Estimated reading time: 4 minutes

Back-to-school season is almost here, bringing a familiar homework dread for parents looking for ways to provide dyslexia support at home. This is part one of a three-part series designed to help you proactively partner with your child’s teacher. Today, we are tackling actionable strategies for dyslexic students to slash the exhausting volume of weekly assignments.

Learning How to Support Dyslexic Students at Home

Homework should only serve to review and practice skills your child has already mastered. If your child does not understand the assignment, parents should not require them to complete it.

Early in my teaching career, students would often tell me that neither they nor their parents understood the homework. I always excused the assignment and re-taught the concept.

Children with dyslexia spend the school day working twice as hard as their classmates, leaving them completely exhausted by dismissal. After hours of intense mental strain at school, they should never have to come home to another grueling marathon of homework that drains their remaining energy.

If you want to know how to provide effective dyslexia support when your child is entirely burned out and stuck, the answer is simple: stop the assignment and message the teacher.

How Heavy Homework Packets Disadvantage Students with Dyslexia

Many parents share horror stories of thick homework packets that take hours to finish. To prevent this, proactive parents should reach out to their child’s teacher right now to discuss their policy. I explicitly recommend that parents advocate for a reduced workload. Your child deserves to enjoy their life outside of school.

Here are two practical dyslexia support strategies for parents to protect their child’s well-being:

Strategy #1: Set a 30-Minute Timer

• The Rule: When the timer rings, homework is done for the day.
• The Action: Inform the teacher that this is your official household limit.

Strategy #2: Request a 50% Reduction

• The Reason: Teachers often assign heavy workloads just to satisfy parents who demand a lot of homework.
• The Action: Ask the teacher to cut your child’s nightly homework volume in half.
• The Methods: Parents can offer these dyslexia support adjustments to easily achieve that 50% reduction:
  • Have your child complete only the odd-numbered or even-numbered problems.
  • Have your child dictate answers while parents function as the scribe for long writing assignments.
  • Parents can read long comprehension passages aloud, allowing the child to simply answer the questions verbally.
• The Backup Plan: If the teacher says no, parents must take the lead. Use the 30-minute timer to step in and stop the work yourself.

Nurturing the Whole Child: Advice for Parents

While school matters, there is more to life than worksheets. Art, music, sports, and unstructured playtime are crucial for your child’s self-esteem and development.

Providing true dyslexia support means that parents must look beyond academics. Protecting free time gives your child the breathing room to pursue their natural strengths and feel genuinely successful.

Coming Next Week: The “Read 20 Minutes” Expectation

Stay tuned for part two of our homework series for parents! Next week, we will tackle the generic, one-size-fits-all standard: “Read 20 minutes each day.” We will break down why this standard expectation looks very different when offering dyslexia support, and how parents can approach daily reading without the tears.

Ready to Reclaim Your Evenings?

Parents do not have to battle through hours of frustration every single night. Discover more effective dyslexia support strategies in my previous post: 15-Minute Reading Homework Routine for Kids.

Read it now to learn how to streamline your evenings, reduce stress, and maximize learning in a fraction of the time!

About the Therapist

Bridget Anderson, M.A., CALT, C-SLDS provides expert dyslexia therapy for elementary students in the Fontana and Rancho Cucamonga, CA communities.