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Dyslexia is of interest to me at the moment as I believe one of our sons is showing some signs that perhaps he is struggling with his English for a reason instead of just being difficult or thinking he cannot do it! We have investigated hearing and speech which have been a problem but now his hearing is normal and so there may be other issues here. I went to hear a very inspiring talk by a lady called Moira Thomson the other day in Stirling at Dyslexia Scotland offices and I am grateful to Moira for agreeing on the night that I may repeat some of the information she relayed in this blog, particularly as her paper on “Supporting Dyslexia Pupils in the Secondary Curriculum”, which covers some of the points below, is still in pre-publication version. The information, however covers both Primary and Secondary.

Moira recently retired as Principal Teacher of Support for Learning at Broughton High School, Edinburgh, after 30+ years in that position. She has also been Development Officer for City of Edinburgh Department of Children and Families, in-house continued professional development provider for City of Edinburgh and much more. She is also an independent adjudicator for the Scottish Executive’s Additional Support for Learning dispute resolutions arrangements, an educational consultant and secretary of the Scottish Parliament’s Cross Party Group on Dyslexia, and I could go on and on about her other numerous and relevant roles.

Many of the medical and educational professions used to consider DYSLEXIA as something that did not exist but was created by middle to upper class parents whose children were struggling at school in order to explain their misbehaviour! Unbelievable as it may seem some still think that. However Moira believes that dyslexia is often only detected BECAUSE of behavioural issues. A child that has been very clever or bright in Nursery does not suddenly become “un-bright” or mis-behave without good reason. Teachers sometimes put this down to “problems at home” but as Moira points out how can they accuse parents of that when they don’t know about the home situation, they are not playing up at home, they are playing up at school so obviously the problem is at school. The behavioural issues can show up in Primary school as lack of concentration, writing difficulties, problems remembering things, motor control problems, reading difficulties, spelling difficulties or listening difficulties. These can be seen by teachers or even parents as laziness, lack of interest or lack of effort, insolence, poor attitude, boredom or weak concentration. Normally this results in any or a combination of feined illness, sore stomachs, days off, chit chat instead of working, fidgeting, distraction techniques, stubborness or dreaming.

If not detected at Primary level however, the sad part is that by Secondary this can show up instead as self harming, particularly annorexia and cutting (slitting their wrists) by girls, truancy, bad behaviour or distracting teachers and pupils in class and in extreme cases even suicide or mental health issues. Unbelievably also only 50% of dyslexics are discovered during their primary school years and one reason for this is that the style of primary teaching suits dyslexics being multi-sensory and presenting information in a variety of ways with one or only a couple of teachers.

Moira mentioned how some schools say they have dyslexia solved as anyone with Dyslexia in Secondary school gets an extra 15 minutes in exams. She says this is absolutely wrong. Each case is different. Each person has a “specific learning difficulty” and they differ widely although there re some trends. Some need longer time, some do not, some need a sribe, some need a laptop instead of handwriting, some only have problems with English, some with Maths. There is also no slightly dyslexic or severely dyslexic as you either ARE or you ARE NOT. The serverity of it is irrelevant in a way as you still need specific help to address your issues and help you learn.

On a brighter note, many of the world’s most famous people are dyslexic. For example, Sir Jacki Stewart, Sir Steven Redgrave, Albert Einstein, Winston Churchill, and tonnes of ex-US presidents! It does not mean you are “thick”. It means you learn in a different way and your brain is wired in a different way. That’s all!

So, how do you know if your child or one of your pupils has dyslexia? There are some telling signs like the behavioural issues that did not show up previously. If these have been ongoing for some time, then things like avoiding English. Spelling, reading, writing are often a problem for dyslexics to learn. Often colour overlays over text can help as on a white page the text jumps and merges and blurs to become illegible to some.

Dyslexics can have any or all of the following difficulties:
- auditory and / or visual processing of language based information
- phonological awareness and oral language skills
- short term and working memory
- sequencing
- number skills
- organisational ability
- motor skills / co-ordination.

Dyslexia may be hidden but show by:
- lack of fluent reading
- inefficient search skills
- inability to take notes
- inconsistent spelling
- weak short term memory
- weak concentration
- inability to copy notes
- inability to take notes
- illegible writing
- poor self image

It can sometimes take a while to pick up the signs and this is because children are very good at using coping strategies. Very quickly they learn to take their time to take out their book and turn to page 12 so that they don’t need to ask the teacher but instead just check what page their neighbour has their book open at! They forget work, feign illness, ask peers for help, talk more, or keep a messy desk all to cope with their inability to do something.

Furthermore, early development problems in children can prevent early identification of dyslexia. These include:
- glue ear
- delayed speech
- asthma which is often but not always linked
- visual / perceptual problems
- motor difficulties
- binocular instability
- developmental co-ordination disorder.

And, dyslexia can be mistaken for visual or hearing impairment instead. It can also occur in children that also have other issues like sensory impairment, Dyspraxia, ADHD, or physical difficulties. It would be good to eliminate hearing and speech with assessments for these too if they are at all in doubt. Myself, we have done that already with our son but he still struggles with learning to blend words and reading and writing at the age of 7.

By secondary level the child’s support group of friends can often be largely dismantled, there are a large number of subjects sometimes all with different teachers and a large number of books and homework to take home if not completed in class. All this makes working more difficult for dyslexic children and makes their work load much more than other children and they are more likely to fall behind or go “off the rails” with frustration if not detected and assisted in the correct manner. Being so many different teachers for such a short period of time a week also makes detection of dyslexia difficult at secondary level.

There are a number of TRIGGERS for behavioural problems in the class if a child does have dyslexia. These things make a child behave badly or show the effects discussed before as they are difficult for the child:
- asking them to read aloud in class
- requiring them to work alone instead of in their support group they normally work with
- silent reading
- copying notes
- insistence on verbal answers
- extended periods of listening
- dictation
- locating information in a dense amount of text
- writing at length
- time limits on tasks.

Some of the parents present at the meeting with Moira Thomson have had their children diagnosed as dyslexic but are having major problems with their child at home in coping with school homework. Some were being forced to translate text into Scots tongue and to do copious amounts of homework on English and grammar which their children were struggling with. One couple were at their wits end with a 9 year old who now says he “hates” them and fights his way through his nightly homework, some of which the parents cannot even do as they don’t know what has pre-empted it in class that day ie what story was read that day and had to have a report written up about it at night. He has also at 9 threatened to kill himself! Moira’s advice to these parents was to write to the Head teacher and copy that to the department of education saying that their child is dyslexic and has a RIGHT to refuse to do that work as it is inappropriate for his educational needs. I count myself lucky that we are not in that extreme type of situation and my child’s school is succeeding in progressing his education slowly but surely with adequate extra special education geared to his needs. Many it seems are not getting the required help in the education system.

Dyslexia is “a hereditary, life-long, neuro-developmental condition” according to Moira Thomson and as a result if unidentified and treated can result in low self esteem, high stress, atypical behaviour and low achievement.

Early identification ideally by an assessment by a qualified Educational Psychologist is vital to give appropriate intervention methods and targeted effective teaching to the child concerned.

These books and programs can be found via the internet and are great helps for dyslexic children to use in primary school:
Brain Booster
Nessie
Word Shark
Number Shark
Toe by Toe
Bare essentials.

I hope that you find this information as interesting as I did and if you think your child may be dyslexic, take Moira’s advice and get and early assessement. I have booked mine with Dyslexia Scotland and they can line up an Educational Psychologist for you to assess your child for a fee. There will be a Dyslexia Association in your own area located via your local government office.

Ann-Maree with thanks to Moira Thomson for her information and guidance and Dyslexia Scotland.