10 Days of Learning About Dyslexia By Heather Down 10 October 2025 October is Dyslexia Awareness Month, and I’ve been posting daily videos about it to raise awareness and understanding. I decided to pop these all into a short, easy-to-digest blog post. I see this as a time to build understanding, empathy, and action for […]
What Is a Noun? A noun is a word that names a person, place, thing, or idea. Nouns are the building blocks of sentences because they tell us who or what the sentence is about. Nouns can be concrete, such as a person, place, or thing, or abstract, such as a feeling or idea. They […]
Why do we start at the sentence level with writing? By Heather Down 23 September 2025 Whenever I am teaching a new student in my practice, chances are I am not just teaching them reading, but also writing. As Pam Allym (2014) says, “reading is breathing in, writing is breathing out”. The two areas are […]
End of Term Snapshot: Reading Fluency, Accuracy, and What’s Driving Growth Written by Heather Down 12 September 2025 Each term, I like to take a look at what is going on in my private tutoring practice. This helps me see where I need to make adjustments with teaching. I’m not just looking at increases in […]
I saw a post this morning saying this from a literacy intervention specialist: “Rainbow Words Write tricky words in different colours. Seeing them in colour helps your brain remember!” Some evidence supports the statement that using different colours to write tricky words helps memory; however, it is not universally proven to help with dyslexia, and […]
Reflecting on Episode 5 of Love Literacy – Inspired By Heather Down 14 August 2025 Recently, I have had the pleasure of interviewing Dr Eunice Fuchs. If you haven’t already listened to the podcast, you can listen here or watch on YouTube here. I have found myself going back to this podcast several times, […]
By Heather Down, 22 July 2025 A knowledge-rich curriculum refers to a curriculum that is deliberately designed to build students’ background knowledge, vocabulary, and understanding of the world in a systematic, cumulative way. We don’t leave this to chance or assume it will just ‘come along’ with generic reading or experience. (Consider biologically primary and […]
Written by Heather Down, 21 July 2025 Over the weekend, I was lucky enough to attend Lyn Stone’s conference, Spelling for Life. This professional development opportunity was aimed at the upper primary year levels. There was a wonderful mix of attendees and I always love making new connections with teachers and tutors around New Zealand. […]
End of Term 2 Snapshot – Heather Down 23 June 2026 As Term 2 draws to a close, I’ve taken time to reflect on the wonderful gains made by the learners I have the privilege of teaching. Across a wide range of ages and learning profiles; many with dyslexia, ADHD, dysgraphia, or language-based challenges; progress […]
Cursive Handwriting: Benefits and Drawbacks from the Perspective of Dyslexic & Dysgraphic Students Heather Down 14 April 2025 Over the last term, I’ve introduced some of my learners to cursive handwriting. The students I’ve chosen to trial this with have already mastered print, and their handwriting is generally tidy. One of my students, in particular, […]
