Education Special Education

Dyslexia and Learning Differences

A practical guide to understanding, supporting, and advocating for diverse learners

Dyslexia and Learning Differences logo
Quick Course Facts
18
Self-paced, Online, Lessons
18
Videos and/or Narrated Presentations
6.5
Approximate Hours of Course Media
About the Dyslexia and Learning Differences Course

Dyslexia and Learning Differences is an Education course designed to help students, families, educators, tutors, and support professionals better understand diverse learners. This course offers a practical guide to understanding, supporting, and advocating for diverse learners through clear explanations, evidence-informed strategies, and real-world support planning.

Build Practical Support For Dyslexia And Learning Differences

  • Understand the foundations of Dyslexia and Learning Differences, including neurodiversity, reading development, and common learner profiles.
  • Recognise early signs, co-occurring learning differences, and assessment pathways across childhood, adolescence, and adulthood.
  • Apply structured literacy, multisensory teaching, accessible materials, and assistive technology to support learning.
  • Create practical support plans and advocacy roadmaps for school, university, work, and everyday learning environments.

A practical Education course on identifying needs, building confidence, and supporting learners with Dyslexia and Learning Differences.

This course begins with the foundations of dyslexia, learning differences, and neurodiversity, helping you understand both the challenges and strengths that can shape a learner’s experience. You will explore how reading and spelling develop, what the cognitive profile of dyslexia can look like, and how stigma, confidence, and learner identity influence progress.

You will then learn how to recognise needs more clearly, including common co-occurring learning differences, early signs at different life stages, and the role of observation, screening, and formal assessment. The course also explains how to interpret reports and turn findings into meaningful support, making it a practical guide to understanding, supporting, and advocating for diverse learners.

Through lessons on structured literacy, explicit instruction, multisensory strategies, writing support, memory, processing speed, and executive function, you will gain practical tools for teaching and intervention. You will also examine inclusive classroom design, accessible materials, assistive technology, and reasonable adjustments in school, university, and workplace settings.

By the end of Dyslexia and Learning Differences, you will be better prepared to communicate with families, educators, tutors, and specialists, while supporting learner wellbeing, motivation, and confidence. You will leave with a clearer understanding of inclusive Education and the ability to build a practical support plan and advocacy roadmap that helps diverse learners participate, progress, and feel understood.

Course Lessons

Full lesson breakdown

Lessons are organized by topic area and each includes descriptive copy for search visibility and student clarity.

Foundations

4 lessons

This lesson introduces dyslexia as a common, brain-based learning difference that primarily affects accurate and fluent word reading, spelling, and decoding. It separates myths from evidence, explains…

Lesson 2: Neurodiversity, Strengths, and Stigma

18 min
This lesson introduces neurodiversity as a practical framework for understanding dyslexia and other learning differences without reducing learners to deficits. Students examine how strengths and chall…

Lesson 3: How Reading and Spelling Develop

22 min
This lesson explains how reading and spelling develop from early oral language into accurate, fluent word recognition and written spelling. Learners will examine the major building blocks: phonologica…

Lesson 4: The Cognitive Profile of Dyslexia

21 min
This lesson explains dyslexia as a distinctive cognitive profile rather than a simple reading problem or a sign of low ability. Learners examine how phonological processing, rapid naming, working memo…

Recognising Needs

4 lessons

Lesson 5: Common Co-occurring Learning Differences

23 min
This lesson explains why dyslexia often appears alongside other learning differences, and how to recognise patterns without rushing to labels. Learners may show overlapping needs in attention, languag…

Lesson 6: Early Signs Across Childhood, Adolescence, and Adulthood

20 min
This lesson shows how dyslexia and related learning differences can appear at different ages, from early childhood through adulthood. It focuses on observable patterns rather than labels, helping lear…

Lesson 7: Observation, Screening, and Assessment Pathways

24 min
This lesson explains how educators and families can move from everyday observations to appropriate screening, assessment, and support pathways for learners who may have dyslexia or related learning di…

Lesson 8: Interpreting Reports and Turning Findings into Support

21 min
This lesson helps learners make practical sense of dyslexia and learning-difference reports without treating them as labels or fixed predictions. It explains the typical structure of educational psych…

Teaching and Intervention

4 lessons

Lesson 9: Structured Literacy and Explicit Instruction

24 min
This lesson explains how structured literacy and explicit instruction support learners with dyslexia and related learning differences. It focuses on what effective intervention looks like in practice:…

Lesson 10: Multisensory Strategies for Reading and Spelling

22 min
This lesson explains how multisensory reading and spelling instruction helps learners with dyslexia connect speech sounds, letters, movement, and meaning. It focuses on practical classroom and interve…

Lesson 11: Supporting Writing, Planning, and Written Expression

23 min
This lesson focuses on how dyslexia and related learning differences can affect writing, planning, spelling, sentence construction, organization, and written expression. Students may have strong ideas…

Lesson 12: Memory, Processing Speed, and Executive Function Supports

22 min
This lesson explains how memory, processing speed, and executive function interact with dyslexia and other learning differences in everyday classroom tasks. Students may know the content but struggle …

Inclusive Practice

3 lessons

Lesson 13: Accessible Materials and Inclusive Classroom Design

20 min
This lesson focuses on making classroom materials, routines, and physical or digital learning spaces more accessible for students with dyslexia and related learning differences. It translates inclusiv…

Lesson 14: Assistive Technology for Reading, Writing, and Organisation

23 min
This lesson introduces assistive technology as a practical part of inclusive learning, not as a last-resort intervention. Learners explore tools that support reading, writing, planning, memory, and or…

Lesson 15: Reasonable Adjustments in School, University, and Work

21 min
This lesson explains how reasonable adjustments, often called accommodations in some settings, remove unnecessary barriers for learners and workers with dyslexia and other learning differences. It foc…

Wellbeing and Communication

2 lessons

Lesson 16: Confidence, Anxiety, Motivation, and Learner Identity

22 min
This lesson examines how dyslexia and other learning differences can affect confidence, anxiety, motivation, and a learner’s sense of identity. It focuses on the emotional consequences of repeated str…

Lesson 17: Working with Families, Educators, Tutors, and Specialists

19 min
This lesson focuses on the communication routines that help a learner with dyslexia or other learning differences feel supported across home, school, tutoring, and specialist services. It explains how…

Application

1 lesson

Lesson 18: Building a Practical Support Plan and Advocacy Roadmap

25 min
In this application lesson, learners turn knowledge about dyslexia and learning differences into a practical, student-centered support plan. The lesson shows how to define learner needs, translate obs…
About Your Instructor
Professor Daniel Martin

Professor Daniel Martin

Professor Daniel Martin guides this AI-built Virversity course with a clear, practical teaching style.