to match individual learning styles. Those who have difficulties with phonological skills, including breaking words into parts and blending these to make words, do find longer words more challenging, often because of poor processing of sounds resulting from short-term and working memory deficits. Explicit teaching of segmentation skills is necessary. Oral activities including, first, syllables, second, onset and rimes and, third, phoneme segmentation should be taught.
