Help Call For Dyslexic Children in Welsh Schools

The level of support for dyslexic children in the Welsh language has come under fire from assembly members.

The enterprise and learning committee says there is a lack of consistency in screening of children in both English and Welsh medium education.

It says the problem is worse in the Welsh medium with some schools needing more support.

The Welsh Assembly Government welcomed the report and said it was committed to more research “in this important area”.

The committee’s report is a follow-up to its investigation into the provision of support for children with dyslexia in July 2008.

Recommendations in the latest report include:

• The provision of a specialist dyslexia teacher for every cluster of primary schools.
• Establishing courses to train teachers to develop expertise in dyslexia, not just additional learning needs.
• The training courses in dyslexia should be made available for all staff working with children in the classroom.
• All local authorities in Wales should provide a Welsh-medium service for screening and supporting children with dyslexia, including funding for the provision of standard norms for testing
• The assembly government should fund the Welsh Dyslexia Project to run a free helpline for users in Wales, in both the Welsh and English languages.

‘Early identification’

Dyslexia is commonly understood to be a term covering a range of types of learning difficulty where someone of normal intelligence has persistent and significant problems with reading, writing, spelling.

CASE STUDY Gloria Jones, from Swansea, a teacher for 20 years. Ms Jones took a year’s course in dyslexia teaching two years ago and teaches at Ysgol Gymraeg Lonlas, near Llansamlet. “Dyslexic children think differently in the way they read. Their brain processes information differently. What they are seeing is the letter reversed. Some actually see the letters jumping off the page. “Because they are not doing so well, they lose their self esteem. It’s a downward spiral. You have to get their confidence up again. “Perhaps it’s easier in Welsh because it’s phonetic but they still have these problems because they see the letters reversed. Every class has got some dyslexic children. Some are badly dyslexic. “The course was very beneficial. We had lots of lecturers showing the different games we could do and why it was good for the children.”

Education minister Jane Hutt said she had recently agreed to provide £2m over three years to set up pilot schemes to reform the current system and establish additional learning needs co-ordinators.

Gareth Jones, AM, the chair of the committee said the assembly government should focus on early identification of people with dyslexia.

“While we are encouraged with the action taken by the minister since we published our report on support for people with dyslexia in July 2008, the committee believes the Welsh government should focus on ensuring that early identification of, and support for, people with dyslexia is available in both the English and Welsh languages,” he said.

The assembly government said: “It is crucial that children and young people have access to tests which are language specific, standardised and age appropriate.

“To fully achieve the committee’s recommendations and meet the needs of children and young people with dyslexia we have commissioned research, particularly in relation to available, valid and reliable screening and assessment, procedures for accurate identification and effective intervention programmes.

“As part of this work additional topics have been added to include a review of the cross-linguistic literature on dyslexia and existing work on dyslexia among speakers/readers of Welsh.”