Dyslexia
Dyslexia: Assessment and Support
Formula one legend and President of Dyslexia Scotland Sir Jackie Stewart, OBE, introduces the new Dyslexia Toolkit programme and opens our discussion on the wider aspects of improving provision for Dyslexia in schools.
“I would like to congratulate the initiative of the Scottish Government and especially the Cabinet Secretary for Education, Mike Russell, in supporting the ‘Assessing Dyslexia Toolkit’ Programme, in association with Dyslexia Scotland. Without the Government’s initiative, this simply would not have happened.
The early recognition by teachers of children with learning difficulties is absolutely paramount; they must be identified and assessed. All teachers require the skills and particularly the disciplines of consistent practice to assist children suffering from dyslexia, or any other form of learning difficulty.
Unidentified dyslexia can cause extraordinary damage to a young person’s life and can remove any possibility of them reaching their true potential. The frustration and the humiliation that a young person experiences with some teachers and by their peers, can drive them to negative behaviours such as the abuse of drugs and alcohol and as they grow older, through not being properly educated, can destroy their self-esteem and even lead them to a life of crime.”
Sir Jackie Stewart
Dyslexia Scotland in partnership with the University of Edinburgh and the Scottish Government launched the Assessing Dyslexia Toolkit for Teachers on 1st June. This resource, hosted on the Scottish Teacher Education Committee ‘Framework for Inclusion’ site, aims to guide teachers through the appropriate pathways to determine if a child is dyslexic. It uses a traffic light system of Green for all teachers, Amber for School Based Support Teachers and Red for Teachers Experienced in Dyslexia Assessment – so whatever your knowledge base there is something new to be discovered.
We have also added a dyslexia resource section to our links page.
How can teachers and schools use resources like the new Dyslexia Toolkit to support children and young people with dyslexia and help them make the most out of their education?
Can you tell us about your examples of good practice in supporting pupils with dyslexia?
Please submit your ideas below:
The Scottish government strategies are being confident learners etc but this can only occur fully when there is full integration of each and every pupil. At the moment there are many children who are being let down by the education system because there are no standard testing done in schools and it is down to the parents to initiate that they feel there is a problem. Many children don’t have that backup or parents like myself – have a limited knowledge of what dyslexia is perceived to be i.e. trouble with reading and writing.
I think jlove makes a good point. Dyslexics are not identified or supported in a coherent or effective manner and there is no sensible reason for this failing of our educational system. Dyslexics constitute 5% – 10% of the school population. We now have robust tools for identifying dyslexic children at primary or secondary level (COPS, Junior LASS and Senior LASS). These computer programmes can be administered by a classroom assistant or teacher and have the potential to identify (to within a confidence of 80%) all the dyslexic pupils in a school. I’m not sure why schools don’t use these programmes as pro-active screening tools and I’m not sure why HMI don’t insist that all school identify at least the 5% of all school pupils who are severly affected by dyslexia. Maybe it’s too much trouble.
Jlove:
Thank you for your comments, I appreciate your concerns and would like to assure you that the Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that all children with additional support needs, including dyslexia, are provided with the right help to reach their full potential. The online “Assessing Dyslexia” Toolkit, mentioned above, is part of this work and results from the Scottish Government working with experts to support professionals working with children and young people with dyslexia.
It may be helpful to know that there is legislation that sets out the requirement for local authorities identify, meet and keep under review, the additional support needs of all pupils in their schools. This includes tailored provision for each child’s individual circumstances. This legislation is called the Additional Support for Learning (Scotland) Act 2004). Additionally, each authority must provide a named person responsible for supplying information and advice on the local education arrangements for children with additional support needs. If you contact your local authority, they will be able to put you in touch with them.
Another useful source of independent advice and information to families is the advice and information service, called Enquire. Their helpline is 0845 123 2303, and they will be able to explain more about your rights as a parent, under the 2004 Act. Enquire also publish a guide for parents’ on additional support for learning which can be viewed here.
Finally, if you are not already aware, Dyslexia Scotland also has a national helpline, 0844 800 8484, and have a very informative website.
I hope that this information is helpful.
Keith Brown Minister for Skills & Lifelong Learning
Reduce stress using relaxation techniques such as deep breathing exercises – aim for the mid-zone, between high arousal (anxiety) and low arousal (tiredness and depression). At either end of this spectrum it is difficult to process information effectively.
Reinforce self-esteem and self-confidence using positive feedback of effort, ability and attainment.
It has huge impacts on pupils to develop their literacy skills.
MyStudyBar (Craig Mill, RSC Scotland N&E) is one solution for overcoming our funding deficit.
Alan
http://dyslexialincolnshire.blogspot.com/
I find Tony Buzan’s book: Mind Maps for Kids an extremely useful guide for getting my work organised.
I have been teaching dyslexic children for more than 5 years and I agree with the definition by the Learning disability Association of US where it says that dyslexia is one of the learning disabilities.
The Learning disability Association of US defines Learning disability as follows:
Typical learning difficulties include dyslexia, dyscalculia, and dysgraphia – often complicated by associated disorders such as attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder.
http://www.ldanatl.org
I also agree with mencap organization UK where it says learning disability is not mental illness or
Dyslexia.
http://www.mencap.org.uk/page.asp?id=1684
Learning disability is not mental illness or dyslexia.
People with a learning disability find it harder than others to learn, understand and communicate. People with profound and multiple learning disabilities (PMLD) need full-time help with every aspect of their lives – including eating, drinking, washing, dressing and toileting.
Dyslexia Association of Scotland says the following:
The impact of dyslexia as a barrier to learning varies in degree according to the learning and teaching environment, as there are often associated difficulties such as:
• auditory and /or visual processing of language-based information
• phonological awareness
I started a blog on dyslexia based on my findings after teaching dyslexic children for more than 5 years. I started the blog to share my findings with parents of dyslexic children. I would appreciate it if you could get your learned men to read my blog and get back to me if there is anything in my blog that they are do not agree with/unhappy about/would like to challenge me on.
http://parentingdyslexia.com
The Scotland dyslexia association’s definition that dyslexia is a “auditory and /or visual processing of language-based information” cannot be true if you agree that Tom Cruise and Whoopi Goldberg are dyslexics.
The definition that it is a phonological awareness is also incorrect. I have an article in my blog titled “Who says that dyslexics have a phonological awareness problem “. Read this article and ask your men to question me if they have anything to be explained.
I have been teaching dyslexic children 2 or 3 languages. I teach them English, Malay (Malaysia’s National language) and Romanised Mandarin. Both Malay and Romanised Mandarin are in Roman alphabets just like English. My dyslexic students do not have a problem reading in Malay and Romanised Mandarin but they cannot read in English. This prompted me to ask myself as to why they are fluent in 2 languages and have a problem in English.
I then found out that their minds shut down when something illogical is taught to them. They learn words like but, cut, gut, hut, jut, nut, and rut with ease and I find that their minds shut down the moment I teach them the word “put”. I overcame this hurdle by telling them to just learn this word and not to make sense out of it. This is all it took to teach these intelligent kids to learn English.
Another example is when I taught them the words bat, cat, fat, hat, mat pat and sat which they learnt as fast as any other children can learn. However when I taught them “A cat” I could see them giving a puzzled look. This I found out is because it did not make sense to them. The reason is because they had learnt the sound (phoneme) of ‘a’ in cat is ‘air’ however the first ‘A’ in ‘A cat’ carried the sound ‘er’. I then told them that the letter ‘A’ represents 6 sounds and that was all it took to make them accept it and continue learning.
The point is that the teachers do not teach English the way it should be taught. Teach them the way they should be taught and you will reduce illiteracy drastically. Believe me I have done it and I am continuing doing it.
As for the mind shutting down I found a book on this and have done a book review of it on my blog. Perhaps your men could buy this book via my blog and read it. Buying it through my site will get me some points from Amazon which I can exchange for another book. I have a conversation with the author of the book which will also be an eye opener for those who do not know why a child shuts down.
I am more than willing to go over to Scotland and speak with parents of dyslexic children and to teachers. All you need is to give me some cheap accommodation and meals and transportation to the venue.
I do hope to get a response from you.
Thank you and kind regards,
Luqman Michel
I refer you to the Scottish Government, Dyslexia Scotland and Learning & Teaching Scotland definition of dyslexia at
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Education/Schools/welfare/ASL/dyslexia
I hope this will take you away from any narrow definition to look more closely at the actual manifestations of dyslexia in learners, which should be every teacher’s guide to meeting individual needs
This is in response to reply by Linda Kerr.
About the actors this is what I had written :“auditory and /or visual processing of language-based information” cannot be true if you agree that Tom Cruise and Whoopi Goldberg are dyslexics.
If Tom Cruise has a auditory/visual processing problem I doubt he would be where he is today.
I speak 4 languages and teach most of my dyslexic students at least 2 languages. They can read as fluently as any other student when it comes to Malay and yet have problem in English. You need to ask yourself as to why this anomaly.
Please visit my blog and read from the first article onwards and then ask whatever questions (I doubt you ‘ll have any after reading the first 5 articles) you want to about phonological awareness deficit of dyslexic children. Dyslexics do not have a phonological awareness problem. They have a problem with phoneme inconsistencies and the lack of being made aware of same by teachers.
Please contact me at : luqmanm2002@yahoo.co.uk or through facebook under Luqman Michel.
I would love to discuss this with someone/anyone as well informed as you. Do read my discussion with Dr.Selznick which I just completed after reading his book on “Shut Down Learner”.
Regards,
Luqman Michel
Linda I would be happy to discuss on this matter as I want to learn more and thereby be able to impart more to my readers.
Unfortunately I don’t have time at the moment to read through your blog but I would like to respond to your comments as one of those ‘men’ (although I am a woman). I am dyslexic but I am also a trained dyslexia specialist teacher and train specialists at a postgraduate level. I am surprised by some of your comments. With respect, I do have to say that there is huge amount of evidence for a phonological difficulty and being dyslexic does not mean that the actors you mention do not have this. Standardised assessments would need to verify this. As a specialist I provide a wide range of support which can includes phonological training and I do this very well, whilst coping with underlying phonological difficulties myself. So even in an occupation where phonological training is being delivered I am still dyslexic. I may have caught your interest and would love to stay in touch and learn from each other.How can we do this?