A podcast for parents and educators about the best way to support kids living with learning difficulties.
Hosted by specialist teacher Michael Shanahan, Dyscastia takes a positive, respectful look at supporting students living with dyslexia, dysgraphia, dyscalculia and associated neurodivergences such as autism and ADHD. Each episode focuses on practical, realistic strategies for reducing barriers to learning and building safe, supportive environments where students can achieve success.
Conversations draw on Michael’s teaching experience and lived experience of ADHD, dyslexia, and dysgraphia, along with the perspectives of parents, educators, allied health professionals, and students themselves — all working toward the shared goal of supporting every child to feel understood and supported at school and beyond.
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A podcast for parents and educators about the best way to support kids living with learning difficulties.
Hosted by specialist teacher Michael Shanahan, Dyscastia takes a positive, respectful look at supporting students living with dyslexia, dysgraphia, dyscalculia and associated neurodivergences such as autism and ADHD. Each episode focuses on practical, realistic strategies for reducing barriers to learning and building safe, supportive environments where students can achieve success.
Conversations draw on Michael’s teaching experience and lived experience of ADHD, dyslexia, and dysgraphia, along with the perspectives of parents, educators, allied health professionals, and students themselves — all working toward the shared goal of supporting every child to feel understood and supported at school and beyond.
In this episode, Michael Shanahan is joined by experienced specialist dyslexia tutor Sally Andrew to discuss The Literacy Support Kit (LSK)—a comprehensive set of resources designed to support children for whom standard literacy intervention programs are too difficult.
Sally Andrew
Sally holds a Postgraduate Diploma in Dyslexia and Literacy from the University of York, UK. Sally has been tutoring students with dyslexia for 25 years and has trained many parents and educators in evidence-based multisensory interventions for dyslexia. Sally is the director of By Your Side Tutoring. Sally formally ran the popular Teaching Students with Dyslexia (TSD) suite of training for Specialist Multisensory Literacy Teachers. Sally co-developed the Literacy Support Kit and Word Cracker suite of morphology resources.
Show notes
Michael and Sally explore the challenges faced by students living with dyslexia, dysgraphia, intellectual disability, and fine motor difficulties, sharing strategies and practical solutions to bridge gaps in literacy instruction. They emphasize the importance of customized resources, multi-sensory learning, and breaking skills into fine-grained steps to ensure student success.
Key Topics Discussed
1. Why Some Students Struggle with Standard Intervention
Not all students progress at the expected rate in structured literacy programs.
Some need more fine-grained steps to break down learning concepts.
Kids living with dyslexia, dysgraphia, ADHD, and intellectual disability often require additional scaffolding.
The LSK provides targeted resources to address these challenges.
2. The Importance of Teacher Discretion in Literacy Instruction
Teaching should not be one-size-fits-all.
Experienced tutors develop custom resources based on student needs.
If a student is struggling with a concept, slowing down and focusing on prerequisite skills is essential.
Using varied formats to present the same material helps build automaticity.
3. Supporting Kids with Alphabet Difficulties
Many students, even in Year 5 or 6, do not truly know the alphabet beyond the song.
Some students believe “LMNOP” is a single letter due to how they learned the alphabet song.
Intervention strategies:
Using picture alphabets to build phoneme awareness.
Matching games to reinforce letter recognition.
Writing letters over pre-written models to build confidence.
4. Helping Students Blend Sounds (Phonemic Awareness)
Some students struggle to blend sounds into words, making decoding very difficult.
Key strategies in LSK:
Chunking sounds together rather than focusing on individual phonemes.
Onset and rime activities (e.g., working on “at,” “it,” “in” before full words).
Repeated exposure through varied activities to build automaticity.
5. Handwriting as a Literacy Barrier
Fine motor control issues can make writing exhausting.
Poor handwriting can lead to low confidence and avoidance of writing tasks.
LSK handwriting support includes:
Pre-writing activities (tracing, erasing letters, solving mazes).
Cursive instruction to improve fluency.
Explicit teaching of letter formation and spacing.
6. Keeping Students Engaged with Repetitive Learning
Students need hundreds of repetitions to master basic literacy skills.
Standard drills can be boring and frustrating.
LSK provides a variety of engaging activities, including:
Chunky Pig – A game reinforcing phoneme blending.
Make-a-Chunk sheets – Matching and handwriting exercises.
Tracking sheets – Strengthening phonemic awareness.
Close reading sheets – Filling in missing words from context.
7. Addressing Sticking Points in Phonics Programs
Some students get stuck on complex spelling rules (e.g., C/K rule, open/closed syllables).
LSK removes these difficult concepts temporarily so students can continue making progress.
Focus remains on:
Mastering short vowel sounds before moving to long vowels.
Learning suffixes before tackling multi-sy
Dyscastia
A podcast for parents and educators about the best way to support kids living with learning difficulties.
Hosted by specialist teacher Michael Shanahan, Dyscastia takes a positive, respectful look at supporting students living with dyslexia, dysgraphia, dyscalculia and associated neurodivergences such as autism and ADHD. Each episode focuses on practical, realistic strategies for reducing barriers to learning and building safe, supportive environments where students can achieve success.
Conversations draw on Michael’s teaching experience and lived experience of ADHD, dyslexia, and dysgraphia, along with the perspectives of parents, educators, allied health professionals, and students themselves — all working toward the shared goal of supporting every child to feel understood and supported at school and beyond.
