Schools Guide

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Aproportion of boys and girls ‘fail’ at school. It was ever thus. Sadly, failure can then pursue them throughout their days. It would not be difficult to argue that this proportion is actually growing with the increasing emphasis on literacy. In my own schooldays a friend failed O-level English no less than seven times – a school record. What this failure did not reveal is that he went on to achieve his PhD in Biochemistry and without the benefit of O-level English. Surely we all know other dyslexics who have achieved much but endured an education that gave them the most difficult days of their lives.

Dyslexia is often identified through a failure, as age advances, to achieve appropriate skills and ability in reading, spelling, writing or number. What is less well understood is that the dyslexic have the very same strengths and weaknesses we all share. It is so easy to fall prey to thinking you are the slowest member of the class when all around you your peers have seemingly finished their work quite effortlessly and are asking for more. In the meantime, you have forgotten what it was you had to do and then find yourself admonished for talking to a classmate. You were simply asking for help.

This exposure to relentless daily failure is something not even the most insensitive teacher could suggest helps build self-esteem. Herein lies the kernel of the problem dyslexics face. Classrooms demand skills calling for literacy, numeracy, memory and organisation. These are not the dyslexic’s natural allies. His/her strengths are in areas that only an appropriate curriculum can exploit – science, technology, art, sport and ICT.

Young people today have many expectations thrust upon them. One of the most insidious is the peer pressure that modern society has created, if only through the demand for designer labels! Low selfesteem does not help the dyslexic to withstand such peer pressure and achieve the ‘street cred’ society demands. This is certainly one reason for the remarkably high proportion of dyslexics now occupying our remand centres and prisons. The cost to society is vast, and much of it could be avoided by screening and intervention when children first attend school.

The remedy is not difficult to achieve. There are tried and tested teaching methods that work well with dyslexics and come under the umbrella term of ‘multi-sensory’. It is important that these are delivered by appropriately trained and qualified teachers. Dyslexics work best with direct teacher instruction and in small teaching groups. It is important to create an environment where strengths are challenged and weaknesses reduced to the point where they are no longer dangerous saboteurs of self-esteem. This cannot be attained in a situation of daily competition with those who are not dyslexic. Experience tells me that there is no universal panacea. Progress follows hard work and much support. The final and satisfying reward is a young person who is not afraid of hard work, who knows the value of doing his or her best, and has the necessary strategies in place to counter recognised and defeated weaknesses. Dyslexia is an entirely natural condition and the teaching that meets its challenges should be celebrated for the rewards it brings to both the individual and to society itself.