Dyslexia and the Education System
In 1981, the Education Act imposed a legal requirement: local authorities have to assess children to discover the scale of their learning difficulties, and whether they have a special educational need (SEN). With mild disability it is up to the school to decide on the need of the child in question, and the help they will require. With more severely disabled children- such as those with the lowest 2% of dyslexia- a ‘statement’ is needed. This describes the child’s needs and the specialist help that they will require. Statements are decided upon sparingly, and some children who should be getting specialist help are not, because of not being statemented.
In the last few years, this system has not been working as well as it should. Cash-strapped schools have been spending the designated SEN money on other things in a bid to raise the overall profile of the school.
SEN does not just deal with dyslexia. A range of learning difficulties are covered, from mild dyslexia to severe difficulties such as autism, Down’s syndrome and deafness. A lot of teaching staff are worried that funds that should be going to pupils with genuine disabilities are being spent on children who simply have a problem learning to read.
The solution rests in part on the teaching and SEN staff in schools. Children who are experiencing difficulties with reading, for example, need to be assessed but should not be marked straight away as having a disability; further assessments and the like need to take place to establish whether there is a genuine disability, or whether the child simply needs some extra help with school-work.
Before dyslexia was established as a disability, children struggled through the education system. Their frustration led to more serious emotional or behavioural difficulties. This is why it is so important to get the disability known and so receive help from an early age.
When teaching students with dyslexia, there are certain strategies that a teacher can use in order to a) make sure the student can cope, and b) make sure the student is getting as much out of the lesson as he/she can.
• Writing on the board in clear, large print, and using alternate colours for each line.
• It is also helpful to have the dyslexic student sitting close to the board.
• Visual prompts are helpful for a dyslexic student who has trouble reading or remembering lines of text- pictures, diagrams etc. are all helpful.
• New vocabulary can be written on the board with visual reminders.
• Demonstrating to the whole class how the word is split into syllables will not put the dyslexic student in the spotlight, as will getting the whole class to pronounce the word syllable by syllable. Making it fun can be very helpful.
• If possible, the dyslexic child could be marked through oral response, rather than written. If the written work is marked, it should be the content that is marked and not the spelling.
• Using a computer and IT work as much as possible will also help no end.
• Break down instructions as much as possible, to make sure that they are understood.
• Find a subject that the student is interested in, and excels at.
• The student should only read out loud if they want to, and should not be forced to.
About the Author: Written by Jenny Pilley on behalf of Dore Dyslexia specialists
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