Update, October 2026: we first published this write-up in 2025. We’ve since refreshed it with the episode’s official description, guest details and listening links.

Episode six of Talking Dyslexia, released on 23 October 2025, is the longest in the series so far, and one of the most practical. Dyslexia specialist Louise Selby joined my co-host Ellen Broomé, CEO of the British Dyslexia Association, and me to talk about how parents and teachers can help children with dyslexia thrive.

Who is Louise Selby?

Louise is a dyslexia specialist teacher, trainer and assessor with more than 25 years’ experience. She is the author of Morph Mastery, a morphology-based intervention for reading, spelling and vocabulary, published by Routledge in 2021, and of All About Dyslexia, practical guides for primary and secondary teachers that parents can use too.

Louise spoke on a panel about the SEND white paper at our first We Love SENCos conference in London in June 2026. At We Love SENCos II in Birmingham on 17 November 2026, she leads a session on understanding comorbidity with Talamo’s maths and dyscalculia specialist, Janet Goring.

Louise Selby recording episode six of Talking Dyslexia.

What the episode covers

• her books, and the practical strategies in them for helping children with dyslexia thrive

• morphology, the building blocks of words, and why understanding it can be a game-changer for reading and spelling. Morphology looks at how words are built from smaller units of meaning, such as roots, prefixes and suffixes

• clear advice for supporting children in the classroom

• what parents can do at home

Putting it into practice

Louise’s focus on morphology gives parents and teachers something practical to try. Many longer words are built from parts that carry meaning: a root, with prefixes and suffixes added to it. Spotting those parts can make a word easier to read, spell and remember, so it’s worth pointing them out when they come up, at the kitchen table or in class.

It also helps to know where a child’s difficulty sits. Some children find it hard to hear and work with the sounds in words; others find it hard to hold information in mind, or need more time to process what they read. The strategies that help will differ, which is why Louise’s advice covers home and the classroom alike.

Listen

• Listen on Spotify, where you can also watch the video version

• Listen on Apple Podcasts

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